INSIDE
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JUNE 2013
p.9 Parking Plans p.6
Bayview Professor goes to Harvard p.15
p. 19
Community Calendar p.21
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Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970
School District Denies K-8 School at International Studies Academy Campus By KEITH BuRBAnK
Porpoises Return to the Bay By LEEAnDREA MORTOn
In 2008, harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) — marine mammals related to whales and dolphins — returned to the San Francisco Bay after a roughly seventy year absence. “The porpoises are back,” said Bill Keener, environmental lawyer and for me r M a r i ne M a m m a l C e nt e r executive director. “They’re alive and well. If you stand on the Golden Gate Bridge after high tide, you’d see one hundred plus in an hour. I never expected to see them back in the San Francisco Bay.” Por p oi s e s s t a r t e d t o d i s ap pear from the Bay well before the middle of the last century; environmental factors related to rising ship traffic likely drove the marine m a m m a l s aw ay. During World War II, the U.S. Navy installed a steel net that spanned f rom Sa n F ra ncisco to Sausalito to protect the region from subm a r i ne at t ac k s. The net kept the por poises out, and, by straining the current, created an underwater cacophony that would have made it difficult for the animals to communicate and hunt. The porpoises’ return may be related to a rise in fish population caused by unusually low rainfall
f rom 2007 to 2009, wh ich led to increased salt levels in the water, more suitable for “schooling marine fish, such as herring, anchovy, and jacksmelt,” according to an article by Keener that appeared in the July 2011 edition of Bay Nature Magazine. In the 1980’s, mass fishing nets, known as gill nets, were banned from the Bay. This led to more schooling fish, and eliminated deaths caused when porpoises were accidentally caught or injured. Pollution in the Bay has also been reduced. Today, there’s an estimated 9,000 harbor porpoises in West Coast waters, from San Mateo County to Mendocino County, and perhaps 600 of them in the Bay. While the porpoises’ return has been celebrated by environmental-
ists, some remain concerned about the population’s future viability. “There’s still much to be done to improve the water quality of the Bay. If many of us still don’t want to swim in and fish in it, why would a large PORPOISES page 2
In a surprise announcement last month, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) said that it was eliminating the middle school that was located at the Enola Maxwell campus, and will replace it for one year with a charter school, Kipp High School, which will share the site with International Studies Academy (ISA). The decision angered many parents of Daniel Webster Elementary School students, who have been pressing the district to locate a kindergarten through eighth grade school at Maxwell. A K-8 school is needed, advocates insist, to keep families in the City and provide for the population wave moving to or near the Hill. “It’s been made,” said Richard Carranza, superintendent, SFUSD, at a meeting of concerned parents held at Daniel Webster’s auditorium. “The [co-location] decision has been made. It’s legally binding…It’s my decision” Carranza expressed regret that the announcement came “out of the blue.” But, he said the decision wasn’t arbitrary. Carranza was distressed that the Daniel Webster community felt as if it hadn’t been heard by the district, but he was deeply troubled that the
ISA community hadn’t been engaged as part of the proposal to site a K-8 school where the high school currently operates. Da n ie l Webs t e r pa r e nt s h ad pressed for a decision to site a K-8 school at Maxwell last spring, at a meeting with the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s Joint City and School Board Select Committee. At that assembly, SFUSD said a decision hinged in part on a demographic analysis. The district didn’t respond to a request by the View for a copy of that analysis.
“Family flight is a very real issue in our City. We need to keep families in San Francisco. Ten thousand residential units are being built in our attendance area. We need a solution.” STACEY BARTLETT, DANIEL WEBSTER PARENT AND DIRECTOR OF PKDW PRESCHOOL
California law requires the district to provide space for charter schools. According to the California Department of Education’s website, “ProposiDISTRICT page 14
Kaiser Permanente Floasts Revised Plans for Proposed Development By KEITH BuRBAnK
Kaiser Permanente shared its plans for a new development at 16th and Mississippi streets at an open house last month, drawing a crowd of San Franciscans opposed to and in support of the project, as well as those who want it sited in Bayview. Groups representing these three perspectives came wearing t-shirts expressing their views, as residents crowded Daniel Webster Elementary School’s auditorium to view information boards and speak with Kaiser representatives. “All the people who are against it, they don’t live here,” said Joey D’Angelo, homeowner association president at 999 16th Street, next door to the planned development. D’Angelo related how a building resident’s car was recently stolen, but after the thieves were unable to drive it more than a block because it was in illrepair, they abandoned it in the middle
Potrero Hill residents wearing the Save-The-Hill t-shirts at a packed Kaiser meeting held at Daniel Webster cafeteria last month. PHoTograPHS by r. Miller
of the street, where police found it. “The crime is out of control,” D’Angelo said. According to D’Angelo, residents of his building would be nearly as happy with a nuclear power plant next KAISER page 5