Potrero View 2014: August

Kelly Secures Democratic Club Endorsement

BY SARA M. BLOOMBERG

Last month, Connecticut Street resident Tony Kelly won the Potrero Hill Democratic Club’s endorsement for District 10 supervisor, securing 77 percent of club members’ votes after a lively debate that included all five candidates for the seat. The debate was held at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (Nabe), and was moderated by Marisa Lagos, a politics reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle

Kelly outscored incumbent Malia Cohen, as well as challengers Ed Donaldson, Marlene Tran and Shawn Richard. DeBray Carpenter ended his campaign after he failed to get the minimum number of signatures required by the San Francisco Department of Elections to appear on the ballot by the June 10 deadline. Roughly 100 people packed the Nabe’s community room, creating a standing-room-only vibe, with many attendees finding spots to sit on the raised stage behind the candidates.

Housing and transportation dominated the debate. But the night’s unofficial theme was Cohen versus everyone else, a storyline that was accentuated when, while the endorsement votes were being counted, all of the candidates except Cohen paused from mingling to take a group photograph.

During the debate Cohen went on the defensive several times, repeating the phrase, “Let’s set the record straight.” In response to criticism

isn’t until the end of this month. So far, Kelly has received $20,000 in public assistance, and is the only supervisorial candidate in the City who has secured public funds. Cohen declined to participate in public financing, and has raised more than $240,000 as of mid-July, according to documents filed with the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

Medical Marijuana Dispensary May Open in Dogpatch

BY KEITH BURBANK

Robert Watson shared his plans to open a medical cannabis dispensary, the neighborhood’s first, at last month’s meeting of the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA). He hopes to be in business by shortly after the end of the year, and expects to see perhaps 25 patients a day. Watson intends to name the business Dogpatch Collective.

BY KEITH BURBANK

Roughly five years ago, a Starr King Open Space (SKOS) board member stole at least $100,000 from the nonprofit. Susanne Shields sat on the board of the organization, which manages a three-acre natural area adjacent to Starr King Elementary School. Shields served as board secretary from 2001 until 2009. Court documents indicate that during that period Shields diverted money from the nonprofit’s account to pay her mortgage.

“Our money went down with her house,” said Webb Green, a Starr King Open Space board member.

from Kelly about who is financing her campaign, Cohen retorted that “My money is coming from a lot of people in this room—three quarters from District 10 residents—and only 16 percent from real estate.”

But Kelly pressed his point, suggesting that lobbyists for real estate interests are working against the development of affordable housing. “Take speculators out of politics. I’m not taking money from lobbyists. They’re not knocking on my door but...,” Kelly said, and dramatically let the end of his statement trail off unfinished.

Kelly and Tran are the only candidates who’ve filed to receive public financing for their campaigns, though the deadline to make that request

All of the candidates agreed that private charter buses, colloquially known as“Google buses,” shouldn’t be allowed to use public bus stops. In January, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a pilot program to monitor, regulate and charge the private buses, which primarily serve technology companies located on the Peninsula, $1 a day per stop. The Board subsequently denied an appeal for an environmental review of the program, with only supervisors David Campos and John Avalos voting in favor of it.

“I think it’s worth pointing out how absent the tech companies are” from this public conversation, Cohen said at the April hearing to consider imposing an environmental review, as reported

KELLY page 27

Shield’s 1015 Carolina Street home was forced into foreclosure in 2008. San Francisco Superior Court ordered a civil judgment brought by SKOS against Shields and her husband, Ralph Hunter, in 2012. But neither Shields nor Hunter have made any

“We want it to be warm, welcoming and safe,” Watson told the View The shop is slated to be located at 2544 Third Street, a 1,600 square foot space. Watson wants it to be a model for other dispensaries. “Be the hood ornament,” as a consultant told him. While he doesn’t have any experience operating a dispensary, his family has been farming for four generations, he’s educated himself in the use of medical cannabis, and he himself relies on medical marijuana. “There are some people out there that have abused this,” Watson said.

While the first dispensary, Watson’s is the second marijuana operation that’s planning to open

Webb Green, board member of the Starr King Open Space, stands next to the sign at the foot of the natural area. Starr King Open Space is a three-acre area just west of Starr King Elementary School. PHOTOGRAPH BY KEITH BURBANK

Robert Watson, in a 1,600 square foot space slated to open as a medical cannibas dispensary.

PHOTOGRAPH BY KEITH BURBANK

Tony Kelly won last month’s debate at the Nabe, winning 77 percent of club members votes.

PHOTOGRAPH BY SARA BLOOMBERG

Multiple corporate monopolies have emerged, thrived, and withered over the last hundred years. Railroads, telegram and telephone services, air transportation, network television and newspapers all had highly lucrative heydays, but were ultimately cut down to size by a combination of government anti-trust activities and new technologies. Today there’s a plethora of transportation, communication, information, and entertainment services, most offered at lower cost or with greater value than what was on the former cartels’ menu.

The societal conversation continues over how to best manage quasi-monopolies, like cable and Internet services. Water utilities are struggling with how to pay for themselves in an era in which reducing consumption is essential to addressing chronic scarcity. But the monopoly sector most ripe for rapid change is the almost a half-trillion dollar electricity sector.

Throughout the U.S. electricity is provided by a mix of municipal, cooperative, and investor-owned utilities (IOUs), each with a lock on delivering large aspects of the service in their home territories. In California the three large IOUs San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) have carved up the lion’s share of the state’s monopoly electricity market. All of them face a business model that’s been buffeted by the rapid policy-driven onsite of renewables and the emergence of other technologies that aren’t as dependent on a large, capital-intensive spoke fossil fuel or nuclear power plant and wheels transmission and distribution system to operate.

Today, a home or business can install devices to capture sunshine or wind and cope with intermittent power flows by managing the timing of their energy consumption and installing a storage device, which could include harnessing the battery in the electric vehicle parked in the garage. These

PUBLISHER’S VIEW

BY STEVEN J. MOSS

types of systems may work best when they’re combined at the multipleneighborhood level, to create a portfolio of resources that can reduce the risk that the failure of one device will have catastrophic outage consequences. The optimal size for a next generation grid may be roughly half the size of San Francisco, a back-to-the-future system that mirrors the more than 100 small service providers that combined more than a century ago to create PG&E.

Institutional change is tricky, though, when it comes to electricity. Although rates are high in California, outside the Central Valley in the summer, household bills are generally modest as a result of the state’s mild climate. There’s solid service reliability, with the IOUs generally doing a fine job restoring post-storm outages. And, thanks to public policies, low-income families are provided substantial subsidies, while the grid has grown

increasingly green. Outside San Francisco a nd post natural gas-disaster San Bruno where tilting at PG&E is an ideological battle rather than an economic one, these characteristics serve to mute the potential for widespread ratepayer revolt, and encourage consumer advocacy groups to protect the existing monopoly system.

Yet without change, electricity service is poised to get much more expensive, and probably less green. Renewable intermittency production drops when the sun doesn’t shine doesn’t match with the current system, creating gaps that could be plugged by costly and polluting fossil fuel power plants, eroding much of the environmental gains achieved over the past decade. Despite substantial technological innovation which should spur price competition, utility rates are consistently rising, in part because two competing paradigms New Age renewables, and

Industrial Age fossil fuels are being simultaneously pursued for political reasons.

The seeds of a solution are in creating more knowledge. Consumers are almost entirely ignorant of how the timing of their electricity use influences costs. Electricity rates don’t reflect the underlying expense to the environment or grid of providing service in a given time and place. Since price-based feedback to the IOUs is significantly muted, the monopolies operate as if demand is largely immune to change, and must be met by increasing amounts of generation to ensure reliability.

The pathways we take as the grid wobbles in the face of renewable disruption will determine how much we pay, out of our pockets, and through dirtier air, for the next few decades. Fortunately, there’s a ready way to remold the monopoly electric utility industry: get the prices right. If rates reflected the true costs of service i ncluding greenhouse gas and polluting air emissions c onsumers and businesses would take action to change their consumption patterns, aided by high technology companies eager to solve profitable problems. The Internet of Things would become the Energy System of Things, with renewables, storage, and a host of communicating devices connected to optimize energy use in an environmental sustainable way.

Offering transparent electricity prices won’t solve all of the grid’s challenges. But not doing so walls off essential innovation. Renewables and emerging technologies, combined with clever tariffs, could help ensure that California never builds another fossil fuel power plant. The state can protect low-income households from onerous electricity bills, by directly paying for energy efficiency investments, or providing bill credits. A small is beautiful ethos can emerge to rival the large, reliable, monopolies in providing high-quality services. If we get the prices right.

Beat Cop, Marquita Booth: marquita.booth@sfgov.org

Beat Cop, Mike Chantal: michael.chantal@sfgov.org

SHORT CUTS Letters to the Editor

Shocking News: Politicians Bad with Money

The emergence of pumpkins on porches signals Halloween, lights on houses Christmas, and nasty reports about politicians means that election season is in full swing. Last month the San Francisco Chronicle resurrected a story w hich the View covered four years ago t hat District 10 candidate Tony Kelly has never made good on a $200,000 City loan provided in 1999 to the now defunct Thick Description, a theater company he co-founded. The company used the loan to build-out ground floor space at Victoria Mews. Thick Description also has more than $30,000 in outstanding federal liens against it related to unpaid payroll taxes; almost $17,000 in state tax liens were paid off in recent years. These financial difficulties occurred despite the fact that the Eastern Neighborhoods Trust Fund , which was established to disburse community monies made available as a result of a waiver of parking requirements at Showplace Square, gave

Thick Description a cash infusion not long before it went bust in 2009. It’s clear that Kelly’s nonprofit ran into financial difficulties, which he didn’t manage correctly, and may even have caused. But then again, District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen has experienced financial troubles of her own, losing her $581,178 condominium to foreclosure just after she was elected to the Board. Neither fumbling the financials of a nonprofit theater company, nor being foreclosed on as a result of the housing crises, is exactly shocking, but it certainly doesn’t burnish either candidate’s reputation for sound money management. While

there are three other candidates running for the District 10 seat, Kelly and Cohen are the far-away front runners. Unfortunately, neither may have the background needed to help monitor the City’s multi-billion dollar budget…A recent telephone poll by a labor union showed Kelly trailing Cohen by six points, though local polls, conducted more than a month away from an election, are virtually meaningless.

To a T

Last month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee heard arguments from Dogpatch residents who want a new T-line turnaround along Third Street to be shifted further south, to 22nd Street. Under current plans the San Francisco Municipal Transportation would have tracks loop around 18th, Illinois and 19th streets before sending the T-line back north toward downtown. The committee, which includes District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen, didn’t vote on the matter, and there was no indication that SFMTA would extend the route.

Anniversaries

The View turns 44 years old this month, which in newspaper years is 150. And the much younger San Francisco Natural Medicine celebrates its 25th anniversary. “I am excited at the growth and progress I have seen since founding the practice in 1989 as well as the increase in interest from health care consumers looking for options,” said Potrero Hill resident Carl Hangee-Bauer, the clinic’s founder. “As a primary care family practice doctor, I know first hand how the health care system is

Editor,

The Cor-o-Van site’s owner, Josh Smith, is again pushing a development plan with no regard to community wishes or to honesty.

A two-hour public meeting with the developers took place last winter. The meeting was advertised by the developers as a vehicle to collect community input before a formal development proposal was submitted to the San Francisco Planning Commission. The audience’s overwhelming preference at the meeting was to restore and reuse the century-old metal buildings that occupy much of the site. To that end, many constructive ideas were proposed.

Last spring, the developers presented their latest proposal to a crowded Potrero Boosters meeting, with District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen in attendance. Under the plan 98 percent of the metal buildings would be demolished. The site would be packed with six-story-high buildings housing 400 residences. When asked about the design’s disparity with community wishes, as expressed at the earlier meeting, the speaker

failing patients. What we need is a health care system that truly encourages wellness; through preventing disease, teaching healthy lifestyle habits, and empowering patients to take charge of their health. These are the principles and goals we have embraced at San Francisco Natural Medicine.” Happy birthday!

More Development?!

The latest: 17 new condominiums may be constructed at 540 to 552 De Haro Street, a steeply-sloped lot that currently houses an empty industrial structure. The building,

replied that at other gatherings different preferences were expressed, and “other factors” were involved as well.

Before the public meeting, the only substantial interaction between the developer and the community was a poster session, at which many community members favored preserving the metal buildings as well. There were no “other meetings” to skew the plan toward near-complete demolition. As to the “other factors”, the audience at that meeting pointedly asked about parameters for the plan, and was explicitly told that there were none. In other words, Smith, and the developer, Prado Group, have ignored community opinions in their planning, and twice lied about it to the Potrero Hill community and its elected supervisor.

The City and the Planning Department have two options now: accept that the public is to have no involvement in planning, and that public meetings are a sham for the benefit of developers’ public relations; or act to record community input and account for it by law.

Yoram Meroz, Vermont Street

which is near the Potrero Whole Foods , Jackson Playground, and Anchor Steam Brewery, has been up for lease. A preliminary project assessment was submitted to the Planning Department to demolish the current structure, constructed in 1975, at Mariposa and De Haro and replace it with a four-story residential building. According to the proposed plans, there’d be 16 parking spots, 17 bicycle parking slots and a common roof deck, along with lots of terraces and balconies. The project falls under the Showplace Square-Potrero Hill Plan; Planning had few comments or revisions to make to the initial proposal…L ive Oak School intends to expand from 260 to 400 students over the next nine years, and to that end is renting space in an adjacent building

But it’ll be Cleaner

Last month District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced legislation to require developers constructing or retrofitting buildings near freeways Highway 101 and 280 to install ventilation systems that reduce the amount of particulate matter that can get inside. And a companion measure, also by Cohen, would mandate that city contractors use lower-emission diesel equipment and reduce other exhaust emissions while they work on public projects.

“It’s important that we ensure that new housing as well as construction projects are utilizing the best technology possible to protect public health,” Cohen said. “When we talk about environmental issues, it’s not just about cleaning up Superfund sites it’s about residents being able to protect themselves every day.” The legislation emerged from a collabora-

Iraqi Strife Years in the Making

BY DAVE MATSUDA, PH D.

I served as s enior c ultural a dvisor in charge of United States Central Command’s Digital Engagement Team (DET) a section of the Public Affairs Office responsible for social media communication with the Middle East during the first of the Arab Spring’s 2010 milyuniyya (mass protests). As popular uprisings spread across the region, DET desk officers cheered, cried, and shared the moment via the Internet with their fellow countrymen and women.

The Syrian desk officers were, in sharp contrast, deeply disturbed when the Arab Spring reached their country. Exiles who were out of touch with the “Syrian Street” led anti-Assad regime political movements, in much the same way DET Iraqi desk officers insisted that former exile-to-Iran Nouri al Maliki was out of touch with Iraqi ethnosectarian aspirations. Intolerant Salafists, who claim to be the sole practitioners of “the Prophet’s Foundational Islam,” and Takfiris, who kill Muslims that don’t subscribe to their narrow interpretation of Islam, protested en mass across Syria.

From the perspective of Jihadi foreign fighters and angry al Qae’da -inspired Sunni Iraqis exiled to Syria, the U.S. entered Iraq as kafir (infidel) occupiers who ousted the, however flawed, Sunni Ba’ath party from government and security forces. To add insult to injury, the U.S went to great lengths to ensure that irtada (apostate) Iranianbacked Shi’a politicians held the dictatorial decision-making majority in both transitional and elected Iraqi governments.

While there are plenty of constitutional checks and balances on paper in Iraq, Americans consistently bypassed the Tri-Presidency Council c omprised of one Sunni, one Shi’a and one Kurd a nd the Council of Representatives, or COR the legislative branch and dealt directly with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. He was America’s go-to-guy, who soon became dictatorial. The COR could challenge Maliki’s decisions, but only if he called them into session to do so.

As cultural advisor I was part of the commanding general’s primary staff who, on occasion, met with Maliki in his office to discuss operations. After we left, cell phone eavesdroppers detected Maliki’s calls to Qasem Soleimani, a senior “Quds Force” a s ection of the Iranian Army charged with spreading the 1979 Revolution o fficer and the acknowledged “King-maker of Baghdad” to tell him what we’d discussed, take suggestions and, all too frequently, receive orders.

Before the U.S. pulled out of Iraq troops were confined to base by the Iraqi government. But my position allowed me to travel off base throughout the country. During my frequent missions I interviewed Sunnis from all walks of life who said that Maliki, during his long

exile in Iran, had become a Persian Shi’ite, or Iranian , and that , after a failed assassination attempt against him, was paranoid, and believed that all Sunni were Ba’athist and al Qae’da “baltagiyya” (thugs). Also, they said , Maliki had weakened the military’s morale to prevent coup de tat. Sunni informants told me that the Maliki government didn’t keep its promise to the Sahwa Awakened Sunni, who turned against al Qae’da Core to fight alongside Shi’a, Kurds and the U.S. a nd had disenfranchised them. And Sunni were being disappeared, a prelude they believed correctly to mass round-ups and executions.

News pundits and commentators mistakenly claim that current ethno-sectarian troubles in Iraq were caused by the U.S. drawdown and pull out. In fact, the hostilities now occurring between Sunni and Shi’a, and for that matter Kurds, began months before, when U.S. military was confined to base by the Iranian-backed Iraqi government.

After America occupied Iraq calls went out to military-aged Sunni across the world to wage “little Jihad” righteous struggle in war t o expel the infidels. Operating under the long-held tradition of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend,” a pipeline of foreign fighters, supplies and training camps was established between normally sworn enemies in Sunni Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Sunni-Shi’a Lebanon, Iran , and Alawite Syria. While Syria’s rulers are predominantly Alawite a sect of Islam devoted to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in law of the Prophet Mohammad they’ve integrated a loyal and wealthy Sunni Iraqi and Sunni 75 percent of the population Syrian merchant class into politics and the military.

Bashar al Assad’s Ba’ath party t he same political party in Syrian Alawite form as Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Sunni Ba’ath party and the Syrian military knew that the Sunni foreign fighters they let transit through their country and into Iraq would someday turn on them. They carefully monitored the personalities, groups, and tactics, techniques and procedures of these Jihadis ; the same intolerant Sunni Salafists , Takfiris and al Qae’da who so distressed DET Syrian desk officers.

When popular demonstrations became open revolt, the Syrian military dusted off its network analysis playbook and slowly, awkwardly and with the help of Iran, which also hosted and studied al Qae’da foreign fighters, began to wage war.

If the homegrown rebellion fails it’ll be because the majority of Sunni in Syria are loyal to the Assad regime.

On the other hand, Syrians may accommodate Sunni foreign fighters by paying them for electricity and oil from surrendered power plants and refineries. This is millennia old oasis logic. If a water hole is destroyed blow up the oil and electricity infrastructure e veryone’s

weaker, and may even perish. But, if everyone no matter how distasteful and dangerous it may be d rinks from the same well for a time our side will find a way to prevail. Under this approach, the enemy of my enemy is, while convenient and until I get the upper hand, my friend. Also, the Assad regime is adept at playing homegrown insurgents against foreign fighters, selectively helping one against the other to weaken both.

However, Sunni Syrians also know that groups seeking an Islamic State will use the same treachery, ferocity and self-serving interpretation of Shari’a law that they did in Iraq, before Sunni Iraqis turned against them to fight alongside the U.S. and multinational forces. But Syrians, Iraqis and many across the Arab world are also wary of U.S. sponsored nation-building, which they believe results in dictatorial leaders and failed democratic experiments, as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, Sunni and Fedayeen Saddam Hussein loyalists w ho were marginalized by Maliki’s political-military block, now look the other way as Jihadis send suicide bombers into Baghdad, and have themselves taken up arms against the state, and/or have let Islamic State proponents and other foreign fighters hide amongst them in plain sight.

Another dynamic in this tangled ethno-sectarian web occurred when the largely Sunni city of Fallujah was attacked. Arab-Shi’a Iraqi Defense Force soldiers w ho felt trapped between Persian-Shi’a Iranians and Sunni extremists, and who, as southerners, have no home field advantage in Northern Iraq d idn’t see the fight as their own, and fled.

With battle-tested experience, local allies who provide safe haven, and demoralized government forces in retreat, Islamic State armies,

payments towards the judgment. In the meantime, Starr King Open Space struggles to pay its bills, including those related to repairing sidewalks adjacent to the natural area that were tagged by the San Francisco Department of Public Works.

“We’ve been scrambling for money ever since Shields stole it, ” Green said. After the theft, while the nonprofit reformulated its board, Starr King Open Space had just $103 in its bank account. According to Green, the nonprofit tried to sell the judgment against Shields to a bounty hunter, but “nobody wanted to give us anything for it.”

“This [theft from nonprofits] is a nationwide problem and crisis,” said Stephen Williams, the San Francisco attorney who handled the civil case against Shields on behalf of the Open Space. According to Williams, Shields confessed to the theft. The nonprofit also pursued a criminal case against Shields, but nothing resulted from the effort.

The Court judgment against Shields amounts to more than $149,000, which includes $130,000 in damages. According to a declaration by a former board member, “numerous phone calls and letters” to Shields were required before she agreed to turn over the nonprofit’s accounting records.

“In reviewing the records of Starr King Open Space it became clear to me that from approximately January of 2005 to January of 2007 approximately $130,000.00 had been drained from the organization’s bank accounts,” the declaration states. “All of the records I reviewed showed that the approximately $130,000.00 was being withdrawn by Defendant Susanne K. Shields.”

ARCH Ejected from Potrero Hill after 13 Years Here

BY REBEKAH MOAN

Potrero Hill residents wept when they learned ARCH Drafting Supply store, located at 99 Missouri Street, was being evicted. Or at least that was the reaction on Twitter. Earlier this summer KQED-Radio broke the news that ARCH was being displaced so that the building it occupies could be earthquake retrofitted. The property’s owner, Aaron Gordon, gave the art supply enterprise until the end of September to pack up. According to Gordon, it hasn’t yet been decided whether the structure will continue to be used as a commercial space or if it’ll become something else entirely.

Since the news broke there’s been a steady stream of reactions from community members. Susie Coliver, who has operated ARCH on the Hill for the last 13 years, said she’ll be sad to leave the neighborhood. “It’s really amazing how many people have taken the time to write, call, or come by,” Coliver said in an interview with the View. “We feel really close to this community, we feel embedded, but we didn’t know how reciprocal it was until now.”

Some of the Twitter reactions have been angry. “The news about @ archsupplies took the wind right out of my sails. San Francisco is pissing me off right now,” wrote Michael Wertz. Others have been heartfelt. “Without @ archsupplies, SF is less of a city. Every major project I’ve worked on has a piece of Arch in it,” Tec Quia said.

According to Coliver, the number of

people expressing their feelings many of them saying that without ARCH their lives would be less full has been incredible. “I received two notes last night from people I didn’t know knew we existed,” she said. “I was never aware they’d been in the store.”

There have also been suggested spaces, with people saying they know someone who has space, or a building, but none has panned out yet. ARCH needs at least 5,000 square feet, but can’t afford to pay more than $9,000 a month. Ideally, there’d be parking nearby, as well as public transit. And Coliver wants to be somewhere that’s accessible by bicycle; not on top of a hill.

While ARCH could move to the Richmond district, Cow Hollow, or even the East Bay, that’s not where the store’s current customers are located.

ARCH services Southside San Francisco, which is where Coliver and her employees want to stay. They know the people in the area, and understand their needs.

ARCH moved to Potrero in the first place because of the California College of the Arts (CCA). Originally, ARCH was housed downtown, but during the first dot.com bubble, Coliver lost her lease. She and her staff knew CCA instructors and administrators, and had a personal connection to the college; some of the staff graduated from it.

the night. We pay attention to their schedules and have what they need when they need it. We’re there for them and we appreciate them coming back.”

CCA doesn’t want its students to take time away from schoolwork to go scouting for supplies that they’re getting from nearby ARCH, Coliver said. “We know what they need; we’re a one-stop shop for students,” she said. “But working with CCA still doesn’t solve getting a place for the store.”

Coliver would love to stay on the Hill; she said she’s really going to miss being in the community. “We have a close relationship with all the wonderful stores on 18th Street, like Farley’s; we get coffee from Farley’s. I’m always sending customers up to Christopher’s, the Collage Gallery, and the like. I think in many eyes on the Hill we’re a part of the 18th Street core of familyowned and friendly local businesses.”

Frustratingly, there’s lots of empty space on the Hill, but it’s not being leased or isn’t affordable; commercial rents are going for $3 a foot.

“We’d have to sell so many pencils to afford rent like that,” Coliver said. “It’s not possible for us. We don’t have deep pockets and aren’t supported by venture capital. When we tell a landlord what we can afford that’s it, because we know our expenses. Someone else can say they’ll pay $3,000 more a month and the landlord will take it; we can’t match that.”

“That’s why we moved to Potrero,” she said. “In fact, our relationship with CCA has been very warm and very sympathetic. We work with their faculty to stock what the students need. We stay open late for them in the week before projects are due. We serve the kids coffee and cookies through ARCH page 13

Showplace Square Tenants Fend Off Eviction

BY KEITH BURBANK

Last month commercial tenants defeated efforts by a large out-of-state property owner and a rising high-tech enterprise to turn half of the San Francisco Design Center into office space. Currently, most of 2 Henry Adams Street consists of home inte rior showrooms. The building’s owner, Chicago-based RREEF, wanted to eject existing occupants, and replace them with Pinterest, a web-based company that helps users catalogue things they like. But roughly 50 tenants and their supporters convinced District 10 Su pervisor Malia Cohen to block RREEF’s attempt to designate 2 Henry Adams a historic resource, which would have enabled the evictions.

West Development and RREEF are in rent arrears. Ultimately, “the property has to be managed for profit,” he said.

in Dogpatch. A cultivation shop is being developed at Indiana and 25th streets, suggesting that local wags may soon rename the community

Products at Watson’s store will be sold in childproof containers, each with a bar code. The dispensary will verify whether the doctor prescribing the medicine is in good standing with the state medical board, and will call each doctor’s office to confirm that the prescription is correct. Neither combustion nor consumption will take place onsite. And “nothing but air” will be “leaving this space,” Watson said. The ventilation system will be on the building’s roof, and will be quieter than a conversation, he said.

a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. In addition to watching the entry, they’ll survey the immediate area outside the store. At opening and closing, a guard will escort staff in and out of the building. Cameras will be installed inside and outside the shop, which SFPD will have access to. Neighbors will be able to view a special web portal to monitor activity around the dispensary.

“They should be here, but not at this location,” said former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, about Pinterest. According to Agnos, the controversy surrounding the Design Center is a citywide issue. Cohen said there are 13 other San Francisco buildings that have been targeted by their owners for historic designation, potentially disrupting a large amount of production, distribution and repair (PDR) space. Historic designation allows a building’s owner to change the property’s use, rather than its underlying zoning, a fact the View misreported in its July issue.

The City permits the conversion of PDR space to office use in buildings designated historical because office uses typically yield higher rents. The owners can then use the extra money to pay for the buildings’ expensive maintenance costs, so the theory goes. The design center, however, has been well maintained, according to Bay West Development, which manages the property.

Agnos called the option to convert showrooms into office space a commercial version of the Ellis Act, a statement dismissed as hyperbole by Charles Goodyear, Goodyear Peterson Hayward & Associates, a public affairs consultancy representing RREEF. According to Goodyear, RREEF has forgiven $1.5 million in unpaid rent, is carrying $185,000 more, with some tenants 10 months behind in their rent. He said some of the tenants who criticized Bay

Bay West Development partner Sean Murphy argued that the design industry is contracting; Goodyear echoed that RREEF is responding to market forces. According to Murphy, tenants have been asking for smaller showrooms. However, at a late-June meeting with Cohen, tenants disputed that claim, insisting that they wanted more space so they could expand. Some pointed to the Great Recession as causing a short-term decline in their business, which is finally coming back.

Cohen said her own research shows the design industry is expanding, an assertion the View couldn’t confirm.

Murphy argued that tenants would be able to find alternative space in Showplace Square, but 2 Henry Adams occupants countered that scattering them to other buildings would be bad for business. They said the convenience of shopping in one place attracts customers. One tenant asserted that there’s no other place available in the design district. Another feared that the first floor would be a ghost town if Pinterest moved in; she moved to 2 Henry Adams because customers visiting other showrooms might stop in hers.

Cohen didn’t argue that 2 Henry Adams Street deserves historic designation. But the designation decision would set a precedent, she said. Moving Pinterest in would have converted 245,000 square feet of the building’s 311,000 square feet to office space.

DNA members seemed okay with Watson’s plans, though no vote was taken on whether to support the dispensary. One resident asked whether the shop’s two security guards will carry guns. The guards will be members of the Special Patrol Police, a quasi-public, privately-paid police force structured legally under the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and in the City Charter. The force supports and supplements policing and safety services by the police department. Although the guards will be licensed to carry guns, whether they will is “still up in the air,” Watson said. Guards will be onsite from 9

Watson wants the store to be open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Each of the three to five employees i ncluding one manager on duty at all times, one intake associate and one to three service personnel w ill have to pass a background check. The dispensary will offer only organic cannabis; Watson said he’d be surprised if the store features as many as 10 products, which should meet the needs of most patients, though as the availability of organic products increases more lines might be added.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health permits, regulates and inspects medical cannabis dispensaries; operators must obtain permits through the department’s environmental health section. Watson has applied for approval from the San Francisco Planning Commission; he’ll have to receive approvals from other City departments before he can open.

“We hope we can be a nice addition to the neighborhood,” Watson said.

From the Hill to the Valley, Claudia’s got you covered.

“Claudia just helped us buy our next place! Aside from her real estate expertise, the thing that really helped was Claudia's relationship with the other agent. She was able to negotiate some extremely critical seller credits and concessions as we were stretching on this purchase. Her ability to communicate and connect with people is a huge advantage for buyers in this crazy market.”

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415.816.2811

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Tree Ring Productions

BY PAUL MCDONALD

In 2012 Potrero Hill resident and Potrero/Dogpatch Merchant Association executive member, Beverly Markiewitcz (pronounced Mar-KEVich), founded a video production company, Tree Ring Productions. The company enables environmentally- and socially-conscious companies to tell their story through video services.

A tenet of Markiewitcz’ business is that her clients, be they an individual, nonprofit, or small business, must share her values of effecting positive change in their local communities, with an emphasis on environmental concerns. To acknowledge that underlying passion, a tree is planted for each client or project that the company takes on, to reflect both a symbolic and physical representation of Markiewitcz’ commitment to doing environmental good.

her desire to help the environment by promoting organizations that shared her passion. Tree Ring Productions whose motto is “Video Production for Changemakers”—was created.

Markiewicz graduated from Virginia Tech in 1996 with a degree in marketing. She moved to San Francisco in 2005, landing a job as a technical training contractor and education consultant designing curriculum for large corporations. She was dedicated to her work, but felt that she wasn’t following her heart. She enrolled in the San Francisco School of Digital Film Making, and learned documentary filmmaking techniques, camera work, pre-production and editing. By 2011, Markiewicz realized that she could align her new filming and editing skills with

To date Tree Ring has worked with the Community Living Campaign, which advocates for seniors and people with disabilities; Bay Localize, which supports local leaders in building equitable communities; and the Local Clean Energy Alliance. The three nonprofits are members of the “Tree Ring Film Fund Trio,” a funding effort Markiewicz established to leverage online donations to help pay for the work, since the small organizations themselves don’t have the resources to fund the effort.

For additional information, visit www.treeringproductions.com.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON NOLTE

The Club, perhaps best known for hosting Burning Man’s fall Decompression festival, will soon be replaced by a mixeduse complex.

Beverly Markiewitcz PHOTOGRAPH BY DON NOLTE

Lila Blue

PHOTOGRAPHS BY J. DURRANT

Lila Blue, 14-year-old Potrero Hill resident and Live Oak student, recorded her first album, Lucille this summer at Tiny Telephone Recording studio also on the Hill. The album was produced by Steve Lomprey, and will be released this month. Visit lilabluemusic.com to hear a sample.

Clockwise, sound engineer, Jay Pellicci, and Blue’s dad, Brad Cooley, listen to a mix from the control room. Center, Lila Blue sings Just Friends, which she wrote when she was seven years old. Upper Right, Blue plays the bass flat after a wrist injury. Lower Right, Blue listens to a recording in the control room. Lower Left: Tiny Telephone owner John Vanderslice stops by to check Blue’s progress.

THE VIEW IN PANAMA

Jasper, 13, and Shelby Liles, 10, spent their summer vacation on Isla Iguana, an uninhabited island in the Pacific off the coast of the Azuero Peninsula in Panama. They rode in a fishing boat to the island and spent the day snorkeling, playing in the white sand, swimming and reading the View !

on the

Happy SIXTH Birthday to the sweet, funny and clever Ms. Sarah Grossblatt! Sarah’s excited about the new Dogpatch Playground and hopes to see all her neighborhood friends there soon.

We’d be delighted to share photographs of your child’s birthdays, births and adoptions, graduations, achievements, adventures and whatnot. Please send all relevant information: name, date, and message to be published. to production@potreroview.net High resolution photographs, please (minimum 240 dpi).

There’s a new baby on the hill: Evelyn Ashenfelter Uritam, Born: June 3, 2014. We are excited to have our neighbors get to know her.

Humanist Cartoonist is Home on the Hill

BY RYDER W. MILLER

Cartoon historian Larry Gonick has lived on Potrero Hill since 1977, but is concerned about how long he’ll be able to stay in his 18th Street office space, and whether the community will retain its best qualities, as a wave of gentrification hits the Hill. There’s “great light in there,” Gonick said

of his office. “That’s just one reason we’re concerned about 1601 Mariposa,” a proposed developed next to Live Oak School “which will loom over us and completely eliminate our view to the north, not to mention the effect it’ll have on parking and the already miserable traffic around the foot of the Hill.”

“I’ve seen waves of gentrification

to Phoenix, where he attended Central High School.

“As an artist, I’m mostly selftaught, which means I copied other cartoonists,” Gonick said. “I’ve been reading the comics since I was very small. For school-school, I went to Harvard after high school, majored in math, and stayed on there in grad school. I dropped out in 1972, my fifth year, when my first weekly comic strip, “Boston Comix,” began its run in Boston After Dark , one of two weeklies there at the time, a la The Bay Guardian here. Later BAD acquired the Boston Phoenix and took over its name. It ceased print publication last year.”

“In 1975-76, the year before I moved to San Francisco, I did my first history comics.

These were in the form of a weekly strip in the Boston Sunday Globe and covered in lots of detail the history of colonial Massachusetts and the American Revolution. The strip, which debuted on the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride, was a bicentennial feature, obviously.”

and decay and re-gentrification. Right now the Hill looks very posh. The rents are insane, and there seems to be little energy to push back,” he continued. “As the saying goes, those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. What I’ve learned is that if you know history, you may be condemned to repeat it anyway.”

Gonick was born in the Richmond District in 1946, though the actual event occurred at the California Pacific Medical Center Children’s Hospital, where both his daughters also arrived. When he was three years old his family moved to Colorado, and then

“In the summer of ‘76 I was in San Francisco on vacation and saw an article in the Bay Guardian about a new American Revolution comic by Gilbert Shelton, Ted Richards, and Willy Murphy, published by Rip Off Press. Shelton, creator of Wonder Wart-Hog and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, was an idol of mine, so it took some courage to call him up, but he was friendly and invited me to his studio.”

“The studio was upstairs from Rip Off’s publishing operation and warehouse, at the corner of Missouri and 17th streets, where Arch is now. Illustrator, Wendy McNaughton has the old studio space, and Arch occupies the Rip Off warehouse, but not for long. Shelton, a pony-tailed “old” hippie maybe 35 at the time took one look at my stuff and said, “this is the

Artwork by Larry Gonick, who was the View’s editorial cartoonist for many years. IMAGES COURTESY OF LARRY GONICK

664 Wisconsin Street

Stunning Modern View Home!

In a coveted North Slope location, this dramatic view home’s inspired design by Fougeron Architects has been featured in Dwell magazine, the New York Times and the AIA Home Tour.

Truly a gallery-like space with soaring ceilings, the open floor plan is awash in light from its expansive windows and skylights. The home is ideally-configured for entertaining with a beautiful chef’s kitchen at the center of the open plan living and dining area.

Boasting four bedrooms and three baths in all, the upper floor is devoted to a luxuriously-proportioned master suite with spectacular views of the Bay Bridge and downtown skyline, a pristine tiled bath, spacious walk-in closet and deck. A verdant, secluded garden and two sunny decks offer wonderful spaces to enjoy Potrero Hill’s famously warm weather. This lovely home is completed by a den, convenient in-home laundry and garage with internal access.

Very convenient to the North Slope’s shops and cafes and I-280.

For more information and showing schedules, please visit www.664Wisconsin.com

Offered at $3,495,000

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tion among numerous City agencies, including the Department of Public Health . According to Karen Cohn , an environmental health program manager at the department, the new filtration requirements will update a 2008 law that forced developers of new housing projects larger than 10 units in polluted areas to assess potential air-quality issues. If dust and pollution levels reached a certain threshold, the law requires the developer to install high-quality ventilation systems. Since the 2008 law was approved, roughly 80 projects have been reviewed, and more than onethird were found to need the ventilation systems. Residents who live in buildings built before 2008, however, don’t have those protections.

Space Needed for Insects

SaveNature.Org , which helps purchase and protect threatened and endangered habitat in rainforests, coral reefs and deserts and provides educational programs through its Insect Discovery Lab to children and students, is looking for new offices. The nonprofit has been in the same Mississippi Street location for the past dozen years, but the owner, Citywide Properties , is raising the rent by $1,300 a month.

Bayview Residents Unhappy with Mother Brown’s

Neighbors of Mother Brown’s, located at 2111 Jennings Street, have complained to the San Francisco departments of Building Inspection, Fire and Planning about homeless individuals sleeping in chairs at the center from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Since the facility is intended to serve as a drop-in center, rather than overnight lodging, the activity may constitute a “change of use,” in violation of the Planning Code. In addition, the

Fire Department has issued notices of violation (NOV) for the change of use of Mother Brown’s from business to residential use, and at least one NOV appears to have been “abated” after a worker at Mother Brown’s woke the people who were sleeping in chairs. The Fire Department appears to be satisfied that this hourly “fire watch” brings Mother Brown’s into compliance with business use requirements. But the neighbors believe that waking people every hour doesn’t negate the fact that sleeping is occurring most of the night. Plus, what a drag for the homeless trying to get some shut-eye.

Correction

The correct name of the South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Association president, unfortunately misspelled in last month’s “Neighbors Weigh in on warriors Arena Move to Mission Bay,” is Katy Liddell.

A Good Laugh

BY MARILYN J. CURRY

No matter what I’m writing about I feel that I owe my audience a laugh. Not a standup comedian kind of laugh, but the kind of laugh that makes the reader feel that I thought of them when I was writing.

It’s not all doom and gloom for ARCH and company though. Many arts organizations, particularly nonprofits, are having a hard time finding space, and there’s lots of chatter about pairing up. Coliver is open to leasing a larger space than ARCH needs to become roommates with another organization.

“That could be exciting,” she said. “That could develop a hub quality to it. We wouldn’t be just materials for procurement, but a place where people use the materials or we could host workshops. Staff spirits have remained high. Yes, we need to make a change, but change is not always bad. It’s challenging because of cost, but we may come out stronger.”

I’ve written many memoir pieces. Like most writers, I’ve written about traumatic life experiences. But I’ve always tried to make sure that there was a lively and entertaining tone in my pieces. I took a course on “writing your own story” with the Beat poet and native New Yorker Diane DiPrima, who has lived a long and adventurous life. One woman in the class commented, in a quivering voice, that she wanted to write about her own life, but it made her feel too vulnerable.

“Vulnerable?” Diane said incredulously, “Join the human race. What you have to worry about is not being vulnerable but being interesting.” I took that advice to heart.

wingback chair near the black rotary dial phone in her flowered housedress with a slip underneath, wearing nylon stockings that she wore rolled up to her knees with round elastic garters, and no bra, which she referred to as a brassiere.

“Oh I can’t wait to get that damn thing off.” She’d often retell a story from one of her contacts, and add her own commentary. “I talked to Mae today. You know, she’s the one who still visits the blind husband that’s in Creedmoor.” I knew where this was going, but I wanted to hear it again.

“You know, it’s a terrible story. She doted on him for years as he was going blind.” My grandmother would then do Mae’s voice, calm and patient, “Every day I used to arrange his food on the plate like the hands of a clock. The meat was at twelve o’clock, the corn at three, the potatoes at six, and the green beans at nine.”

My grandmother paused, and continued in Mae’s voice, “But ever since the day he went after me with the hammer I never really felt the same about him again.”

My grandmother was a great storyteller. Her formula included mixing harrowing human tragedy with “several funny lines.” I grew up next door to my grandparents, but even after I moved out of my mother’s house I’d often visit them. My grandmother, in her later years, spent a lot of time on the phone talking to her sister and her “girlfriends.” My grandfather would complain, “What the hell do you have to say to these people every day?” Sadly, he didn’t appreciate all the good material that she gathered.

When I visited she’d sit in the

My grandmother let out a hoot of laughter; she loved to tell this story. “Can you believe it?” she said looking at me through her magnified eyeglasses. “That Mae must be a fool or a saint. Thank god he was blind.”

Marilyn Curry participates in a free and open to the public creative writing class held Thursdays between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. at the Potrero library, taught by writer journalist and filmmaker Shevi Loewinger Rosenfeld.

SHORT CUTS from page 3

ARCH from page 5

Library News

BY LISA FAGUNDES, LIBRARIAN

Come to our End of Summer Reading Party on Saturday August 9, 1 to 5 p.m.! Make a button and enjoy our chocolate fountain! All ages welcome.

PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS

Everything In Pen Combining the pop sensibility of Big Star and the off-beat narrative observations of Jonathan Richman, acoustic artist Everything in Pen sings an entire set of songs that have been inspired by books. In each song’s introduction, she explains which book or books are referenced in the song. The “Dave Eggers” song, for instance, is obviously inspired by Eggers, but also has lyrics from Wendell Berry and Richard Powers. Other book songs reference Betty Friedan, Richard Yates, Barbara Kingsolver and many others. Thursday, August 21, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Digital Drop-In: Learn how to download eBooks to your device and how to use the library’s databases. Have a reference question that requires more time to answer? Come to Digital Drop-In, where you’ll get one-on-one time with a librarian to help answer your basic technology conundrums. Wednesdays, August 6, 13, 20 and 27, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

PROGRAMS FOR TEENS

Jewelry Making : In this fun, hands-on workshop, local designer and entrepre neur Chelsee Robinson will help you in create your own beautiful bracelet, necklace, or earrings. Come for the fun, leave with a skill! Materials provided. Ages 12 and up. Limited space; so sign up by emailing Lisa at lisa.fagundes@ sfpl.org or call 355.2822. Sunday, August 3, 2 to 4 p.m.

Game On!: Come play PS3 and Wii games on our big screen in the Potrero meeting room! We have a selection, but you can bring your own T- or E-rated games to share. Challenge your friends to determine who is the ultimate gamer! Ages eight to 18 welcome. Thursdays, August 12, 19, and 26, 4 to 6 p.m.

PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN

Baby Rhyme and Play Time: Songs and rhymes for infants up to 18 months old and their caregivers. Tuesdays, August 5, 12, 19, and 26, 1:15 to 1:45 p.m.

Family Story time: Featuring stories, songs and rhymes. For children from birth to five years old and their caregiver(s). Thursdays August 7, 14, 21, and 28, 10:30 to 11 a.m. and 11:15 to 11:45 a.m.

Fun Flicks: Bring a snack and enjoy children’s films. Fish is Fish; Inch by Inch; The Foolish Frog; Knuffle Bunny ; Frederick; Chrysanthemum. For ages three to eight. Wednesday August 13, 6:30 to 7:15 p.m.

Saturday Snacktivity: With food provided by the Potrero Whole Foods, we’ll offer a wholesome snack followed by a fun activity. All ages welcome. Saturdays, August 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, 12 to 1:30 p.m.

Origami with Shinta Arifin : Join us for a special program with origami artist Shinta Arifin! Children ages four to 12 welcome. Saturday, August 1, 3 to 5 p.m.

Movie and Meal Day: Monster’s University. Potrero Hill Family Support Center will provide a meal. Friday, August 15, 3 to 5:30 p.m.

LIBRARY SPONSORED COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Creative Writing Workshop: A free class to help you write your own stories, develop your characters, and find your own unique voice. Contact Shevi for more information: sheviros@gmail.com or 602.7961. Thursdays August 7, 14, 21, and 28, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Potrero Branch Seed Library:

Thanks to the generous contributions of local gardeners and Whole Foods Grocery, Potrero Branch Seed Library continues. You’re welcome to “check out” seeds, plant them, and bring your harvested seeds back to the library.

GONICK from page 11

way to do history comics.” Naturally, my estimation of him rose considerably from its already high station. He said if I ever wanted to do more, they would publish me.”

“When I came out here in February of the next year, they were ready for me, but I wasn’t ready for them. The money sounded too pathetic, so I looked for other work, but meanwhile I spent lots of time at Rip Off Press doing what hippies do and playing a lot of ping pong. After a few months, Ted, who had a desk up there, told me he was ready to move and asked if I wanted to share studio space. Together with a friend of his named J. Michael Leonard we formed Fast Draw Studios, upstairs from the Tea Lautrec printing company on Sheridan Alley between Ninth and Tenth streets. Tea Lautrec did all the Bill Graham posters and was run by a great guy named Levon Mosgofian.

“After about a year of finding no real publishing prospects for my comic in the Bay Area, I came back to Rip Off, took their offer, and that’s how The Cartoon History of the Universe was born. The first 48-page comic book, Volume 1, came out in September of 1978. It’s a collector’s item now. The first few installments were drawn in that Sheridan Street space, with plenty of visits to Missouri and 17th streets for ping pong and whatever hippies do. Eventually the underground comics market withered, and Rip Off had to downsize. They moved to a much

smaller space on San Jose Avenue, and then left town completely, to Auburn.”

According to Gonick, history needs to be entertaining to attract people’s interest. Some books put the “juice” into past events, while others say “gloriously stupid things...any blowhard can be a historian!” he said. “It helps to be a blowhard with a point of view, though. Otherwise it can be boring. Maybe I’m naïve, but I think it’s a good thing if we have some idea about what leads to what.”

Of his work, Gonick said “You might call it political cartooning about the past. And by people, I don’t just mean kings and generals, but ordinary people. My motto has always been: History as it really happened, in cartoon format.” He tries to present historical figures as flesh and blood human beings, “very much like living people, passionate, conniving, confused, idealistic.”

When Gonick arrived on the Hill the community was a hotbed of activism. “Now, not so much,” he remarked. He bought his Missouri Street house in 1978, married painter Lisa Goldschmid, and raised two daughters, Sophie, now 31, and Anna, 27. He and his family have led “fairly uneventful lives,” something with which Gonick is comfortable.

Gonick originally shared a large Potrero Avenue office with resident Sharon Smith, a graphic designer living on the Hill. “Her Markets of Provence is still a classic,” he said. “After that went bust, I moved in with

Community Mural Celebrates the History and Hopes for Potrero

On Saturday, June 14, over 100 people enjoyed the sunny weather and a delicious lunch from Hard Knox Café at the Potrero Community Mural Celebration and Dedication. The event marked the unveiling of the latest public art in the neighborhood. Located at the Potrero Hill Health Center at 1050 Wisconsin Street, the mural is sponsored by BRIDGE Housing Corporation, in cooperation with Potrero Hill Health Center, Precita Eyes Muralists Association and Center, and the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (NABE).

Precita Eyes is a community-based mural arts organization that seeks to enrich and beautify urban environments and to educate communities about the process and history of public community mural art. Precita Eyes led over 50 community members through two design workshops to elicit ideas, images, and themes for the mural.

In May, Potrero Terrace and Annex residents, other community members, and Potrero Health Center staff came out for a full day of painting. T he mural reflects Potrero Hill’s past, present, and future, including institutions such as Starr King, Daniel Webster, Potrero Recreation Center, and the NABE. It also includes images of children in the walking school bus, the now discontinued 53 bus line, and the Texas Street Farm. There are symbols representing diversity, nature, and love, including a pregnant woman encircled by five hands symbolizing the

five elements (earth, water, wind, fire, and metal). Surrounding the mural are the names of Potrero Hill political, cultural, and social leaders.

In addition to community members, several civic, health, and nonprofit leaders were in attendance to commemorate this special occasion. Emily Weinstein, BRIDGE’s Director of Potrero Community and Housing Development, opened up the ceremony before passing it off to Malia Cohen, District 10 Supervisor; Jan Gurley, Potrero Hill Health Center Director; Edward Hatter, Neighborhood House Executive Director; and other community participants. Each speaker expressed their thanks and appreciation for the new mural and encouraged the community to support and strengthen valuable resources such as the Health Center and the NABE, so they can continue to serve all residents of Potrero Hill. For more information, visit our website at rebuildpotrero.com or e-mail us at potrero@bridgehousing.com

Slip and Slide

Earlier this summer Bear Naked Granola hosted a slip and slide on Arkansas and 18th Streets. The photographs and videos of the event received 20,000 views in 24 hours on Youtube, and were especially popular on French blogs.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSH LITWIN

Mission Creek Paddling

the Berry Street dock on Mission Creek, continued under Third and Fourth Street bridges, and out to McCovey Cove to the end of AT&T Park. Paddlers were back at the dock in an hour and a half. Bjorn, from Germany “took a dip” in McCovey Cove, and said, “It

PHOTOGRAPHS BY J. DURRANT

Pioneered off Waikiki beach, stand up paddling (SUP) has evolved into a fast-growing sport that can be as much fun on flat water as in the ocean surf. SUP is a great workout and a fantastic way to explore the Bay. UCSF Outdoor Programs taught this paddling class last month at Mission Creek pier.

“For the first time in my life, I have a doctor I can trust.”

Two instructors, Jacob (above, green shirt) and Martha (above, pink shirt), led a class of seven beginners, hailing from Moscow, Germany, China and the U.S. The participants learned the basics before launching: how to balance and paddle; and how to get back on the board should a tumble in the water occur. The trip began at

was rather pleasant.” (center, bottom)

PHOTOGRAPHS BY J. DURRANT

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON NOLTE

Recess hosted Uno, Dos, Science! taught by Anna Torrent (at right) and Paula Gil earlier this summer. During the week-long camp, participants made DNA models, neurons, bubbles, rubber balls; performed acid base experiments; explored chromatography; studied corals, made a barometer, and a solar system hat ... all in Spanish. In the photos, the campers are making designs on cloth and, at the right, a rubber ball.

Branch SF, co-founded by Lindsey Whited and Dominque Piccinino, led Cycles and Rhythms, a summer camp held at the Rhode Island and 18th garden earlier this summer. The camp focused on different cycles from water, decomposition, plants, seasons, and moon cycles. In the photos, the campers can be seen making moon cycle flags, to show the phases of the moon.

A View from the Past

This simple drawing— diseño in Spanish—is the earliest known map of Potrero Hill. It was drawn to describe the boundaries of the land granted to Francisco de Haro’s twin sons in 1844 to pasture their cattle. The government of Mexico made more than 700 of these grants after Mission lands were repossessed by the Secularization Act of 1833. On the left, Mission Creek flows from the Bay toward a willow grove and Mission Dolores. Islais Creek is on the right, the Bay is at the top.

In 2004, Julia Bergman and Peter Linenthal poured through hundreds of diseños on microfilm at the San Bruno office of the National Archives. When our diseño suddenly appeared on the screen, it was a moment we’ll never forget.

TUESDAY,

TUESDAY,

Abigail Johnston, Peter Linenthal

The Potrero Hill Archives Project (Map courtesy California State Library)

Fiction: The Secret of True Happiness

BY GREG ROENSCH

Jim had never seen anything like it. The crate was filled with hundreds of pieces, each wrapped tightly in plastic and accompanied by its own simple instructions. He picked up a piece and read the note: “Open December 23. Only two more shopping days until Christmas!”

It was the first of January, so Jim put the piece back in the box.

He peeled off a thin pamphlet marked “Instructions” from the inside lid of the crate. The 16-page booklet contained extensive legal and warranty information and the following instructions in English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Tagalog:

Welcome to the Secret of True Happiness

1. This box contains 365 components. Each one is marked with the day it should be opened.

2. Be sure to open only one component per day.

(A thought crossed Jim’s mind: What if it’s a leap year? )

3. Start on January 1st and proceed to the end of the year. ( Note: In the event of a leap year, contact the manufacturer for special instructions.)

(Okay, that answers that question.)

4. At the end of one year, after you’ve opened all 365 pieces, you will have unlocked the secret of true happiness.

Jim found the package marked “Open January 1. Happy New Year!” and ripped off the plastic wrap. The package contained a piece of metal, about the size and shape of a halfsmoked cigar. Jim shrugged his shoulders. He was unsure what to make of it. At the same time, he was curious about what tomorrow would bring. As he’d soon learn, each metal piece was different from the next. Some were flat and some were round. Some looked like they might be part of a puzzle; others looked like they couldn’t possibly fit together with anything else in the crate.

Jim was intrigued at first by the apparent randomness of the metal pieces. He placed each unwrapped object on the kitchen table, thinking he’d soon be assembling some kind of sculpture. Maybe it would even be a mobile he could hang from the ceiling. By the end of the first month, however, Jim was becoming frustrated by the fact that the pieces did not fit together, at least not in any way he could figure out. Is this a joke, he wondered? Still, he was determined to see how the mystery played out.

When the components no longer fit

on the kitchen table, Jim laid them out on his living room floor. By July, he was no closer to figuring out how the pieces fit together. And he was running out of space inside his small apartment. Even though it was the start of the rainy season, Jim started putting the pieces in his backyard. Fortunately, the metal didn’t rust in the rain.

On the last day of the year, Jim picked up the final unwrapped component. The note piece read, “Open December 31. Congratulations, you now have everything you need for true happiness!” Finally, Jim thought, tearing at the plastic wrapping. He was ready for the “ah-ha” moment; that instant when all would be revealed.

The final piece was a small pyramid-shaped object. Jim rotated it in his hand. He squinted and rubbed his forehead, as if these actions would help him understand. But he still couldn’t figure out the mystery of the metal pieces. He scanned the rest of his collection, from the first half-smoked cigar on his kitchen table, to the clutter of dusty pieces on his living room floor, to the last four months’ worth of stuff scattered across his backyard. It wasn’t

a puzzle or a sculpture or a mobile of any kind. It was just 365 random pieces of junk.

Jim felt the rage come upon him all at once. He dropped the metal pyramid and smashed it under his boot. He then gathered up all of the pieces on the kitchen table in a large tablecloth and flung the entire bundle out into the yard. Next, he stomped on all of the components on his living room floor before hurling them all outside. Lastly, Jim lifted the cardboard crate. The secret of true happiness, he thought. Yeah right! What did I miss, he asked himself? What did I miss? He flipped over the crate, shook it violently, and gave one final thwack to the bottom of the box.

The instruction pamphlet dropped onto the kitchen floor.

Jim tossed the crate off to the side and picked up the thin manual, flipping through the English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Tagalog instructions for the missing clue. Any clue! That’s when he noticed a note on the back cover. In the finest of fine print. It read:

HAPPINESS is all around us. No Assembly Required.

The Secret of True Happiness Developed by Obsessive Gimmicks, Inc. San Francisco, California. U.S.A. Manufactured in China.

Greg Roensch lives on 18th Street, and is a Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association member. He owns an editorial services business, Six String Communications

Get a Job

BY MAURI SCHWARTZ

The View asked career expert Mauri Schwartz to answer questions from job seekers. Submit yours to editor@potreroview.net

Q: I’m a senior level business professional, well into my career. My product division has recently been acquired by a company in Atlanta. I’ve been offered the same position in the new firm but don’t want to move, have decided to look for a new position in the Bay Area, but am concerned about my age. What would you advise someone in my situation? How far back in my work experience should I include on my resume. I’ve heard to put only the most recent 10 years.

A: I get this question often. The number of years varies. Some experts suggest listing only the most recent 10 years; others say 15. My most common answer to clients’ questions regarding resumes and interviews is, “it depends.”

I don’t believe there’s one right number of years to include on a resume. Those who advise a set amount of time, such as 10 or 15, do so because it’s simpler to take a one-size-fits-all approach than to advise people on an individual basis. There are many guidelines that are common to nearly all job seekers, but everyone has something that calls for special attention. In addition to these particulars, other variables include how much experience is deemed appropriate for a specific industry, company, function, or job level.

Unfortunately, age discrimination does exist, primarily against older workers, but often related to younger employees as well. Age discrimination, which is illegal, it’s usually impossible to prove. For older workers I’ve found that in most cases the issue isn’t tied to age. It may be the expectation that a senior candidate will require higher compensation than someone earlier in their career. Or, there’s a concern that an older candidate may be approaching retirement, and will only stay employed for a few more years. Notably, the average job tenure among employees of all ages is less than five years, according to 2012 U.S. Department of Labor data, and just more than three years for those younger than forty.

The primary reason employers may pass on an older applicant may be that they believe the individual has tired, stale ideas and ways of performing the job, as well as less energy and enthusiasm. These are factors that you can and should eliminate with your actual behavior, body language and voice during an interview, even when it’s on the phone. But, you must first get the interview, which means that you don’t want to give them any reason to discard your resume on first glance.

For those who have been out of college for more than a dozen years, I’d omit graduation dates. In general, I’d recommend listing between 12 and 18 years of experience, depending on the variables I previously discussed, as well as how pertinent the particular experience is to the position you’re seeking. My advice is to include only achievements that are relevant to your targeted role, even when considering your more recent experience.

PHOTOGRAPH BY EMILY PAYNE

BY STEVEN J. MOSS

“Reaux, Sham, Beaux , sudden death!” Debbie announced, invoking our last-ditch method of determining which one of us would have to do whatever unpleasant task was at hand.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Sara screamed from her bedroom.

Both of us had already tucked her in multiple times. On each occasion, not long after we sat back down to finish dinner, she’d loudly demand that we come back to her bedside. Glancing at my almost cold bowl of homemade macaroni and cheese, I raised my fist in preparation for battle with Debbie to decide which of us would return to Sara’s room.

Sleep is a foreign country Sara would rather not visit. As soon as she could make an understandable sound she insisted that Debbie or I crawl onto the mattress next to her, and stay there until she closed her eyes. Every night my wife or I would either fall asleep in her bed well before 8:30 p.m., or lie with her for more than an hour before slowly extracting ourselves from her tight grip.

Getting out of Sara’s bed was like defusing a bomb. She tended towards a defensive sleeping posture, wrapping a slender arm around my neck, in a kind of modified choke-hold; and/or throwing one of her legs over my waist. I needed to quietly and carefully shift her appendages off from wherever they were draped on my body. I usually deployed one of her large stuffed animals to switch out her neck hold, letting her grip that instead. To remove her leg was more difficult, usually requiring that she be in deep sleep.

Once her initial sleep traps had been eliminated, I’d slowly scoot down the mattress, away from her body, like crawling under barbed wire. I’d then slide down the edge of her chest bed, feet stretched out to find a clear space on the floor. The next stage was critical: avoiding stepping on the toys scattered around her room, being especially careful not to disturb an object that, when squished, would squeak, squeal,

Sleep is a Delicate Thing

or honk, waking her up, and trigger ing a repeat of the entire excruciating process. This happened more than once, causing me to mutter angry curses at whomever gave her the stuffed dog that barked when squeezed, or the electronic toy that played a merry tune when jostled.

The exception to Sara’s war against sleep occurred during an eight-week trip to Southern India when she was three years old. The place’s intensity was overwhelming, filled with swirling, colorful saris, the smell of dirt mixed with sewage, spices, and exhaust, and the cacophony of shouting vendors, rumbling cars and motorcycles, joined by the occasional passage of a clambering religious or political mini-parade. Going unconscious was Sara’s defense. As soon as we got into an auto-rickshaw a three-wheel vehicle with a sheet metal cabin bolted over a two-person bench,

“No!” Sara, shouted, “Sleep with me!”

We walked out of her room, and gently shut the door. Sara cried. We stayed where we were, sitting on the sofa in the living room. Sara got out of bed, and begged us to come tuck her in. We told her to go back to bed. She returned to her room, only to cycle back out 20 minutes later. Days went by; the battle went on for hours every night. Still, Debbie and I held firm.

A week and a half into the Ferber skirmishes, Sara got out of bed for the second time that night. She stood in her too big racecar pajamas hand-medowns from her cousin, Asa clutching Koda, one hand rubbing an eye.

“Go back to bed,” I said, firmly.

“Mommy, daddy, I need to tell you something,” Sara said.

“Okay,” Debbie said. “What?”

“It hurts my feelings when you walk away from me at bedtime, and it makes me feel bad when you tell me to go back to bed all of the time,” Sara sniffled. “I’m just a child.”

pulled by a high-pitched four-cycle ara would fall asleep against my chest. Minutes after the start of a Kathakali dance recital, which featured masked and costumed performers, drumming and high-pitched singing, she crawled onto my lap, turned away from the stage, and slept.

Back in San Francisco, Debbie and I loathed Sara’s insistence on bedtime companionship, and bitterly fought over whose turn it was to put her to sleep. But we were also sympathetic it made sense to us of that she’d want to snuggle with someone else, something we ourselves enjoyed—and hopeful that her fitful sleep habits would end soon.

“She’s not going to want to sleep with us when she’s a teenager,” Debbie desperately joked, her voice tilting towards a question mark at the end.

We both knew that we’d caused the problem, by mishandling Sara’s sleep habits early on. This shouldn’t have been allowed to fester so long. Still, our nighttime lives were being obliterated. A few weeks after we returned from India we decided to “Ferber” Sara. The Ferber Method supposedly trains children to “self-soothe” by steadily increasing their tolerance for being left alone. We’d tuck Sara in, fend off her protests, slink out the door, and wait in the kitchen while she cried. The initial five minutes of sobbing turned into 10, and then 20. Days passed, but the method wasn’t working, or we weren’t allowing it to. If we didn’t go comfort her, Sara would get out of her bed and find us, demand a new tucking-in, and repeat the cycle. Inevitably, after an hour of back-and-forth, with no sign that Sara would relent, one of us usually me would capitulate, and crawl into bed with her.

Finally, one night, we decided to stand our ground.

“Neither of us is giving in this time,” Debbie said firmly. We read to Sara, carefully smoothed the blankets over her, slipped her favorite stuffy, Koda, into her arms, kissed her goodnight, and told her that no one was going to sleep with her tonight or in the future.

Surprised by the crack of a new maturity in Sara’s voice, neither of us knew whether to smile at her truthful expression of her feelings, or frown in response to this new, emotionally savvy tactic. But we both knew that Ferbering was finished.

“Come on, Sweetie, I’ll put you to bed,” said Debbie.

An hour or so later my wife came out of Sara’s room, yawning. “She’s asleep,” she said.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Debbie. “We may not have taught her to put herself to sleep, but I guess we did teach her to communicate her feelings. That’s something.”

Handbook Tips: Sleepy or Weepy

You have a choice. You can be firm about bed time, tucking in your kids like clockwork, never letting them get up after they’ve been handed their stuffy or other favorite sleep object, and been fully blanketed. Or, you can be all loosey-goosey, and let things slip-slide away. Create a cozy “family” bed, fetch them water on demand, allow them to get up and go to the bathroom. And never have sex with your wife at home again without wondering whether someone will come padding in during the act. Your call.

Lots of kids don’t like to sleep alone; who can blame them? My sister, Marissa, solved this problem by having two of her three boys sleep together until they were in kindergarten, an arrangement that worked well for all involved. Another option: get a dog or cat, and have the critter sleep with your child. Animals can be costly, and leave pesky hair and dirt around, but it’s all worth it if it gets your kid to stay in bed at night.

Some things go in phases, others might last a good long time. Nearly a decade after our Ferber wars Sara still fights going to sleep. She follows a nightly battle plan that starts with playing in bed, shifts to reading

Community:

Programs at the NABE

Tai-Chi: This hour-long practice inspires mind-body connection and effortlessness. Monday and Friday, 10 a.m. Zumba: Men, women, and children dance with this low-impact exercise. Mondays and Wednesdays, 6 to 7 p.m.

Chess: Lessons with a chess guru from the San Francisco Mechanics Library and Chess Room. All ages welcome. Every Wednesday, 4:30 to 6 p.m. Youth Basketball: Coach Albert Johnson hosts youth basketball. Tuesday and Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. Gymnasium. Ages 10 to 18. August 17: Healthier Living Workshop Series, 1 to 3 p.m.

Thursdays.

Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro Street. Information: LeeAndrea, 826.8080

Friday and Saturdays through August 23

Comedy: Stand Up Comedy with Rising Stars

More than ten comics will converge on San Francisco for four weeks to create tons of laughter and mayhem courtesy at Our Down Town Comedy Theater. Participating comedians represent different nationalities and countries from around the world, including Africa, India, Trinidad and New Jersey (that’s right, New Jersey). Almost all of them will be providing excellent comic representation as AfricanAmericans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, Gay and Lesbians, and other cultural backgrounds. Proceeds from this event will go to organizations that provide school supplies for young refugee children in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and elsewhere around the world. $10. 10 p.m. San Francisco Down Town Comedy Theater, 287 Ellis Street. Information: sfdowntowncomedytheater.com

Art: Snail Mail Art at ARCH

Join artists, Annie Yu and Carolee Wheeler for the last Snail Mail Social at the Missouri Street location. Yu and Wheeler share inspiration with creative uses of custom stationary, rubber stamps, typewriters, and pens to impress future pen pals. They’ll also change the ribbon on the old Smith Coronas, if necessary. Free. 1 to 4 p.m. ARCH, 99 Missouri Street.

Family: Make Art at the Asian Art

Explore art and ideas during the museum’s Family Fun Day, designed for pre-school and kinder families. Themes and projects change regularly; get messy with color, shapes, patterns and fun materials that inspire creativity and play. July through September, make the ordinary extraordinary with projects inspired by the special exhibition, Gorgeous. Explore elements of art through texture books, mixed-media portrait boxes, and reusable pattern bags. Free. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street. Information: asianart.org

Film: Heli

Heli must try and protect his young family when his sister inadvertently involves them in the brutal drug world. Heli (Armando Espita) is a young man living in a small town with his wife and baby, his father, and his 12-year-old sister Estela (Andrea Vergara). He works at the same car factory as his unassuming dad, although on different shifts. The sudden involvement of a vicious special crime force and, later, the corrupt local police only reinforces the picture of this family as victims of forces way beyond their control. See website for times. Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street. Information: roxie.com

Music: Let it Go by San Francisco Children’s Musical Theater

The San Francisco Children’s Musical Theater present Let it Go, the al-singing, all-dancing musical revue, celebrating 75 years of Disney movie magic. Featuring songs from Enchanted, Brave, Tangled, Frozen, Cars, Toy Story, The Princess and the Frog, The Little Mermaid, Doc McStuffins, Sofia The First and more. Tickets: $16. Must be purchased in advance. 3:30 and 7 p.m. Palace of Fine Arts Theater, 3301 Lyon Street. Information: sfcmt.com

Food: Vegetarian

Dinner with Ease

A delicious, wholesome vegetarian dinner will be yours in under an hour after this demonstration class. We’ll celebrate the bounty of summer with dishes like baby lettuces, haricot vert, French feta, shaved radish, mixed herbs, and local eggs; farro with mixed cucumber, white nectarine, toasted Ennis hazelnut, sherry vinaigrette; roasted figs with local honey, mascarpone, cracked Tellicherry pepper. $35. 7 to 9 p.m. 3674 18th Street. Information: 18reasons.org.

August 14-17

Music: Third Annual

Son Jarocho Festival

Son Jarocho is a folkloric music style from the southern Mexican state of Veracruz. This AfroMestizo hybrid form blends Spanish, indigenous MesoAmerican and African elements into a joyous celebration of Mexican identity. This annual festival has become a cornerstone of the emerging Son Jarocho music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, attracting the top performers in the genre and providing workshops for local musicians to interact with the masters of this music. See the schedule for free lunch concerts and an evening program of bands at Brava Theater Center. There’ll be instrument making, dance and musical workshops available. For Tickets: brava.org. Information: sfsjf.org

Community: Sustainable Marketplace at Espirt Park Urban Air Market hosts the Sustainable Marketplace which will feature 100+ emerging designers and established brands, and talented artists and musicians. SCRAP will provide fun activities for kids throughout the day with reuse of materials that would otherwise be discarded as waste. Live music with Dirty Cello, Paige & the Thousand, and Foxtail Brigade. Free. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Espirt Park, Minnesota and 19th Streets. Information: Urbanairmarket.com

Food: From Market to Table

Join the Cornell Hotel Society of Northern California and NEWH for an evening of drinks, small bites, and entrepreneurial food and beverage conversation. The topic is ‘From Market to Table’. Explore the food production, merchandising, and service industries; compare and contrast each of these businesses; and discuss how each of the panelist’s businesses have changed as a result of expanding their platforms to include both production/merchandising and services. $35 to $50. 6 to 9 p.m. SOMarts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street. Information: somarts.org

August 21 through 23

Art: ARCH Moving Sale ARCH Art and Drafting Supply is moving. Help clear out the inventory. Items up to 75% off list price, plus special store wide discounts each day. ARCH, 99 Missouri Street.

Music: Open Mike at Farley’s A night of poetry, spoken word, performance art and acoustic music. Hill musicians Lila Blue and Saoirse Lewis will perform. Participation is encouraged, come by and express yourself. Free. 7:30 p.m. Farley’s, 1315-18th Street.

Community: Potrero Hill Democratic Club’s Sixth Annual Party and Silent Auction

PHDC’s sixth annual fundraising event features jazz performed live; food from club members and local eateries, and many items from the merchants and artists of Potrero Hill and Dogpatch for bidding in silent auction. No-host bar. Free. 5 to 8 p.m. Dogpatch Saloon, 2496 Third Street.

Information: PHDemClub.org

Music: MIles Electric Jazz Band

Stellar fusion-era Miles Davis alumni come together in the Miles Electric Band, a rocking 11-piece improvising ensemble specializing in the wired-up and funky music Davis created from the late 1960s to the 1980s. Led by the legendary trumpeter’s nephew, drummer Vincent Wilburn, Jr., the band features many of the commanding musicians Davis tapped for his various jazz-rock ensembles. Tickets: $30 to 70. SF Jazz, 201 Franklin Street. Information: sfjazz.org.

Community: Sunday Streets/The Mission

Sunday Streets in the Mission is one of the most popular and populous events, drawing crowds from all over the City and region to bike, walk, and explore the neighborhood. This year, the route will be expanded to the Valencia Street portion of the route north to the McCoppin Hub and south to 26th Street. Additionally, this year Mission Sunday Streets will activate 18th Street between Guerrero Street and Treat Avenue. Free. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Information: http:// www.sundaystreetssf.com/ mission-82414.

Community:

ProLocal Celebration

Meet and mingle with local business owners in this celebration of San Francisco neighborhoods. The evening will include featured guests, tributes, new small business tool showcases, food, entertainment, and guided beer tastings. Free. Triple Voodoo Brewery & Tap Room, 2245 Third Street. Information: prolocal.splashthat. com

ARCH Snail Mail Art, August 2nd

RYAN TAMARES

Double Feature: And Now for Something Completely Different

BY RICK ALBER

Last month I had back-to-back movie experiences that bolstered my faith that film houses, our communal means to share the cinematic experience, will long endure. But the same events also demonstrated how quickly our concept of “going to the movies” is changing, not all for the better.

I took in a showing of the very odd South Korean action thriller Snowpiercer , then reveled with other Python fans at a live broadcast from London of the Monty Python stage show, screened at the Century Theatre on Mission Street.

Snowpiercer is a genre-bending, sci-fi thriller with generous doses of comedy and societal criticism that has all of the action and violence of a typical summer blockbuster. But it’s not quite that. The film strings together a series of beautifully shot scenes within a futuristic train hurtling around a frozen Earth. The passengers are the only survivors of a climatic collapse that has nearly obliterated life on the planet. Why the train must keep circling the globe, how it’s able to keep running, and why its designers chose to build a train rather than some other protected environment are questions

that Korean director/writer Joon-ho Bong (The Host) and his co-writer Kelly Masterson ( Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead ) spend little effort answering. Instead, the plot focuses on a surrealistic uprising by the impoverished near-prisoners in the back of the train who try to fight their way to the luxurious world of the entitled few up front.

Beautifully choreographed martial arts battles and axe-wielding ensue, accompanied by ominous, screechy violin music, jerky handheld camera work, and some of the most leaden dialog this viewer has heard in ages. Reaching the front of the train no spoiler there the movement’s leader (Chris Evans) confronts the vehicle’s owner (Ed Harris) where secrets, grisly truths and plot twists are revealed in dramatic close-up, nearly-improvisational acting.

So I hated it? Not really. Snowpiercer is probably best viewed as an authentic dramatization of a graphic novel. Simple-minded, visually lush, dramatically over-the-top, and stuffed with serious characters one-inch deep. It’s dazzling in a way the latest Michael Bay blockbuster extravaganza is not. There’s enough honest motivation and humanity por-

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN J. MOSS

This happy troll can be found guarding the 18th Street bridge.

on

www.sfdbi.org/softstory.

by the San Francisco Bay Guardian Cohen ultimately voted against the appeal. But her response at the debate as to whether private buses should be allowed to use public stops was an emphatic, “No.”

“We know there’s one person who gets to park in spots for free, though,” Donaldson quipped, referring to media coverage of Mayor Ed Lee’s illegal parking habits. Parking illegally at public bus stops can trigger a $271 ticket.

“What would you do to improve Muni service to the Hill?” Lagos asked the candidates. Donaldson was the only politician to voice support for Sunday meters, which generated $9.6 million of revenue annually for the City, and is no longer being enforced except in certain neighborhoods. Cohen began to lambast the “over-proliferation” of parking meters, but ran out of her allotted time to speak on the issue. Mayor Lee encouraged the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to repeal Sunday parking meter enforcement.

Cohen, Tran and Donaldson supported an increase in the vehicle license fee starting next year, while Kelly talked about creating a shuttle program for the Hill. “We want MTA to do it. They refuse to, [so] we’ll do it in the private sector with all of the employers in the neighborhood, the shopping centers, and try to get that to happen and then the MTA can take it on,” Kelly said.

From homelessness to Airbnb, housing was one of the night’s biggest issues. “Currently in San Francisco developers have the option of producing below market housing on site or paying a fee to produce it elsewhere. Would you want to change this system?” Lagos asked.

Richard stressed the importance of removing barriers for individual home ownership, in order to create more housing security, and lamented the lack of family housing in most new developments.

“Developers should not have the option of going outside of the area,” Donaldson said. “Often times when they do that, it gets delayed substantially.” In response to a question about speculation, he said he supports creating incentives for nonprofits to buy housing in order to save affordable stock and keep it out of the hands of speculators. Donaldson also suggested that the City join the Joint Powers Authority with the City of Richmond and use eminent domain to protect individuals from losing homes being foreclosed on as a result of predatory loans.

Kelly took the biggest swing at City Hall and the Mayor’s Office of Housing, characterizing the inclusionary housing law as a “someday, somewhere” policy that’s failing. “That’s something we need to change. If the City can’t build 30 percent of its housing for the 60, 70, 80 percent of us who need affordable housing, we’re in deep, deep, deep, deep; how many seconds do I have?

Deep trouble,” Kelly said.

According to Cohen, a critical part of the problem is the lack of marketing to low-income tenants. “I’m making sure that these developers are marketing these units to people of color, in multiple languages,” Cohen said. “I do believe that housing should be inclusionary and done on site.”

Two competing housing measures are on the November ballot—one sponsored by District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, the other by Mayor Lee—that seek to establish controls to slow luxury developments while incentivizing production of affordable and low-income housing.

mess,” when the small grocery store was ejected from its original 18th Street location. “The space housed a miscellaneous group of graphics types. After some time, the former Chronicle illustrator Dan Hubig, one of my first friends here in SF, joined us. In 2010, half a dozen of us—Dan, Laurie Smith and Pat Koren of Kajun, Laurie Wigham, and Alison Wood—left that space for our sunny little office on 18th Street, and its excellent owners, the Brondellos, who are also originally from the Hill. I’ve been enormously fortunate to have been able to walk to work all these years.”

in bed, and typically ends with her insisting I tell her a story. Most nights she appears at least once after she’s been tucked-in, marches to where ever we are, and announces, “I have a question,” followed by a mostly irrelevant query about the next day’s activities, or something that happened at school. I’ll escort her back to bed, fold the covers over her, and kiss, once again, good night.

This is an excerpt from The Daddy Handbook f irst published in the paper in 2011 a book by View editor Steven Moss, sections from which will appear in the paper throughout 2014. He’s looking for a publisher for this work. Fellow parents are encouraged to write in with their experiences: editor@potreroview.net.

But their lease ends this fall. “I’m a little nervous about our prospects, especially since I’m not ready to retire,” said Gonick, who is waiting for word back from his publishers on some proposed projects. He bemoans the loss of small businesses that have contributed to the neighborhood’s character. “I’m completely disgusted to hear that ARCH has to go and the building will probably be demolished.”

Over the years, Gonick’s writing interests have shifted from history and science to mathematics. “Mathematics is beautiful, surprising, and eternal. Unlike scientific theories, religious doctrines, or philosophical systems, mathematic results are universally accepted and understood by people of all cultures in the same way, forever,” said Gonick, who is now working on The Cartoon Guide to Algebra for eighth and ninth graders.

Gonick was raised on Pogo, read Marvel and underground comics; some of his Pogo anthologies have fallen apart from re-reading. He also likes Dilbert, Calvin and Hobbes, and Roz Chast. “My truly favorite books are book-books,” Gonick said, listing Proust, This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff, and Middlemarch

Kajun Design, which had a large space at Mariposa and Mississippi streets since the mid-1970s. I first met them doing flyers during the Good Life

“One thing about comics, though, that makes them especially dear to my heart, is that you can read a good comic book ten, twenty, even fifty times and still get its kick,” he said.

GONICK from page 14

THE DADDY HANDBOOK from page 21

KELLY from Front Page

Bayview Police Station Captain’s Community Meeting is held on the first Tuesday of each month at the Bayview Station, 201 Williams Avenue. Next meeting: August 5th, 6 p.m.

Dogpatch Neighborhood Association usually meets the second Tuesday of each odd-numbered month. Next meeting: August 12th. Voting membership is open to anyone living in or owning property or a business in Dogpatch. For more information or to join/pay online: mydogpatch.org

Friends of Franklin Square Join the Friends of Franklin Square to help improve our local park! We need your ideas and input to update the master plan and to help seek grant money to improve the park. Concerned about park safety and cleanliness? Want the soccer field to be re-carpeted? Interested in getting a dog-friendly area built? Now is your chance to make it happen! Meet your neighbors and share ideas. Free snacks and drinks provided. We will also have a mini-trivia contest with prizes from our neighborhood businesses! For more information contact: friendsoffranklinsquare@gmail.com.

McKinley Square Community Group is a communication and discussion group regarding events and activities, clean-up days, improvement and beautification, and other concerns, such as crime in the neighborhood. MSCA board meets approximately quarterly on the second Wednesday of the month. Look to the online discussion group for postings of upcoming meetings. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McKinleySquareCommunity.

Locations vary between the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House and Downtown High School. For updates, including sustainable gardening and park workdays, and our grant progress, check out the MSCA blog at: http:// mckinleysquareblog.blogspot.com.

Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association meets the last Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. (social time begins at 6:45 p.m.) in the wheelchairaccessible Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro Street. For more information: potreroboosters.org or email president@potreroboosters.org. Next meeting: August 26th, 7 p.m.

Potrero Dogpatch Merchant’s Association meets the second Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. at Goat Hill Pizza, corner of Connecticut and 18th streets. Visit potrerohill.biz or call 341.8949. Next meeting: August 12th, 10 a.m.

Potrero Hill Democratic Club meets the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro Street. For more information: 648.6740, PHDemClub.org. Next meeting: August 5th, 7 p.m.

Potrero Hill Garden Club usually meets the last Sunday of the month at 11 a.m. for a potluck lunch in a local home or garden. Discussions are held on organic, edible, or ornamental gardening appropriate for Potrero Hill’s microclimate. Call 648.1926 for details.

Pennsylvania Street Gardens has volunteer workdays the first Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to noon. We meet at Pennsylvania Garden, 251 Pennsylvania Avenue, and provide all the necessary tools and training. We’d love to see you at the gardens. For more information visit our website psgsf. org or email Emily at emily@psgsf.org. Next volunteer day: August 2nd.

Starr King Open Space The Starr King Open Space Board Meeting is on Monday August 18th from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Potrero Branch Library. Thank you for your continued donations and support. For information: starrkingopenspace.org, email starrkingboard@gmail.com, or voicemail 633.6756.

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Rentals

SMALL COTTAGE FOR RENT? If you’re looking to rent out your space, place an classified ad in the View for quick and local responses. One advertiser received three calls the first day! Email office@potreroview.net to place your ad. See below for prices.

Photography

The View is always looking for photographers. If you live in the neighborhood and enjoy taking pictures, we’d love to print your photographs. We’re looking for photo essays about the neighborhood, or we can also send you on assignment. Or, if you have an idea, let us know. Email production@potreroview. net with questions.

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HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD:

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The declaration confirmed that the money was used to pay Shields’ residential mortgage, and added that there are no minutes or votes indicating Shields was authorized to pay her loan with the funds. During the period in which she was stealing the money, Shields told board members she’d invested it, a story they found credible.

On July 16, 2009, the court declaration states, a board member confronted Shields about the missing money, and she confessed to taking it. Shields said she took between $103,000 and $105,000 from Starr King Open Space’s general fund. It is unclear why the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) did not arrest Shields at that point.

“ The case was investigated, but at a certain point it was de-activated,” said Sergeant Danielle Newman, media relations, SFPD. “That means that the case was still open, but it was de-activated pending any further investigative leads. There was a request for further records, but it does not appear those records were received.” According to Newman, on two occasions the police department reassigned the case because officers retired.

Within the last year, a former board member received calls from both SFPD and the San Francisco District Attorney’s (DA) Office. Both were interested in the case. “I was excited,” they said. But the criminal

SKOS page 30

Harold “Nick” Nickerson

July 1, 1918 to June 14, 2014

Earlier this summer, Harold “Nick” Nickerson departed peacefully at his Potrero Hill home after a brief illness. Nick was born in San Antonio, Texas, to Hattie and George Nickerson. His grandparents, William and Katie Muth, owned the Muth German Beer Garden near Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where many of his family members entertained patrons with their German band.

Nick was the last remaining of six siblings: Audrey, Ruth, Doris, George, Warren and Arthur Lee. He was a track star in high school, and survived a bout of tuberculosis as a young man.

A World War II veteran, Nick sailed to India and flew “The Hump an air route taken by Allied pilots f rom Burma into China to fight in the battle of Nanning. After the war he lived briefly in New York City, Los Angeles,

and Carmel before moving to San Francisco, where he eventually settled into his cozy Hill home. He worked for many years as a stenographer for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Nick had a broad circle of friends with whom he kept in touch throughout his life. These ranged from war buddies to coworkers to a tight-knit group of neighbors, including Mark and Alfredo, who offered devoted and constant care near the end of Nick’s life. He befriended many of the teachers and parents at Buena Vista Elementary during the years when he brought his young neighbors Clayton and Henry to school there. He often said he was the luckiest neighbor in the world, a sentiment echoed by the Kor/Bradley family who were fortunate to move in next door to him 21 years ago. He was in close touch with his many nieces and nephews and their children scattered throughout the country. Up until his 90s he drove and flew to Texas and Southern California to visit friends and family.

It was rare for Nick to miss a social event. He was an excellent dancer; his “wigwam wiggle” party entrances were memorable. His backdeck was a peaceful oasis where scrub jays ate peanuts from his hand, wind chimes rang in the breeze and the spouting-dolphin fountain trickled while Manhattans were served. Nick was a loving, generous, good man who enjoyed and appreciated his long life and liked to marvel that, “Somehow, things always work out.”

noun plural noun: Millennials a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000; a Generation Y-er. “the industry brims with theories on what makes millennials tick”

One of the most important segments of our real estate market – especially in hot Potrero Hill – is Millennials. Young, connected, and highly-ambitious professionals look at buying and owning real estate in a different way, and our neighborhood’s awesome weather, location and character speaks to this group like no other.

• Lifestyle and a strong sense of community are definitely what counts

• A Fixer upper makes good economic sense. Sweat equity allows them to modify a home to make it unique to their personality and family lifestyle.”

CRIME & SAFETY REPORT

SPONSORED BY MAINLINE SECURITY

BY KEITH BURBANK

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) has responded to recent shootings and homicides in the nearby Bayview District with additional resources, according to Lieutenant Valerie Matthews, who served as acting district captain while Captain Robert O’Sullivan was away from the station during the second half of July. Between July 1 and July 8, the district experienced four homicides and five additional shootings. In the wake of the violence, SFPD has deployed at least three additional twoperson nighttime patrols, and is using decoy bikes to capture criminals who may be involved in more serious crimes.

“We’re taking a no-nonsense approach,” Matthews said. “We’ve saturated this district with resources to get a handle on crime and make people feel safe.”

The additional officers were transferred from other districts. According to Matthews, the department will reassess Bayview’s needs this month, which could result in a reduction in nighttime patrols, depending on conditions throughout the City.

A June homicide occurred on the 1000 block of Connecticut Street; an-

other shooting that didn’t result in a death took place on July 3 on the 900 block of the same street. In that incident two people were shot with a handgun.

A 32-year-old male was wounded in the hand; a 10-year-old was shot in the foot. A van took both victims to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment before police arrived at the scene. No additional information was available about the victims at press time. Police have two suspects in the shooting, but haven’t made any arrests. One is described as a black male, 15 to 18 years old, wearing a grey hat and black jacket. Police didn’t have a description of the other suspect, but the department has a vehicle in its possession that it’s processing for evidence.

Matthews noted that SFPD has worked to remove guns from the community 135 weapons to date by executing search warrants, probable cause stops, and through the efforts of plainclothes officers. The lieutenant downplayed the importance of gun buyback programs because many of the people turning in firearms as a result of those initiatives haven’t taken their weapons out of their home for years.

“You want the people who are walking around with them,” the lieutenant said.

Emily Weinstein, of Bridge Housing, which is redeveloping the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complexes, noted that summer is usually a time when shooting incidences increase. Bridge Housing is in conversations with the Mayor’s Office of Housing to develop a safety strategy for the development.

Police are asking anyone with information about the recent crimes to call the Bayview District’s anonymous tip line at 822.8147.

IRAQ from page 4

numbering an estimated 12,000, were a well-oiled machine by the time they reached the outskirts of Mosul. A set of dominos have been toppled. Tribal leaders inform local Iraqi political and defense officials that they can no longer count on popular support. Shock troops operating with local knowledge neutralize army bases and police stations by bribing Sunni, or assassinating Shi’a security force commanders. Captured members of the security forces are tortured and executed on the Internet. These gruesome videos encourage the demoralized, leaderless survivors to rip off their army and police uniforms, throw down their weapons, and head south towards Baghdad, or seek asylum in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Maliki’s anti-coup paranoia gave Islamic State groups a decisive advantage. He severely limited his soldier’s ammunition stores; good enough when you’re intimidating unarmed civilians, or trying to put down a small revolt, but insufficient when you’re up against a wellstocked enemy.

From an anthropological point of view the conflict and violence are culturally scripted. Part 1 of the Arab script is familiar to those who know Western military history. Armies meet on the field of honor, one side wins, the other loses, and victorious forces march into conquered foreign lands. In the Arab world, this is when the real fighting begins. In Part 2, the winning side enters into unfamiliar territory where the supposedly defeated side has home advantage, and subjects readily identifiable outsiders to particularly brutal and effective guerilla warfare. The lesson to be learned from Part 2, as with so many conflicts in the Arab world that have come before and will come after, is: taking territory is relatively easy, holding it is exponentially harder.

Islamic State proponents have proven that, in Iraq, they can fight alongside allies and in friendly territory. However, their newly declared caliphate will be shortlived unless the Islamic State of the Levant and the Islamic State of al Sham —Syria, pronounced Sue’ria c an rule with their ruthless interpretation of Shari’a law and remain popular, and that as occupiers they can govern by tribalstyle consensus.

FILM from page 24

trayed to keep you interested in the story while your eyes feast on the scenery. The concept, though ridden with plot holes, is clever enough to help you overlook budget special effects that include exterior shots of a speeding train that looks suspiciously like the Coors Light “Silver Bullet” train stuffed with beer and bikini’d co-eds.

My pessimistic nature sees the melding of graphic novels, Japanese anime, and big-budget filmmaking as a trend in cinema, perhaps reflecting the exodus of “serious” stories to long-form television, and feeding the short-attention appetite of young gen-whatevers. We’ve always gone to movie palaces to be dazzled, but there used to be a greater chance that we’d also be entertained by realitybased adventures of ordinary people. Snowpiercer and films like it (300, Sin City, Watchmen, Kickass) tell exciting stories but not in the way some viewers, like me, prefer.

A new company, Fathom Events, is also having an impact on what we can expect in movie theatres. That’s the outfit that streams “events” like Broadway shows, opera performances, concerts, sporting events, and much more to theatres around the world. They’ve been determining what audiences want for the past few years and seem to be getting better at it. They offer four to 10 events monthly; theatres in most major cities carry the Fathom broadcasts.

The showing of Monty Python’s purported last stage show (1 Down and Five to Go) was an unqualified success. The live streaming attracted a sellout crowd who sang along with the songs, laughed at the updated classic sketches, and applauded after the best moments, though the performers obviously couldn’t hear them. There can be a real sense of community that comes through the Fathom events, especially the ones streamed live, when you know that tens of thousands of other people are also experiencing the same performance in theatres around the country or world. Maybe this is what radio was like in its infancy before music, orations or comedic performances could be recorded. I look forward to Fathom’s continual refinement of this new entertainment option.

SKOS from page 20

case’s statute of limitations expired on July 21, 2013.

“The last investigator did present the case to the District Attorney’s Office,” Newman said. “The DA’s Office requested ‘official custodial records,’ but those records were not received and the statute of limitations ran out.”

“It [the SFPD’s investigation] never went anywhere,” said a former board member, who asked not to be identified. He thinks the police lacked manpower, since the theft was discovered at the beginning of the Great Recession. As he recalled, the police refused to pursue the criminal case after Starr King Open Space opted to open the civil case. Board members decided to sue before the civil case’s three-year statute of limitations expired

“The real crime was the cops,” said Williams.

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