October, 2008

 By Chris Long

Be Aware When the Rubber Hits the Road

You might spot one from time to time if you’re really looking, but unfortunately many of us notice them after it’s too late, when we hear that costly thud, followed, perhaps, by our favorite series of swear words.  As any San Francisco driver, skateboarder or bicyclist knows, Bay Area roads suffer from an assortment of potholes, defects, cracks and other dangers.  A casual internet search suggests that potholes are an increasingly hot issue in the City.  A San Francisco potholes Flickr.com group has 10 members; Yelp.com has an entry for “Potholes on Divisadero Street;” and Youtube.com features a video called “Potholes of San Francisco.”(more...)

August 2008

By Kerry Fleisher

Back Streets Businesses Want to Stay in Southeast San Francisco

A seamstress at Advanced Technical Sewing (ATS) meticulously darns medical bags in a large, well-lit facility in Bayview, just a T-Third Muni ride away from her front door in Chinatown.  Around the corner at Bode Gravel and Concrete, cement trucks roll in and out, dispatching concrete to Mission Bay, Dogpatch, and South-of-Market building sites.  ATS and Bode are two of 10,000 Back Streets Businesses – small and medium-sized firms that provide industrial products or services – that are located within San Francisco, but rarely visit City Hall to vocalize their needs. (more...) 

       July 2008

       By Deia de Brito      

City’s Worst Playgrounds Get Dream Makeovers

Bounded by 16th, 17th, Bryant and Hampshire streets, Franklin Square is located at the outer edges of the Mission and Potrero Hill.  Well-used by soccer teams from outside the neighborhood, the park is rarely visited by nearby residents, save the occasional dog walker.  Once a shining example of Victorian-era design, complete with an athletic field and meandering pathways, the 4.4 acre park is dilapidated and dangerous; a magnet for the homeless, drug use and prostitution... (more...)

 

 

      June 2008

        By Deia de Brito

Peaker Plants Still in Play

Intense politicking by Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resource Defense Council, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has slowed the momentum behind San Francisco Public Utility Commission’s (SFPUC) proposal to site three combustion turbines (CT) in the Dogpatch neighborhood as a way to retire Mirant Corporation’s 1960s-era Potrero Power Plant. Last month Mayor Gavin Newsom asked the Board of Supervisors to delay voting on the CTs to provide more time to consider alternative reliability plans (more...)

 

     May 2008
       By Deia de Brito

Forty-Year Old Potrero Power Plant Continues to Pollute Southeast San Francisco; Need for Replacement Generation Questioned

Almost a decade ago the Potrero Power Plant Citizen’s Task Force was created by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to examine Mirant Corporation’s proposal to construct a 540 megawatt (MW) generating station to replace the existing Potrero Power Plant, San Francisco’s largest single pollution source.  Had the California Energy Commission approved the proposal, the new, larger facility would have operated for at least a third of a century.  Mirant pitched the plant, in part, as a way of replacing the Hunters Point Power Plant, which was ultimately shuttered two years ago in exchange for the development of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s multi-million dollar Jefferson-Martin transmission line... (more...)

 

 
     April 2008                            By Kerry Fleisher

Developers Bid to Makeover Parking Lot Adjacent to AT&T Park:Port of San Francisco Reviews Proposals to Lease China Basin Seawall Lot 337

    Four teams are competing to develop a rough-hewn parking lot just south of AT&T Stadium, known as China Basin Seawall Lot 337.  The 16-acre lot is one of the nation’s largest undeveloped urban parcels near the heart of a major city center.  After issuing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) last fall, the Port of San Francisco is currently reviewing draft development proposals.  The Port’s hand-selected Citizen Advisory Task Force will make its recommendations early this month, after which the Port will short-list the most qualified teams to submit their final proposals by the end of April...(more...)

     April  2008
       By Kerry Fleisher

Jackson Park Attracts All Walks of Life

    If you travel down 17th Street it’s hard not to notice — and perhaps revel in —Jackson Park, a refreshingly green patch of land in an otherwise industrial pocket of Potrero Hill.  The park is one of the City’s most popular open spaces, according to Mike Cheetham, Recreation Director of Athletic Field Reservations...(more...)

     April  2008
      By Steven Moss

Publisher's View: Democracy

    While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to wrestle for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, San Francisco is in the middle of an internecine battle between three candidates for the State Senate.  Current State Senator Carole Migden is running against Assemblyman Mark Leno and former Assemblyman Joe Nation...(more...)

March 2008
By Stacey Palevsky

Health Centers Train Teens to Teach Their Peers About Safe Sex

    When Joanna Scott was just 15 years-old she took two buses to get to her health clinic of choice.  Her trek began in Bayview-Hunters Point, where she’d board the Number 44 bus. She’d get off at Silver and Charter Oak avenues, transfer to the Number Nine, and take that bus to her final location, New Generations Health Center, located near Potrero Avenue and 18th Street... (more...)

March 2008
By Kerry Fleisher

Potrero Hill and Dogpatch Condominiums Attract Buyers

    Young urban professionals, empty nesters and families in the market for their first San Francisco home are often torn between the quaintness of a Victorian and the efficiency of a new condominium.  Condominium developers in Potrero Hill are banking on a historic-cum-modern approach that works both these angles, and the strategy seems to be working... (more...)