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n o . 5 3 COLLABORATIVE PUBLISHED CENTRAL CITY BY THE SAN FRANCISCO Westside STUDY CENTER FEBRUARY seeks warm 2006 welcome, gets cold shoulder GARDENIAS Support nil FOR REMY for plan to move IN THE SAN FRANCISCO 3 mental health PARK programs to TL PAGE 3 D ECO L OUNGE U NDER F IRE BY M ARJORIE B EGGS BNER Boles, head of Westside Community Mental Health ACenter, came to the Tender- loin Futures Collaborative in Decem- ber to garner support for moving COPS three programs, now in Western Addition, into the Tenderloin — 166 MISFIRE Golden Gate near Leavenworth. Westside’s adult crisis, adult out- WITH DATA patient and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) programs have to IN LICENSE move, Boles said, because building owner St. Paulus Church wants the space at 888 Turk St. near Gough. FIGHT Westside opened in 1967, a pio- neer in community-based mental PAGE 5 health treatment. From its adminis- trative offices at “Don’t get the Oak near Divisa- dero it operates 19 idea that we programs. The three it don’t care. … wants to move P HOTOS BY L ENNY L IMJOCO serve a lot of North Male stripper Quiet Storm started off looking like a ninja all in black before paring but we feel of Market folks, down to a G-string to open Strip-o-rama on a Sunday night at Deco Lounge. the rest of Boles said. Adult crisis helps 3,000 the city is not clients annually connect with men- pitching in.” tal health profes- sionals; 75% of the The Rev. clients live in the Glenda Hope TL and SoMa. S.F. NETWORK MINISTRIES Just under half BAR BATTLE of the 300 to 400 clients in West- Deco Lounge, a gay bar at 510 Larkin St. side’s adult outpatient program live Yee says he’ll that wants to transfer a full bar permit from North of Market; 20% to 30% live TENDERLOIN a Polk Street watering hole that closed two South of Market; the rest live in the push bill to give years ago. But neighborhood activists held Western Addition, Boles said. TRACK up the process at a November hearing and And of the 100 ACT clients, the bar owners await the administrative law “most are here in the Tenderloin,” TEAM citizens more clout judge’s ruling expected any day now. Boles said. To help them stay in the New ground rules for the on-again, off- community, they get food, rent BY T OM C ARTER again battle may be the target of legislation money and other incentives. OFF AND in Sacramento next year to give citizens The response to the idea of more say-so. another social service provider in RUNNING HE fight to limit bars in the “I’m hearing more and more complaints the neighborhood was predictable: Tenderloin pits activists against against the ABC,” Assemblyman Leland Yee Not in My Back Yard. PAGE 6 the Alcoholic Beverage Control said in an interview with The Extra. “People Who owns the Golden Gate department and the patchwork are writing letters about the ABC not being building? came the first question. system that regulates liquor responsive. I’m going to be very interested Boles said he didn’t know. Tlicenses. in this in the Senate.” Laughter erupted around the table The most recent skirmish is over the Yee, who as District 4 supervisor and several Collaborative members authored the moratoriums on Tenderloin named him: Paul Bochetti. massage parlors in 1998 and liquor stores in Bochetti is well-known in the 1999, was back in the neighborhood Jan. 11 neighborhood. Elaine Zamora, inter- to speak at the Alliance for A Better District im district manager of the new TL 6 monthly meeting. Alliance members are Community Benefit District, later primary protesters of the Deco Lounge, told The Extra that Bochetti owns 17 though that’s not why Yee was there. apartment buildings, SROs and Afterward, when asked about the con- tourist hotels in the Tenderloin — so tinuing protests over liquor licenses not only many properties, Zamora said, that in the Tenderloin but Haight-Ashbury and he is one of the four top owners in other neighborhoods, Yee said “citizens the CBD, after the Hilton Hotel, groups should have a direct voice.” The Hastings College of the Law and ABC and police can put restrictive condi- TNDC. Many of his buildings, which tions on licenses that are based on data, he’s owned since the 1960s, are in such as security measures in high-crime disrepair, she added. areas, but may not include all the neighbor- And Bochetti hasn’t been neigh- hood’s concerns. borly. “He voted repeatedly against “Citizens groups should be able to put the benefit district and never was conditions on licenses as well,” Yee said. No neighbors in the 500 block of Currently, they can protest in writing to the ® CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Larkin Street objected to the bar. ® CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 FUTURES COLLABORATIVE Asian Inc. does it again Developer takes another small building, turns studios into larger units ® CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “We’re looking at other locations. We’ve already looked in SoMa and the interested in TSIP,” Zamora said. Western Addition, but there were Extra to publish map “Leroy Looper tried to get him issues of availability and cost.” He esti- involved on many occasions, but it mated that it would cost $1.2 million never worked.” Looper is founder of to $2 million just for the renovation on of fresh food in Tenderloin Reality House West, longtime owner of Golden Gate. Boles said he’d return soon. the Cadillac Hotel, across Leavenworth AN Francisco Study Center, which publishes Central City from Bochetti’s Verona Hotel. Extra, has completed a fresh food survey in Bayview-Hunters Asked when the three programs TENDERLOIN HOUSING TREND Point and in the Tenderloin under grants from the Bay Area Continuing a mini-trend toward S would have to vacate Turk Street, Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative and the S.F. Boles said maybe in two years. more housing for families in the Department of Public Health. “We’ve already been looking for Tenderloin, Asian Inc. presented plans It will publish maps of all fresh food outlets in the city’s two two years,” he said. “We’ve begun talks in November for a rehab of its 47 low- lowest-income neighborhoods. Tenderloin is on the bottom, with with the owner on Golden Gate, and income rental units at 575 Eddy, a an average annual income of $15,000 below Bayview. his building’s been vacant for five or six seven–story building that the nonprof- The Tenderloin map also will be published in a coming issue years. We’ve submitted preliminary it developer bought in 1992. of The Extra, said Publisher Geoff Link. I architectural plans and he’s considering Project Manager Hershey Hirsch- our offer. If all goes well, I think we kop said 120 people currently live in could occupy it a year from now.” the building’s 35 studios and 12 one- “I’m going out on a limb,” said bedroom apartments. After rehab, the Terrance Alan, Entertainment commis- number of units will stay the same but struction loan interest and fees, reloca- Yoshioka said. sioner and nightclub owner. “This will be reconfigured to favor families: tion costs, operating reserves.” LEJ offers perks to stores that join: community has the sense that it’s serv- the studios will be cut by two-thirds, The rehab at 575 Eddy will start signs identifying them as a “good iced the disadvantaged more and to 12; the one-bedrooms will more early in March. neighbor” to post in their windows; longer than any other San Francisco than double, to 29; and six two-bed- group-buying at wholesale prices plus rooms will be added. neighborhood. I think your proposal FRESH IDEA free delivery; free in-store energy-effi- is going to be resisted by those who The project is similar to a 29-unit Housing covered, the Collabo- cient retrofits; promotional advertising wonder why it’s always the building Asian Inc. renovated in 2004 rative moved on to that other essen- through coupons and store tastings; Tenderloin. Why not other neighbor- at 421 Turk St. tial: food. training in how to stock produce with hoods?” Asian Inc. will relocate the tenants Fresh, affordable victuals are minimum loss; modest façade “The people we want to serve during rehab. abundant in the Tenderloin only on improvements; and help writing grants mostly live here,” Boles responded. “We’re planning to rent neighbor- Wednesdays and Sundays, when to get funding for larger renovations. “We see it as service improvement. hood apartments for them, and pay Heart of the City farmers’ market And the outcomes to date? But I understand your concern. We any rent difference and moving costs. comes to U.N. Plaza. “We have four stores actively par- have talked to other Tenderloin When they come back, their rent So Jerry Jai, TNDC staffer who ticipating and three more are in the providers. Some said they’d love to should be comparable to what it is coordinates Collaborative meetings, process of signing up,” Yoshioka said. have us here; others said it might be now, $600 to $800 a month.” invited Literacy for Environmental Collaborative members listened duplicative. So we’re considering not Hirschkop said. “The interior work Justice, a Bayview-Hunters Point politely to the presentation but asked moving the outpatient services.” will be done in three phases so, at youth group working to give residents no questions afterward.