Potrero Annex-Terrace Rebuild May Not Happen for Another Decade by Keith Burbank by the End of the Year

Southside inside — Enhanced coverage of San Francisco’s southern communities April 2012 Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970 FREE Potrero Annex-Terrace Rebuild May Not Happen for Another Decade By Keith Burbank by the end of the year. However, it could take another fifteen years to The “big idea is to stitch this area fully finance and build the project. back into the fabric of the neigh- Hope SF has raised $7 million of its borhood,” said Charmaine Curtis, current $25 million goal — which will principal of Curtis Development and be invested in programs to improve Consulting, which is working with economic mobility, education and Bridge Housing to rebuild the Potrero health among San Francisco public Terrace and Annex housing com- housing residents — and has hired plexes. The thread in the stitching a fundraiser to secure the next $18 will be a revised road layout — “ra- million. Tim Cohen, San Francisco tionalizing the street grid,” according Housing Action Coalition executive to Curtis — including connecting director, urged the supervisors to Texas Street north of 22nd Street “look at ways to address the funding COURTESY OF LEE ABEL to the section south of 23rd Street. gap.” Under the “Rebutd meeting of the Numerous meeting attendees The view from the townhomes in Parkview Heights, which may be lost if Rebuild Potrero’s San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ expressed concerns about ongo- current design doesn’t change. Land Use and Economic Development ing crime in and around Annex- Committee. District 1 Supervisor Eric Terrace. In a letter to the committee, Mar chaired the meeting, which was Caire Terrace resident and Parkview attended by Malia Cohen, District 10, Heights Homeowners Association Task Force Struggles Over Which and Scott Wiener, District 8. Rebuild vice president Alfred Perlstein stated Potrero’s total cost is not yet known, that there’s weekly gunfire in the Neighborhood—Potrero Hill or but Hope SF is looking to finance re- area. He’s concerned about his own development through public, private, welfare, as well as his Annex-Terrace Portola—Will Stay in District 10 and philanthropic sources. According neighbors. According to Perlstein, be- By Katrina Schwartz Portola is treated in redistricting to Curtis, the project’s Environmental cause Annex-Terrace is isolated, the will have significant implications Impact Report is currently being The City’s redistricting process for other District 10 neighborhoods. drafted, and will likely be completed see POTRERO ANNEX page 9 concludes this month, with the Re- “The key determiners in that space districting Task Force poised to sub- will be whether the Portola remains mit a final map to the San Francisco whole, first. And then secondly, if Board of Supervisors by mid-April. made whole does the Portola remain Citizens Demand Existing borders are being remolded in District 10 or does it move over to conform to legal mandates that to District 9,” said Eric McDonnell, More Time to all City districts have roughly equal Redistricting Taskforce chair and populations, and that “communities United Way of the Bay Areat execu- Evaluate SFMTA’s of interest” are kept together. Over tive vice-president. “So, depending the next two weeks the stickiest on the answers to those questions, Meter Proposal boundary questions will be decided, it could have an implication for including determining whether the whether Potrero Hill stays in District By Keith Burbank Portola neighborhood — which is 10,” he concluded. currently split between Districts 9 Advocates representing small Anti-parking meter advocates and 10 — will be unified. businesses and Hill residents have from Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and the Some Portola residents see them- insisted that the Hill remain in Mission agree with the San Francisco selves as residing in a “secret neigh- District 10, based on historic con- Metropolitan Transportation Agency ment plan in Potrero Hill will help borhood” because they’re tucked nections between it and Bayview, as (SFMTA) that individual parking our neighbors in the Mission …” said quietly behind Bernal Heights adja- well as common interests over Third plans tailored for each neighborhood Tony Kelly, an ENUF spokesman. cent to Highway 280. These residents Street development. But Portola must be worked out separately. But According to Kelly, City agencies feel neglected by the City because of residents have been equally insistent advocates — organized as the East- “often try to divide-and-conquer the community’s geographic isola- that their community be united. ern Neighborhoods United Front neighborhoods and opponents when tion and split representation on the “The voice on the Portola side is very (ENUF) — want the three plans to attempting to force controversial Board of Supervisors, which can consistent; make us whole. We were be jointly approved because all three projects. We feel we are stronger make it challenging to advocate for neighborhoods share the same con- the neighborhood’s interests. How see REDISTRICTING page 5 cerns and “a better parking manage- see PARKING page 18 Oracle Wolfe’s Transitional Crime & INSIDE Racing Diner Kindergarten Safety Team p. 8 p. 11 p. 21 p. 5 p.7 p. 10 p. 1 Southside 2 THE POTRERO VIEW April 2012 PUBLISHER’S VIEW Letters to the Editor Water many families with young children. Achievement Editor, Other childcare facilities have opened Being a civil engineer I was in recent years in the neighborhood, By Steven J. Moss interested in Lori Higa’s article in and I’ve spoken to two women who the March issue, “San Francisco’s were instrumental in getting them Water Rates to Triple by 2010.” How- built and licensed, one an architect. As I edited one of this month’s rest of the student population. ever the first two paragraphs were Both of them have adamantly de- articles, “Southside Advocates Work I was also the shortest and, with a misleading. In the first paragraph, clared that 501 Connecticut is totally to Redefine Whose Achievements Are late-October birthday, youngest kid in “the system” referred to is the sewer inadequate for children and unlikely Failing,” I found myself nodding in my class. My stature, and the addition system. In the second paragraph, “the to get licensed by the state. Others silent agreement with its contents. Until of glasses in third grade, made me a system” referred to is the water sup- with small children have stated that high school, I was an underachiever. mild target of bullying. Looking back, ply system. They are two distinctly they wouldn’t take their children to My elementary and middle school it may have been better if I’d been different systems. Little Lync in the Connecticut Street experiences were marked by over- “red-shirted,” held back for a year, but space. I am pro-children. But I want crowded classrooms and inconsistent in the 1960s, if you were eligible to go Greg Aubell them to have suitable places to play teaching quality. But what debilitated to public school, you went. Ohio and learn and be nurtured, not one my ability to learn was more directly It wasn’t until the ninth grade, now where they have to be cycled in and related to my sense of alienation, from in Northern California, that my grades Praise out of an outdoor play space two or the school community and curriculum. consistently jumped passed B minuses. Editor, three at a time. When I first arrived at kindergarten in At that point, the teaching quality was I’m a long time owner in the The San Francisco Planning 1964, with a thick head of curly black high, and my school included many Marina district, and meet a friend Commission has seen enough merit hair, I thought the boys in my class Jews, and a notable number of African- every Saturday morning for a cup of in our case in opposition that they’ve were suffering from some sort of dis- Americans. Perhaps more importantly, tea. Last month we went to Piccino, scheduled a discretionary review for ease. Their pinkish scalps were visible my high school emphasized a culture of where I picked-up your publication. April 5. I encourage my neighbors to through their blonde-haired buzz cuts. achievement — it’s been ranked in the Full of news and community infor- join me there. Having barely gone to pre-school, and top 100 in the nation since before I en- mation, I learned more about Potrero growing up with three dark-haired rolled, in the mid-1970s — the scholastic Hill, Dogpatch, and Bayview than Mauri Schwartz sisters, it was the first time I’d seen current tugged towards academic suc- ever before. Carolina Street such a close-cropped style. Perhaps cess. And I grew to be above-average A very well-written newspaper, they’re suffering from leukemia, I height; my mental capacities finally though I wish it included a few maps Editor, thought to myself. caught up with my grade level. accompanying the articles, such as In response to a letter to the My sisters and I were the only Jews Although my family struggled the location of the new skate park, or editor in last month’s View, it’s not at our Southern California elementary financially for much of my childhood, the three parks in the neighborhood. mean-spirited to point out that a day school, a difference that was accentu- I didn’t grow up poor, and didn’t have When I first read about the demise care center may be inappropriate for ated during the Christmas season, to cope with the rendering of my of Woodward Gardens, I wondered its proposed 20th Street location. Past when the streets surrounding our walk household, street violence, or gangs.

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