SPRING 2020 VOLUME 38, NO. 1 Glen Park Responds to COVID Crisis hen the Bay Area went into uniforms heading to Cuppa for frozen Bakery, or over tuna sandwiches or their accompanying adults assembling COVID-19 lockdown on yogurt and bubble tea. No solitary pancakes at Tyger’s. No gym regulars for story hour at the library. No steady W March 17, downtown Glen techies with laptops setting up office at working out at FitGlenFit. No jazz hum of traffic coming from Highway Park, for the most part, shut its doors, Bello. No families grabbing a table at aficionados assembling for live con- 280. too. Gialina’s for pizza night. No one get- certs at Bird & Beckett. No baseball And no Glen Park Festival on April by No streams of com- ting a mani-pedi at any of the salons on the diamond in Glen Canyon Park, 26. The organizers emailed in mid- Gail muters pouring out of on Diamond Street or a haircut at any and nobody on the climbing wall March: “We have decided to postpone Bensinger the BART station. No salon. in the Rec Center. No noise on the this April’s festival in the best interest clumps of St. John No seniors lingering and chatting playgrounds at Big Blue or Dolores of our community, attendees, support- school kids in their slightly disheveled over muffins and coffee at Destination Huerta Elementary. No toddlers and ers and general public health. We do hope to still host a 2020 festival later in the summer. We will announce a new date as soon as one has been set.” They requested that sponsors and vendors keep pledges, contributions and reservations in place for the to-be- rescheduled street fair. Now just a few doors are open at neighborhood businesses: Canyon Market and the two corner mom-and- pop stores on Diamond Street—Buddies at Chenery and Glen Park Delicatessen at Bosworth—provide groceries and snacks. Glen Park Hardware, Glen Park Cleaners and Critter Fritters are con- sidered “essential” businesses under the City’s shelter-in-place regulations. The Dignity Health-GoHealth Urgent Care facility across from the BART station is open to handle non-coronavirus-related medical needs. But the near-empty sidewalks and empty parking places along Chenery and Diamond streets highlight a neigh- borhood under siege by a disease. Probably most of us have been stunned by the rapid transition of the Shoppers line up outside of Canyon Market after it started limiting the number of people in the store at one time. Photo by Liz Mangelsdorf epidemic from a few isolated hotspots to an all-consuming pandemic that has changed the lives of most people S FROM THE EDITORS S on Earth. As the reality of the dangers of COVID-19 became clear, sugges- nprecedented. We hear that ployment and freefall of the stock mar- being dropped off at your doorstep tions became policy, which in turn word a lot in this era of the ket. The unprecedented run on toilet or left in stacks for readers to pick became official orders. Two days after U COVID-19 pandemic. The paper and canned beans and giant bags up at local shops and the library, San Francisco and other Bay Area unprecedented shutdown of businesses. of rice. Seems one of the few things we’re publishing this edition only counties directed people to stay home The unprecedented closure of schools. that grocery stores are not running out online. Driving that decision was the and all but select businesses to remain The unprecedented forced distancing of is frozen okra. Department of Public Health’s social open, California Gov. Gavin Newsom of neighbors, co-workers, friends, fam- Also unprecedented? No quarterly distancing order. Most Glen Park busi- ordered that all of the state’s residents ily members and other loved ones. The printed edition of the Glen Park News. nesses have been shuttered, or are open shelter in place. unprecedented quick spike in unem- Instead of the neighborhood paper CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 TANAGER COMES TO THE CANYON ~ PG. 4 FAIRMOUNT PLAZA ~ PG. 7 BIRD & BECKETT ANNIVERSARY ~ PG. 12 2 Glen Park News | Spring 2020 GLEN PARK S GLEN PARK ASSOCIATION S alifornia’s housing crisis has (D-District 8) has responded with his the size of single-family homes, while NEWS been in the news lately, and our own plan, “Density With Character: allowing multi-family buildings to The Glen Park News is pub- C elected officials have been hard Glen Park Pilot,” which was unveiled have more square footage on that at work addressing the twin problems to the Glen Park Association before same lot. The mechanism is to use lished quarterly by the Glen of not enough homes for Bay Area SB-50’s fate was decided. You can find “floor area ratios” (FAR), which is the Park Association. Signed workers and available Bonnee Waldstein’s Notes on the winter square footage of the structure divided articles are the opinions of by homes being too expen- meeting of the Glen Park Association by the lot size. the authors and not neces- Hilary sive for most would-be on Page 6 and at glenparkassociation. The version of the plan shared with sarily those of the Glen Park Schiraldi residents to afford. org. Here are some highlights: the GPA proposes an FAR of 0.6 for a Association. State Sen. Scott Mandelman identifies two prob- single-family home; that is, on a 2,500 Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced lems he’s heard about from Glen square foot lot, a single family home Editor-in-Chief Rachel Gordon Senate Bill 50 last year. After months Park constituents, which he would could be 1,500 square feet. But a two- in committee, it was tabled until this like to address: the housing crisis family house, or a house plus a cottage, Deputy Editor Gail Bensinger year’s session, then (not enough homes, and available could have an FAR of 1.2, for a total defeated in January. homes are too expensive) and “mon- floor space of 3,000 square feet on that Copy Editor Denis Wade SB-50 would have ster homes” (conversion of existing lot. Triplexes could have an FAR of allowed taller, single-family homes into ever-larger 1.8, and fourplexes 2.4. Setbacks and Art Director Liz Mangelsdorf multi-unit apart- single-family homes). His goals were lot coverage requirements would be ment buildings near to limit monster homes and promote maintained. Calendar Editor Caroline Mangelsdorf transit stops like density (more units per lot). The proposed FARs are subject to Glen Park BART. With the help of the Planning change, so Mandelman wants to gather Online Editor Elizabeth Weise Scott Wiener However, while Department, Mandelman developed constituent feedback as to whether SB-50 would have a proposal to change zoning in Glen neighbors are comfortable with these Advertising Manager Nora Dowley permitted these buildings to have more Park to meet those goals: Retain exist- values or want them to be raised or units, it didn’t require them, so tall ing height limits, for the most part, lowered.S Distribution Manager single-family homes would have con- while legalizing small townhouses and Murray Schneider formed to the new zoning. multi-family homes. The plan incen- Hilary Schiraldi is vice president of the Supervisor Rafael Mandelman tivizes additional units by restricting Glen Park Association. Reporters Gail Bensinger S S Murray Schneider FROM THE EDITORS Bonnee Waldstein CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 didn’t make sense, when even the daily empty streets, and the shuttered busi- strictly for takeout service, so there are print and broadcast media are hav- nesses, and the businesses that have Columnists few places to drop off the paper. We ing trouble keeping up with the latest remained open to serve the neighbor- Marc Dickow also didn’t want to put our volunteer developments. hood. Betsy Eddy calvalry of paper carriers at unneces- But that doesn’t mean there isn’t As we write this, the expected surge Kay Hamilton Estey sary risk when they drop the Glen Park a Glen Park News. We still have our of COVID-19 cases has not yet hit San Rafael Mandelman News at people’s front doors. columns, photos and stories. You can Francisco. At this time, we can only Evelyn Rose Then there’s the timing issue. By the find all of them here, in our traditional hope (with all hope) that our neigh- Hilary Schiraldi time you read this, what we wrote may layout, only this time in digital format. bors will be spared, and those who be outdated. The news is changing by We expect this to be a one-time situa- are sick will recover. As many of us Photographers the hour. Printing a newspaper that’s tion, and to roar back with a printed shelter in place and telecommute from Betsy Eddy published every three months at this summer edition. home, we want to give a big thanks to Liz Mangelsdorf unprecedented period of history just You will read on this site about the those who are working on the front Murray Schneider lines—the doctors, nurses and other Bonnee Waldstein medical workers, police, firefighters, street cleaners, bus drivers, mail carri- ers, delivery service workers, grocers, 2912 Diamond St. #407 garbage men, construction workers, San Francisco, CA 94131 journalists, cooks at takeout restau- [email protected] rants, nursing home staff and many [email protected] others. This essential workforce has been amazing. So, too, have our many neighbors who have been looking out for each Please other—shopping and running errands for the homebound and checking in with folks via phone and computer support our to make sure those who have been isolated from the outside world aren’t Advertisers forgotten.