Crossing Guards: the Road to Safety
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WINTER 2014 VOLUME 32, NO. 4 Glen Canyon Park Trail Upgrades Take Crossing Guards: The Road to Safety A Step at a Time he Recreation and Park Department’s 15-month Glen T Canyon Trails Improvement Project is expected to be completed in early 2015. Work crews soon will maneuver their last Bobcat earth mover out of the can- by yon, along Alms Road, Murray exiting San Francisco’s Schneider 70-acre natural area and leaving in their wake freshly minted recreational trails built with scores of sturdy box steps to make the park easier to navigate. Funded by the voter-backed 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond, to the tune of $900,000, the project was supported with two addi- tional grants totaling $320,587. More financing came from the 2013 Habitat Conservation Fund in the amount of $130,000. Together, the upgrades cost $1.35 million. Rhonda Cash helps keep pedestrians safe at busy Bosworth and Diamond intersection. Photo by Liz Mangelsdorf Recreation and Park’s Trails Project, which was planned over several years an Francisco’s surge of traffic ber of deaths in 2014 involving people steady stream of cars heading to and during 12 community meetings, also injuries and fatalities in recent who walk, bike and travel by motor from the freeway ramps—a scenario removed hazardous trees, improved S years has prompted the City vehicles was approaching 30 in early that puts people at risk. And while the drainage, conducted sediment basin to adopt the ambitious Vision Zero December. intersection may not have landed on repair and updated Americans with policy, which calls for None of the most dangerous loca- the unenviable most dangerous list, it Disabilities Act (ADA) access between by eliminating all traffic tions are located in Glen Park. But the nonetheless is a challenging place to Zachary Bosworth Street and the Silver Tree fatalities by 2024. neighborhood’s busiest intersection, at navigate safely. Clark camp-Glenridge nursery school site. Just 6 percent of the Diamond and Bosworth streets, has But every weekday, there’s an old- Glen Canyon strollers, dog walkers, intersections in San Francisco account high-volume pedestrian traffic, mul- fashioned traffic-safety program at summer campers, nursery school chil- for 60 percent of the fatal and serious tiple Muni bus lines and private shut- work: crossing guards. Their names CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 collisions, a sobering fact as the num- tle buses maneuvering through, and a are Rhonda Cash and Le Ta, and the Diamond-Bosworth intersection is their domain. Glen Park Businesses Get into the Holiday Spirit The City is preparing to start a At a loss for what to buy for everyone on your holiday shopping list this year? As usual, the streetscape safety improvement project merchants in downtown Glen Park can help you check off every name on your list. at Diamond and Bosworth. New side- And with just a little bit of effort, you can find things from right here in Glen Park. walk extensions at existing bus stops CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 By Gail Bensinger Gifts Over at Glen Park Hardware, Hal and Susan Tauber have GLEN PARK Eyedentity on Diamond Street sells custom-made beaded stocked one item that couldn’t be closer to home—hand- ASSOCIATION eyeglasses cords made by a local resident, for $20 apiece. some greeting cards hand-painted by their daughter Robin. QUARTERLY MEETING Other cords cost only $6. The store sells mostly prescription They’re blank on the inside so you can personalize your glasses, but they do stock Eyebobs reading glasses ($85) or Wednesday, January 14, 7 p.m. holiday message—nicer than a computer-generated letter. St. John School non-prescription sunglasses that range from $170 to $450. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 925 Chenery St. GLEN PARK ELECTION RESULTS ~ PG. 5 MUSICIAN CHUCK PETERSON ~ PG. 10 REMEMBERING FADI MALOUF ~ PG. 15 2 Glen Park News | Winter 2014 S FROM THE EDITORS S GLEN PARK he tables on the other side of the McCurdy, who founded the business City, not rent, but it still leaves a hole NEWS big windows were set, awaiting 12 years ago, had several years to go on in our business district. T the evening’s diners, but the sign her lease when she was hit with a huge Readers who have been following The Glen Park News is pub- on Chenery Park’s door thanked the rent increase. The building owner had Marc Dickow’s real estate columns in claimed lease violations in demanding lished quarterly by the Glen neighborhood for “14 great years.” the Glen Park News (see Page 18) are The restaurant that put Glen Park on the higher rent. familiar with the phenomenon of ever- Park Association. Signed articles the culinary map shut down without Through mediation, a smaller rising home prices here. The term “over are the opinions of the authors advance notice in November, leav- increase and a new, longer lease were asking” has been part of the vocabu- and not necessarily those of the ing another store- lary of every would-be Glen Park Association. front vacant. Joe buyer and practically Kowal, who had A NEIGHBORHOOD NEEDS BASIC BUSINESSES LIKE every homeowner, bought out his whether new to the Editor-in-Chief Rachel Gordon longtime Chenery LAUNDERETTES AND FULL-SERVICE BANKS AS WELL AS neighborhood or long- Park partners not established. Deputy Editor Gail Bensinger that long ago, was ENTERPRISES THAT CAN AFFORD HIGH RENTS. In the fall issue of reportedly facing a the Glen Park News, Copy Editor Denis Wade large rent increase Dickow reported, for the three-story restaurant at 683 negotiated. McCurdy said she didn’t the median sale price of a new Glen Photo Editor Liz Mangelsdorf Chenery St. want to relocate from the double-store- Park single-family home was about Instead, he decided to let the lease front location and jeopardize longtime $1.3 million. This quarter, that figure Design Editor Liz Mangelsdorf expire and concentrate on his other res- relationships with the clinic’s clients. topped $1.4 million. There are many taurant, Eureka, on 18th Street in the Another storefront, where Tina’s reasons to the hot real estate market Online Editor Elizabeth Weise Castro. The closure meant the end of Laundromat once handled the laundry here, of course, including the appeal kids’ nights on Tuesdays and witty sea- of both residents and nearby busi- of taking BART to the downtown Advertising Nora Dowley sonal decorations in those big windows, nesses, has been vacant since August. tech corridor along Market Street, the not to mention the best mac and cheese That business, too, closed rather than “Google buses” that stop outside the Distribution and fried chicken in our zip code. face a big rent hike. The decision to BART station, and the easy access to Manager Murray Schneider Up the street, the doors of East-West close the Citibank branch across from Silicon Valley via Interstate 280. Integrative Medicine Clinic at 605 the BART station two weeks before Yet the appeal of Glen Park extends Reporters Gail Bensinger Chenery St. remain open, but it was Christmas was due to corporate policy far beyond the ease of getting some- Zachary Clark touch and go there for a while. Marnie at company headquarters in New York where else. The business streetscape is Rachel Gordon a part of that formula. Murray Schneider We welcome the new restaurants that Susan Sutton Glen Park News Columnists followed after Chenery Park proved Bonnee Waldstein people here had a taste for fine din- ing. But we also value Glen Park Columnists Marc Dickow Provide Unique Perspectives Hardware, Destination Baking Co., the Betsy Eddy The Glen Park News, pub- Whenever one of our columnists branch library, Perch, Critter Fritters Kay Hamilton Estey lished quarterly by the Glen Park decides to move on, it’s a loss and and Canyon Market, the coffee houses, Jennifer Helton Association, is a labor of love pro- a signal that newspapers, like the lunch places and ethnic eateries, and Michael Rice duced by a dedicated team of vol- subjects they cover, evolve. Our long- the hair and nail salons. Amy St.Clair diLaura unteers that writes and edits stories, time “In Glen Canyon Park” colum- When Tommy Baik greets you Katrin Reimuller takes photos, designs the pages, writes nist Monika Lewis, who got squeezed by name with a smile at Glen Park Scott Wiener the headlines, sells the ads and deliv- for time due to a new full-time job, Cleaners, or Rick Malouf remembers ers 3,800 copies to neighborhood wrote her last column for us in the what you bought the last time you Photographer Gail Bensinger homes and businesses each March, fall issue. We will miss her insights shopped at Cheese Boutique, or Eric Stephen Labovsky June, September and December. on nature in the canyon and park Whittington turns his bookstore into Liz Mangelsdorf Most of the staff lives in Glen activities. a jazz mecca every weekend, you and Paul Matalucci Park. Some are, or were, professional She followed in the footsteps of they are both woven tighter into the Murray Schneider journalists who want to give back to other formidable canyon columnists, neighborhood fabric. the community; others simply have among them Jean Conner–nature Certainly, landlords are entitled to a gift for writing and picture-taking lover, Friends of Glen Canyon Park fair returns on their properties. That’s 2912 Diamond St. #407 and are willing to share their talents activist, tireless volunteer worker in the a given. But a neighborhood needs San Francisco, CA 94131 to tell stories about Glen Park canyon–whose column first appeared basic businesses like launderettes and (415) 908-6728 Threading the paper together in 1994 and continued regularly every full-service banks as well as enterprises [email protected] from one edition to the next is our quarter for 13 years.