COLE VALLEY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION CVolume XXXIIIVIA SERVING COLE VALLEY AND NEWSTHE GREATER HAIGHT ASHBURY WINTER 2019 Santa Comes to Cole Street San Francisco Beautiful Hon- on Sunday, December 1 ors CVIA for “Clean Cole” Come and have your picture taken with Santa without At its annual awards the hassle of driving to a mall or waiting in long lines. The ceremony at Marines proceeds help fund the Clean Cole Street project. Memorial Club on Oc- tober 21, CVIA board Loic Nicolas, a popular photographer with consistent member Shannon Coo- 5-star reviews on Yelp (and a CVIA member), originated per Hock accepted an award on behalf of CVIA “for outstanding contribution to beautify- ing San Francisco,” for its Clean Cole project in which the commercial area of Cole Valley is swept every day (twice CVIA board member Shannon Cooper Hock a day on weekdays), by accepts commendation for CVIA. CleanScapes. Dean Preston Elected D5 Supe Photo: Loic Nicolas Loic Photo: With all eyes on the city’s only supervisorial race, it was a spirited match between two strong candidates that got down and dirty toward the end. This was Dean Preston’s second run for the District 5 seat Santa explains the fine points of the holiday season and the virtue of gen- and he was fighting for erosity to Jackson Arnold. (Just kidding.) his political life. When the results showed that this fundraising idea and annually donates a day of his time he had won, he knew it for the good of his neighborhood. was a short-term victo- As always, Chuck Canepa is our handsome Santa. He ry. Even though he will even bought his own Santa suit a few years ago and so is replace Vallie Brown fully committed (we hope). Chuck not only looks good, as D-5 Supervisor, it is Chronicle Munsch/The Kate Photo: but he’s also great with the kids. And, yes, this is the same only for the remaining Chuck who organizes the car show for the Cole Valley Fair. term of London Breed, former D-5 supervisor, who left the Maryo Mogannam graciously allows us to use Postal post to become mayor. The terms are staggered so that only Chase for the event every year. Board members serve as the half the board is elected every two years, thereby providing “elves” who usher the kids and parents through the process ➮ while trying to calm the littlest ones who are not too sure about the guy with the white beard (although those in dis- INSIDE tress sometimes make the best photos). 5G Tower Backlash ..................3 LiveFit Gym Coming Soon ......2 Please come by with your kids, grand kids, pets, or 730 Stanyan Update .................3 Memoriam: Virginia Joosen .....2 yourself on Sunday, December 1 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Board Minutes ..........................8 Memoriam: Les Silverman ......5 Postal Chase, 912 Cole St. The cost of the sitting is $20 and Brown’s Help for Mentally Ill ..3 Neighborhood Heroes ..............4 prints start at $1. All proceeds go toward the daily cleaning Buena Vista Park Upgrade .......3 Postscripts ................................9 of Cole Street by the Cole Valley Improvement Association. CVIA Grant to Stewards ..........7 Scoop on Scoot ........................7 And spread the word! —Joan Downey CVIA Officers ........................11 Shrader Street Tragedy .............7 David Oates Joins Board ..........2 Small Business Bill Signing.....6 ANNUAL HOLIDAY TREE LIGHTING Ginsburg to Serve State............6 Thanks to Supporters ...............4 Tuesday, December 3 from 4 to 8 p.m. Letters ...........................................11 UCSF Space Plans ...................5 Library Forgives Fines .............5 Volunteer at Alvord Lake .........4 McLaren Lodge, Golden Gate Park PAGE 2 WINTER 2019 CVIA NEWS continuity. Supervisors representing odd-numbered districts (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) are elected every fourth year, which Established SF Fitness Chain will be 2020. This means that Preston must immediately Claims Iconic Cole Corner embark on a second campaign to beat whomever choses to run against him in the November 2020 election. If Vallie Hoodline.com ace reporter Camden Avery could not get Brown chooses to run again, she will be joined by Board of a response from Cole Fitness owner Andrew Chaban fol- Education President Stevon Cook who announced last week lowing up on an interview some six months ago. At that his intention to give it a try. time Chaban said he was renegotiating the lease and would The Chronicle quoted Preston at his victory party say- use the mandatory seismic retrofit ing “What is missing in so many campaigns is a vision of to make needed improvements and what this town could be if we did not surrender to the dark- also replace the fitness equipment. est forces of capitalism and neo-liberalism. We are going But soon after, as we all know, the to change [this town] with mass mobilization, democratic “For Lease” sign appeared in the socialism and fearless advocacy for the things we know are window. right.” Last week, there was a sign of Dean Preston attended law school in San Francisco at hope in the window. LiveFitGym UC Hastings College of the Law and graduated magna cum claimed its intention of taking over laude. He served as a staff attorney at the nonprofit Ten- the site, indicating that there won’t be a change-of-use at derloin Housing Clinic (THC) in San Francisco where for this important corner. LiveFit is no piker, having five oth- seven years he represented low-income tenants fighting to er San Francisco locations: Hayes Valley, Nob Hill, Polk preserve their housing. His legal work at THC included de- Street, Inner Richmond and Mission. Basic group classes, fending tenants against Ellis Act evictions, suing slumlords personal training and open gym hours are offered through- for substandard housing conditions, and fighting conversion out the week, but in some studios, there are treatments such of rent-controlled housing. Preston is the founder and direc- as massage therapy, tor of Tenants Together, California’s only statewide tenant acupuncture, facials rights organization. and waxing and even chiropractic. Region- Preston, a Democratic Socialist, will tilt the balance of al manager Danielle the Board of Supervisors even further to the left than it al- Tellier assures us that ready is, and his win removes a vote from the Board that will be the case in Cole was consistently loyal to the mayor. Valley. —Karen Crommie And down on Haight Street, Gener- For 30 years, Kids Only was owned by Cole ation X, a fashion-for- Valley’s Marie and Bruce Samson. ward store for nearly twenty years on the corner of Masonic and Haight, is shut- Virginia Ann Joosen, tering at the end of the year. Nice Kicks and Rasputin, too, (October 1, 1945 - October 6, 2019) are vacating; Peoples Cafe and Braindrops have left; True, owned by the son of former mayor Willy Brown, closed one of its two stores; while the Haight Ashbury Music Center is having its final closing sale. The long empty storefront that Long time CVIA member Virginia Ann Joos- for many years was Kids Only still leaves a dead spot on en was a true San Franciscan having at- that block—ironically amid the shoulder-to shoulder tourist tended Grattan Elementary, Roosevelt Ju- traffic. The customers are here. Why have so many busi- nior High, and Polytechnic High School. nesses gone out? (See article on pg. 6) There must be some- After graduation, Virginia began her first thing the neighborhood’s thousands of visitors want to take job at the Hartford Insurance Company home with them besides used clothes and Tibetan jewelry. where she met a young man who would We’ll see how well the upcoming cannabis shop does. My become her husband. Virginia and Pieter guess is socko. —Karen Crommie were married at Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral and went on to have three children, Jenni- fer Lisa, Pieter Michael and Anne Elizabeth. David Oates Joins CVIA Board Virginia, who lived on Shrader Street, was Software innovator David Oates a loyal volunteer at the Cole Valley Fair has accepted CVIA’s invitation to join and a good friend to many who will re- its Board of Directors. Originally from member her fondly. Charlotte, NC, he moved to San Fran- cisco in 2015 after attending Northeast- ern University in Boston. David and a few of his friends from high school (and fellow Cole Valley neighbors) founded Visit our website at CVIASF.org Curtsy, a resale app for women’s cloth- ing. Generous with his time and considerable talent, he is currently working to update the CVIA website. CVIA NEWS WINTER 2019 PAGE 3 and small cell phone towers and other communications fa- Good News for Buena Vista Park cilities. It’s no secret that some in the Greater Haight Ashbury There is currently an effort to have the SF Board of are more affluent than others, but I was surprised to read Supervisors rescind Ordinance 190-19, hire a 3rd party to the recent posting of the Buena Vista Park Needs Assess- research the safety of the cell towers and replace the ordi- ment by Rec and Park. The report by Rec and Park project nance with one that includes a public process that allows manager Brett Desmaris noted a grant from the Buena Vis- the government and the public to influence where cell ta Neighborhood Association (BVNA) of $50,000 (gasp) phone tower facilities are sited to mitigate any harm they triggering a matching add-back from the City’s budget of might cause. another $50,000 and an additional $162,000 from the 2012 ­­—George S.