no. 77 PUBLISHED CENTRAL CITY BY THE Fire chief SAN FRANCISCO STUDY CENTER APRIL agrees to 2008 tone down Reaffirms her ’05 order to limit loud air horns SAN FRANCISCO BY T OM C ARTER EKINDLING their three-year campaign to reduce noise pol- F OOD A ID Rlution from fire trucks, the slow-burning residents of the Tenderloin got yet another promise from the fire chief that she would tune it down a notch. Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White tacitly agreed at a public meeting in March to enforce her general order of October 2005 to abate noise, her response then to public griping over ear-splitting air horns and sirens. 1 Now, 2 /2 years later, she’s respond- ing to the same old complaint. The chief said the department wanted to be a good neighbor, but didn’t specifically say she would re- emphasize that order. But two weeks after the March 20 meeting, Hayes-White said Deputy Chief Richard Kochevar had ST. “reiterated” the or - der to the depart- ANTHONY’S ment. So Battalion “Air horns 3, the 1067 Post St. 10-STORY station that is the are not to main focus of com- SURPRISE plaints, got the be used as message. The sta- P HOTOS BY T OM C ARTER tion sends its Senior housing Empress Hotel residents shop for free food at the weekly market designed for them. a primary response vehicles response through the Ten - plan gets derloin down Hyde warning Street. Last year its way bigger sole engine an - signal.” swered 7,439 calls, PAGE 2 more than any sta- SRO shoppers Fire chief’s order tion in the country. OCTOBER 2005 In a phone in - and on for 10 years, typically gorged himself terview April 2, Empress Hotel at free dining rooms, then stuffed his pock- Hayes-White told The Extra she STARTLING ets with food because he didn’t know when knew the original order had been he’d get his next meal. effective because complaints NEWS Not anymore. Every Thursday, as a resi- dropped. “We figured no news was — pioneer in a dent of the Empress Hotel on Eddy Street, good news,” she said. ABOUT Johnson has his pick of free food that will But noise complaints started last him for a week in his room that’s hand- picking up again late last year, NOISE growing trend ily equipped with a microwave. despite reminders at battalion coun- “I don’t have to stuff myself and think seling sessions to tone down. She Studies show BY T OM C ARTER that tomorrow I won’t have enough to eat,” said no personnel had been report- Johnson says, as he waits in the lobby to ed internally for excess siren noise, major hearing EORGE Johnson was once like a unload a Food Bank truck delivery. an infraction that could lead to dis- Johnson partakes at the Empress, which cipline. character in the Jack London loss, death short story “Love of Life,” the is what the Food Bank’s Deanna Sverdlov The order, with her emphasis in calls “the model pantry” among SROs. A boldface, acknowledges that “exces- guy who narrowly escapes PAGE 7 starving to death, then always pantry is a large, varied load that the Food sive use of apparatus air horns has Bank delivers to a site for distribution. By adversely impacted members of the Govereats to make up for his deprivation. Johnson, homeless and miserable off having a designated shopper, an SRO such public…Until further notice, air as the Empress can add food items of its res- horns are not to be used as a pri- idents’ choice on a weekly shopping spree mary response warning signal. Air at the Food Bank warehouse. It means more horn activation is to be limited to choice, less waste and it’s gaining favor ‘extreme’ (high risk) circumstances, among the supportive housing SROs and using short blasts only.” the city department that helps fund them. Hayes-White showed up in the The Food Bank requires that at least half Tenderloin with seven department of the SRO’s residents avail themselves of officers at the Community Leader - the giveaway and the hotel must have vol- ship Alliance meeting in the Antonia unteers willing to undergo a brief training to Manor called to find “solutions” to learn about the Food Bank. Fire Department noise, according to The Food Bank, operating on food and CLA announcements. The chief had cash donations in its mission to end hunger attended the February meeting of in the city, distributes 28 million pounds of the Lower Polk Neighbors when it food a year through a network of 500 non- addressed the same issue. profits — from senior services and soup “Many of you are becoming kitchens to day care centers and children’s familiar faces,” the chief said, scan- recreation programs. The Food Bank makes ning the crowd of 30. 220 weekly and monthly pantry deliveries. CLA Director David Villa-Lobos, Sverdlov, a senior program coordinator, Roberta Goodman (right) shops at the ➤ CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 Food Bank for Empress residents. ➤ CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 FUTURES COLLABORATIVE LETTER TO THE EDITOR Mirkarimi takes aim at neighborhood papers HE following letter is a response to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s Trepressive proposal to harass community newspapers that he intro- duced to the Board of Supervisors on March 18. Within 30 days, it goes to the City Operations and Neighborhood Services Com mittee. Paul Kozakiewicz, the letter’s author, not only helped form and conti nues to tirelessly advocate for the San Francisco Neighborhood News- paper Association, of which the Central City Extra is a member, his Sunset and Richmond district newspapers help to give all of us credibility for profession- 2005 three-story rendering of 121 Golden Gate Ave. 2008 rendering of 121 Golden Gate at 10 stories. al, often hard-hitting neighborhood news coverage. EDITOR: New St. Anthony offices open in May Another lame-brained supervisor with nothing better to do than pro- pose a solution for a nonexistent prob- Senior housing in the works now soars 10 stories lem. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi last month proposed a $100 to $500 penal- BY M ARJORIE B EGGS right now,” Christen said. “We’re said. LEED — Leadership in Energy ty for every instance where a free going above the 40-foot height and Environmental Design — is a newspaper is delivered to a home on limit and there will be no parking.” trademarked rating system of the a newly created “do not deliver” list. T’S been more than five years The project will cost $66 mil- U.S. Green Building Council, a I’ve been publishing community since St. Anthony Foundation lion, $42 million of that for the nonprofit that encourages energy newspapers in the Richmond and Iannounced it would raze 150 housing and $24 million for the efficiency and responsible use of Sunset districts for almost 20 years. Golden Gate Ave., the former rest of the building. Mercy will natural resources. Of the 50,000 newspapers I deliver Knights of Columbus building, apply for federal Section 202 HUD “This was important to the door-to-door monthly, I have seven which it bought in 1999, and put grants, funding to assist very low- foundation,” Aviani said, “both in people on my “do not deliver” list. up new administrative digs on the income elderly, she said. terms of our Franciscan approach That’s how big this problem is. site. The five-story building opens Francis Aviani, St. Anthony’s to environmental sustainability, It is up to my delivery service to in mid-May, Daniel O’Connor, St. media and communications man- and our understanding of the role do the job and not deliver to people Anthony’s community liaison, told ager, told The Extra in an email that environment plays in the who do not want a paper. It usually the Tenderloin Futures Collabora - that the foundation is still searching health of the community.” works, but sometimes a new “walker” tive in March. for funds for both buildings. Almost 95% of the demolition will accidentally deliver to a home All St. Anthony’s offices and “We’ll finish out our capital waste was recycled, and much of that does not want it. Am I to be fined services from 121 Golden Gate — campaign for 150 and then launch the concrete and steel in the $100 to $500 every time this happens, except the dining room and clinic the campaign for 121,” she wrote building contains recycled materi- even though I have no control over — will move across the street. of the Golden Gate addresses. als. An evaporative cooling sys- the dozens of delivery people walk- St. Anthony now can start the If there are no snafus with tem on the rooftop and other effi- ing door-to-door with the local paper? second phase of its major project: money or the Planning ciencies will reduce annual ener- Many of the “walkers” my service demolishing and replacing 121 Department, 121 demolition is gy use by 30%. Water use will be uses are from South and Latin Golden Gate. But it will be far dif- expected to start next year, con- cut 20% by low-flow and low- American countries and do not speak ferent from what was proposed just struction on the new building in flush plumbing fixtures. And car- English. They are humping their a couple of years ago. 2010 and completion in 2011. pet, paint and adhesives in the butts off here doing menial work to As plans for both buildings St.