no. 117 PUBLISHED CENTRAL CITY Tenderloin’s BY THE SAN FRANCISCO STUDY CENTER dream toilet: NOVEMBER free, clean, 2011 compostable THE EXTRA CBD invests WINS MAJOR $20,000 in a HONOR SAN FRANCISCO green prototype Community news BY T OM C ARTER coverage is tops T ENDERLOIN S TAR N its campaign to provide free PAGE 2 public bathrooms and eliminate Ihuman waste on Tenderloin streets, the neighborhood CBD has boldly invested $20,000 in an Oakland company to design a proto- type public toilet that, if it can really recycle waste, could end up serving the rest of the city — and beyond. RANKED The seed money would start Hyphae Design Laboratories on its CHOICE way to go where no one has suc- cessfully gone before in making a VOTING durable, compostable public loo. “We’ll need to attract more money,” Hyphae founder Brent Why S.F. has it, Bucknum told the Tenderloin Futures Collaborative Oct. 19. The how it works company’s contract with CBD shows it needs $94,000 for development. PAGE 3 Key to devel- opment of the TL toilet is public in - put to hear what “The big type of W.C. peo- ple want, Bucknum question is said. The first out- how to handle reach meetings will be Nov. 10 at P HOTO BY T OM C ARTER hazardous St. Anthony’s, 150 Betty Traynor distributes flyers at Boeddeker Park gate for the noontime jazz being played Golden Gate Ave. inside. With grants, she brought summer concerts back to the park. material from in the Poverella Room at 2 and street toilets.” 5:30 p.m. Dina Hilliard The CBD is TL CBD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR con cerned be cause the neighborhood The park’s best friend each month expe- OBITUARIES: riences “700 to 800 incidents” of human feces in the streets, side- LEROY group, with Traynor its spearhead and chair, walks and alleys, said Dina Hilliard, Betty Traynor though she prefers the title “facilitator.” the TL CBD executive director. LOOPER “In all my dealing with the public, she The leading dump site last year, stands alone,” says Jake Gilchrist, who was according to the CBD’s sidewalk is dedicated key in TPL’s campaign, but now works for cleaner, Clean City, was near a Supportive Rec and Park. “Quiet, humble, extremely methadone clinic at 433 Turk St., in effective.” a dark, cul-de-sac alley, Dodge housing pioneer Gilchrist started attending Friends of Street — behind Harrington’s bar at to Boeddeker Boeddeker meetings in June 2006 to evalu- Turk and Larkin streets. The site was dies at 86 ate the park as a TPL project and was tops with 123 “incidents.” BY T OM C ARTER impressed with Traynor’s devotion and fol- In the CBD’s initial effort to PAGE 6 low-through. address the issue earlier this year, it “All the changes at Boeddeker are a contracted with Rescue Mission at ETTY Traynor frowned at Boed- direct credit to her,” he adds. “She is unfail- deker Park’s faded clubhouse ingly consistent. And you know she’s ➤ CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 door Thursday, Oct. 13. Rec and always going to be there. In the community Park had locked the door and process, staffs come and go. But there are shut down the park, forgetting certain champions, like Betty. She’s doing Bthat the regular 3:30 p.m. Friends of all she can for the park. She’s one of my Boeddeker Park meeting, which she chairs, favorites.” was to meet inside. But no way now. Boeddeker has been a conundrum. In seconds, Traynor had taped a sign on Originally, it supplanted the Downtown the door directing people to the L.A. Cafe Bowling Alley in 1978 and was called and was making a beeline down Jones Central City Park. With a $3.2 million Street, headed for a suitable meeting table, makeover in 1985, it reopened as Boedde - a handful of Friends-of scurrying behind. The scenario showed the park’s unpre- ➤ CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 dictable access and Traynor’s determination to preserve and utilize the precious open ✩ space in the city’s poorest neighborhood. Traynor has been the park’s primary stew- TENDERLOIN STARS ard for eight years and a major reason Boeddeker is getting a $5 million makeover HERE are 30,000 of us in the starting next year. TTenderloin, each unique in The park’s impending change stems special ways. Tenderloin Stars from Trust for Public Land’s successful mul- captures the personality, humanity tiyear campaign to land state and founda- and, often, strangeness of our tion money. Boeddeker qualified as a TPL remarkably diverse populace. P HOTO BY T OM C ARTER project because it was in the central city, These are the people who make Rescue Mission’s free toilet, open to underused, has 3,000 kids living in the our neighborhood great. the public weekdays, has tripled its usage. neighborhood and has an active advisory ✩ ✩ ✩✩✩ GOOD NEWSfor... US Central City Extra has won the Community News coverage category for nondailies of the no. 108 Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual Excellence in Journalism contest. The Extra submitted five sto- FEBRUARY 2011 ries published between July 2010 and June 2011: “Home sweet SRO” (August), “Tenderloin’s only free shower” (September), “World Series parade” (Dec.-Jan.), “The Tenderloin closer” (February) and “Murder: Tenderloin’s reputation undeserved” (April). The award will be given at SPJ’s annual banquet Nov. 15 at Jillian’s Restaurant. ■ P HOTO: COURTESY SEACC Philip Nguyen, SEACC executive director, presides at the agency’s 36th anniversary celebration at ‘FINAL DIGNITY’ St. Mary’s Cathedral when he announced three new projects. SEACC at 36: Free clinic in the works BY A NH L Ê ple’s lives, helped distribute 1.5 our community, Dr. Tam Bui.” million pounds of dry foods Dr. Bui, formerly a medical and groceries.” school dean in Saigon, now Ho INCE it opened in 1975, the On the economic front, Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has Southeast Asian Com mu - SEACC has provided technical pledged to head up a team of Snity Center has served assistance to 2,000 Bay Area several doctors to operate a more than 150,000 people, pro- businesses, made microloans free outpatient clinic at SEACC, viding them services to meet — $5,000 to $50,000 — to 250 provide basic health treatment, P HOTO BY T OM C ARTER Rev. Glenda Hope reads scriptures on a Leavenworth Street sidewalk where a 20-year-old their social, health and eco- businesses, and created 550 medical consultancy and advi- father, who had grown up in the Tenderloin, had been shot to death Aug. 27 in North Beach. nomic needs. new, permanent jobs, all pro- sory information to those with- “SEACC has long been a grams the organization hopes out insurance, Nguyen said, The Tenderloin closer leading advocate for the to expand in 2012, Nguyen adding that SEACC will raise “The memorials are a final dignity to Southeast Asian community said. the funds to cover the costs of Rev. Glenda Hope those who couldn’t have them,” Hope says. “They offer a place of comfort and the nationwide and a key player in New projects on the draw- the facility, support staff and beginning of healing for mourners.” gives residents Most memorials take place in SRO lob- transforming the Tender loin ing board include a free med- outreach. bies or community rooms, which vary from threadbare and musty to clean and cheery. into a more vibrant and livable ical clinic, a Southeast Asian The ideas for a Southeast a caring sendoff Sometimes only a couple of people show up and a few who do may not have even community for families,” Night Market and a Southeast Asian Night Market and a known the deceased. Memorials with 40 to BY T OM C ARTER 50 mourners are exceptional. A bouquet or Executive Director Philip Asian Village. Southeast Asian Village are two is always on a table in front sometimes Nguyen told an audience of Health care for new immi- only on SEACC’s “radar 120 at St. Mary’s Cathedral’s St. grants has been a SEACC focus screen,” now, Nguyen said. PARK BUFFS Boeddeker Park is getting $209,274 Francis Hall. since its inception. AIDS/HIV Both would be located in the for outdoor fitness equipment from Rec and Park, a The event celebrated the prevention, smoking cessation, Ten derloin’s Little Saigon, the Community Opportunity Fund distribution from the nonprofit’s 36 years, introduced First 5 California (a health pro- two-block corridor of Larkin city’s 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks several new projects SEACC is gram for children under 5), and Street between Eddy and bond. The equipment — ranging from a vertical hoping to launch, and recog- cancer-awareness programs are O’Farrell streets. pulldown press to cross-country ski exerciser — nized program supporters and among those SEACC has spon- Among those attending the will be installed during the park’s $5 million reno- volunteers. sored. Oct. 12 event were Supervisors vation, expected to start in the spring. Betty “Look at our Immigrant Free Today’s health problems Jane Kim and Eric Mar, and Traynor, Friends of Boeddeker Park chair, gathered Food Distribution Service,” have been made worse by the guest speakers Charles Phan, letters of support from the Tenderloin police, TL Nguyen said. “Every Friday at 5 recession, “which has cut off owner of the Slanted Door CBD, Mercy Housing, S.F. Parks Trust and District 6 a.m., rain or shine, 20 to 30 vol- health insurance coverage for Restaurant, and John Nguyen Supervisor Jane Kim.