Rincon Hill - News and Events
Jamie Whitaker - RHNA President
As a follow-up from the Transbay Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC)
meeting a couple of weeks ago where the CAC asked the project sponsors
for the 126-unit supportive housing development on Folsom Street at
Essex Street to meet with Rincon Hill residents, a meeting has been
scheduled for this Wednesday, February 24th at 6:30pm at The
Metropolitan (333 1st Street) in the Activity Room (see the concierge
at the 1st Street entrance to The Metropolitan for entry to the
Activity Room). Meet with our friends from Community Housing
Partnership and Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects to discuss the
architectural plans and rationale for using a portion of the ground-
floor Folsom frontage for non-retail space. Please keep in mind this
meeting is not intended for neighbors to express disagreement with a
supportive housing project going up in the Rincon Hill neighborhood -
the intention of the meeting is to learn and to discuss the
architectural features and uses of the building that will go up on
Folsom Street at Essex for supportive housing.
On Thursday, February 25th, the Mayor's Office of Economic and
Workforce Development's Michael Yarne will provide an informational
presentation to the San Francisco Planning Commission (City Hall, Room
400, 1:30pm start time) about Green Development Agreements legislation
and a pilot project at 375/399 Fremont Street (at Harrison Street) in
the Rincon Hill neighborhood. You can read a brief memorandum on the
Green Development Agreement legislation at http://tinyurl.com/ydvgsj9
You can watch the Planning Commission meeting live online at
http://www.sfgov.org/sfgtv on SFGTV 2 (or flip on channel 78 on the
cable TV box) - this will give you a preview of what you will hear at
the March 2nd Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association meeting (Tuesday,
3/2/2010, 6pm start time, Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 450 Harrison
Street (at 1st Street), Library room) and allow you to think of some
excellent questions for Michael Yarne, Steve Kuklin (representing
Fifield Companies, the owners of 375/399 Fremont Street), and ReBar
Group ( http://www.rebargroup.org ). Steve Kuklin met with me a
couple of weeks ago and shared the potential uses of the 399 Fremont
Street site - a street tree nursery to grow hybrid poplar trees for
Friends of the Urban Forest to plant in San Francisco neighborhoods
(http://www.fuf.net/ ) and an urban carbon sequestration farm to test
out different biofuel commodities (with a lot of interest in the
potential to grow giganteus hybrid miscanthus grass because it offers
25 times greater biomass yield than corn - and doesn't detract our
food supply). Very neat, innovative stuff - and so much better than
the hole in the ground that we have now at 399 Fremont Street! My
only concern about this Green Development Agreement legislation is
that I don't want it to provide Tishman Speyer an opportunity to lock
in a currently approved 272 car parking garage in addition to slightly
more than 1:1 parking spaces for the 201 Folsom Street development's
600+ residential units when those extra 272 spaces were approved with
the intent to provide replacement parking for US Postal Service mail
trucks at the site. The main reason I want to make sure the
neighborhood has a chance to kill of that 272 car parking garage is
because the US Postal Service intends to move all the letter carriers
(and the associated vehicles) to a new building at 550 Townsend Street
this summer, and those 272 parking spaces would no longer be
justified. The less parking in our neighborhood, the greater safety
for pedestrians and bicyclists trying to traverse our streets because
fewer cars will be circulating in the area. Otherwise, this seems
like a great idea for temporarily improving the empty lots already
approved for development projects and simply frozen due to the
economic downturn.
On Friday, February 26th starting at 9am at City Hall in Room 400, the
SFMTA Board decides on more service cuts and fare hikes for MUNI.
Instead of reducing service and increasing fares, please encourage the
SFMTA Board to extend parking meter hours and to give a congestion
charge during rush hour serious consideration. You can thank our
State of California leadership for taking away hundreds of millions of
dollars from public transit agencies like SFMTA in order to plug other
holes in the state budget. See http://www.sfmta.com/cms/rbudgjan2010/budgjan10indx2010.htm
On Saturday, February 27th starting at 5:15pm at 2nd and Market
Streets is the Chinese New Year Festival and Parade. You can watch the
parade from the comfort of your home on Channel 2 (KTVU - FOX) from
6pm - 8pm. Let's hope for fabulous weather for this annual community
celebration. Gung Hay Fat Choy! See http://www.chineseparade.com/
On Sunday, February 28th starting at 10:00 am at Axis Cafe (1201 8th
Street, near 16th Street), the Mission Bay Families group will meet to
discuss grant opportunities for a childrens' play area at Mission
Creek Park and the latest news on the San Francisco Unified School
District's discussions about building a new school in the Mission Bay
neighborhood. See http://groups.google.com/group/mission-bay-families
As mentioned above, the next Rincon Hill Neighorhood Association
meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2nd starting at 6:00 pm at the
Sailors' Union of the Pacific building (450 Harrison Street at 1st
Street) in their Library room. In addition to Michael Yarne
discussing the Green Development Agreement legislation and Steve
Kuklin presenting plans for the pilot project for 375/399 Fremont
Street (the tree nursery and carbon sequestration farm), Michael will
also discuss a very controversial piece of legislation from the
Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development referred to as
"Development Stimulus and Fee Reform." The legislation would delay the
collection of fees from developers intended to pay for needed
infrastructure improvements (like widened sidewalks, parks like the
mini-park property awaiting additional funding on Guy Place,
pedestrian safety improvements along Harrison Street and other
neighborhood streets so that crossing the street isn't as much of a
life gamble every time) until the certificate of occupancy is issued
(after the development is more or less finished with construction)
instead of 100% at the start of construction to help build out
infrastructure to accommodate new residents when they move in. If
some of the estimated $35 million in property taxes paid by Rincon
Hill residential unit owners actually found its way back into our
neighborhood to improve our sidewalks and make the area safer to walk
and bike, this may not be quite as controversial in my opinion. Since
the City does not seem to pay much attention to pedestrian safety
needs, sidewalk improvements, and all the other hug and kisses talk
about "Urban Livability" they wrote into the Rincon Hill Plan in 2005
to make it okay to build 60 story residential buildings in our
neighborhood and bring in thousands of new residents, I would suggest
that residents of Rincon Hill push back on this legislation and demand
that the City start sending our property tax dollars back to our
neighborhood for improvements that are necessary to a safe, livable
Rincon Hill neighborhood. You can write Gavin at
gavin....@sfgov.org. Thousands of folks have moved into the area
since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake first made the transition of
Rincon Hill from a warehouse area back to a residential neighborhood
feasible. However, there have been very few infrastructure
improvements around the residential core of Harrison Street - I've
spoken ad naseum at Planning Commission meetings about the lack of a
traversable sidewalk on Harrison between Fremont and Main for
wheelchair users and baby strollers, for example. I think we all want
the other approved condo projects to be built, but Mayor Gavin Newsom
and his administration takes our millions and millions of dollars in
property taxes without giving a second of a thought to spending it in
our neighborhood to not just repave the roads (as is scheduled to
happen to Harrison Street from The Embarcadero west to 8th Street this
spring) but to implement promised livability improvements to make the
area safe for folks to walk around without as much worry about getting
hit by a car as we do today. Setting aside the selfish opportunistic
actions of Mayor Newsom (see his latest notion of running for
Lieutenant Governor at a time when San Francisco is staring at a $500
million budge deficit for 2010/2011), we're being treated like suckers
because there are not enough of us willing to hold the Mayor
accountable for how our property taxes are spent. It infuriates me, in
case you can't tell (grin). It doesn't have to be this way ...
Anyway, you can read a brief synopsis of the "Development Stimulus and
Fee Reform" legislation in the January 21, 2010 Planning Commission
Meeting Minutes at http://www.sfplanning.org/index.aspx?page=2306
(scroll down to Item 13). While I like the Green Development
Agreements idea, this development stimulus stuff should go straight
into a garbage can until the Mayor and his administration demonstrate
that Rincon Hill's quality of life isn't 100% dependent on these
infrastructure fees from new developments ... Mayor Newsom, stop
mugging Rincon Hill and spend our property taxes on needed
infrastructure improvements in Rincon Hill! Let's not shoot the
messenger, but please do attend the meeting to ask your questions and
to voice your concerns about delaying the collection of fees intended
to pay for infrastructure when it doesn't appear (from actions so far)
that the $35 million of property taxes taken from us each year will be
used to make infrastructure improvements.
Speaking of Mayor Newsom, he's attacking District elections this
year. He and his ilk would prefer that San Francisco residents kiss
the ring of citywide Supervisors who could potentially all live in Nob
Hill or the Marina and could care less about our eastern neighborhoods
in SoMa. The Mayor is trying his best to forget that he works for you
and me ... and District elected Supervisors provide neighborhoods with
a means to voicing our concerns at City Hall while obnoxious
politicians like Mayor Newsom try to railroad their half-baked ideas
down our throats without any community input (see 2009's 2nd Street
Bike Plan for an example that we thankfully beat back as a consortium
of neighbors an businesses in South Beach, Rincon Hill, and South
Park). Trust me, most folks working for the City and County of San
Francisco hate the fact that neighborhood groups, groups made up of
the tax-paying residents who are the ultimate employers of City/County
workers, have any sway in the decisions on how our $6.4 billion annual
budget is spent each year. We have a Supervisor election this year,
and we must support candidates who we have no doubt have only one
interest - representing the neighborhoods of his or her District in
City Hall and aren't just running as an opportunistic stepping stone
to their next political gig.
Okay ... breathe deeply .... ahhhh ...
Volunteers needed for Sunday Streets on March 14th! The Rincon Hill
Neighborhood Association, South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood
Association, South Beach NERT, and other community groups are going to
host informational tables at the March 14th Sunday Streets running
along The Embarcadero from 10am until 3pm. We'd love to have you
volunteer to help us with the tabling - we'll be telling fellow SoMa
waterfront residents about the community groups and opportunities to
get more involved in our community. Please email me at
Rinco...@gmail.com if you'd like to help out with tabling on Sunday,
March 14th.
Our good friend Anne Marie Engel, Social Committee chair for the South
Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Associaiton and founder of
Flourish (http://www.flourishtoday.com) is hosting a Lifestyle
Bootcamp for Professional Women at the Embarcadero YMCA on March 20,
2010 from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. You can register online at
http://www.eventsbot.com/events/eb431632612 or first learn more by
visiting http://www.flourishtoday.com or calling 415-846-7287 or
emailing contact -at- flourishtoday.com
I'm happy to let you know that a new cafe that will be open from 7am
until 11pm daily opened their doors today at 690 Mission Street (near
3rd Street). It is called The Grove, and they have a pretty nice place
for you to get breakfast, sandwiches, salads, drinks (coffee, wine,
fruit drinks), ice cream, and other goodies at pretty reasonable
prices. Let's hope they keep those awesome hours - especially on the
weekends!
Sorry for the very long email ... so much going on these days ....
Have a great week,
Jamie Whitaker
President
Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association
www.RinconHill.org