Final Park Planning Meeting; To Haiti With Love Charity Event at Cocoon Urban Day Spa
Jamie Whitaker - RHNA President
Hello from slightly warmer Los Angeles where I am hanging out with the
California Society of Municipal Finance Officers at the Biltmore for
the next two days. Sadly, I will miss a couple of good events related
to our Rincon Hill neighborhood due to this work trip, but I wanted to
be sure to remind you of them!
The fifth and final meeting regarding the plans for the new community
park at 333 Harrison Street (at Fremont) will be this Thursday,
February 18th from 6pm until approximately 8pm at the South Beach
Harbor Services Building's Community Room (the building is right
beside the kids play area at South Beach Park, between Pier 40 and
AT&T ballpark). Open space advocates Isabel Wade and Corinne Woods
will wrap things up - and you have one last opportunity to comment on
the plans that have been put together based upon over 120 neighbors
comments and feedback over the past 3 months. I believe a dog area
and a childrens' play area for the quickly growing families that have
moved into Rincon Hill are among the popular suggestions from
neighbors that (I hope) made it into the final plans. The hope is to
be awarded some funding from the State to build the park - however, I
understand from Corinne that we're in competition with other proposals
from within the City (like a space at 17th and Folsom, I believe) and
we may need to do some good 'ole grassroots fundraising to make up for
any lack of funds to build the first true blue PUBLIC open space
within the Planning Department's Rincon Hill Plan Area (south of
Folsom, Essex to Spear basically).
Another wonderful event on Thursday, February 18th is "To Haiti with
Love," a fundraiser for the hundreds of thousands of orphans who need
our help in Haiti. Our friends at Cocoon Urban Day Spa (330 First
Street, second floor) are hosting this fundraiser starting at 7pm
which includes music, food, drinks, and a silent auction with a
donation at the door of $20 (proceeds will go to benefit orphanages in
Haiti). Also helping with the effort are our friends at Local Kitchen
& Wine Merchant (also at 330 First Street, first floor), Slide Lounge,
and Polk Street Gym.
To those of you who have contacted me in the past to ask about what we
can do to try to get the City to modify the Harrison Street sidewalk
on the north side so that baby strollers and wheelchair users can
traverse on the northern sidewalk from Fremont Street to Main Street,
I have some good news. Ken with the Mayor's Office on Disability
contacted me today and said that they would take a look and figure out
an appropriate action within 30 days. I told him that the cheap
solution may just be removing that parking meter beside the stairwell
leading down to Beale Street that limits the sidewalk space to about
22 inches. Keep your fingers crossed - I know it is an important
issue to those of you trying to keep your babies safe and stay out of
the streets while pushing their strollers to and from home and the
waterfront.
The next Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association meeting is Tuesday,
March 2nd at the Sailors' Union of the Pacific building (Library
room) ... enter the main doors facing Harrison Street by first walking
up to the corner of 1st and Harrison. Michael Yarne from the Mayor's
office of Economic and Workforce Development will talk about some
legislation impacting when fees for neighborhood infrastructure are
collected along with a wonderful idea for doing something with the
empty lots (such as 399 Fremont Street) until the developers are ready
to build on those sites. We can thank John King of the San Francisco
Chronicle for initiating the latter, and there are some very neat
ideas for urban tree nurseries and biofuel research on the table for
399 Fremont Street right now - we'll hear about those from another
speaker (Steve K. ... forgetting his last name as I type this).
Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/RinconHill and join us
on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RinconHill
Happy Lunar New Year! (Don't forget the big Chinese New Year parade is
coming up on Saturday, 2/27!)
jamie whitaker
president
rincon hill neighborhood association