BBBC Second Saturday; Graffiti Watch Training; 333 Harrison Park Meeting
Jamie Whitaker - RHNA President
It was great to see about 35 neighbors at Tuesday's Rincon Hill
Neighborhood Association meeting. If you have not had the opportunity
yet to do so, please be sure to visit the 333 Harrison Street Park
website at http://www.harrisonstreetpark.com and fill out the online
survey if you have not filled out a paper survey at one of the two
community meetings already ( http://www.harrisonstreetpark.com/survey.shtml
).
The next planning meeting for the 333 Harrison Street Park site is
Saturday, January 23, 2010 from 10:30am until Noon (unless cancelled
due to rains). The meeting is actually a site visit at 333 Harrison
Street. The lot owners, Caltrans, will open it up for community
members to get their feet on the dirt of the future neighborhood park
space. Mark your calendar!
BBBC's second Saturday clean up of our future dog park (and
opportunity for dog owners to bring their well-behaved dogs for some
off-leash play time) is this Saturday (1/9/2010) at the NW corner of
Beale and Bryant Streets from 9:00 am until about 11:30am. Marty is
unavailable to open the space, but thankfully Bob Finnell will open
the gates up to allow your dogs some time to run all out and play with
other neighborhood dogs. Help us do some very minor lot maintenance
(primarily some new weeds from the past rains and cooler weather)
while there (or not - helping is optional, building community is most
important). Gloves, rakes, and garbage bags will all be supplied
thanks to San Francisco's Department of Public Works Adopt-A-Street
Program. Remember – Dog owners are legally responsible for their dog
(s) and any damage and/or injury caused by their dog(s).
On another volunteer track, the Department of Public Works is
providing Graffiti Watch Program Training this Saturday. For
information on Saturday’s training, call 641-2600 or e-mail
volu...@sfdpw.org. Our neighbor Bob Finnell has been taking care of
Bryant Street from 3rd Street east to the waterfront in addition to
having a full-time professional job and raising a family ... he's made
time to contribute to the community, and I'm hopeful others will try
to do so as well to help remove graffiti and trash in Rincon Hill and
nearby quickly. See the Graffiti Watch team's results in photos in
this posting: http://rinconhillneighbors.org/2010/01/graffiti-watch-program-training/
Today's Chronicle has an article (
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/07/BATE1BF53K.DTL
) about the California High-Speed Rail Authority still acting in a
contentious manner in regards to where the high-speed rail train will
terminate in downtown San Francisco. Varnish Fine Art is closing its
doors on January 15th (on Natoma off of 2nd Street) because it and
about 25 other businesses and 26 residential units are already being
eminent domained and demolished for the 1999-voter approved Caltrain
Extension from 4th and King Streets to the 1st and Mission Streets
Transbay Transit Center. While hardly anyone believes a second train
station, in addition to Caltrain at the Transbay Transit Center, would
be built along Beale Street between Harrison and Mission Streets, the
remote possibility harms the marketability of 424 residential units in
Rincon Hill and South Beach. I went to the CHSRA Board meeting
yesterday and, during public comments, asked the CHSRA Board to cease
further consideration of the Beale Street Alternative as soon as
possible. Curt Pringle, Mayor of Anaheim and current Chair of the
CHSRA acknowledged he's been receiving our letters from the online
petition ( http://www.My94105.com ) and said that community impacts
are considered in addition to technical feasibility when choosing a
station location. However, he made no indication that they would
eliminate the "Beale Street Alternative" from continuing consideration
despite San Francisco leaders' requests for them to take it off the
table immediately. You can modify the online petition letter if it is
too strongly worded to sign your name as-is ... http://www.My94105.com
or you could write a letter to send by postal mail to Medhi Morshed,
Executive Director, California High Speed Rail Authority, 925 L Street
Suite 1425, Sacramento, CA 95814. Thank you for helping with this
effort to relieve my and my neighbors anxieties during a time that is
already stressful due to the recession.
Some upcoming events:
South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Association meets on
Monday, January 11, 2010 from 6pm - 7pm at the South Beach Harbor
Services Building (between Pier 40 and AT&T Park) with the main topic
of Public Safety along the South of Market Waterfront. this is a good
chance to talk with neighbors and our Southern Station Police Captain
about crime issues and actions we can take to mitigate crime in our
neighborhoods.
Saturday, January 30
Supercross
Pit Party at Lot A: Noon-5pm
Main event in ballpark: 7:30-10:30pm
Estimated Attendance: 30,000
Saturday, February 6
Giants Fan Fest at AT&T Park
10am-3pm
Estimated Attendance: 20,000
Coming soon - Chinese New Year celebrations!
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RinconHill
Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RinconHill
Have a great weekend!
jamie whitaker
president
rincon hill neighborhood association
http://www.RinconHill.org