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Yearly Archives: 2010
Posted inFood Systems, Neighborhoods
A farm blossoms in Hayes Valley where a freeway once cast a dominating shadow
Neighborhood rallies to site of collapsed freeway two decades after Loma Prieta earthquake
In 1990, Madeline Behrens-Brigham and Russell Pritchard opened art boutiques in a crime-ridden section of Hayes Valley. They called their part of the neighborhood, from Laguna Street to Market Street, the “Tenderloin of the ’90s.”
“It was only 20 years ago that you’d drive down Octavia Boulevard and on all corners it was prostitutes everywhere, like the Tenderloin is now,” Pritchard said.
The self-proclaimed neighborhood activists were barely making rent. They began attending meetings between Caltrans and city officials, petitioning to get the Central Freeway taken down. The double-deck structure had crumbled in the October 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and laid fallow for two years.
Posted inLaw & Justice, Social Justice, Social Services
Former women prisoners face longer odds staying out after aid programs slashed
Rehabilitation taking backseat to punishment
By the time Sunshine Schmidt was 19, her rebellious streak led her to prison in Wisconsin for violating probation on a forgery charge. But it was just the beginning of her troubled young adulthood. As she tells it, the uncaring reaction from a criminal justice system on autopilot put her back in prison for minor violations, only driving her further into the life of small-time crime as she racked up drug and theft-related charges.
“Every time, I was released back into homelessness or an abusive partner,” she said. “I didn’t have the resources or tools to get back on my feet.”
It was only three years ago, after leaving a California prison at age 27, that Schmidt was able to pursue legitimate jobs and an education. After living in transitional housing, she became a client of Way-Pass, a City College of San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that helps female ex-prison inmates adjust to everyday life.
Posted inArts & Culture, Community, Neighborhoods
Fund to boost Mid-Market Street cultural district has money but few takers
Small arts groups can’t come up with capital to lease property
An $11 million city fund to create a mid-Market Street cultural district so far has yielded one government loan—to a restaurant—while dozens of small performing arts groups cannot take advantage of the program because of their limited financial resources.
Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the Central Market Cultural District Loan Fund in January as a way to support and concentrate arts groups to bring life back to the city’s long-depressed central corridor. Mid-Market stretches from Fifth to 10th streets on Market Street and from Mason to Larkin streets and up to O’Farrell Street in the Tenderloin, according to the city loan guidelines.
Posted inEconomy & Business, Food Systems, Government & Politics, Labor, Media, Social Justice
New ‘Distress Index’ shows San Francisco’s economic pain is getting worse
New tool finds that recession started earlier in Bay Area
Some economists and business groups say the Great Recession is over, but how do communities really know whether they’re moving out of the recession or falling behind?
A ground-breaking new tool that measures the real-world impact of the recession is providing answers. It shows that in San Francisco, at least, the worst downturn in 70 years isn’t just continuing — it may be getting worse.
The new San Francisco Distress Index, which assembles 11 types of monthly economic indicators such as foreclosure rates and food pantry visits, has risen 11 percent since June 2009 — the month when, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. recession supposedly bottomed out.
Posted inTransportation
Bike sharing technologies on display in San Francisco
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency sponsored demonstrations Friday at Civic Center Plaza to promote a new high-tech way of renting and sharing bikes in the city. The bike sharing pilot program is expected to launch in the of spring 2012 with 500 bikes deployed around the city.
Posted inNews
City struggles to move beyond piecemeal approach to earthquake retrofitting
Thousands of structures in city in need of seismic work
San Francisco’s piecemeal approach to seismic retrofitting took a big hit when voters rejected a $46 million bond to retrofit affordable housing and residential hotels. This was the third time in as many years that the city sought the ability to borrow money to fix structures that were most vulnerable to a major earthquake.
Advocates say this measure’s passage could saved the lives of some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. But seismic safety experts argue it was only a fraction of what is needed to prevent widespread building collapses when the next big quake strikes.
While this year’s bond measure, Proposition A, could have saved as many as 156 buildings, the city has identified at least another 2,700 similar structures that are not covered by any retrofit program.
Posted inCity Hall, News
Board delays picking new mayor until January
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors decided to put off nominating and picking an interim mayor until early January.
On a 8-3 vote on Tuesday, the board delayed any decision to nominate Mayor Gavin Newsom’s successor until at least Jan. 4, 2011, the day after Newsom is scheduled to be sworn in as the state’s lieutenant governor.
The Jan. 4 meeting would be the last meeting of the current board before four new members take office.
Posted inNews
Discharged gay veterans sue government for reinstatement
Three military veterans who were discharged under the "don’t ask, don’t tell" law, filed a lawsuit against the government Monday in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco asking to be reinstated in the military and for the court to declare that the ban on gays in the military is unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed […]
Posted inNews
Experiencing holiday gifts in a whole new way
Gretchen Wustrack’s family asked her for a Christmas list. But like many people, she found herself thinking,”I didn’t know what I wanted. I have enough stuff, and so do they.”
Rather than come up with a handful of half-hearted suggestions, Wustrack, a San Francisco designer, asked her family if they would consider exchanging experiential gifts – classes, tickets or certificates for new, hands-on experiences.
The Wustrack family has been trading experiences ever since, and this summer Gretchen and her long-time friend Lisa Carey, a Bay Area native and marketing consultant, decided to take experiential gifts to the public.