Welcome to Westside Observer
Articles from the November Issue
HARDING PARK: Neglected, Re-built — now Raided!
by Former Supervisor Tony Hall
Rebuilding Harding Park into one of the finest Municipal golf courses in the country is a major achievement San Franciscans should be truly proud of, but unfortunately where opportunities to defraud the public are possible, in this fine City, they are inevitable. The financial shell game afoot at Harding will require more than the usual public scrutiny.
CITY CAR OWNERS PAY FOR MASS-TRANSIT
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) plan to increase parking meter operation hours throughout San Francisco has been tabled — at least for the time being.
Nathaniel Ford, SFMTA’s executive director has said the agency will “discuss the plan extensively before moving forward.” Hasn’t the SFMTA paid attention to the citizen revolt that just overturned extending parking meter hours in Oakland? Is Ford not paying attention?
Proposition A
Local Ballot Measure Falls Short of Reform
While Proposition A, titled “Budget Reform,” takes a few steps toward changing the current process by which our city’s annual budget is decided, it falls far short of the reforms necessary to address our city’s long-term fiscal health.
Prop. A would establish a rolling two-year budget process to replace the current one-year cycle. It would also require a five-year financial plan and a certification by the city controller that San Francisco has enough money to pay its contracts. Additionally, it provides that all labor agreements be approved before the beginning of the fiscal year.
Who’s Going to Control Where Density Goes?
Beyond Discretionary Review
As I’ve written before for the Observer, single family homes are viewed in some urban planning circles as an historic anomaly. Our neighborhoods consume more of everything that’s becoming scarce and unhealthy. We hear it from government officials and Planners and we hear it from SPUR and the SF Housing Action Coalition; we take up too much space with our low-density housing. We drive our cars too many miles as we shop at our grocery stores and shopping malls that waste space providing free parking lots. We produce too much carbon exhaust from our cars and our inefficient single family homes with so few people living in them. We demand parking be included with every living unit and fight every reduction in space for parking our cars. We hear it now and the chorus will just get louder, more frequent and damning with State and Federal legislation that has passed.
News from the West of Twin Peaks Central Council
Council President George Wooding introduced the new SFPD Chief to the audience. As Gascón had a limited timeframe, he took the floor and addressed the 35 or so meeting attendees for about 40 minutes touching on topics such as illegal immigration, car impoundment, local problems involving marijuana growing houses, and his take on the culture since taking over the SFPD.
Gascón, formerly the Chief of Police in Mesa, AZ (3 years), and before that a member of the Los Angeles Police Department (28 years), started by giving an overview of the recent reorganization of the SFPD. He stated that the goal of the reorganization is to improve the quality of service at the neighborhood level, primarily improving the investigation side.
GRAND OPENING: STONESTOWN FARMERS
MARKET
BUSINESS CORNER
Que Syrah – Bringing the wines of the world to the neighborhood
Imagine a place where soft lighting beckons you to step out of the mist and into a small store where the aroma of fine wines and cheeses wafts through the air. Inside, the seating is comfortable and inviting. As you look at the tasting selection menu there are wines from all over the world produced by some of the finest “small batch” wineries. Is it a dream? No, it is Que Syrah, a terrific “neighborhood destination” just down the block, located at 230 West Portal Avenue.
Around the Town
From the Publisher’s Desk…
Parking, Police changes and more … the issue of parking is still a hot topic. At the WOTPCC meeting on Monday, 10/26 the proposed meter extensions were discussed. It looks like the MTA is planning to extend West Portal Avenue until 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 11-6 on Sunday. They’re saying it’s about the need to have more rotation of the available parking spaces, and making the meters run longer will do that. It seems to this desk, that revenue has a whole lot to do with it.
REMEMBER WHEN
Mysterious Photo of Houses and Sandunes in the Sunset
Photo courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
Notation: "Houses and Sandunes in the Sunset District"
More Articles of Interest in the November Issue
Thanks for reading the Westside Observer!
Articles from the October Issue
Laguna Honda’s Unkindest Cut
by Patrick Monette-Shaw
Efforts underway to de-skill Laguna Honda Hospital’s (LHH) doctors and certified nursing assistants is the unkindest cut of all: Cutting medical care. De-skilling nursing home staff often precipitates a slide into substandard healthcare.
Big Changes Evident at SFPD
On September 16th 2009 a group met for the first time at Ingleside station. This group is made up of involved citizens and is charged with advising the management of the station on the implementation of recommendations to modernize the department and improve community –police interaction. These changes are based on recommendations by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).
Raiding the Parking Meters
San Francisco’s new parking rates — higher parking ticket fines, new holiday parking rates and enforcement, and planned increases in parking meter operation hours — along with SF’s higher sales tax (at 9.5%), pack a double wallop hurting neighborhood businesses, shoppers, drivers, and neighbors.
OBSERVATIONS AND PREDICTIONS
...we have repeatedly been told that parking enforcement is all about the turnover of available parking spaces for customers of small businesses, and the encouragement of public transportation usage. Nothing could be further from the truth! Parking enforcement in San Francisco is first, foremost and last, only about the accumulation of revenue, revenue that is then poured into more useless and politically motivated programs that require more and more money to fund with no apparent end in sight or common benefit to be achieved.
News from the West of Twin Peaks Central Council 
The West of Twin Peaks Central Council (WOTPCC) ended their summer hiatus on Monday, September 28th with their first meeting under the newly elected leadership. George Wooding officially took the reins as President, succeeding Dan Dutil, who remains of the board as Vice President. Carolyn Squeri, Treasurer, Rae Doyle, Secretary and Avrum Shepherd as Parliamentarian round out the council board. Council President Wooding opened the meeting at 7:30 PM in front of a large crowd of about 35 attendees. The minutes from the July meeting were approved and Squeri gave the Treasurer’s report that was also approved by the group.
GRAND OPENING AT THE STONESTOWN FARMERS MARKET
On Sunday October 18th, the Stonestown Galleria and Marin Farmers Markets (MFM) will host a Grand Opening Celebration in honor of the new Stonestown Farmers Market.
Farmers market shoppers, local public officials, and community group representatives will join the Stonestown Galleria and MFM’s farmers, food purveyors, and artists for a pumpkin cutting ceremony at 11 am. Throughout the day, market-goers will enjoy lively entertainment, special market give-aways, and market tours with Life’s Ingredients.
BUSINESS CORNER
Dr. L. Bruce Mebine O.D. and Associates
Safeguarding your vision for almost 60 Years!
Most people would agree that the ability to see, hear and speak are the three most important senses and tools that we possess. Yet, how often do most of us consider the impact that a loss or reduction in these abilities would have on our day-to-day lives? It seems that until there is a problem, we take these abilities for granted, usually without a second thought.
Around the Town
Parking, parking and more expensive parking… the issue of parking was the hot topic at the quarterly meeting of the San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations, held on the 21st of September at Clay Oven. Over 40 merchants from across the city attended the meeting to hear Supervisor Sean Elsbernd give an update on an MTA (Municipal Transit
Authority) plan to extend the hours for parking meters.
REMEMBER WHEN
Mysterious Photo of West Portal
Photo courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
Written underneath: “Home Building following completion
of Twin Peaks tunnel.”
More Articles of Interest in the September Issue
Montessori School is 33 Years Young!
Are You Prepared for An Earthquake?
Smuin Ballet Launches 2009 Season
Thanks for reading the Westside Observer!
Articles from the September Issue
Parkmerced: Imagines A Better Future
"The experts are confident they will be able to reduce potable water consumption and energy consumption by more than 60% per dwelling and daily car trips by more than 50% per dwelling.
Just as significantly, Parkmerced will be employing natural filtration and bio-swales to recapture rainwater – diverting it from the sewer system – and directly re-charge Lake Merced..."
When my parents brought me home from St. Mary’s Hospital, exactly 40 summers ago, they squeezed me into their uncomfortable little apartment at Parkmerced. Even in 1969, this cookie-cutter community on the southwest corner of San Francisco was long past its heyday.
Laguna Honda Hospital's Identity Crisis
"Meanwhile, longtime frail San Franciscans in their 80’s with multiple medical problems or advanced dementia who need a facility like LHH cannot get in, and are being dumped out-of-county because LHH is busy delivering care to younger folks who need “behavioral” care."
Just four months before construction of Laguna Honda Hospital’s new buildings are scheduled to be completed, and just eight months before it’s scheduled to move into its new digs, LHH continues to face an unresolved identity crisis involving what services it will deliver (and to whom), and an elusive, evolving mission statement.
Decaying Streets of San Francisco
San Francisco voters should celebrate the downfall of placing a $368 million general obligation bond measure on the November 3 municipal ballot that had been proposed to repair City streets.
SPUR Displays More Than Change
SPUR, (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) has been having a series of panel discussions to coincide with the “Agents of Change; Civic Idealism & the Making of San Francisco” exhibition. The exhibition creates a time line of “agents” that have been instrumental in developing or stopping development in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The exhibit, put together by Benjamin Grant, Urban Designer, San Jose State lecturer and resident of the Mission district is on display through November 15th 2009 at the SPUR Urban Center.
The"1909" Cliff
House Celebrates 100 Years
To celebrate 100 years of serving locals and tourists alike in the landmark restaurant, General Manager Ralph Burgin and the team at the Cliff House are offering customers several reasons to stop by and celebrate like it’s “1909” again. For a limited time, each Tuesday and Wednesday will be special at the Cliff House for lunch or dinner.
The Mayor of San Francisco
Bud Wilson was a well known face on West Portal, “He was a powerhouse on the street,” said Joan Girardot, long-time community activist for Public Utilities issues. “I always loved to collect signatures with Bud because everyone knew and trusted him. I was amazed that everyone would stop and talk to him, sometimes standing in queues to sign-up. It was easy to get a hundred signatures or more in an hour.” Bud joined Girardot’s campaign to lower water and sewer rates when he wasn’t busy working on the other causes he continued to champion, even as his health deteriorated.
Money Matters…
What to consider when considering a financial advisor
As a professional in the financial services industry I am often asked questions concerning financial planning. I am pleased to be able to share my views in the Westside Observer writing about financial matters. In each article I will discuss one of the many topics concerning personal and business finance.
In this inaugural column, let’s examine a question that many of you could find yourself asking: “Should you seek a financial advisor to help you meet your financial goals?” If yes, what should you look for?
Real Travel For Real People
Venice: Happy Birthday To Me
Returning to Venice is like meeting an old friend, arms outstretched, a great big hug, a slight brush on the cheek and a warm hello. Venice, where the pigeons outnumber the people and the people are the biggest pigeons of all and where our checkbook is sinking faster than those grand old buildings innocently resting on rotting piles.
Saturday, the 18th, was my birthday and we arose to a beautifully sunny, clear day. After meeting some very dear friends in front of St. Mark's we were picked up by private water taxi and spent the next 3 hours sightseeing along the lagoon, stopping off at Harry's latest cafe for Bellini and delicious pastries.
All About Sunscreens
We’ve come a long way since the days when it was common to apply baby oil to our skin and lay out at the beach or pool with aluminum reflectors to help us achieve that prized bronze tan. What could we have possibly been thinking? Nowadays the sun’s rays are well understood to be a major cause of skin cancers and premature aging. That beautiful, sexy tan has turned into leathery, spotted and wrinkled skin—if only we had known.
Around the Town
How did it get to be September so quickly? It seems like the summer has just flown by, and here we are in the fall of 2009.
With 2010 on the horizon it is amazing to me to think that it’s been 40 years since Apollo 11 made the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong descending the ladder with “One small step for man…” on July 20, 1969. I was a teenager sitting in Baltimore watching on TV and never imagining that I would be living and working in San Francisco.
Oddly enough, a local store also opened in 1969. Located at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Fairfield Way, this small store, selling records, tapes and blue jeans was originally named, “Pants and Discs”, but the owners soon changed the name, and retail history was made when The Gap was launched.
REMEMBER WHEN
View of Mount Davidson from Twin Peaks, 1915–1925
Photo courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
Written on back: “late 1910s early 1920s; Mt. Davidson in 192?; note windmill + farm - houses near French Man’s Creek.”
More Articles of Interest in the September Issue
Open Late: Cartoons By Julie Behn
Political Cartoonist Doug Comstock
Thanks for reading the Westside Observer!
Articles from the July-August Issue
Parkmerced May Meet Its Match
The Highly Acclaimed Thomas Church Design Falls Prey to Ongoing Development
Preservationists are a hardy bunch, used to unexpected developments in the course of their work, but rarely surprised by the constant parade of new plans for old buildings (or the building’s site). But one project on the boards makes even the seasoned professionals gasp: a plan to remove 170 two-story houses and clear nearly 116 acres in San Francisco, including an extensive landscape plan created by Thomas Dolliver Church, the celebrated founder of modern residential landscape design in the United States.
Fresh and Fruity Farmers Market at Stonestown
A beautiful sunny day came with the opening of the Farmers Market at Stonestown. There were concession stands with every variety of vegetable, fruit, berry, melon imaginable, as well as local home-baked goods, great hummus and ethnic foods, flowers, orchids, cheeses, eggs, honey, homemade ravioli along with enough samples to make a meal. For the Kids there were bouncy rooms and pony rides. This will happen every week, according to organizers.
With so many eaters celebrating the perks of locally grown food, it’s no surprise that every neighborhood is calling out for its very own farmers market. However there is one piece of the puzzle that eaters sometimes forget—farmers.
Tellin' It Like It Is
About two weeks after his re-election as Mayor, Gavin Newsom started ramping up his impressive PR machine and started blowing about the enormous deficit that is to impact our City budget. This was a very clever and necessary political move for him and granted, somewhat risky, because in reality his statements ran counter to the windfalls of the day that should have been giving our treasury a surplus.
Let me explain.
Save San Francisco’s Fire Stations
The Board of Supervisors has proposed budget reductions that would force the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) to close up 12 of its 42 fire stations. After intense negotiations, the SFFD will probably be closing at least three fire stations.
On June 1, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors received Mayor Newsom’s balanced budget proposal for Fiscal Year ’09–’10. The Board was “angered” Newsom proposed slashing support for the City’s Recreation and Park Department, and the Department of Public Health, by 12%–20%, in order to propose 3%–6% increases to public safety agencies such as the Fire, Police and Sheriff’s Departments.
Laguna Honda Hospital: Pot-bellies v. Beds?
One outcome of California Pacific Medical Center’s (CPMC) plans to close three of its San Francisco hospitals and build its new Cathedral Hill hospital on Van Ness Avenue, is that the lack of planning for skilled nursing beds in San Francisco has become painfully evident.
There are multiple failures to plan thoughtfully. In March 2005, then-Health Commission president Lee Ann Monfredini requested that Director of Public Health Mitch Katz update his 1998 White Paper regarding needs for long-term care skilled nursing facility (SNF) beds. Now four years later, Dr. Katz hasn’t produced an updated report. In May 1997 the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California authored its San Francisco Nursing Facility Bed Study, which now hasn’t been updated in twelve years. Both studies predicted San Francisco faced a potential 4,207 SNF-bed deficit by 2020, but a number of their assumptions proved false.
Business Corner: Ken Topping Home Improvements
Remodeling the Westside of SF for 55 years!
In this day and age, businesses come and go, and this is especially true in the Bay Area, where the cost of real estate has skyrocketed over the past 30 years or so. So when you find a business that is celebrating its’ 55th year in business you know it is one where the owners and staff concentrate on meeting the needs and expectations of their customers.
Ken Topping Home Improvements is a perfect example of a well-run business that puts their customer’s needs first. Run by Ken Topping and Kathy St. Clair, KTHI focuses on interior home remodeling, from kitchens and bathrooms, to family rooms, home offices and entertainment areas.
News from the West of Twin Peaks Central Council
State Senator Leland Yee was the first of two esteemed speakers for the evening. The Senator briefed the attendees on the budget debate in Sacramento centering on the $24 billion shortfall that California is facing due to decreased revenues in corporate taxes, sales taxes and property taxes.
Yee outlined the fact that the economy is struggling throughout the world and this has a major impact on the State, as we are a large exporter of goods and services. He painted the picture as it has progressed over several years as sales of luxury goods have been dropping, which points to less disposable income, which translates to less sales tax and dollars generated for individual and business tax returns. For the first time, the State initiated mid-year budget cuts in 2008, cutting the budget by $7 billion.
New Feature: Real Travel For Real People
There’s A First Time For Everything
If it takes a State House full of crooked politicians and a bunch of home grown gangsters to run a city then San Francisco should take notice and follow suit. It works great in Chicago and as I’ve said many times before Chicago is a beautiful city, clean, well maintained and full of very nice people and where pedestrians always have the right of way. Homelessness does not exist and graffiti is not to be seen. We’re here for a short stay, just long enough for Karen to spend the day with our granddaughter Katie at the American Girl Place. A 10th birthday present that fit in very well with Spring Break.
Around the Town
Do you know the way to San Jose…Or West Portal Avenue?
Apparently some people don’t. Ursula, owner of the White Rose Boutique on West Portal Ave. reports that several people have visited her store and asked her “How long have you been open?” and are amazed when she replies “Twenty Years.” She asks if they are in the neighborhood, and they acknowledge that they are.
West Portal Avenue is a great street, but can be hard to find for the “newbe,” or someone who hasn’t been there before. One end has the Muni tunnel, and the other an intersection that “may have been designed by Rube Goldberg” – who was famous for his convoluted mechanical solutions to simple problems.
REMEMBER WHEN
Forest Hill March 3, 1945
Cameraman Eddie Murphy, who took this picture, describes it in
the following poetic words: ‘A bit of Forest Hill from the grounds
of Laguna Honda Home, with Dewey-blvd
angling off to the left and the top of Forest Hill Station hiding
shyly in the trees at the bottom, lower right.’ (Gosh, you’d never
think Eddie had such fancy thoughts in him!)”.
More Articles of Interest in the July/August Issue
Open Late: Cartoons By Julie Behn
Political Cartoonist Doug Comstock
New Book by Local Author Manfred Wolf
Thanks for
reading the Westside Observer!
Articles from the June Issue
Death, Taxes, and Your Morning Shower
San Francisco’s new water and wastewater rate increases should be added to the ancient proverb, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” More certain than death,is certainty of taxation and fees.
Between July 2009 and July 2014, San Francisco single-family residential water and wastewater rates and water service charges will increase an astronomical 61% per household. The average residential bill for water and wastewater is currently $63.16 monthly for a household averaging 7 units of water monthly. One unit of water equals 748 gallons of water. The same house, maintaining its same water usage, will pay $101.45 monthly by July 2014 — a $38.29 monthly fee increase, a staggering $459.48 annual increase!
Mayor’s Cuts Are Taxpayers’ Disaster 
The 25 percent budget cut proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom would make it impossible for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office to carry out its mission of providing legal representation to the 24,000 people the office is assigned to represent each year.
Budget cuts would result in the lay-off of attorneys and staff that would force the office to withdraw from representing as many as 6,000 cases. The Public Defender’s Office and appointed attorneys represent 90 percent of San Franciscans accused of crimes. If the Public Defender’s Office cannot handle cases due to insufficient staff, the cases must be referred to private attorneys at a greater cost to the city.
Quentin Kopp
Where’s the Brotherhood?
The lessons are clear: present day bureaucrats care little for San Francisco’s brotherly history West of Twin Peaks and care equally less about fine points of the code under which they operate. Compliance with the Planning Code rests mostly on citizen vigilance at City Hall — and that is difficult in the lives of everyday people, working and otherwise. While even as a retired judge in the Assigned Judges Program, the Code of Judicial Ethics precludes comment directly about non-judicial matters, exceptions exist in instances of neighborhood issues, I can participate and have done so, because it affects my Lakeshore Acres neighborhood and my synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel-Judea. And I have been pleased to do so with all the religious and educational representatives of theBrotherhood Way Coalition, which will continue to insist upon probity of the Planning Department and the Zoning Administrator, hoping that the Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors and City Attorney will do likewise.
Why Plan?
What is the Housing Element & Where is it taking us?
In 1969 the State Legislature passed a bill mandating that local governments “adequately plan to meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community”. In recent times San Francisco did a Housing Element (HE) in 1990 and then didn’t update it till 2004. The 2004 HE was controversial and although it was accepted by the State’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) it was never enforced because of a lawsuit brought by neighborhood groups over the lack of an environmental impact report (EIR). When the City filed the document in 2004 they stated that all impacts could be “mitigated” and therefore no EIR was required. The courts said that an EIR was needed so the EIR is actually in process at this time. Also at this time the City is writing the 2009 HE.
Herrera Should Get Serious About Sunshine
Our public-records laws are broken. When we need information from the City, it’s far from certain that we will get it. Many citizens are learning the hard way that the law may be on their side, but enforcement has been left to the good faith efforts of the Ethics Commission. The commission, relying on advice from the City Attorney, has dismissed every alleged violation since San Francisco voters passed Prop G (Sunshine) in 1999 by a 16 point margin. In truth, the enforcement of the law is based on decisions made behind the City Attorney’s closed doors.
BUSINESS CORNER
Baby Street…for Babies on the Go!
Sunlight and bright colors greet you as you walk into the door at Baby Street. The store, located at 207 West Portal Avenue has windows on 2 sides, which helps to create a bright, cheerful environment. The colorful baby/child accessories welcome you in. Baby Street is not a typical kids accessory store. “We are primarily a store that carries specialty baby carrier bags,” says Al Picache. The walls and tables are lines with bags that look like fashionable purses and shoulder bags, certainly not like the baby carrier or diaper bags that most of us grew up with.
News from the West of Twin Peaks Central Council
May Meeting
A lengthy discussion on “Secondary Units” was conducted as the Board of Supes is trying to enact legislation that would amend the planning code to legalize some units. Although the intent is in the Market/Octavia corridor, the blanket legislation would be felt over the entire city. Dave Bisho feels this is a “crack in the dam” and is bad legislation that the WOTPCC has opposed over the years. It is estimated that up to 30,000 illegal secondary units exist currently in the city...
...Three speakers rounded out the presentations for the evening: Sandra Holliday discussed the wealth of San Francisco State University Creative Arts programs that are available to the public at little or no cost. Theatre, Music, Film, Lecture, and other programs are presented throughout the year. The Westside Observer will work with SF State to highlight these events in the future.
