Short Cuts
Breaking Worse
One night in early October residents of the 600 block of Missouri Street and neighboring Sierra Heights were startled to hear roughly 40 rounds of automatic gunfire right outside their windows. According to San Francisco Police Department reports, shots were exchanged between the occupants of two vehicles located at the corner of 22nd and Missouri streets. Several area residents called the police during the shootings and were placed on hold for more than 10 minutes. When the police finally arrived the shooters had long sped off. Bayview Station Captain John Loftus, who last month was replaced by Captain Greg Suhr, who had been providing security for the the City’s water supply, noted that someone was injured in the exchange, but isn’t pressing charges. The exterior of one Missouri Street home was punctured by a stray bullet. Alarmed community members are scheduling a meeting with the captain to discuss the situation and how to curtail an apparent rise in gang activity and drug dealing in the area…A Hill resident was mugged last month on DeHaro, between 18th and 19th streets, in front of the Enola Maxwell Middle School at around 7.30 p.m. A Latino or Pacific-Islander man grabbed the resident and tried to force her into the bushes in front of the school. The man was about five feet, eight inches, medium build, clean shaven, with dark eyes and long dark hair tied in a pony tail that reached the middle of his back. He claimed to have a gun. The victim was robbed of cash and her cell phone, but was otherwise unharmed…Early one morning last month, a van repeatedly rammed into Center Hardware in an attempt to break into the store and steal tools and sundry items. The robbery was interrupted by a Sunset Scavenger employee, who came across the scene, causing the would-be thieves to flee. Has it come to this: ramming vans into neighborhood shops to steal hardware? We’re a long way from the artful burglaries portrayed in It Takes a Thief…Speaking of catching thieves – or at least helping to draft legislation to do so - City Attorney Dennis Herrera was identified as one of California’s “Top 100 Lawyers” by the Daily Journal, the state’s largest circulation legal newspaper. Selected from some 850 nominations among the nearly 160,000 active members of the state bar, the top attorneys represent a “snapshot of the best and brightest California and the legal professional have to offer,” according to David Houston, the Daily Journal’s editor.
Politics
State Senator Mark Leno and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano appeared at last month’s Potrero Hill Democratic Club meeting in front of roughly 50 generally rapt audience members. Both San Franciscans pointed to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican legislators, and the pernicious impacts of term limits – which, according to the pair, focuses politicians on short-term, ill-considered outcomes – for California’s current budget travails and policy constipation. A remedy they share directed at prison reform is to establish an independent sentencing commission, capable of creating sentencing guidelines outside the legislative process, which is held-up by constant fear of making the wrong decision; call it the “Willie Horton affect.” Ammiano’s support for a helipad at San Francisco General Hospital prompted much grumbling from the crowd. Leno’s bill to sell off a piece of Candlestick Point Park for housing – Bayview residents’ noisy opposition to which almost certainly played a role in prompting the senator’s appearance – didn’t cause as much verbal outrage as might have been expected from the polite attendees. And a note to Ammiano: the proper Yiddish expression isn’t a “big megillah,” in reference to the ensuing chaos that might occur as a result of significant criminal justice reform efforts, but rather the “whole megillah,” which refers to the Book of Esther, which is read in its entirety by devout Jews at Purim.
Food, Wonderful Food
The late Eliza’s Restaurant will be replaced by an eat-in/take-out eatery featuring a Greek and Turkish menu; hopefully the food won’t fight with one another over who will control Cypress…Word is that Eliza’s indeed called it quits in the middle of their lease because the owners were pooped, not, as alluded to in last month’s “Short Cuts,” due to increasing rents. And uber-upscale deli Delessio Market & Bakery is opening in the Gift Center, across from the Concourse Pavilion. What with Horatius and Whole Foods a few blocks away, Showplace Square is fast becoming a gourmet ghetto.
Economic Development
More than 11,000 San Francisco homeowners are getting $16.4 million in property tax reductions this year, after the City’s assessor-recorder determined that their properties are worth less than their assessed amount. Mission Bay and Potrero Hill accounted for the highest percentage of reductions, which is curious, given that Hill prices are down by less than 9 percent from last year, compared to a 14 percent decline in Bayview, and a 20 percent drop in Noe Valley…Zephyr Real Estate will provide $500 – and something less to a dozen runner-ups – to the winning videos that spotlight San Francisco neighborhoods. The contest invites locals to share their favorite hot spots, hangouts and other little-known treasures. Submissions are due by December 31, 2009; details at www.sfcommunityvoices.com...Lowe’s appears to be moving forward with its outlet on Bayshore Boulevard, with construction now on a fast track. The home improvement retailer plans to open its latest store by the end of next year. Nothing happens for a long time, then, bam!...Last month the California Department of Toxic Substances held a press conference at 2235 Third Street, where Martin Building Company has been provided with a $1.7 million low-interest loan to pay for lead contamination clean-up. The site – which from 1924 to 1999 was used as a scrap iron and metal yard - will soon be transformed into a 196-unit residential building, as well as retail space and a preschool…Online gaming company Zynga is moving into a waterfront building – which has been empty for more than a year – on Terry Francois Boulevard, bringing with it 150 employees. Zynga is spending roughly $35 per square foot for 137,000 square feet of offices under a four year lease…Nektar Therapeutics, Inc. will take over the Mission Bay space recently abandoned by drug giant Pfizer. Nektar plans to move its headquarters and 150 employees from San Carlos to the Central Waterfront building, which is owned by Pasadena-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. The company – which is developing pain relief, cancer, and HIV drugs – will receive four years of free rent, paying $2.95 per square foot a month starting in 2014, less than a tenth what Zynga is paying. Four years of free rent could come in handy; perhaps a similar strategy should be employed to attract small enterprises to 18th, 20th, and Third Streets, all of which have been buffeted by sour economic winds…More trauma on Missouri Street, between 18th and Mariposa streets, which was closed for several afternoon hours last month as film crews captured scenes for the television show Trauma.
