October 2012Short CutsPolice In a continuing effort to reduce muggings on the Hill, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) will be fielding plain clothes officers in the neighborhood from midnight to 2 a.m., staffed by young, energetic, cops…After more than eight car break-ins around Skool, located on Alameda Street, during dining hours — which had the restaurant owner tearing out his hair — SFPD, led by Officer Sue Lavin, arrested a suspect. There hasn’t been any incidences since.
It turns out that the mysterious white powder sprinkled throughout Potrero Hill last month by a jogger marked a running trail for a local Hash House Harriers group (September “Short Cuts”). The Harriers are “an international drinking club with a running problem,” according to a 20-year member who recently moved to the Hill from London. “H3” was started in the late-1940s in Kuala Lumpur. A group of ex-patriots wanted to do something more than meet up for a rugby scrimmage and a few pints. They formed a running club at a bar called the Hash House. Today, at each Hash a “hare” is chosen to set a trail; the “hounds” try to find the hare by following the clues. Along the way there might be beer — and shot — stops, false trails, turnarounds, and runners — men and women alike — dressed in red dresses. After the run, the group meets at a designated Hash House to drink and sing bawdy songs — along the lines of “Me no like you... soldier" and "Free beer for all the Hashers" — and accuse their fellow runners of misdemeanors. The accused defends by drinking a beer “down, down, down;” any leftover beer in the glass is spilled over their head. Hashes are now held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. The View’s publisher ran several when he was in Senegal, and Hill resident Mike Holland recently participated in a Hash in Munich. And that white stuff? It’s flour, which is biodegradable.
Mariposa Street residents Rod Minott, Kepa Askenasy, and Arcadia Smails — organized under The Neighborhood Coalition to Save Lower Potrero Hill — are calling on the City to re-evaluate whether two steel-clad industrial buildings located at 1200 and 1210 17th Street merit historic preservation. The Coalition believes that the Planning Department relied on an historic evaluation report prepared by Page & Turnbull that was biased and fact challenged. Walden Development wants to construct housing and space for Kaiser Permanente on the site….not far away, in Showplace Square, food truck Papa November is competing with that ubiquitous chain to sell coffee, teas, and pastries…Airbnd is moving into 888 Brannan Street to accommodate its fast growing staff. Roughly 100 Potrero Hill properties participate in the service, which matches temporary apartments with tourists.
Since January home prices in Mission Bay and Potrero Hill have risen by eight percent or more, faster than any other neighborhood in the City. Part of the increase reflects a bounce-back from an oversupply of condominiums built in the run-up to the last recession…Randy “Surreal Neil” Cordero — who lives in Dogpatch with his wife and a Siberian husky — fronts the Neil Diamond tribute band “Super Diamond.” In a recent San Francisco Chronicle interview Cordero named his favorite neighborhood hang-outs, including breakfast eatery Just for You, gourmet pizzeria Piccino, Serpentine, Dogpatch Saloon, and ice creamery Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous…
The Sisters Brothers, a fine novel partially set in Gold Rush San Francisco, describes some of the City’s timeless qualities: “You must understand, gentlemen,” says one character, “that the tradition of thrift and sensible spending has vanished here. It simply does not exist anymore. For example, when I arrived this last time from working my claim I had a sizable sack of gold dust, and though I knew it was lunacy I decided to sit down and have a large dinner in the most expensive restaurant I could find…so it was that I ate a decent-sized, not particularly tasty meal of meat and spuds and ale and ice cream, and for this repast, which would have put me back perhaps a half a dollar in my hometown, I paid the sum of thirty dollars in cash.” “Charlie was disgusted, “Only a moron would pay that.” “I agree, said the man, One hundred percent I agree. And I am happy to welcome you to a town peopled by morons exclusively. Furthermore, I hope your transformation to moron is not an unpleasant experience.” Thirty dollars buys you a much tastier meal today, but take a walk down Valencia Street, or visit an upscale South-of-Market club, and you’ll find hundreds of Internet miners eager to hand over their sacks of cash for short bursts of pleasures that would cost a fraction of the amount in many a home town…
The owner of the American Industrial Center, Angelo Markoulis, died last month. Markoulis immigrated to the United States from a ravaged Greece shortly after World War II, with only the shirt on his back and an unending drive to build a legacy in his heart. He’s survived by his wife of 64 years, six children, thirteen grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and a brother.
|
This Month's StoriesSchool District Denies K-8 School at International Studies Academy Campus Kaiser Permanente Floats Revised Plans for Proposed Development City Budget Discussed at Town Hall Meeting Mariposa-Utah Street Neighborhood Association Challenges Development San Francisco Board of Supervisors Hosts Hearing on MTA Parking Plans Smashburger Replaces Blockbuster at Potrero Center on 16th Street Third Street Police Station to be Rented Hill Resident Helps LGBT Seniors SF Shines Brings Façade Improvements to Bayview As Neighborhood Transforms, Bayview-Hunters Point Still Plagued By Trash Bayview Professor Goes to Harvard Dogpatch Wine Bar Gets Trivial Thieves Repeatedly Steal “Safe and Clean Zone” Fence at McKinley Square Frameline37 Film Festival Features Potrero Hill Filmmakers The French Set-up Shop in Potrero Two New Officers Keep the Beat On-going FeaturesPublisher's View: Middle School
 |