SUNSET HEIGHTS NEWSLETTER
January 2010
Sunset Heights Newsletter
THE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF SHARP WISH ALL OF OUR MEMBERS AND
NEIGHBORS A MOST HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL 2010
MINUTES OF NOVEMBER MEETING. The meeting was held at Secretary Friedlander’s Home.
The first order of business was the election of the new officers for SHARP. The candidates were President: Charles Head; Vice-President: Frank Noto; Secretary: Jeremy Freidlander: Treasurer: Chooi Eng-Grosso; and membership Chair: Dennis Minnick. Vern Waight made a motion that the panel of candidates be elected by acclimation. The motion passed and the candidates were elected.
Outgoing President Frank Noto gave a brief speech on what he had planned to accomplish during his term. First, he planned to invigorate SHARP and keep it alive going into the next decade. Second, he wanted the new SHARP building to get started. Third, he wanted to bring SHARP into the 21st century regarding its bylaws. He said that he felt the organization had mostly fulfilled two of these goals with the help of the board and members, and we had started well on the bylaws revision.
We had two speakers. The first, Alessandro Joachim of Pacific Bell spoke on the Phone Book Free association’s proposal to have telephone directories delivered only to telephone users who request them. The aim is to save a lot of paper that is now wasted on printing directories that studies have shown only 10% of us use.
This is particularly true with the growth of mobile (cellular) phone use. Since this idea is still in the concept stage, Ms. Alessandro did not know how the telephone company would know that a user wants or does not want a directory. This is one of the problems being worked out and to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. Incidentally your friendly Ma Bell offers information on telephone numbers at 411—there is a charge for each such call; it is not listed in the “white page” directory.The second speaker, Jacqueline Kazarian, was a niece of the famous author and playwright William Saroyan and grew up in Mr. Saroyan’s home on 15th Avenue.
He taught her Armenian and Turkish and always answered her questions honestly. He was very open and adored children. Besides writing books, Mr. Saroyan was the author of the Pulitzer prize-winning play “The Time of Your Life,” which ran for 2 1/2 years on Broadway and was made into a movie starring James Cagney. Another movie of his, “Human Comedy” starring Mickey Rooney, won the Academy Award for best story and was nominated for best movie.SFPD TARAVAL STATION. Our neighborhood SFPD station, Taraval, has a new commander, Captain Denise A. Schmitt. Captain Schmitt is continuing the newsletter, albeit not on the daily basis of the former station commander.
STATE ASSEMBLYWOMAN FIONA MA. Assembly member Ma’s early December newsletter explains her concern about Hepatitis B and C. She urged our support of H.R. 3974, the Viral Hepatitis and Liver Cancer Control and Prevention Act of 2009 by e-mailing your Congressperson to support this legislation.
STATE SENATOR LELAND Y. YEE. In his December newsletter Senator Yee announced his receipt of the National Journalism Award from the Journalism Education Association for his ongoing support for scholastic journalism students and advisers in California and for taking the lead in authoring and nurturing the nation’s first bill to protect scholastic journalism advisers. Senator Yee also authored two laws to protect student speech rights and journalism education making California the first state in the nation to prohibit censorship of scholastic press and broadcast journalism. Senator Yee’s SB 1370 further protects employees, including faculty advisers from retaliation for assisting students in exercising such free speech rights. Meanwhile Senator Yee continues his fight to make the actions of the UC more responsive to student needs and more transparent to the people of California. Two of his bills to require this, SB 218 and SB 219 were vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. The newsletter also includes the report titled “Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths (and making Great Neighborhoods.”
9TH AND MORAGA. In a letter to the “Sunset Neighbors of 9th & Moraga” Mickey Powell urges its members to send a letter of support for the group’s concerns to the San Francisco Planning Commission. The group’s concerns have to with the size of the proposed buildings. I have not seen the plans for this development since I do not have adjacent property so I will quote from the above-referenced letter. The three proposed buildings comprising the development, will front on Moraga and each will have 6 units and be 4 stories high. The letter claims “the project in its current plan contains 21 bedrooms and 21 bathrooms!” Also, “the city is willing to give (well sell) 4 residential parking permits per unit.” I have no comment except that I have never heard of the city of SF offering—not giving—4 parking permits to each unit in an apartment building when the city requires one parking spot in the building for each unit. The Planning Commission on December 17 approved the proposed buildings. SHARP took no position on this matter.
N-LINE IMPROVEMENTS. You members who drive along 19th Avenue in the vicinity of Judah a few weeks back experienced the weekend detours to permit work on the N-line Muni tracks at the intersection of 19th and Judah. Similar work was performed at Judah and Sunset Boulevard. This was a preview of the work that will be done on the Muni L-line tracks at 19th and Taraval and Sunset Boulevard and Taraval. First one direction of 19th Avenue will be closed and then the other on several weekends to permit rehabilitation of the Muni tracks.
SAINT FRANCIS CIRCLE IMPROVEMENTS. While the detours on 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard may have been a hassle at least they were brief. Such will not be the case at Saint Francis Circle near Sloat Boulevard where the work is considerably more complex. Some detours will be in place for quite a while and there will be temporary signals to follow through these detours. The best article that I have read thus far on this project appeared in the December 2009 Westside Observer. First, construction on this project is scheduled to begin in March 2010 and total rebuild is “hoping to complete” by November 2010. Besides the detours, the K-line is planned to be closed from May 14 to 31. Both the K and M lines will be closed from June 1 to September 1. Passengers on these lines can use regular buses or shuttle buses. Project construction hours will vary from 7:00 a.m.—8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. seven days a week. This rigorous schedule was decided upon to assure quick completion of the work. City engineers and planners have designed a set of detours and temporary signals so that delay to traffic through the intersection will be kept to a minimum. After reviewing plans of these detours I suggest that drivers currently using the intersection find other routes during the construction.
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY. Senator Leland Yee’s newsletter included notice of a report on pedestrian safety. The report announces that San Francisco is among the most dangerous communities in the nation. While the report included San Francisco with the East Bay in its conclusions, Walk San Francisco extracted extract San Francisco-specific numbers. Our rate of pedestrian fatalities (no date included) is 2.60 fatalities per 100,000 population, which is 70% higher than the national average of 1.53 fatalities. The report authors note that “pedestrian deaths are preventable because they occur on streets that are designed to encourage speeding traffic and lack safe sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian signals and other protections.” The “protections” being installed on 19th Avenue for pedestrians includes shorter crosswalks at some intersections, “countdown” pedestrian signals at all intersections, longer pedestrian crossing time, and new ADA-compliant pedestrian push buttons. The speed limit on 19th Avenue has already been reduced to 30 mph. The next phase of the project will be a retiming of the signals to improve traffic flow along 19th Avenue. What will this do to pedestrian crossing times? And meanwhile 19th
Avenue traffic will still be travel on the same three sub-standard width traffic lanes.This is a good lead in for a continuation of my discussion of pedestrian safety and the pedestrian’s obligations at signalized intersections in next month’s newsletter. Meanwhile check the signs at Ninth and Irving. More on this in next month’s newsletter.
S.H.A.R.P. Building. Be sure to check out the progess of our new building at: http://www.sharpsf.com/building It’s moving along quickly.
Editor’s Note: If you have any information or thoughts you would like included in the newsletter please mail or e-mail it to me at this address:Vern Waight, Editor, Phone: (415) 564-7760,
Email: vernatsf@aol.com
Address: 1711 10th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94122-4625
Renew Your Membership or Join SHARP
The Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People (SHARP) is a 100+ year old neighborhood organization open to anyone who lives or works in the area bounded by Lincoln Blvd, 7th Ave-Laguna Honda, Dewey-Taraval, and 19th Avenue. We are a member-supported organization devoted to neighborhood improvement, with dues set at $10 per person annually. Please renew your membership for 2009 and 2010 or join us by filling out and returning the coupon below.
Mail Coupon to: SHARP, 1661 7th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94122
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Printed Name: ________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________
City: ___________________ ZIP: ___________
Email: ________________________________________________________
Phone: _________________________________