Guess who’s coming to dinner

Posted on May 25, 2010 by editors

President Obama dined with the Gettys at their yellow and white home (right) on Broadway.

President Obama stopped by the neighborhood for dinner this evening. After a fund-raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer at the Fairmont Hotel, Obama motorcaded to Ann and Gordon Getty’s double-mansion on outer Broadway. Price of admission: $17,600 each, cocktails, dinner and photo included. But the looking was for free, and lots of locals lined Pacific Avenue to catch a glimpse and take their own photos of a waving Obama.

With any luck, it went better than the last time Obama stopped by the Gettys’ place. During the 2008 campaign he made an appearance there on his way to another fund-raiser in Presidio Heights, where he uttered his infamous words about embittered blue-collar types clinging to their guns and religion.

But last time he was here, still a candidate, he stepped across the street to shake hands with the neighbors. This time they were kept behind the barricades a block away.

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A news project: reinvent journalism

Posted on March 6, 2010 by editors

Q & A | ROSE ROLL

R ose Roll, a local resident and occasional contributor to the New Fillmore, is involved in creating the Bay Area News Project — a new nonprofit venture funded by neighborhood philanthropist Warren Hellman that is being heralded by some as a reinvention of journalism.

With The New York Times signing on as a partner, momentum seems to be building for the Bay Area News Project. Can you describe what it is in a nutshell?

The Bay Area News Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan publicly supported news organization. Our mission is to stimulate innovation in journalism, foster civic engagement and fill the gaps in reporting Bay Area civic news at a time when newspapers have had to make severe cuts in their coverage for economic reasons. We’re just getting started, but in time our professional newsroom will generate original, in-depth coverage of Bay Area topics including government and public policy, the arts and cultural affairs, education and the environment, as well as neighborhood news and events. Our primary channel will be online and mobile, but we expect also distribute our news through print (via The New York Times), radio and television. Our goal is to launch in late spring of this year.
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Rec center reopens

Posted on March 6, 2010 by editors

A neighborhood party today from 1 to 5 p.m. will celebrate the grand opening of the newly renovated Hamilton Recreation Center. There’s a new and improved playground, tennis courts and basketball courts — plus a new swimming pool with water slides. The celebration will include food, entertainment and arts and crafts. Hamilton Rec Center is located at 1900 Geary between Scott & Steiner.

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Urban forest gets local friends

Posted on February 17, 2010 by editors

The plum trees are blooming in Alta Plaza Park.

Friends of the Urban Forest will mark a major milestone in the neighborhood on Saturday, February 20: For the 1000th time, a team of volunteers will plant trees on city streets.

Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill will address the volunteers when they gather at 9 a.m. at Rosa Parks Elementary School at 1501 O’Farrell Street, between Webster and Laguna. Hill famously lived in a Humboldt County redwood tree for two years to prevent a lumber company from cutting it down.

Approximately 85 trees will be planted this weekend. Nearly a third will go to Rosa Parks School, which won a “green makeover” contest among San Francisco public schools. Most of the trees going to the school are native to California, including California buckeyes, coast silktassels and western redbuds.
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No parking now. Easier parking later?

Posted on February 1, 2010 by editors

Parking has been banned on Fillmore this week as sensors are installed on the pavement.

Initial reports said parking was being banned on long stretches of Fillmore this week because a movie was being filmed starring Brad Pitt — or maybe it was Matt Damon. But it turns out something even bigger is in the works: easier parking.

Or so they promise.

City crews are installing sensors on the pavement at every parking meter and some nearby parking spaces. It’s part of an ambitious traffic management program designed to electronically signal drivers to available spots — with new meters that accept credit cards.

Already installed on the street lights are transmitters that will send transit officials data from the sensors and new meters on Fillmore and side streets from Jackson to McAllister. New meters will be installed in the spring, and the system is expected to be operating later in the year. Parking rates will go up in congested areas — like Fillmore Street.

Fillmore is one of several areas included in the pilot project, which has the ambitious title: “SFpark: circle less, live more.”

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The quote heard ’round the country

Posted on April 10, 2008 by editors

Obama spoke at a fundraiser at the home of Alex Mehran in Presidio Heights.

Perhaps the last word to come to mind on the leafy outer blocks of Jackson Street is “bitter.” Yet it was here, at 3680 Jackson — during an afternoon of fund-raising in the neighborhood on April 6 that included an earlier stop at the Getty mansion on Broadway — that Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama offered his observations about embittered blue-collar workers.

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama said. “So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-imigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.”

His comments stoked political debate around the country and gave Obama’s critics fresh ammunition to accuse him of being an elitist — and gave the chattering classes fresh opportunity to rail against ultraliberal out-of-touch San Franciscans.

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Protest at Pelosi’s

Posted on September 2, 2007 by editors

Dawn does not often break over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home on Broadway without anti-war protesters outside. Last month Pelosi denounced some of them as “nuts” and told them, “Get away from my house.” She and her staff have refused to meet with the protesters. Some nearby residents have complained about the disruption, but the protesters say most people are supportive.

Nearby, on the Lyon Street steps, anti-war protesters also camped outside Senator Dianne Feinstein’s new home. Feinstein held a meeting at the encampment of tents pitched on her front terrace on August 21. After the meeting, the group agreed to end their protest outside her home.

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Worst?

Posted on March 2, 2007 by editors

The cheeky monkeys over at SFist.com held the “Official Worst MUNI Line” contest recently and were surprised when the 22-Fillmore line won. “We have to consider that a bit of an upset, as most of the comments we got bemoaned the hells of the 38-Geary more than the 22,” said a posting on the site. “On the other hand, we’ve all experienced the joys of the 22. We once had a job interview near California and Fillmore and after taking the bus from the Mission we realized we could commute to Oakland by BART in half the time.” The 38-Geary tied with the 30-Stockton as the second-worst line.

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