Here’s my take on it  — and things you might want to act on.

SF RPD  PROPOSES A $185 mn BOND

San Francisco Rec and Parks  had a bond issue back in 2008 and want to come back for more. Though Dawn Kamalanathan made an excellent presentation, with pictures of kids and playgrounds, I got a sense of skepticism from the room.

The first set of questions related to the funding: If SFRPD borrows $185 mn from the public, it will have to pay interest and then pay it back… with taxpayer funds. Where, people wanted to know, are the repayments coming from?

The second issue was that SFRPD has spent money on extensive capital improvements, but it doesn’t have the operating budget to maintain them – or indeed, anything else. One example was JP Murphy Playground, where they renovated and improved the clubhouse, and then laid off the director and closed it down. Someone else quoted a park in her area, where improvements were made and all the gardeners laid off or retired and weren’t replaced.

A third set of concerns – where I also spoke – was about the Natural Areas Program and how funding it is leading to tree felling, habitat destruction and a growing use of Tier I and Tier II pesticides. Is this a good idea to fund?

Later, someone pessimistically told me that bond measures always pass because they’re paid for by home-owners but voted for by renters – and renters are the majority in San Francisco. I dunno.  I was a little puzzled at the tone of the whole thing. It was not exactly, We really need to do these specific things, and so we need the money. It was more like, We really want to raise some money, and so you tell us how you want us to spend it. Odd.

SAN FRANCISCO OVERLOOK

The steep hillside above the planned development

As readers of this site will know, the old Crestmont project slated for the dead end steep slope on Crestmont Drive has been revived in a new guise: San Francisco Overlook. (My article on the original project is here.) An Environmental Impact Report has been submitted to City Hall, and it’s under review.

The WTPCC wrote a letter in support of the Mount Sutro Woods Homeowners Association, which is spearheading the resistance to this dangerous project. (The picture here is the steep slope just above the planned development.)

COIT TOWER PRESERVATION GROUP

Jon Golinger made a presentation explaining that though the San Francisco Rec and Parks Dept (SFRPD) is making maybe $500 thousand a year from Coit Tower, it’s not maintaining the place at all. Lights are broken, signs are outdated and warped, and worst of all, there’s water damage on the historic murals. Meanwhile, SFRPD wants to change the concessionaire and rent out the space for private events.

The group is trying to get enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot to force SFRPD to spend some of the money it makes off Coit Tower in maintaining and improving it. If anyone would like to collect signatures for them before Feb 4th, please email me at fk94131@yahoo.com, I have a signature sheet. Their website is at ProtectCoitTower.org

REDISTRICTING SAN FRANCISCO

Every ten years, San Francisco’s districts are redrawn, based on population. This year, the growth in population in District 6, because of all the new building there, means all the lines have to be redrawn. Here’s the preliminary draft of the proposed new districts.

According the the tentative plan proposed by the Redistricting committee, Forest Knolls, Miraloma Park, Mount Sutro Woods, and Galewood Circle,  The Woods and Twin Peaks Improvement Association would all move to District 8.

The concern for WTPCC is that such an arrangement would mean that the concerns of the homeowners of the current District 7 would be over-ridden by the quite different concerns of the voters on the other side of Twin Peaks. They have made a different proposal. In the map below, everything within the blue boundary would be D7. (The colors denote the various Neighborhood Organizations.)

I think it’s a pretty good option, but I’m concerned that Mount Sutro goes into an entirely different district. Rising as it does above our neighborhood, everything that happens there (at least on this side) affects us. If the trees are felled and there are landslides when their roots die, our neighborhood is where they’ll land. If they start using pesticides as the Natural Areas Program does regularly on Twin Peaks, it’s our area it’ll wash into. If the tree-felling destroys the windbreak, guess which neighborhood gets the wind?

Source: Wikimedia Commons

I was there on a mission, looking for information under San Francisco’s Sunshine Act.

(Pardon me while I digress.  There are many things I love about San Francisco, most of which any casual visitor could appreciate (and do, when I take guests on the usual rounds of our city). But for someone who lives here, the Sunshine Ordinance is right up there with the views and the diversity. Its implies that ordinary people can ask for information from the city for any reason and no reason, because it’s their right.  I love the way that democracy here is built of small elements right at ground level. A community meeting here, a piece of local legislation there. I burbled about it two years ago in Admiring America and from time to time, I still burble.)

Anyway. I was looking for information on SF Rec & Parks Department’s pesticide use. Olive Gong, SFRPD’s own Lady Sunshine, is responsible for answering these  Sunshine requests. She emailed me to suggest I come in to look at the records, rather than her trying to send them to me. When I saw the binders, I understood why. It made a lot more sense for me to go through them, rather than her trying to copy what must have been maybe 5-10 lbs of paper…

McLaren looks down at the pesticide binders...

She was most gracious. She set me up in a corner of the conference room (which would be available for a couple of hours)  and popped in from time to time to check if I needed anything. I didn’t … I just needed not to be distracted from my work by the sheer awesomeness of the place.

McLaren Lodge is handsome on the outside, and it’s gorgeous on the inside. It used to be John McLaren’s residence. The conference room is paneled in what looks like leather: understated, elegant, warm. The view outside is Golden Gate Park.  It’s a good tribute to the man who made the park.

And the mission I was on? I was trying to find out more about pesticide use, particularly by the Natural Areas Program. For anyone who’s interested, the preliminary report of what I found is at the Save Sutro Forest website.

Our gray/brown/black Maine Coon cat, Rosie, has been missing since yesterday afternoon [6 Jan 2012] from her home at +++ Christopher, near Oak Park. She is an indoor – outdoor cat, but rarely stays out long. She has a collar and tag, but it’s hard to see under all her fur, and has been known to fall off. She is usually afraid of strangers, and has never been in a fight.

If you’ve seen her, please email  or call us at [Edited to remove] . Thanks!

Edited to Add:  Good news! Rosie is safe home. Here’s the note I received:

“Thank you to everyone who expressed concern. Rosie seems to have gotten accidentally detained in a neighbor’s garage. She’s fine, and we’re happy to have her home.”

Yes. Though we decorate for ourselves, we’re really decorating for other people… and in the process, creating a sense of celebration. So I’d like to continue what has become a tradition* here  and publish a selection of lights around our neighborhood. (It’s a selection and not comprehensive; I may have missed some homes, and my camera missed some others, giving me only a bright blur…clicking on a picture takes you to a larger version.)

And here’s wishing everyone a wonderful year ahead in 2012. Happy New Year!

[*This website has been around long enough to actually talk of a tradition! This is the third holiday season.)

Down in West Portal, my favorite’s the Manor Coffee shop, which does wonderfully homely over-the-top seasonal decor every year. It’s got everything this year – star-shaped lights and Snoopy and a Nutcracker, and even a Santa breaking through the ceiling.

Of course Union Square is all brightly lit, and as usual there are puppies and kittens up for adoption in the Macy’s windows, causing a traffic jam as people stop to squeal over the cuteness . Tiffany has a carousel theme, and Neiman Marcus the huge tree in the front atrium.

But the one I liked best was simple and ethereal in the upper windows of Bulgari – floating candles.

Over in the Westfield shopping center, it’s looking a lot like Christmas, too. It’s busy and bright, and pleasant to wander through. They have an interesting light show around 6 p.m. every evening this season: colored lights and pictures are projected into the dome.  The images of toys and candy are for kids, but what fascinated me was the precision and the alignment.

Before the actual show starts, they project colors into the dome, making it look like stained glass. But the compartments are actually the inner sculpting, and the lights sort of color them in. It would be so easy to get this wrong – but they don’t.

Our neighbors in Midtown Terrace have Santa’s Court lit up again like last year and the year before.

And in our own neighborhood, someone’s put wreathes and bows on our entrance signs. Thanks, whoever did it.

Happy Holidays to all!

It happened on the 900 block of Cole St. (Carl Ave.)

Officer Ferraz and posse responded on a call of a man with a gun, wherein a passerby called 911 to report a robbery in progress. The officers found a masked gunman standing behind a liquor store’s counter. The gunman refused to put down his pistol and the officers overpowered and disarmed him.

They then discovered that the gun was a replica, that the gunman was an actor, and that the filming crew recording the scene from across the street had not applied for a permit from the San Francisco Film Commission.

I wonder what the film-makers are going to do with that cinema verite footage…

ETA: And the next thing I know… the story’s on Reuters!

ETA 2: Apparently there was no cinema verite footage because the camera crew got scared when the police arrived, and stopped filming. Also, there was no permit needed because they were filming on private property…

As we headed for the elevator, we were stopped by a tearful young woman who appeared to be in her early 20s. “Please, stop,” she said, “I don’t know what’s happening! He’s going through all my stuff! I’m just trying to go home! Please stay with me!” We stopped and looked, and there, next to the pillar, a man was indeed ferreting through her flower-embroidered cloth bag which lay on the floor. He was taking everything out and going through it.

What was going on, we asked. He  didn’t have to tell us, he said. But he spoke to the woman, and as far as we could gather from what he said, someone told him she had gone into the bathroom after he had left it, and stolen some insulin he had left on the counter.

KING SECURITY UNIFORM

I looked at him again. He was wearing the uniform of King Security. I didn’t get his badge number, but I did ask him for his ID. He told me to go away. I said I had every right to ask for his ID. He said he had ID, but he didn’t show it to me. After a few minutes, he stopped trying to search the woman’s bag, and left.

We stayed with her until the next train came. Then we went up to ask about the aggressive security guard, who apparently did not know you cannot search someone’s belongings without their consent.

“I don’t know who he is,” said the station agent. “He came in on a transfer. He’s nothing to do with Station security.

I emailed King Security to let them know. And when I went to Yelp, it turned out that the only two reviews were one-star reviews about King Security guards behaving badly.

The other day, someone called me. “You have to go up to see the view,”  he said. “The air is clear and the clouds are dramatic.” So I went.

Here’s what it looked like. The view was sharp and the clouds were indeed dramatic. And the scene was enlivened by a small aircraft buzzing around, trailing a large red banner. I couldn’t read it as it waved through the sky like a giant flag. But I liked the effect against the backdrop of the clouds and I took a few shots with my pocket camera.

Later, when I downloaded the pictures, I figured out what it said: The all new Camry is here.

But even without the airplane and the banner, the view was amazing.

Just another gorgeous day in gorgeous San Francisco, to remind us that some of the most scenic places in the city are only minutes from our doorstep.

(I’m sticking with our not-so-new Camry.)

(The loop starts at the bottom of Forest Knolls drive, up via Oak Park, left on Christopher to Warren Drive, and then follow Warren Drive until it meets Oak Park.)

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This dog has gone missing from the Safeway park above Glen Canyon, where she got into a chase with two coyotes.

Xena is all-black, smooth coat, about 25 lb., pointy ears. She was last seen at the edge of Safeway Park in Diamond Heights. She’s very, very shy and won’t come near you, so please just call [ETA: Removed phone number, no longer needed.]

(Information and photograph provided by Avrum Shepard of the West of Twin Peaks Council.)

Please keep a lookout for this dog, especially if you’re walking your dogs anywhere near here.