Tag: Forest Knolls San Francisco

Flyer: SFPD Park Station Contacts

Another flyer that Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization circulated was a list of contact details for the SFPD Park Station police. (They’re our neighborhood police station.) Here it is:

The other side had burglary prevention tips. We’ve asked SAFE, the outfit that wrote them, for permission to publish them here. If they agree, we’ll edit this to add them in. [Edited to Add: SAFE gave permission and additional information. We’ve published them separately, here and here.]

(FKNO is at http://www.forestknolls.org, not forestknolls.com — a cheap realty website; nor www.forestknolls.info — which is the site you’re on now. Note the different extensions: org, com, and info.)

Flyer: Midtown Terrace Playground

Midtown Terrace PlaygroundSome time ago, we’d posted about the renovations at the Midtown Terrace Playground. Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization sent round a flyer with details of what’s going on there — a latchkey program for 5-11 year-olds, and a daycamp — as well as hours and contact details. Here it is:

As usual, clicking on it twice will give a larger image. (We checked Terry Trejo’s email address in the Parks website, and it’s stated as Teresa.Kuchinsky.Trejo@sfgov.org — so if the one above doesn’t work, try this. Or call her!)

(FKNO is at http://www.forestknolls.org, not forestknolls.com — a cheap realty website, nor www.forestknolls.info — which is the site you’re on now. Note the different extensions: org, com, and info.)

Joining the Forest Knolls Yahoo Group

The Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization (FKNO) has sent out some useful flyers to all the neighbors. (FKNO is at http://www.forestknolls.org, not forestknolls.com — a cheap realty website, nor www.forestknolls.info — which is the site you’re on now. Note the different extensions: org, com, and info.) In case you didn’t get them, or prefer to have things on line, we’re reproducing them here.

The first gave instructions on how to join the Forest Knolls Neighborhood Yahoo group. This  group, managed by Mary Allen, is  helpful for anyone living in the neighborhood… people send out heads-ups, share information, and occasionally post lost or found pet notices. We get recommendations for handymen and other service providers, as well as neighborhood safety information. I generally post a notice there when I have something new out here, too.

This is a free group. Anyone can join, though of course its greatest value is to people in the neighborhood. And, as groups go, it’s civilized.  I’ve seen groups where participants forget they’re in a public space, and start flame-wars or post overly personal information. This is not that kind of group.

So here’s the flyer. (Clicking on it twice will take you to a larger version.)

Night Walk with Fog and Dog

It was late for a walk last night, and the fog had wrapped our neighborhood in its soft blanket. Yet the night called me, and out I went.

It was magical. The fog softened and dispersed the light of the streetlamps. As I walked up by the forest, I could hear the rain… except it was dry where I stopped on the sidewalk. In the forest, the trees made their own rain from the fog, and it pattered onto the leaves of the understory like a heavy shower. This is the Cloud Forest effect. Under the eaves of the forest, the cloud-rain was heavy enough to flow down the street and into the gutter. Inside the forest, the undergrowth and the duff absorbed it all. (If you walk in the forest — be prepared for mud on some of the interesting trails.)

It was late enough that I shouldn’t have expected anyone to be out there. But I’d have been wrong. In 30 minutes, I encountered 4 people, all walking dogs. As I said once in a post, the dogs of Forest Knolls make us all safer. Paws on the street mean eyes on the street.

Red-tailed Hawks in Forest Knolls

Mary Allen posted these two great pictures of red-tailed hawks on our neighborhood Yahoo Group. They’re reproduced here with her permission and her notes.
These were taken from my living room windows… south facing toward Laguna Honda Hospital. They like to rest at the top of the tree on Warren at the bottom of my hill. I have my camera set up ready to go and when I happen to see them, I quickly rush to open the window and click away before they fly off.
(Taken with a Nikon D5000 200 mm lens.)

Crestmont Development, alias San Francisco Overlook: New Name, Fast Track

Someone sent me the notice below with a request to post it here. The Crestmont project (which I wrote about here, almost exactly a year ago) seems to have reappeared with a new name, and a fast timeline. There are meetings in early May.

CRESTMONT – MT. SUTRO – FOREST KNOLLS NEIGHBORHOOD PRESERVATION COALITION

http://www.CrestmontPreservation.org 415-640-3869

URGENT ALERT

CRESTMONT DEVELOPMENT THREATENS AGAIN!

Same massive 34 condo project with minor revisions

Same Developer, New Partner and New Name

“SAN FRANCISCO OVERLOOK DEVELOPMENT, L.L.C.”

The project is in the last phases of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report)

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Mandatory SF “Community Workshop” Meetings

Tuesday, May 3 and Wednesday, May 4, 2011

7:00 P.M.

Clarendon School, 500 Clarendon Ave, San Francisco

Please attend the meetings and express your opinions about this development which threatens our neighborhood

* * * * *

 SAFETY FEARS

  • Much more traffic on narrow Crestmont Drive, San Francisco’s longest cul-de-sac
  • Dangerous for drivers, pedestrians and children
  • Limited access and passage for emergency vehicles
  • Destabilization of the hillside above and below

* * * * *

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPACT

  • Loss of green space
  • Insufficient parking
  • No public transportation
  • More traffic and parking congestion in Forest Knolls

 * * * * *

Please display the new “STOP SF Overlook Development” poster in your window

To keep up with the latest developments and sign up for email notifications, visit www.CrestmontPreservation.org

Mandatory SF “Community Workshop” Meetings

Tuesday, May 3 and Wednesday, May 4, 2011 7:00 P.M.

Clarendon School, 500 Clarendon Ave, San Francisco

Report: JP Murphy Clubhouse Meeting

I attended this evening’s the Rec & Park Department (RPD) meeting about the  plan to lease out the JP Murphy clubhouse. I’ve written about it twice, (here and here) but hadn’t attended the earlier meeting.

The opening was dramatic.

A large number of neighbors attended (I’d estimate 80-100) — the room was full. There was some annoyance at the layout. Instead of theater-style seating, it was restaurant style. Chairs surrounded a number of plastic kiddy tables arranged all about the room. It was awkward, especially for anyone in a wheelchair or with movement issues, because there were no clear aisles. No one could understand why.

When the meeting started, it was explained. Speaking for Rec & Parks, Bob Palacio (present there with Nicole Avril, Lev Kushner and Alex Randolph), told us the planned format for the meeting: Breakout groups, coming together at the end to report on what they’d discussed.

It didn’t fly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a vociferous and instantaneous rejection of a plan. Bob tried to explain it was because people had complained of the format of previous meetings. “It wasn’t the format,” someone pointed out. “It’s that Rec & Park was not listening to us. No one from Rec & Park was taking notes.”

Bob tried to push through the format that had been decided on; no one was buying. “It’s our meeting,” someone yelled. “We pay your salary.” For a minute, it looked like Rec & Park would walk out.

Saner counsel prevailed. Once it was decided this wasn’t going to be a meeting to vent dissatisfaction with Rec & Park, and we’d stick to the agenda, Bob salvaged the situation. (He offered to meet with anyone who wanted to complain, one on one.) We moved forward — in a single group, not broken out.

FIVE QUESTIONS

They were seeking answers to five questions, said Bob. The idea was that if the clubhouse was leased out, it would be leased to a non-profit that would provide services the neighbors want. (We presume for a fee.) The questions:

  1. What sort of recreational programming do you want to see at JP Murphy?
  2. Thinking of another recreational facility you liked, and what did you like about it?
  3. What age groups are a priority here? (The choices were tots, pre-kindergarten, youth, afterschool, tweens, teens, adults, seniors.)
  4. When did you last use JP Murphy, and for what?
  5. Do you know of any non-profits that offer these types of programs?

The idea, Bob said, was to find a lessee who could provide the kind of programs neighbors want. Currently the clubhouse is rented out for birthday parties and the like. If it were leased out, only the clubhouse would be leased. The lessee could use public areas like everyone else, not exclusively. The bathrooms, outdoors and indoors, would remain open and available to the public.

Would such a lease ever preclude access? people wanted to know. Apparently, in other RPD leases, if there’s a conflict, the lessee takes precedence. Nicole said it wouldn’t ever happen that way; external areas would not be blocked by a lessee. Someone else pointed out that at Diamond Heights, a program ropes off an area at parent pick-up time, apparently to clarify who’s to be picked up. “It’s a concrete walkway,” said Nicole, “with no recreational facilities.”

“It has tables and benches,” someone said.

“There are other tables and benches…” responded Nicole, and there was silence. The point had been made. Even one trivial instance cast doubt on the earlier assurance.

The meeting moved on to Question 1: Ideas for recreational programming. Ideas started flying. Lev Kushner noted them down on butcher paper. Many of them were for small children, and someone noted that the playground’s configuration — enclosed, back from the road — made it especially safe for little ones. That value, she suggested, should be preserved.

From the applause, it sounded like the most popular ideas (besides things like Tiny Tots and other kiddy activities) were Community College classes (suggested by John Rizzo, who’s on the Board of City College); and NERT emergency preparedness in cop-operation with the Fire and Police Departments. There was talk of involving Neighborhood Empowerment Networks (NEN).

BUT HOW?

All these ideas were good, but how could they be implemented? How much money was required?

Bob said that a part-time director, 20 hours a week, would cost $36-38 thousand (fully loaded cost to RPD) annually. A full time person would cost $74 thousand per year (including benefits, pension etc). If there wasn’t money for that — and right now it doesn’t look like it — they would find a non-profit to lease the clubhouse and provide those activities.The non-profit would have to be approved by the community. (Of course, they hadn’t yet figured out how to determine or measure “community approval.”)

Would it be all or nothing, someone wanted to know.  Would one non-profit have to provide all the services?

Nicole said that one could act as a sort of “lead agency” and allow others to provide the classes or activities they didn’t. Apparently, at one clubhouse, Self-help for the Elderly uses the clubhouse in the mornings, but then keeps it open for other activities in the afternoon. This sounded like a reasonable arrangement (though some people had some negative things to say about that organization in its South Sunset location).

WHAT PEOPLE LIKED

The list of what people liked at other centers was quite diverse: Swimming programs; “Parks Sessions” for young adults with dancing, skateboarding, poetry-reading and other activities; tennis; latchkey with pottery and soccer; picnic tables and benches. One person mentioned Sharon Art Studio in Golden Gate Park before it raised its prices and restricted its hours.

Then it was on to Question 3: What have you used JP Murphy for?

The answers were predictable:

  • Private birthday parties
  • Community meetings
  • Kids’ playground time
  • Tennis
  • Teen basketball
  • Adult basketball
  • Preschool graduations
  • And someone remembered the teen dances.

A RED QUEEN RACE?

Someone pointed out that RPD’s drive to raise money to fill budget gaps ($6.4 million shortfall in 2011) is self-defeating. The following year, the city assumes that RPD can raise fees or start charging for formerly free activities, and reduces its support still further. Though San Franciscans are very supportive of their Parks — every bond measure has passed — they’re not getting the services they paid for. The only way around this is for citizens to advocate for RPD with City Hall.

NEXT STEPS?

The Next Steps part was unclear. RPD is taking this information back to evaluate it, and will look for ways to fill the community’s desires for programming. “JP Murphy has been dark for way too long,” said Bob.

When? people wanted to know.

Lev didn’t want to commit to a time table. “Six weeks is too short, and two years is too long,” he commented.

By this time, people were starting to leave, so Bob attempted to determine priorities. It seemed like programs for tiny kids and latchkey kids were a priority, but also classes and activities — like aerobics — for adults and seniors. There was talk of providing classes led by volunteers.

There were some questions about how meetings would be publicized; people had missed the earlier one since they didn’t know about it. Bob said they would work with community groups, email lists, The Friends of JP Murphy Playground Facebook page, and put a large door sign at JP Murphy.

Then we all left, including the meeting’s cutest attendee: The best-behaved little poodle it’s been my pleasure to meet.

The Prettiest Day in San Francisco

Now that the spell of Spring-in-January weather seems over, I can post this without jinxing it… I wanted to talk about the 17th of January. The day dawned bright and blue, and  in the afternoon, I went out to Glen Canyon.

Most of the year, it’s dry and brown, punctuated with hillside bushes and rock formations. Not now. The winter’s rain has transformed it to a vivid green.

The sun slanted through the trees. A few people sat around, gazing at the beauty of the place, the sea of eucalyptus trees below.

And then the fog started to roll in, rather like the Sandburg poem. The light softened, became pinker. The view through the trees took on a magical tint, like a portal to a fantastical world.

I drove home via Twin Peaks,  and this was the view:

And this was the view from the other side…

It may have been the prettiest day of my life (which has encompassed many pretty days in many pretty places). Of course the photographs don’t begin to do it justice.

But it wasn’t just me. A few days later, I mentioned it to a friend. “You’re telling me!” she said. She’d been driving to Cavallo Point that evening, and behind her saw San Francisco under the fog. “I couldn’t sleep that night. The intense beauty of that image…” She sighed.

Season’s Greetings!

Here is a selection of decorations from around our neighborhood. They’re delightful, (even if not as ubiquitous as those at Midtown Terrace especially the wonderful Santa’s Court). Happy Holidays, everyone!
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Forest Knolls Postcards

One of our neighbors, Lulu Carpenter, sent me a bunch of photographs she took on a walk around Forest Knolls. I was struck by two things. First, how much they resembled picture postcards. Any casual view seems to have a scenic quality to it.  Second,  how much the forest determines the character of our area — the look and feel and scent and sound  — especially since, unlike Cole Valley or Forest Hill, we have hardly any street trees.

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San Francisco Recreation & Parks: Leasing out Public Clubhouses?

Edited to Add: Further reports on this are here and here.

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Edited to Add: Rec & Park has called a meeting to brainstorm future directions for this clubhouse:
Monday, January 31st, 2011 from 5:30 – 7 pm at the JP Murphy Clubhouse.

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Recently, George Wooding, President of the West of Twin Peaks Council, sent around a letter concerning Rec and Parks plans to lease out a club-house that is currently public: The JP Murphy clubhouse. The playground was refurbished in 2008 at a cost of $3.85 million. (The PDF file with the project details and cost is here.)  Not only is this specific action a concern, it could lead to other clubhouses also being leased out also.

This clubhouse is close to our neighborhood, at 1960 9th Ave (between Ortega and Pacheco).

I couldn’t attend the public meeting held yesterday evening, but went to take a look today. It’s a very nice space. From the road, it looks quite small, with a low profile and an elegant 1950s look.

But if you go through the gate in the picture to the back, you realize it’s pretty big; the clubhouse extends behind the bushes visible on the right, and there’s another floor below.

There’s also what looks like a brand new children’s playground at the back, with all kinds of cool equipment. (There’s more, which isn’t in the picture.)  It also has several tennis courts.

When I read that $3.8 million had been spent in 2008 to refurbish this playground, I did wonder what on earth they’d done. The justification for the project, aside from ADA compliance: “The current assembly room, storage and kitchen are not sufficient to support multiple program activities for the latchkey, tiny tot, and teen/adult programs.” The project added a new activity room.

When I saw the space, it looked very good and very nicely done. It looked like a high-end job.  In fact, it looks fancier than the newly redone Midtown Terrace playground.

So it’s ironic that — having spent all this money — they now plan to lease it out to a private entity.

It gets good review on Yelp, too; when it was closed for refurbishment, people were waiting for it to re-open. So it’s not exactly deserted. Today — on a weekday afternoon — there were people playing tennis, and kids in the playground. The clubhouse was closed and locked, because Rec & Park, after having spent all that money, closed  it down and let go or moved the staff.

GEORGE WOODING’S LETTER

Here’s George Wooding’s letter (emphasis added):

PLEASE STOP THE  THE RECREATION AND PARK DEPARTMENT’S (RPD’s) PRIVATIZATION OF JP MURPHY PARK

Dear Neighbors,

As you may know,   in 2008 the Citizens of San Francisco spent $3,849,933, mostly from the Proposition A, Parks Project Bond to renovate the JP Murphy Playground & Clubhouse.  The Clubhouse is located at 1960 9th Avenue/Ortega.    Effective August 15th, 2010 the RPD also fired or relocated all of its Recreation and Park Directors.  The RPD is now about to lease-out our newly, renovated JP Murphy Park.  The RPD euphemistically calls this new leasing for profit scheme “park revitalization.”

RPD representative, Lev Kushner, the Assistant Director for Strategic Planning,  has been holding meetings throughout San Francisco in an effort to rent out neighborhood clubhouses, parks and facilities.   The RPD is trying to lease at least 24 of the 48 park clubhouses in San Francisco.  Usually, the RPD’s citizens notification is very lax and few people realize that their local Park is going to be leased for a minimum 5  year period.

Mr. Kushner has scheduled a 6:00pm public meeting  on Monday, November  15th at the JP Murphy clubhouse to discuss the RPD’s leasing of the JP Murphy clubhouse and park facilities. The Clubhouse is located at 1960 9th Avenue at the corner of 9th Avenue and Ortega.

It’s not that the groups that lease the parks are good or bad, the problem is that these private commercial groups take over large portions of the park at specific times and the neighbors who use these parks are not allowed to use the portions that are leased.  The groups leasing the City parks often have nothing to do with recreation and are already working from an existing commercial location.

The RPD lease clearly states , “The tenant shall have the right to shared access of all playground and garden space in areas surrounding the premises.”  Additionally , “The City shall use it’s best efforts to avoid interfering with the tenants quiet and exclusive use of enjoyment of the premises.”

Whatever happened to the neighborhoods right to “the use and enjoyment of premises” of our own park?

The RPD is claiming that this is its best way to generate revenue for now “underutilized” facilities.  With usually only one potential tenant, the Parks are leased for ridiculously low amounts of money.  The RPD started leasing parks throughout the City in July and is usually charging between $1.31 – 1.51 per square foot per month and allows full usage of the other park facilities.  It is doubtful that the JP Murphy clubhouse  will be leased for more than $1,500 per month.  Apparently, the RPD now has a tenant for JP Murphy park or Mr. Kushner would not have scheduled a meeting.

The RPD’s quest for money has actually made them predatory.   On July 15 the Rec & Park Commission voted to let an expensive private preschool displace a free, 38-year-old City College parenting class at the Laurel Hill Clubhouse.  The clubhouse was leased to Language in Action (LIA), a preschool offering nine-month terms immersing two to five year olds in Spanish and Mandarin.  LIA tuition ranges from $1,000—for two hours per day, two days per week—to $14,000 for full day , five day per week instruction.   The RPD leased the Laurel Hills playground to LIA for only $1,427.00 per month.

“On the face of it, the RPD wanted to lease this property and they didn’t really care what the public thought,” stated City College Board of Trustee President, John Rizzo.  “The RPD cared so little about the public that it was too late once they were notified.”

JP Murphy Park is our park,  located in our neighborhoods and is used recreationally by the people in our neighborhoods.   We don’t accept the premise that the Recreation and Park Department can have one meeting with the neighborhoods and then lease out our  park for five years.  We want to use our park the way we want to use them.  The RPD has not even talked with the neighborhoods about how we  might want to use our own facility.   Without citizen protest/input the new RPD tenant will probably be moving into the park within a couple of months.

If the money that neighborhoods/voters are spending on public parks is being converted to support and subsidize commercial businesses and privatize public parks, voters will have to think long and hard as to why we would want to support the RPD’s proposed 2011 parcel tax or any other future bonds supporting the RPD.

This November 15 RPD meeting (next Monday night) is the neighborhoods only chance to stop the RPD from leasing the JP Murphy Park.  The RPD will soon be leasing out other parks and clubhouses in our neighborhoods such as the Midtown Terrace park.    If you love your park and want to save it from being privatized, please bring your friends and neighbors to this meeting.  United we stand, divided we fall.

George Wooding
President
West of Twin Peaks Central Council

WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?

Even just financially, this doesn’t make any sense. An expenditure of $3.85 million should generate a return of at least $150,000 annually; so if the expenditure was justified, this is the minimum value of the use the neighborhood gets from the park.

Many of us couldn’t attend this meeting because of clashes or having learned of it too late.  Perhaps the best option now is to call or write to Rec & Park.

Write to Rec & Park

Edited to Add: THE MEETING I DIDN’T ATTEND

A member of the West of Twin Peaks Council who attended the meeting sent me the following update:

  1. There were more than 50 people at the meeting.
  2. The consensus was that we need to write letters to the Board of Supervisors and the Park Commission urging them to reconsider the service cuts that have been made.
  3. A suggestion was made that perhaps the neighborhood organizations could raise money to re-employ the playground directors and continue the needed programs.
  4. Concern was expressed that not all areas of the city would be able to raise money.
  5. Although the people from RPD told us they were trying to get neighborhood input to resolutions to the budget problems, none of the 4 RPD people who were there took notes. Not one of them took a pen to paper and wrote down any of the comments.

Someone took the sign-in sheets, and the RPD people are trying to get contact information about the people who attended the meeting.

I’d welcome comments and feedback here.

Edited to Add (2):

George Wooding wrote a follow-up article on the issue  in the Westside Observer. That link is here.

On the Friends of JP Murphy Playground Facebook page (under “Discussion”) there’s a response to Stacy Sultana (who is the Group administrator) from Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. He says that the clubhouse was closed because Rec&Park didn’t have the funds to staff it — and he didn’t get a single neighborhood complaint.  The clubhouse can still be rented for functions such as birthdays. They’re looking to renting it out to a private party during the week (during which the renter would have exclusive rights to the clubhouse) “but the playground and other facilities would absolutely remain 100% accessible” to the public. He thinks that this renting out is unlikely to happen over neighborhood objections — but the alternative is that the clubhouse will remain locked up.

Bookshop West Portal & Simon Winchester

Bookshop West Portal (which I’ve written about in my earlier article on West Portal) often arranges author readings. This Friday evening, it was Simon Winchester talking to a standing-room only audience.

The best-selling author, Simon Winchester. In our little neighborhood independent bookstore.

Simon Winchester

Not only does Winchester write fascinating, well-researched non-fiction, he’s an entertaining speaker and raconteur. He was promoting his new book,  Atlantic. Instead of reading from his book, as authors commonly do, he told us stories: The story of how he came to write the book; the story of how he decided to structure it (it’s based on Shakespeare’s  ‘Seven Ages of Man‘); and then several stories from his book research, from places as far-flung as the Faeroe Islands, Tristan da Cunha (where he’s not allowed to land), and the Skeleton Coast. In between, he recounted how acetone was linked (via World War I, Chaim Weizmann and the Balfour Declaration ) to the founding of Israel.

Afterward, he autographed books for people. It was a great evening.

Bookshop West Portal also made an announcement about its knitting classes (and Simon Winchester has a funny story about knitting, too). The instructor’s holding some special classes for those who want to knit gifts such as scarves and fingerless gloves.

If you want to be kept informed about all the interesting authors and activities at a store only 2 miles from us — get on their email list. I’ve found this a pretty useful and painless way of staying in touch.

Evening Walk with Owl and Moon

I went for a walk around our neighborhood last evening… Forest Knolls is easy night-time walking. Good sidewalks. Bright but not oppressive lighting. A dramatic crescent moon setting over a theatrical city-lights backdrop.

And a barn owl, flying overhead. They’re very silent, so I can’t say what made me look up, but there it was, winging its way over the neighborhood. It may have been hunting, but I think it was just checking the place out.

It’s easy to tell a barn owl from a great horned owl — our other neighborhood owl —  even in the dark, even in flight. A barn owl appears white, and its head looks round. It’s sometimes called a “ghost owl.” It doesn’t have the “ears” or “horns” that a great horned owl has. It also flies more nimbly. Rodents, beware!

The picture here isn’t the owl I saw; that was moving too fast for my camera and my reflexes. It’s a public domain picture that I’ve tweaked to make it somewhat similar to that owl. I wonder if this was the same owl I saw some weeks ago on Twin Peaks.

Forest Hill Tree Tour with Mike Sullivan

The San Francisco Forest Hill tree tour last Sunday, led by Mike Sullivan, had a great turnout. “I thought there’d be about ten or twelve,” said my companion. In fact, there were perhaps three times that number. The tour started at the Forest Hill club house, which is surrounded by big old Monterey cypress. It’s a strikingly pretty place;  the Bernard Maybeck architecture and the tall trees give it a medieval air.

Forest Hill Club House - Maybeck

Mike had autographed copies of his book available for sale; since I’d already got one and blogged about it, I passed. Otherwise, it’s an opportunity I’d have grabbed.

We moved on to a strawberry tree just up the road. It’s native to Southern Europe —  and surprisingly, southern Ireland. Mike explained that most likely, they had a wider range before, but climate change had pushed them southward. This was a common pattern: It explained the distribution of Monterey pine, in small pockets as far apart as the Monterey peninsula and San Luis Obispo. Trees changed their home ranges in response to changing climatic conditions.

The next tree we saw was one I’ve been planning to photograph for a Memorable Trees post. It’s a Monterey Pine that towers above a white Spanish-style house. The  house is handsome, but this tree is what makes it memorable. The tree has an almost manicured appearance. It’s been well-cared for and expertly pruned.

ARAUCARIA AND CONTINENTAL DRIFT

It’s almost impossible to think about memorable trees without considering the weird Araucarias, a age-old genus of living fossils that knew the dinosaurs. (Flowering plants didn’t. The dinosaurs lived in a world of horsetails and treefern — and araucaria.) They have wonderful names like bunya-bunya and monkey-puzzle and Norfolk Island Pine (though they’re not at all related to pines).

They come from the Southern Hemisphere, from places as distant as  New Zealand to Chile in a scattered  distribution.  Mike’s explanation was continental drift: these trees were around before the continents split up, and traveled with the land masses as they moved.  San Francisco has a number of them, of various kinds (including two of the Memorable Trees I posted about earlier).

NEIGHBORS AND STORIES

Most of the trees we saw were on private property, and some of the neighbors came out and told us about their trees. The owner of an English birch beech that I’ve often admired said the big window opposite the tree brought it right into the house, so it felt as though their living room was part of the tree.

Elsewhere, someone invited us into his backyard to see a large buckeye, which was already bare – it shed its leaves as early as July – showing off the twisty branch structure. Mike told us that another buckeye is the subject of the only tree easement in the city — one that was saved from destruction when a builder bought the land on which it grows. Friends of the Urban Forest holds that easement.

Another neighbor told us about selecting sourwood trees – possibly the only ones in San Francisco – for the spot outside his home. Mike told us that the wood actually was sour, and jam could be made from the fruit. Later, we stopped to admire a rather large and twisted coastal live oak.

[Edited to Add: Forest Hill is proud of its trees; each one is tagged with a little metal accession number, and listed in a database. Someone explained that the neighborhood association cares for the trees; and will help a home-owner who wants to plant a tree to do so, free of charge. I have to say I was extremely impressed.]

One group of neighbors were trying to get support for a tree removal: A group of tall, stately, and possibly dangerous Monterey pines. They wanted to take down these trees, and replace them with smaller, younger ones.

WHAT NOT TO PLANT

One aspect of the tree tour didn’t appeal to me personally: Continual inputs about why various trees were bad. Invasive roots. Brittle wood. Dripping stamens and berries. Sensitivity to freezes. Pest vulnerabilities. (To be fair, most of these  comments did not actually come from Mike.)

I think I’d want to know all these things if I were actually trying to select a tree for a street (a process Mike noted was extremely site-specific, depending on the micro-climate, the underlying soil,  and the preferences of the owner).

But in the context of a tree-tour, a bit of a downer.

MIKE’S WEBSITE

In addition to his book, The Trees of San Francisco, Mike maintains a website at www.sftrees.com — including a list (no pictures, unfortunately) of interesting street trees by neighborhood, as well as ‘Mystery trees’ he wants to identify. It also has occasional updates about the particular trees mentioned in the book.

FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST

The tour, which was free, ended with an appeal for support for Friends of the Urban Forest. This marvelous group helps plant street trees all over San Francisco.

Reopened: Medical Center Way

Medical Center Way is open again. This is the lovely mountain road that goes through Sutro Forest, connecting the UCSF Aldea student housing to Parnassus (and is the shortest route from Forest Knolls to Stanyan). I’ve heard it called the prettiest road in San Francisco, and people have told me they take that route just for its beauty. Certainly I’ve trundled down the half-mile stretch between Johnstone and the dog-leg above Parnassus  at 15-20 mph, taking in the splendour of the trees and the scent of eucalyptus. It’s looking shorn now; a lot of the understory growth has been cut back, and some of the trees are gone. But even if not the lush wild place it was before, it’s still lovely.

A spaceship in the forest?

It had been closed for nearly a year, for the construction of UCSF’s stem cell research building (or rather, The Center for Integrative Medicine). That building looked amazing in the drawings, and fantastic from Golden Gate Park: like a spaceship that had landed in the forest. And someone else, gazing at the building said, “It looks like it’s been CGI’d into the forest.” (If anyone has a better picture, please send it! This really doesn’t do it justice. ETA: Thanks… this is a lot better.)

Close up, not so much. Snaking along the lower reaches of Medical Center Way, behind the hospital on Parnassus, it’s sheathed in what looks like aluminum siding. “Like a trailer abandoned by the roadside,” sniffed my companion. It does have a rather boxy, automotive appearance, like an RV or a railroad car. This is a pity, because the actual structure has a lot of interest.


That’s visible from the loading dock side, which isn’t technically a public access area. The box curves along the road, and it’s balanced on a network of struts that isolate it from its base in case of an earthquake. With the tall trees behind and beside it, it looks somewhat surreal.

[ETA 2: Here’s another article on the building, with a lot of architectural details. I notice they’ve used our spaceship metaphor. The sincerest form of flattery! And this article is from UCSF itself.]

Viewing the Blue Angels

One of the neat things about our neighborhood is that it’s so close to Tank Hill and to Twin Peaks, both excellent viewing platforms for anything happening on the Bay – flying exhibitions, firework displays, or fog flow.

On Saturday, armed with binoculars and pocket-camera, I went up to Tank Hill for the Blue Angels. The place was quite crowded, though some people, misled by the warm day, were driven off by the strong wind before the show ended. I’d worn a windcheater, so I was fine; it was the t-shirt crowd that were cold.

It was great. Not only could we see all the way over to the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay, we could see the planes come by our own Sutro Forest.

On Sunday afternoon, I actually went into the forest, even though very little of the airshow is visible from there. But a couple of times, the planes come blasting past the forest, behind the eucalyptus. There’s something surreal about it – the contrast between the very sylvan forest and the power and thunder of the most artificial thing – a jet aircraft. I got a couple of poor-resolution photographs, but a spectacular experience.

Missing Pekinese Dog (Found)

Update: I received word today that the dog has been found.

Update 2: So yesterday, I actually met Koko and Iina for the first time. The little dog was entirely as affectionate as advertised… she came over and jumped up to make friends. I’m so glad she’s home.

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One of our neighbors has lost her dog. Here’s the posting from Craig’s List:

My Dog’s name is Iina. She went missing on 10/4/10 Monday 1PM in Inner Sunset Area.
She is five years old, female. Small dog(about 11 pounds) with blond hair. Very Very Very affectionate. Loves people. She is wearing a collar with name and phone number of her veterinarian in Novato CA. Although I strongly believe in good in all people, there is a reward! No question asked.. please please call or email me 415-713-6650 or coko13@gmail.com Thank you!

The photographs (also from Craig’s List) show this little blond Pekinese dog. Please keep an eye out for her.

Update: A reward of $500 is being offered.

Muni, Clipper and Me

On Saturday  (2 Oct 2010) I took the Muni downtown from Forest Hill Station. I do this often enough that I know the drill, but seldom enough that I don’t carry a pass – or have the correct change. I always need to use the change machines.

But on Saturday they were out of service. Every single one was blocked with yellow tape. I looked at the station-master in puzzlement. She waved me over to new ticket machines on the other side of the station. Those didn’t need the exact change, they worked with credit cards. And they issued paper tickets at $2 for a single trip, $4 for a return fare.

Whatever happened to the transfer with the 90-minute validity? I wasn’t sure.  (It was academic, anyway. I was meeting friends for lunch; it would take more than 90 minutes.) After a little fumbling, I got a return ticket. It had a nice picture of the ballpark on the front.

On the back were a couple of icons indicating how to pay (just tap your card on the reader); and some fine print.

I couldn’t figure out what was meant by “A 90-minute transfer will be calculated automatically from initial time of entry.” I went looking on the SFMTA website, but that was some miles away from being crystal clear…

By contrast, here’s what the old-now-obsolete transfer said on the back:

That’s crystal clear.

So anyway, I called 311, and within a minute or two (at 11.30 at night!) got a helpful lady who assured me that I could use the colorful-but-baffling ticket in exactly the same way as the old Muni transfer. It really was valid for 90 minutes from the time of entry, so if I took a short trip downtown, I didn’t have to buy a return ticket.

I’ll be trying it out one of these days, and will update this post then. I might even break down and get a Clipper card. It’s the San Franciscan thing to do. [ETA: It works. It’s valid for 90 minutes, no problem.]

(Other than that confusion, things were going reasonably well. Transit staff were on duty everywhere telling people what they needed to do.)

The Stairways of Forest Knolls

One of the most delightful aspects of our neighborhood – besides the wonderful forest – are its romantic stairways, climbing the steep slopes of Mount Sutro and linking the roads.

What surprised me was that they all have names. They’re lanes:  Ashwood Lane; Blairwood Lane; Glenhaven Lane; and Oakhurst Lane.

Not only are these stairs a convenient short-cut linking our curving roads, they offer great views and good exercise (of which more later). Some of them – like Glenhaven Lane – are well-lit at night, others less so. They’re all steel and concrete, the effect mellowed by green-painted railings, and vegetation growing right beside and underneath the floating steps. (They don’t have risers, so rain and light can get through to the plants.)

Glenhaven Lane

The stairways are all in flights of around 100 -200 steps, though some are actually systems of several flights of stairs. The shortest stairways are Ashwood Lane, which connects Clarendon Avenue to Warren Drive, (109 steps), and Glenhaven Lane, connecting Oak Park Drive to Christopher/ Crestmont (167 steps).

The two longer stairways are Oakhurst and Blairwood. Oakhurst runs from Warren Drive to a cul-de-sac on Oak Park (162 steps) and up to Crestmont (another 193 steps) for a total of 355 steps.

Blairwood Lane  runs in three sections from Warren Drive to Oak Park (117 steps) to Christopher (another 103 steps) to Crestmont (118 steps), and totals 338 steps. (Actually, it’s almost contiguous with Ashwood, so you could almost consider them the same stairway, which would make it 447 steps.)

A Staircase View

I’m not the first to write about these stairs. In ‘Stairway Walks in San Francisco‘ by Adah Bakalinsky with Marian Gregoire, our neighborhood gets Chapter 17. (With the slightly off-putting title, Grading & Sliding, Fog & Drip. They must have been here on a foggy day…)

And our own neighbor Beverly Mack wrote “Steppin’ Up” in the Jan 2010 issue of the Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization newsletter, about the benefits of the stairs as a real-life exercise machine. Here’s the article (published with permission and edited to avoid duplication — all the step-counts above are from that article).

STEPPIN’ UP by Beverly Mack

We are fortunate to have stairways that connect our neighborhood streets as an immediate source for exercise. The advantage of having the stairs is that you do not have to drive to the gym – no gas, no traffic, and no parking problems. The stairs are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no closures because of holidays. And above all else, IT IS FREE.

So, let’s start exercising by stair climbing. Take your dog, children, grab a neighbor, or better yet start a group. Stair climbing uses your quads (front of your thighs) and buttocks. It is an intense exercise because you are carrying your body weight against gravity. It is an intense cardiovascular and leg muscle activity. And it is low impact and safe for your knees. Do not do too much too quickly, and be sure to consult your orthopedist if you have existing knee problems. There is stress to your knees coming down stairs rather than climbing up, so when you reach the top of any level, walk back down along the sidewalks of our Forest Knolls streets.

Depending on your body weight and pace, stair climbing can burn 300 calories in 30 minutes. Make sure to wear shoes with good support. Drink enough water before, during and after your workout. Think about alternating stair climbing with other activities, such as taking a walk in our great forest. Whatever you do, make sure to check with your physician.

Start slowly, wear supportive shoes, drink water, and don’t forget to stretch  before and after exercising. Above all have fun. And besides, it’s a great way to meet your neighbors.

Forest Knolls Neighborhood Garage Sale, Sept 11, 2010

The big neighborhood garage sale is on!

Forest Knolls neighborhood garage sale…great stuff….great prices…

Saturday, September 11

From 10 am – 4 pm ….

WHERE:

  • 309 Oak Park Drive
  • 317 Oak Park Drive
  • 325 Oak Park Drive
  • 333 Oak Park Drive
  • 377 Oak Park Drive
  • 325 Christopher
  • 89 Woodhaven Court

(San Francisco 94131)