Category Archives: entertainment

Entertainment Commission committee takes aim at WSoMa Plan

The Entertainment Commission’s Committee on Entertainment in Western SoMa will hold its first meeting tonight at 4:00 p.m. in Room 479 of City Hall. The committee consists of promoter Audrey Joseph, (Vice Chair and Industry Representative), entertainer Glendon (Anna Conda) Hyde (representing the interests of neighborhood associations and groups) and Bryant Tan, a new Mayoral appointee from CCDC who is supposed to represent Urban Planning.

The discussion will focus on entertainment in the Western SoMa Community Plan. Commissioner Joseph will give us a brief history of entertainment in Western SoMa and someone from the Planning Department is supposed to inform us on the impact of current and future zoning in Western SoMa.  Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under entertainment, politics

180 unit residential project proposed for Twitterland

SmartSpace® Mission, a green infill projected located at 9th and Mission Streets, will provide 180 units of studios and suites.

Panoramic Interests of Berkeley has proposed an 11 story residential tower at 1321 Mission Street within a block of the new Twitter headquarters on Market Street. The 9th and Mission Street development will be discussed at the March 21 meeting of the SoMa Leadership Council.  Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under entertainment, meetings, planning, quality of life

Entertainment and hate speech

This nasty dispute between neighbors and nightclubs over the question of establishing an entertainment zone on 11th Street has gotten a lot of people worked up.

“People who don’t want noise from people enjoying music and each other shouldn’t live in SOMA, or in the big city at all,” declared one of Entertainment Commissioner Glendon (Anna Conda) Hyde’s supporters.

The last time this idea surfaced,  passions became so inflamed by the industry’s “Save the Music” campaign that a nearly completed 15 unit live/work building at the corner of 11th and Harrison Street burned to the ground. The fire was ruled arson but no one was ever prosecuted for the crime.

Maybe it’s time for folks on all sides of the issue to tone down their rhetoric a bit.

Jim Meko, chair
SoMa Leadership Council 

10 Comments

Filed under entertainment, politics

Market Street billboard promoter files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The much-hyped revival of Mid-Market didn’t come fast enough for David Addington and his company Fair Market Properties. J.K. Dineen reports in the San Francisco Business Times that Fair Market Properties, which bought 1028-1056 Market Street in 2004 for $6.4 million, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 18, according to public documents. Addington owes about $4 million to East West Bank.

Jim Meko, chair
SoMa Leadership Council 

1 Comment

Filed under entertainment, politics

EC commish targets 11th Street, tells Bay Area Reporter “it is time to be really loud and proud”

Matthew Bajko, the Bay Area Reporter’s political correspondent, covers the SoMa Leadership Council’s upcoming entertainment summit in his latest column. “I have absolutely endorsed an entertainment zone for 11th Street,” said gay Entertainment Commissioner Glendon Hyde, also known as drag queen Anna Conda. “It is time to really be loud and proud about our culture and make sure it doesn’t disappear for condos.”

click here to read his report

Jim Meko, chair
SoMa Leadership Council 

1 Comment

Filed under entertainment, planning, politics, quality of life

Warren Hellman: Slims, Great American Music Hall, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival … R.I.P.

Emmylou Harris on Warren Hellman: What are your favorite things about Hardly Strictly?

Harris: Warren is a great host — everybody is treated equally, but in a great way. It’s for the people, but it really celebrates musicians. So many people want to play it, because it’s like going to music camp, you get to see a lot of friends who you don’t get to see because you’re always on the road — and then you get to see performers that you may love, but have never gotten to see. You get to sit in with different folks.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under entertainment

Entertainment Commission presentation

Leave a comment

Filed under entertainment, planning

Progress Report on the Food Park

Artist's rendering of the SoMa "Streat" Food Park

Got a note the other day from the architect for the project: “Despite everyday being another day in the Continuing Education of Bureaucracy, we are not going to be dissuaded form completing this project. We are months behind our original schedule, who would think parking trucks in a parking lot could require so much Municipal oversight?  Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under community services, entertainment, quality of life

8 Reasons why an entertainment zone won’t help 11th Street

The Western SoMa Task Force worked long and hard on its Arts and Entertainment element and overall I think we produced some very positive changes for the entertainment industry. But some people are not satisfied with what we achieved and are arguing, once again, for the establishment of an entertainment zone (a so-called “special use district”) to be established along the 11th Street corridor.

There’s gonna be a little meeting to plot strategy on Wednesday night at the Beat Box, and guess what? The neighbors aren’t invited. How ironic. Gavin Newsom did the very same thing to us about fifteen years ago, for the very same reason, at the very same location.  Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under entertainment, meetings, planning, politics, quality of life

No SoMa Leadership Council meeting this month

Thanksgiving is coming and everybody has a ton of things to do in preparation for the holidays so there will not be a meeting this month. In the meantime, send in your suggestions for future agenda items. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under entertainment, meetings, politics