July 14, 2015 · 10:51 am

From casket factories to convention centers: a photographic memory

Ted's Howard Street

from BRIAN WALLACE

Janet Delaney will be presenting photos from the current de Young exhibition, Janet Delaney: South of Market, at St. Patrick Catholic Church on Mission Street, on Thursday July 16. Preservation Planner Jonathan Lammers will provide an overview of SoMa’s oft-contested development history.

Janet Delaney built a darkroom in the third bedroom, and started photographing her neighborhood. South of Market was filled with industry: casket factories, blacksmiths, sign shops, auto mechanics. It was a working class neighborhood with families, a growing gay population, and artists. But that was about to change, and Delaney wanted to capture it on film.

Read more and listen to radio interview:

http://kalw.org/post/south-market-soma-photographic-memory-one-san-francisco-s-changing-neighborhoods

 

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Filed under art, events, planning, politics, social heritage

July 14, 2015 · 10:39 am

High-rise towers threaten Rincon Park

rincon high-rises

by DAVE OSGOOD

Environmental groups and neighborhood advocates gathered recently at Rincon Park on San Francisco’s waterfront to announce a new campaign to protect the well-used waterfront park from being darkened by shadows from proposed new high-rise luxury towers.  Later this summer, developers are expected to ask city officials to approve two tall new luxury high-rise condo towers:  one rising to 240 feet at 75 Howard facing the Embarcadero and another rising to 400 feet at 160 Folsom, a block from the waterfront.  As proposed, the two towers would be far taller than the 8 Washington “wall on the waterfront” luxury condos that voters overwhelmingly rejected.  Continue reading →

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Filed under open space, planning, quality of life

July 14, 2015 · 10:14 am

Developer seeks to transform 10th and Harrison parking lot into “smart interim spaces”

campsyte

Speaking of creative uses for shipping containers, Dennis Wong (campsyte.com) has announced a pre-app meeting for a three-level “mixed-use” development at 10th and Harrison Streets. This is the same vacant lot that was to be home to a recycling center last year.  Continue reading →

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July 1, 2015 · 4:11 pm

Soak, an urban bathhouse in five shipping containers, at Mission Bay

SOAK

SF Curbed reports that the newest addition to Mission Bay will be Soak, an urban bathhouse in five shipping containers, which is officially moving ahead with the recent blessing of the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, the successor to the Redevelopment Agency that oversees the Mission Bay redevelopment area. The idea, says Soak founder Nell Waters, is to conjure the communal spirit of the urban bathhouses of yore, but with a 21st-century ethos of resource consciousness.  Read more →

 

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June 29, 2015 · 12:13 pm

“A new era” for the Flower Mart

The owners and vendors of the Flower Mart and the Kilroy Corporation have signed an agreement that guarantees the 100 year old institution will remain at its current location for generations to come. The document includes assurances that the existing vendors will continue to be able to rent at an affordable rate, that the vendors themselves will make the decision as to whether the new location will be underground or at street level, that the new development will provide twice the amount of parking that currently exists (and new space for outdoor markets and community events) and recognizes the ownership rights and ability to pass the affordable rates on to the next generation or to any other entity of the vendor’s choice. Continue reading →

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Filed under economics, planning

June 27, 2015 · 7:18 am

Love wins!

white house
“They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered.”

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June 24, 2015 · 5:23 pm

SF Chron reports, “Flower Mart developer heads off thorny ballot fight”

Last-minute negotiations have headed off what could have been a costly ballot fight between tech money and longtime small businesses that are feeling priced out of San Francisco — in this case, at the Flower Mart in the South of Market.

San Francisco Chronicle →
San Francisco Examiner →

 

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June 24, 2015 · 9:49 am

Eagle “plaza” and Russian-based developers pursue height loophole for numerous SoMa projects

Imagine one additional floor squeezed into this project. That's what Michael Yarne and Build Inc. have decided to do after their ploy to avoid paying for affordable housing fell through.

Imagine one additional floor squeezed into this project, which is already at the maximum height allowed. That’s what Michael Yarne and Build Inc. decided to do after their ploy to avoid paying for affordable housing fell through.

by JIM MEKO

The Planning Department convinced many of us who were involved in community planning to accept an additional five feet of building height in our recent rezonings. Planning Commissioner Dennis Richards, who recalls the promises made during the Market/Octavia process, requested an explanation. John Rahaim, the Director of the Planning Department, explained the intent to the Planning Commission recently:

“The intent of that provision, and that has been put in place now in many places across the city, the intent now is to provide an extra five feet of height on the ground floor, to provide a more generous ground floor, higher ceilings for retail space and a better proportion of the building along the street.”  Continue reading →

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June 21, 2015 · 6:46 am

Private party for Mayors Conference closes Rincon Park access to public

20150620_USCM2015_ClosedRinconPark800

by JAMIE WHITAKER

Without any communications from The Port of San Francisco or the Mayor’s Office to anybody that lives along the SoMa waterfront, it was a great surprise to find that the BCDC’s supposed Public Access Seating Area that sits between Waterbar and Epic Steakhouse was closed to the Public because the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s party planners decided to buy the Embarcadero Pedestrian Promenade and Rincon Park away from the Public starting around 5pm today (Saturday, June 20th) to set up their party – and I’m guessing it will continue to be closed off to the public on Sunday.  Continue reading →

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June 4, 2015 · 9:32 am

Mental health services for adults, children and families coming to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus

family-crop

An anonymous $50 million gift will fund a center for mental and physical healthcare services on the UCSF Mission Bay campus, Matthew W. State announced last night at the University’s regular meeting of its Community Advisory Group. Dr. State, MD, PhD, the Oberndorf Family Distinguished Professor and chair of psychiatry at UCSF, is a world-renowned researcher on neurodevelopmental disorders.  Continue reading →

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