Here’s a nice story of local government in
action. In mid-March,
I emailed Supervisor Scott Wiener about the private commuter
bus passengers who
line up against the wall of Cotton Basics directly behind the
bus shelter on
24th Street at Castro Street. I pointed out that, given how
large that bus
shelter is, the passageway behind the shelter is already quite
narrow and the
line of commuters makes it even more difficult to walk
through, especially for
people with bags or strollers.
I suggested that it would be a simple solution
if the commuters
would line up in front of Gallery of Jewels, where the
sidewalk is not
compromised by the bus shelter.
That same day, Supervisor Wiener forwarded my
email to a manager
at SFMTA, who reported later that day that he had contacted
Google and that
Google would email its employees who use the stop asking them
to line up as I
suggested. Within a couple of weeks, the line had moved.
I want to publicly thank Scott Wiener and the
SFMTA for their
incredibly prompt and effective responses.
Thanks also to the Google commuters for making
that portion of
24th Street easier to navigate.
Ruth Borenstein
24th Street
Idling
Cars Also Trashy
Editor:
There were two egregious problems brought out
by “Blue Bin
Bandits Identified,” the letter from Sherry Coveney in the
April issue of the Voice.
First the theft and second the idling of the car.
According to an Environmental Defense Fund
study, unnecessary idling
in New York City every year causes as much smog-forming
pollution as 9 million
large trucks driving from Hunts Point in the Bronx to Staten
Island.
Additionally, curbside idling costs NYC drivers over $28
million annually in
wasteful fuel.
What is needed is more education on this issue,
as well as an
anti-idling law like the one the New York administrative code
provides.
Denise D’Anne
Guerrero Street
Garden
Tour Review
Editor:
The annual Noe Valley Garden Tour is over, and
organizers
Jana King and Linda Lockyer have succeeded in
pulling off another
great event.
To start with, the pre-tour Thank You Party for
volunteers was a
delight. Being in the garden and home of last year’s
first-place winner is
always a plus, and the refreshments from Noeteca and the 24th
Street Cheese
Shop were an excellent touch. Best cheese selection
I’ve ever
encountered and the Noeteca frittata was to die for.
The garden
packet instructions were concise, with all possible
necessities included, along
with change for cash sales. Lovely happy people in a lovely
happy place with
nice wines and great food…what could go wrong?
To begin with, my replacement at noon in the On
Lok 30th Street
Senior Center garden was a no-show and did not bother to let
anyone know, nor
did they reply to urgent telephone calls. It would never occur
to
me to make such a commitment and not find a replacement if I
were unable to
perform.
A lovely lady, Ruth Maginnis, who
volunteers at the Senior
Center on a regularbasis,
was nice enough to step in and take on the greeter
table/ticket sales for me so
I could visit some of the other gardens.
I saw 5 of the 11 gardens and was very
impressed. A lot of
people went to a lot of effort to present their properties in
the best light,
including offering unnecessary but well-received refreshments
at
some.
Not a superb weather day in Noe Valley, but
definitely an
improvement over the days before, and all in all I think the
tour was a great
success and probably raised more money than expected for the
Noe Valley Library
garden, which, by the way, is
California-native-plant-informative in the sunny
east garden and just plain beautiful on the shaded deck
portion. J. Charmain
Giuliani, who is a noted local horticulturist and
professor of
Environmental Horticulture at CCSF, gave
wonderful container
gardening demonstrations. The woman is a master!
I can’t wait for next year and hope to be able
to volunteer
again. Thanks, Jana and Linda and all you lovely garden people
who opened your
properties to all us strangers…and to those of you
volunteers who did show
up to help.
Shannon Miller
Duncan Street
Lady
Finally Painted
Editor:
Good news for Noe Valley neighborhood
preservationists! The
uninhabited eyesore property at 1220–22 Church St. near 24th
Street, has been
restored as a “painted lady,” i.e., a Victorian painted in at
least three
colors that highlight the details of the building’s facade.
Now the house
sports a white, light green, and light brown color
combination, replacing the
previous dark brown/dark pink veneer.
Unfortunately, there is no word on when the
building will be
occupied with flesh-and-blood tenants.
John Mehring
Dolores Street
Wary of
Utility Box Clutter
Editor:
The article about the new AT&T utility
boxes to go up in Noe
Valley describes the size of one of the boxes [May 2013
Voice]. But the Voice article
from May 2011 quotes an AT&T spokesperson as saying that
to make the system
work an additional box must be installed. An accompanying
photo shows a box
that is even bigger in dimension than the first.
AT&T has a one-size-fits-all solution for
the entire
country. What goes unnoticed in the suburbs has a large impact
in a city like
San Francisco. If competitors, as mentioned in the May 2013
article, wish to
install similar systems, Noe Valley could be looking at double
or triple the
number of these boxes in the same areas. We just have to look
at what is
happening to our power poles to see the potential clutter
these devices will
leave. I think cost per device is more likely the reason the
boxes can’t be
subdivided, partially put underground, or made to be lifted
from below ground when
servicing is needed.
Not mentioned is the question of money. Does
the city receive
fees for the use of the rights of way?
Currently, PG&E, who owns all the power
poles, is paid a fee
for each item or line attached to their poles—all these new
transmitter boxes,
for instance. In turn, the city gets higher revenue in the
form of taxes. I
don’t know but I’d hazard a guess that AT&T pays the city
fees for the use
of rights of way for these boxes.
Seems to me it’s worth asking if this is so,
and if the city does
get money, maybe we should get more than free plants.
Name withheld by request
Reporter Tim Innes Responds: According to
AT&T spokesperson
Lane Kasselman, the company is required to pay various
permit fees to the city
for the construction of facilities in the public right of
way or any time it
must dig, trench, or excavate in the right of way.
Also, AT&T pays DIVCA (Digital
Infrastructure and Video
Competition Act) franchise fees and PEG (Public,
Educational, and Government
Access) support fees to the city. Comcast and Astound also
pay these fees,
which are passed along to subscribers.
Regarding those companies putting their own
big cabinets on city
sidewalks: This is less likely because Comcast and Astound
don’t have the same
kind of infrastructure that legacy carriers like AT&T
have. AT&T is
essentially piggybacking new services atop its existing
landline telephone network.
But if Comcast and Astound did have to use the public right
of way, they’d be
subject to the same permit and franchise fees.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
THEVOICE welcomes
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THE NOE
VALLEY VOICE
P.O. Box 460249
San Francisco, CA 94146
www.noevalleyvoice.com
The Noe Valley Voice is an
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distributed free in Noe
Valley and vicinity, on or before the first Friday of the
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The Voice welcomes your
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CO-PUBLISHERS/EDITORS
Sally Smith, Jack Tipple
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
AND EDITORS
Olivia Boler, Other Voices Editor
Corrie M. Anders, Associate Editor
Heather World, Associate Editor
Heidi Anderson, Owen Baker-Flynn, Karol Barske,
Helen Colgan,
Jan Goben, Kate Haug, Liz Highleyman, Rebecca Huval, Laura
McHale Holland,
Florence Holub, Tim Innes, Jeff Kaliss, Doug Konecky, Rhiana
Maidenberg, George
Nelson, Roger Rubin, Shayna Rubin, Karen Topakian
