Noe Valley — great weekend in a great neighborhood

I’ve always spent a lot of time in Noe Valley, since I live just a few blocks away from it, but in the past few years I’ve come to appreciate more and more how culturally rich and vibrant a place it is and how tight knit it is.  This weekend was a great example.  On Friday evening, I first went to the pre-opening of the new Whole Foods on 24th Street.  Whole Foods is taking the place of Bell Market, which closed earlier this year.  Combined with the loss of Real Foods, which closed years ago (and whose owners should be ashamed of themselves for keeping the place vacant and creating blight on the neighborhood), 24th Street had some issues, and its small businesses were struggling.  Having Whole Foods reopen is terrific for the neighborhood and the surrounding businesses.  Carol Yenne, owner of a nearby store, told me that in the past few months several vacant storefronts have been leased in anticipation of the foot traffic that Whole Foods will bring.

Anyway, on Friday night, Whole Foods turned its parking lot into a street fair, with various food vendors giving away samples of their amazing food. It was a wonderful community gathering, and a nice use of public space.  Whenever I’m at an outdoor neighborhood gathering like this, I’m reminded how important it is to have centrally located public spaces for the neighborhood to come together and for people to get to know each other.

After the Whole Foods shindig, I stopped by the Noe Valley branch library on Jersey Street, where the neighborhood was celebrating the career of Carol Small, the branch library’s recently retired children’s librarian (http://www.noevalleyvoice.com/2009/September/Smal.htm).  Carol is a key part of the community and has worked with and read to generations of Noe Valley kids.  The turnout was strong, and the energy was good.  I got to speak with Kim Drew, an tenacious library advocate in Noe Valley and citywide.  She played a key role in the revamp of the Noe Valley branch.  We talked about the importance of libraries, even in the information age, as community centers and learning centers.

This morning, I got a personal tour of the 30th Street Senior Center, on 30th Street between Church and Dolores (http://www.onlok.org/30thsite/index.asp).  If you don’t know about the 30th Street Center, you should.  It’s the largest provider of senior meals in the city, with multiple meal sites.  It also provides seniors with classes, access to computers, exercise classes, gardening activities, dance classes, etc., etc.  As our population ages, it’s so important to have these kinds of services for seniors who are able to live on their own but who need this kind of support.  It not only helps seniors financially but provides the critical social outlet that prevents seniors from becoming isolated.

From the 30th Street Center, I headed over to 24th Street and to the weekly Farmer’s Market.  From there I stopped by the St. Philip’s Church annual festival, complete with games for kids, food, and entertainment.  St. Philip’s is an important institution in Noe Valley, with a school, public meeting space, and other community resources.

All in all, a fun weekend in Noe Valley.  Great neighborhood, great people.

High-speed rail needs to extend to downtown San Francisco

It exciting that California is moving forward with its high-speed rail system.  This is part of a national effort to build high-speed rail in densely populated regions and thus to expand use of effective public transportation and reduce auto congestion/pollution.  (http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/09/18/high-speed-rail-routes-and-the-looming-choice-among-megaregions/)

Unfortunately, some people think that the LA-SF high-speed rail should stop at 4th and Townsend Streets, at the current CalTrain station.  (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/23/BAMJ19QIMR.DTL)  This would be a huge mistake.  Yes, it will cost more to extend the system to downtown SF — namely, to the future Transbay Transit Center — but one of the key components of an effective system is to make it as convenient as possible for people.  Having downtown-to-downtown service will go a long way in making the system as convenient and usable as possible and thus will increase ridership.

If there’s one thing we know about public transportation, it’s that you have to make it convenient and easy for people.  Every inconvenience that you add to it, from a bad location to requiring additional connections, etc., makes people less likely to use it.  We’re making a massive public investment in this system, and now isn’t the time to be penny-wise and pound foolish.

California voters satisfied with our state government’s structure????

Ok, I don’t get this.  According to a recent poll, Californians say they’re satisfied with the way our government is set up:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/11/BA1R19L8JR.DTL

I don’t know what the methodology was or how the questions were asked — the Public Policy Institute is reputable, so I have to assume the poll was well done — but it’s hard for me to believe that people don’t see how screwed up our state’s governmental structure is.  We’re one of two states that requires a 2/3 majority of the legislature to pass a budget, which gives a small group of radical right-wing Republicans a veto.  We have a low threshold to qualify ballot measures, which results in a lot of ballot-box budgeting and constitutional amendments that fundamentally alter the state without voters really knowing the ramifications of what they’re voting on.  And, we have term limits for our state legislators that are completely over the top, 6 years for Assemblymembers and 8 years for Senators.  In the Assembly, that means that by the time members get their bearings and really know how to legislate, they’re close to being termed out.  And, we have Assembly speakers who are either brand new to the Assembly, and thus inexperienced, or somewhat experienced and on the verge of being termed out.  This system results in lobbyists, not elected representatives,  being the folks with institutional memory.

This is not how you run a state with almost 40 million people and one of the largest economies in the world.  We need fundamental structural change in California, and I can only hope that this poll does not mean that the electorate thinks otherwise.

Beautiful new pedestrian plaza at Guerrero and San Jose

Creating new, usable public spaces is a critical thing for San Francisco — places where people can congregate, get to know there neighbors, bring their kids to play, etc. The City’s “Pavement to Parks” program is a way to turn under-utilized, or dangerous, streets into pedestrian plazas. The first project completed was the new pedestrian plaza at 17th and Castro, which has been a huge success. People use it all the time, even in bad weather, to sit, drink coffee, and socialize. The Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District has created programming there, typically music. It’s terrific.

The second project is now about to be completed — at the intersection of Guerrero St. and San Jose Ave. This odd area of roadway is not used much by cars and is the perfect location for a plaza. On Saturday, I helped neighbors plant the area, and the plaza is going to open sometime this week. One more step toward making the city a more pedestrian-friendly place and toward building stronger neighborhoods.