This Week In Noe Valley

News from, about and for Noe Valley from around the interwebs:

• A tree took out J-Church lines and a power pole [Twitter, also: ABC7]
• Only 8 single family homes for sale in Noe Valley right now (and not cheap) [Zephyr]
• The only TIC unit that sold at the converted flop house on Church returns to market [SocketSite]
• SFMTA wants to eliminate DPT ticket writers on street cleaning day, use cameras instead [KTVU]
• SFPD recovered over 100 stolen bikes; is yours one of them? [SFPD, also: SFGate]

Fair Warning: DPT To Crack Down On Sidewalk Parking

Jersey St.

We learn from the SFPD Ingleside Station that the DPT will step up enforcement of Section 22500(f) of the California Vehicle Code, more commonly known as "parking on sidewalks." The DPT appears to believe that enforcing a policy last updated in February of 2010 will help close SFMTA's budget deficit (which we're not getting into here). In short:

Vehicles parked on sidewalks constitute an inconvenience for pedestrians and a hazard for people who are blind or otherwise visually impaired. Officers are to renew their efforts to cite violations...to discourage this ongoing and increasing problem.

Section VC2200F states: "No person shall stop, park or leave standing any vehicle whether attended or unattended, except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a peace officer or official traffic control device..." DPT will collect $105 each time you stop "even for just one minute." We're going to go ahead and assume that Whole Foods customers will be exempt.

A full list of all parking fines is available here. Keep a copy in your glove box so you can choose the cheapest late-night option.

Parklets: Construction Begins

The long-debated and awaited parklets on 24th St began construction today. The pavers are concrete and rest on steel beams; the planters are also steel. More details from StreetsBlogSF:

The new spaces were designed by Riyad Ghannam, who designed and built the first parklet in the city in front of the Mojo Bicycle Cafe on Divisadero street. The parklets will replace a total of four parking spaces and cost $37,000, the entirety of which came from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development as part of their commercial revitalization budget. The Noe Valley Association, which represents merchants in the area, is the permit holder and will oversee the maintenance of the facilities.

Expect the parklets to be completed in front of Martha & Bros and Just For Fun in time for the weekend -- just in time for the rain.

Update from Carol Yenne:

The Permit Holder is the Noe Valley Association CBD which is the property owners of the commercial district, not the merchant association.

It would also be nice to mention this is a "trial" to see how folks like them. These are not not permanent parklet being set up.

Thanks,
Carol Yenne
Member of NVA CBD as well as NVMPA board.

[StreetsBlogSF: Noe Valley Parklet Installation Begins]

City Confused About Parking on 24th Street

According to these signs posted all over the place parking on 24th Street, Castro and Church is about to get a little harder - maximum parking time is about to be reduced from 2 hours to 1 hour. But according the agenda posted on the SFMTA website, the opposite is true - parking time will be extended to 2 hours. So we checked out the meters - they're currently 1 hour. The change means diners at Toast and Savor won't have to feed the meter before they're even seated.

If you'd like to comment...

What: Director of Parking and Traffic public hearing
When: Friday, June 5, 2009, at 10:00AM
Where: City Hall, Room 416 (Hearing Room 4)

[SFMTA: June 5, 2009, Hearing Notice ]

NVV: We Read It So You Don't Have To

The Noe Valley Voice is published ten times a year and has been a neighborhood fixture since 1977. Here are highlights from the latest issue. Links are to stories we've covered at NVSF.

May 2009

• Front page: Pritikin Mansion to become "Only in SF" museum?; Tuesday Farmer's Market; Noe Valley Quest; more parking tickets for parking...illegally (interesting tidbits: parking in a blue zone is $300, and you can print your own passive aggressive missives to leave on windshields).
  
• Cost of Living in Noe: Housing market is still slow and expensive.
  
• Event: Local entrepreneurs are invited to showcase their wares/services on 24th St on May 16, 10AM-2PM. More info at SF Small Business Week's website, or send an email to the NVMPA or So Tell Me More.
  
• Letters: Someone is happy the evil shrine to Obama finally came down at Just For Fun; complaints about off-leash dogs; a long letter about teens behaving badly on the J-Church.
• Obits: Bacco's Paolo Dominici.
  
• Store Trek: Arara, an eco-boutique way out on San Jose and Valley across from Mitchell's. (Ed.--Is that really the only business even a little to close to Noe that opened?)
  
• Rumors: The Chronicle won't reveal circulation numbers for 94114 and 94131; the Examiner states their NV circulation has gone up (read: more litter on our doorsteps); 24th St gets news racks; Bell Market's manager Enrico Fornesi will join the management team at Whole Foods when the last Bell closes this December; Peter Gabel wants to turn Real Foods into a food court and DVD movie theater; Just Awesome games reports the most popular game is...Pandemic; Bacco, Incanto and Firefly made the Chronicle's Top 100 (Ed.--Bacco didn't actually make the list); Cook's Boulevard and Global Exchange have added wedding registries.
  
• Traveling Voice: It traveled to Bhutan, Java and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hope it wore sunblock.
  

[The Noe Valley Voice]

Street Cleaning: Win Some, Lose More

Remember the all-too-confusing change to the street sweeping schedule here in Noe Valley and other relatively clean neighborhoods of San Francisco meant to save the City money? It's not working out so well:

When city officials cut street sweeping in more than 20 neighborhoods in August to save cash, they knew that the change would lead to a loss in revenue from parking tickets.

They probably didn't anticipate that the city would lose four times more money than it saved - money that would have gone to the struggling Municipal Transportation Agency, which is considering cutting transit service and increasing fares to balance its budget.

Apparently we've figured out how to read the signs. But here's what we want to know after reading the Chron's article: Are they saying that street cleaning is done to generate parking ticket revenue...?

[SFGate: Street-sweeper reductions costing Muni money]
[NVSF: Dirtier Streets, Confusion to Ensue]