This Week In Noe Valley: Wider Sidewalks, Landlord From Hell, And A Sign Of The Bubble

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

• Almost done: The new bus stop and bulbout on Castro and 24th [@Scott_Wiener]
• And a couple of videos of the crosswalk installation [@sfpublicworks, @theoverheadwire ]
• Time travel: Classic Corvette on Church Street [tfaccone]
• "Stunning" [@iamvivita]
• Eviction specialist and Noe Valley landlord from hell being sued by City [SF Gate]
• Scott Wiener on the mission moratorium defeat and where we go from here [SF Examiner]
• SF’s median rent is not $4225 (but it’s still really high) [SocketSite]
• Is the Noe/Mission/Castro TrashDay fake/real startup a sign of the apocalypse bubble? [MarketWatch]
• Does anyone know the history of the Noe Valley Red Light District? [@jlassen]
• The June issue of the Noe Valley Voice is out [NVV]
• Noe Valley SummerFest is coming Saturday June 20 from 11-5 [NoeValleySummerfest]
• Noe Valley – the t-shirt [Etsy]

[Photo: Hey sun, stay a little longer why don't you? ☀️ via hey_im_kate ]

Noe Valley Is Getting A New Stoplight On Church Street

Remember that request for public comment regarding a proposed stoplight at Church and Cesar Chavez Streets? Looks like it's happening. The above sign is posted next to Noe Valley Pet Co. The referenced contract number 2419J specifies thirteen intersections around San Francisco (including here) and includes "traffic, pedestrian and transit signal installations, traffic routing and all associated work" for the bargain price of $1.726M. The entire project is expected to take one year, but don't count on construction at this one intersection taking that long.

What's not included in this is the rest of the Church St improvements approved under the same permit. See our post linked above for context (some links no longer work--SF redesigned its web presence and didn't redirect existing links...again). Here's the current page for the J Church Rapid Project. We're concerned that without making all approved changes vehicle traffic will reroute to avoid this light and make other intersections nearby more dangerous. What do you think?

[NVSF: Proposed: Traffic Signal For Intersection Of Church And Cesar Chavez Streets]
[Photo: @F6x]

NVV February 2014: 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 notable highlights from the latest issue. Links are to stories we've covered here on NVSF or other resources. Follow the NVV link at the bottom for full articles and all the ads.

February 2014

Front Page: A profile of Glen Evans, a former Vicksburg resident who now finds himself homeless, and the merchants and neighbors who are trying to help him; an overview of the 5th annual Tech Search Party on February 8th benefiting local schools; info from the October/January meetings about planned changes to 24th St aimed at improving traffic flow and pedestrian safety - some Noe St residents are already sure it will be "mayhem" [Ed.-- it's deja vu all over again from the parklet protests and predictably Mary McFadden is against improving 24th St].

Letters: No love from one reader for Neutraceuticals (owner of the blighted Real Foods building); a list of water conservation tips from the SFPUC.

Short Takes: Upper Douglass Dog Park to remain closed until Spring for more repairs; San Jose Ave will shrink to two lanes for a traffic pilot in late Spring or early summer.

Cost of Living in Noe: The average cost of a single family home was $1.893 million in December - up more than 18 percent from 2012 [Ed.-- The median cost of the nine homes was $1.75M]; condos average $1 million. New renters should expect to shell out an average of $4,253 for a two bedroom apartment.

Store Trek: La Nebbia (1781 Church St at 30th)

Rumors: So far $560,000 has been pledged to the Noe Valley Town Square and $330,000 has been collected - in the meantime, the team has also been busy with a film for the project called Our Town Square (you can watch the trailer here); Cardio-Tone has added a second location at the old Kohler Jones space on Church St; 1513 Church St is home to a new startup called BackerKit - a company that writes software for Kickstarter project creators to track their backers [Ed.-- Is this Noe Valley's first actual tech company?]; La Tira waxing studio opens in the old Dermalounge space; the most popular fiction books in Noe right now are The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro; the most popular non-fiction is Gray City of Love by Gary Kamiya (via Folio Books); Omnivore reports the favorite cookbook for the neighborhood right now is Jerusalem by Yottam Ottolenghi; the favorite movie for rent is The Butler (via Videowave); Mazook says reliable sources also report that Bliss Bar will not be rebuilt; a new title company comes to 4126 24th St (next to Barney's where B.J. Droubi Real Estate used to reside); Sway consolidates to the Haight and the commercial space and two residential units have sold for an expected $2.2 million - the store space is still for rent $12,000 a month; RIP Mike Skoufas who opened a Noe Valley barbershop in 1953 called Mike's (his daughter owns and operates Of Barbers and Bears on 24th St.).

[The Noe Valley Voice]

NVV Dec 2013: 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 notable highlights from the latest issue. Links are to stories we've covered here on NVSF or other resources. Follow the NVV link at the bottom for full articles and all the ads.

December 2013 / January 2014

Front Page:The Noe Valley Farmers Market celebrates 10 years on December 7th; Interview with NV resident and Twitter editorial director Karen Wickre (@kvox); An update on the continuing process to update Noe Courts [Ed.--Scott Wiener's take is here]; Church St artist Stan Heller exhibits "the faces and stories of long-term San Francisco residents caught in the current real estate frenzy" at Borderlands Cafe on Valencia through January 17th.

Letters: A promotion for SFSU's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute; Not everyone agrees with Tom Peck's poem last month condemning Scott Wiener; In memory of Kathleen Albert, who ran With Care preschool on Fair Oaks St.

Short Takes: Upper Douglass Dog Park to remain closed "until further notice;" A reminder about 24 HoliDAYS on 24th St; Announcement of yesterday's meeting of the NVDC and UNN about CCSF; The next community meeting for the Noe Valley Streetscape Project tentatively scheduled for Jan 20th; Horner's Corner Bar announced.

Cost of Living in Noe: Expensive. Still. 2-4 unit buildings are popular for converting to TICs.

Police Beat: Since NV beat cop Lorraine Lombardo has stopped providing blotter info, the NVV has discovered just how frustrating it is to get timely and pertinent crime information from the Mission and Ingleside stations. The Voice is experimenting with CrimeMapping.com.

Rumors: Only 33% of Noe Valley voters voted in November, shooting down Prop B & C two-to-one; Swatdee is closing, New Dehli moving in; La Nebbia on track to open "sometime mid-Decemberish;" Real Foods cited, faces max fine of $6885; Local activist Peter Gabel to be first to hold author event at Folio Books; Starbucks closed for remodel; Easy Breezy awarded.

Notable: The copy editor who is so kind to offer his/her services in our comment section may want to give the Voice a call -- there are many blocks of text that are repeated in this issue.

[The Noe Valley Voice]

Update: Cesar Chavez Streetscape Improvements

Work on Phase II of the Cesar Chavez sewer upgrade streetscape improvement project began last month and like the sewer work will move east to west. Crews are currently rerouting curbs and catch basins between Hampshire and Bryant. CC Puede's Fran Taylor attended last night's neighborhood meeting and sent this update:

The work is scheduled to be finished by the end of the year and will be done in phases:

1. Drainage and bulbouts: 20 bulbouts on the corners with planters to catch rainwater will be done first.
2. Median: Next, the median curbs will be laid out.
3. Repaving: The repaving will be done in sections: Hampshire to Florida in Sept/Oct, Florida to Folsom in late October, Folsom to Mission in November, and Mission to Guerrero at the end.
4. Sidewalks: Next, the new street lamps and other sidewalk improvements will be done.
5. Plantings: The last step will be sticking all those new plants In the ground on both the sidewalks and the median.

Lanes were reconfigured after sewer work was completed to approximate traffic flow when finished. The pavement has been rough, but traffic seems to flow smoothly. When this project was first announced plenty of our readers expressed dismay over the loss of traffic lanes despite the addition of dedicated turn lanes and bus pullouts. Now that the changes are more evident, we're curious - how have the changes affected your commute?

[SFDWP: Cesar Chavez Sewer & Streetscape Project]
[NVSF: Cesar Chavez: Work Starts In June (2011)]
[Photo: SFDPW (PDF)]

Street Trees: Church Street

This week, the SFDPW and Bureau of Urban Forestry planted approximately twenty city-maintained trees on Church St. between 22nd & 30th Streets. They've managed to fill in most of the "dead spots," creating a corrider that should green very nicely as the trees mature.

Our only gripe is that they're all Magnolias - they'll smell nice a few times a year and drop non-degrading leaves the rest. Noe Valley residents and businesses already have enough trouble cleaning up the detritus that blows in from the west and settles on Church St.

Since Church Street is also part of the City's effort to save money by cleaning the streets only every other week, hopefully the tree maintenance people will do some raking.

[NVSF: Street Trees: Green Your Sidewalk!]
[NVSF: Dirtier Streets, Confusion to Ensue]