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 September 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 outside sources as the Voice doesn't post stories online until the middle of the month.

September 2013

Front Page: Phoenix Books on 24th Street is for sale; Upper Noe Rec Center celebrates "Cinco de Noe" on Sept 7 - a day of live music, kid crafts, a dog parade and recreation; residents on Alvarado seek to curb free parking and petition for a residential area permit.

Letters: An Elizabeth St. resident wonders why private "Google buses" are allowed to idle in Muni bus stops for free; another resident of "West Noe" is unhappy with the no-parking zones created by endless and seemingly poorly coordinated PG&E construction work; a Noe native who lives on 25th at Noe reminisces about how Walgreens used to be a Baby Bell Market, Noe Bagel was a Double Rainbow, and Savor used to be Courtyard Cafe.

Features and Short Takes: A farewell letter from police officer Lois Perillo who is retiring after 29 years with the SFPD, 10 of which she spent patrolling 24th St; R.I.P. Ruth Asawa; Upper Noe Recreation Center turns 5 this year; the Bernal Heights marmot is rescued at Alvarado and deported to Yosemite; Music in the Square debuts on Sept 8 from 1-5pm, a free music festival featuring food, live music and a activities for kids in the future Town Square space; StreetLightsSF is a new app from the SFPUC that lets you report streetlight outages (or you can just call 311).

Cost of Living in Noe: Average price for a home: $1.8 million. Condos? $1 million. Also, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams exits Noe, and more luxury homes have been sold in the NV-Castro-Cole Valley area in 2013 than in any other area of the city.

Rumors: Bay Castle Cleaners is gone and the owners of the building who own and operate St. Clair's Liquors next door are submitting plans to build it out into a commercial space with residential units above and parking spaces in the back - they expect construction to begin in 1-2 years and in the meantime plan to rent the space to a pop-up store; LOLA was asked to vacate her storefront on Castro and after looking frantically in Noe, found a better space on Clement; false alarm on Tung Sing closing - the for rent sign belonged to a residential apartment above, so Noe's oldest Chinese steam table is still open for business.

Strange: Last month the NVV announced a change to their website: "Beginning this month, you'll be able to view the Noe Valley Voice online in the same layout in which it appears in print, including all of the original formatting, photos, and display ads." So while you'll get all the ads, the content is no longer indexed by search engines. Too bad.

[The Noe Valley Voice]

New Legislation To Curb Dog Walkers

Here's the press release. Emphasis ours:

Supervisor Wiener Introduces Legislation Regulating Commercial
Dogwalkers Who Use City Property

Among other things, legislation would limit number of dogs walked at one time to 7

San Francisco (October 18, 2011): At today's Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Scott Wiener will introduce legislation to set standards for commercial dogwalkers who conduct their business in City parks or on property owned by the Port of San Francisco or the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The legislation will require commercial dogwalkers to obtain a permit, pay an annual permit fee, receive training, certify that their vehicle is fit for transporting dogs, carry required equipment, and ensure that the dogs they are walking have licenses. In addition, the legislation will allow commercial dogwalkers using city property to walk no more than seven dogs at one time.

To formulate this legislation, Supervisor Wiener worked with a broad coalition, including the SPCA, the Neighborhood Parks Council, professional dogwalker groups, dog owner groups, and the affected city departments. The idea of regulating commercial dogwalkers has been around for a number of years, but this is the first time that a Supervisor has converted the idea into legislation.

"Commercial dogwalkers provide a critical service to the many San Franciscans with dogs," said Supervisor Wiener. "This service must be carried out in a professional manner that respects city property and the other users of that property. There are many responsible and professional dogwalkers in San Francisco, and we need to ensure that the few irresponsible dogwalkers don't give the many good ones a bad name."

Dr. Jennifer Scarlett, co-president of the San Francisco SPCA, adds: “This is important legislation that recognizes our City's unique relationship with dogs. Dogwalkers provide an important service for many guardians in San Francisco and these standards help ensure the safety and protection of our City’s animals and the wellbeing of its residents.”

Professional dogwalker organizations also support the legislation. "For the many professional dogwalkers who are well-trained, who know how to care for dogs, and who respect the city property they use, this legislation will legitimate them and will require dogwalkers who lack training or skills to get training," said Angela Gardener of San Francisco Professional Dogwalkers Association. "It will also provide firm standards to ensure that all of us in the industry operate under the same rules."

Scott Wiener
Member, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
District 8
(415) 554-6968

[NVSF: How Well Do You Know Your Dog Walker, Noe Valley?]
[SFGate: Should Dog Walkers Be Licensed? (2009)]
[Photo: ipetblog.net]

Photo: Water Water Everywhere

The scene at yesterday's water main break at 24th and Diamond as shot by reader Daniel Sams. All cleaned up now, but the SFPUC may have to tear up that intersection for repairs.

[SFAppeal: Noe Valley Water Main Break May Cause Street Closure]

Two New & Notable Noe Valley Blogs

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has set up a blog for Districts 8 and 9 to keep residents informed of water, sewer and power projects in the area. Today's post details what's going on at the corner of Noe and Hill Streets.

"The tiniest farm in all of Noe Valley. Maybe." Fans of seasonal, local produce can't get it any better than this. The Noe Farm Report hopes "to keep you entertained by the miracle of (plant) life."

[SFPUC: Districts 8 & 9]
[The Noe Farm Report]

Press Release: SF GreaseCycle

SF GreaseCycle is holding another Used Cooking Oil Drop-Off Event the week after Christmas:

Collection opportunities will occur during business hours at Costco Warehouse in San Francisco, and at all Whole Foods Market locations throughout the City over the four days following the day after Christmas, December 27-30. Residents are encouraged to start collecting now in time for the after-Christmas drop-off.

More information here.

[SF GreaseCycle: Used Cooking Oil Drop-Off Event]
[NVSF: SF GreaseCycle]

SF GreaseCycle

Either the publicity was bad or we were oblivious, but this weekend was a "Used Cooking Oil Drop-Off" event in San Francisco. Missed it, but learned about a cool program. (Maybe next time.) Turns out that putting used cooking oil down the drain is worse than we thought (check out the pic). No matter how much hot water you send after it it'll harden eventually. San Francisco spends $3.5M every year to clean out clogged sewers.

SF GreaseCycle is a program sponsored by the SFPUC to "create a waste vegetable oil (WVO) recovery program that diverts Fats, Oils & Grease (FOG) out of the trash, away from the sewer and eventually...into fuel." Sounds cool - we've been wondering how to get rid of all that fried-chicken oil.

Here's how it works: residents can put waste oil in the trash or green bin, or save it in jars for drop-off events. Restaurants can arrange for FREE pickup of waste oil. The oil is then filtered and sold to a biofuel plant. The City saves money on sewer cleaning and gains money from the sale. Businesses save money due to plumbing repairs and waste disposal (and avoid being shutdown by the Health Department). Everyone wins when we decrease our reliance on fossil fuels.

Here's a list of Noe Valley restaurants that participate: AmberJack Sushi, Basso's, Casa Mexicana, Noe Valley Deli & Cafe, and Regent Thai. We think there are a few more fryer-intensive places that should be on the list: Firefly, Fresca, Eric's, Alice's, Tung Sing, Mi Lindo Yucatan, Bell Market's deli, and many more we can't think of offhand. Let them know about GreaseCycle when you visit them next.

[SF GreaseCycle]
[NVSF: Tung Sing: Shut Down by Health Department]