Town Square Team Recognized And An Unexpected Update

Congrats to the Residents for Noe Valley Town Square on being recognized as a "model for community groups" at this week's meeting of the Board Of Supervisors.

The Certificate of Honor reads:

In recognition of your efforts to create a permanent open space for the community to gather in the heart of Noe Valley, the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco extends its highest commendation to you. Your organizational and fundraising efforts are a model for community groups throughout San Francisco.

You can see video of the presentation with remarks from Scott Wiener and Todd David by opening the link for the 1/29/13 Board of Supervisors meeting on the BOS archive page and then skipping forward to minute 34. (Or you can go directly to the video.)

In related news, there was an interesting morsel from CookieTime yesterday. Yes...she sold the truck to her mother. But check out the buried lede: "The ownership of the Noe Valley parking lot has changed, so we can no longer park the truck there." Huh?

Conversations with Todd David and Scott Wiener's office confirm that the Noe Valley Ministry and the City are in negotiations, but that no deal has been finalized. The process continues, but is still heavily contingent on fund-raising. Meanwhile, Rec & Park has filed paperwork to convert the parking lot to public space in the event everything works out.

Details from Todd, who emphasizes that the timeline is fluid and largely in the control of the City:

I know that Rec and Parks staff is taking the appropriate steps to make that a possibility. The next steps are for Residents for Noe Valley Town Square to present to the Rec and Park Commission. And I am working with Rec and Park staff weekly to prepare for that presentation.

If approved by the Rec and Park Commission, Supervisor Wiener will sponsor legislation at the Board of Supervisors to access $x.x million from the Open Space Fund to purchase the lot. The hope is that the community fundraising plus the Open Space Fund will pay for the purchase of the parking lot. And then the State's Prop 84 Urban Greening Grant would help pay for a majority of the development of the "Town Square."

We're waiting to hear back from Marina (Cookie Time) about what she heard and will update when we do.

[NVSF: All Town Square posts]
[Photo: Office of Supervisor Scott Wiener; From left to right: Scott Wiener, Todd David, Leslie Crawford, Peter Gabel, Nisha Pillai, Christopher Keene, and Kate Sherwood]

Noe Valley Good Samaritan Honored As District 8 Woman of the Year

Catherine Bergstrom

No good deed goes unpunished – and we mean that in the nicest way. Noe neighbor Randy sent us this note:

I would like to bring to your attention that Supervisor Wiener is honoring Catherine Bergstrom as one of the District 8 Women of the Year for her role in coordinating the Noe Valley fire fundraiser. The Women of the Year commendations will be held during the Board of Supervisors meeting in room 250 of City Hall on March 6th, at 3:30pm.

Scott Weiner confirms:

Correct. I will be honoring Catherine Bergstrom and also two women (Kate Ryken and Beth Spotswood) who, similarly, stepped up and raised funds for the tenants who were burned out of their apartments by the series of arsons in the Castro last year. These three women, on their own initiative, went above and beyond and asked for nothing in return. They showed what neighborhoods and communities are all about - pulling together and being there for each other.

Congratulations, Catherine. Thank you.

[Image: Twitter]