This Week in Noe Valley: Q&A with Hamano Master Chef, Pop-Up Art Show, and Dear NextDoor Noe Valley…

The latest news from, about and for Noe Valley from around the interwebs:

• Pop-up art show coming to former Royal Cleaners Sept 6-8 (thx to landlord) [toddah.sf]
• What the new YogaFlow space (in the former Radio Shack) looks like [yogaflowsf]
• Noe Valley sunset [travelover6128]
• You might see golfer Michelle Wie in our little town [SFGate]
• Noe Valley rideshare love story [SF Chronicle]
• Dear NextDoor Noe Valley posters: It’s fireworks, not gunshots [@dandiemann]
• Beware of occupant [eyesthornton]
• Why SF pedestrian deaths are on the rise - and some blame the victims[@rseqrtz]
• Seen in Noe Valley: Someone spraying logos of past mass shooting sites on the sidewalks [@cwhogg]
• Q&A with master sushi chef Jiro Lin of Hamano [@sfchronicle]
• Sunrise looking down 24th St [gustojr]

[Photo: Psychedelic Noe Valley via voermanek]

This Week In Noe Valley: City Hall's 100th, Another Home Approaches $7M, Valley Tavern Launches Live Music

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

• Video from the 100th Anniversary party at City Hall this week [Mr Eric Sir]
• Untouched since 1969 when it sold for $25,000, this home is now listed for $1.89 million [Curbed]
• Noe Valley’s second most expensive home: $6.7 million [Socket Site]
• Airbnb colonized the entrance to the Farmer’s Market today [NVSF]
• The Valley Tavern celebrated its live music permit with Heather Combs this week [rockarecord]
• Hip Hop artist Phesto Dee’s photos coming to the pop-up Fort Gallery on 24th June 27-28 [SF Weekly]
• Stylish new bike racks in Noe Valley [@kjbrazil]
• Community Forum on Bikes, Cars and Pedestrians at Noe Valley Ministry on June 22 [Streetsblog SF]
• Interview of Noe Valley native Remy Nelson of Mojo Café on Divisadero [Hoodline]
• Dolores Park’s northern half is back – and so are people peeing on buildings (ugh) [SFBay]
• ICYMI: Starbucks is closing all 23 La Boulange cafés in September – including the one in Noe [NVSF]

[Photo: hidayitsnight]

This Week In Noe Valley: Real Foods Fakeout, Noe Valley Is Full Of Cheater Parents, And The Peaks Gets A New Owner

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

• Summer in SF: Fireworks in the fog [ABC7]
• The Peaks bar closes and reopens - the bartender now owns the bar [@shaketini]
• Construction at Real Foods lit up our Twitterhood this week. It's just a new roof, folks. But here's a little more in our comment section [@pud and Heather World]
• Listing for new retail on 24th St and a rendering of the building (click through to the PDF for more details) [LockeHouse]
• More details on the curb bulb-outs and crosswalk stripes coming to 24th St including pictures [Streetsblog SF]
• A house on 26th St. goes for $3.2 million - $803,000 over asking [Curbed]
• A carport that doubles as an over-the-top indoor playground on 25th St. [San Francisco Magazine]
• Forget Manhattanhenge – in Noe Valley we have the Solstice Crack! (Sanchez at 30th) [Eric Fischer]
• Noe Valley philanderers have the most children ("Duh, it’s Noe Valley, land of the Bob stroller") [SFGate]
• Mysterious cement masks popping up around the City have made it to Noe Valley [@F6x]

[Photo: Rare shot inside Real Foods space via @nelson]

This Week In Noe Valley: Pedestrian Mishaps, A Bank Robbery, A Dilapidated “Shack” And Other Local Color

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

• 77-year-old man struck and badly injured by a truck in a crosswalk on Dolores at 30th [CBS Local]
• Umpqua bank on 24th St robbed by man in his 40s - he fled on foot and has not been caught  [KRON]
• A dilapidated shack on the border of Glen Park and Noe Valley sells for $1.705 million, $510,000 over asking [Curbed]
• Found SF volunteers will archive two decades' worth of content from local papers – including the Noe Valley Voice [SF Bay Guardian]
• The organist at Holy Innocents Church in Noe Valley is also in Beach Blanket Babylon [Chronicle]
• Now you can order your to-go porky goodness (and salads) online [@PorcellinoSF]
• Decor Galore garage store going out of business on June 28 [@NoeValleySF] 
• The final resting place of some of the original land barons of Noe Valley [SF Weekly]
• Firefly revisited (and re-appreciated) [Inside Scoop]
• A San Francisco sunrise [contegobay]

[Photo: Perfect Friday morning via thatcliffguy]

This Week In Noe Valley: Bike Thefts Down, Urban Gardening Up, Occupy Noe Doubles Down

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

• All those bicycles thefts from garages? "Drastically" decline since arrest of teenager [SFGate]
• Urban farming in SF just got a lot easier - forget the wait list for existing community gardens [Grist]
• An end to that (apparently wild) rumor that West Portal could be the next Noe Valley [Curbed]
• Noe Valley Town Square now on Facebook [Facebook]
• Occupy Noe Valley doubles down to save mortgages that should have been paid off 10 years ago or more [The Snitch; also: SFGate]
  

[Photo: Pedestrian hit at 24th Castro, @shaketini, also: NVSF]

NVV July 2011: 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 items we've covered here on NVSF or outside sources as the Voice doesn't post stories online until mid-month.

July/August 2011

Front Page: Noe Valley guest vacation rental collective and directory launches called NVHOO (Noe Valley Home Owners Organization) - a place to stash relatives and visiting friends in the 'hood. The group has about 2 dozen vacation rentals - prices range from $500 to $2900 per week. Local merchants Noeteca, Drewe's, Terra Mia, Nomad Rugs, and HeliotropeSF jump on the Groupon and LivingSocial craze - while others aren't so happy with the kinds of clients these "deals" bring. And Friends of Noe Valley kicks off a new season with a meeting on July 27 at 7PM at St. Philip's Parish Hall (though strangely you won't find the meeting on the FONV website yet).

Letters: A long bit of hate mail for cell phone antennas; a frustrated Chattanooga resident railing about the draconian crackdown on sidewalk parking; a plea for drivers and pedestrians to be respectful on 24th St. so nobody gets hurt; and some snark from Theresa (last name withheld) about last month's pet lover: "Perhaps her parents should have had a dog instead of her." Meow!

Cost of Living in Noe: 17 single-family homes traded hands in May 2011, almost twice as many as May 2010; 15 of those sold for more than $1 million, and 4 sold for over $2 million.

Short Takes: Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) has neighborhood ambassadors who want to find homes for new trees in Noe; NV residents can weigh in on new public school boundaries.

Traveling Voice:  It's back! Readers schlepped copies of the the newspaper to Turkey and Java.

Store Trek: Noe Valley Smiles and Braces; Pot + Pantry.

Rumors: Still no news on Real Foods except this tidbit from Scott Weiner that Neutraceutical is "paying approximately $50,000 a year in property taxes," and a mention of the comment thread on NVSF about what should happen to the Real Foods space including a nod to Nelson's line: "You could probably fit two title companies in there, maybe a nails/waxing salon in back...."; the corner of 24th and Diamond is set to become a children's activity center called Little Lounge; Pixie Hall Studios is looking for a property owner in the Diamond/Elizabeth area to let them use a back yard for an "art of gardening" class; La Boulange has hired a "world-class chef" to create new items on the menu that reflect Provencal and Southern France cuisine; Firefly is regaining former chef Luke Prellwitz, and Fireflied chicken is still the favorite on the menu; Noe Valley resident and celeb chef Tracy des Jardins of Jardiniere got the runner-up spot on a recent Top Chef Masters show; Amberjack is becoming Kama Sushi; and Mike Skoufas is returning to barber at Of Barbers and Bears on 24th Street between Castro/Diamond.

[The Noe Valley Voice]

Congratulations Noe Valley Pedestrians: You Suck On Yelp

One star, FWIW:

Most pedestrians on 24th Street (Noe Valley) orbit in their own galaxy. These ipod listenin, blue tooth talkin, crackberry squeezin, stroller pushin aliens like to truck right into the crosswalk in front of autos already making a turn. Or they blast off the curb clueless to the autos that have been waiting (...and waiting) to get going to where they're going.

OK, pedestrians have the right of way. But this is not a right without expiration. 24th Street pedestrians will be better off applying the normal rules of humanmobility...like generally keeping to the right (unless you're a Brit, Irish, Australian et al) and yielding to whomever arrives first. This universal law of motion applies to all moving objects like autos, people, aliens, strollers, bikers, boarders, skaters...

"But why would I ever yield to an auto?" the 24th Street pedestrian ponders. Because if the autos can't get going to where they're going, the "solution" is a traffic light. Hello? Can we agree the universe doesn't need more traffic lights?

Next time I'm crossing the road, I'm letting the waiting auto take its turn through the intersection. Not because it's about equality, but because we agreed (at least I did) that we don't want more traffic signals with their lighted Walk (white) and Don't Walk (orange) figurines from outer space. Some signals are outfitted with unnatural high-pitched sounds that warn aliens the sign is about to change.

Don't Walk? Yes We Can!

[Yelp: Pedestrians / 24th Street]