We were thrilled to be on hand to celebrate the opening of 178 units of affordable housing last week at 88 Broadway. North Beach Neighbors has been at the table advocating for this project for 8 years now. Our President, Bruno Kanter, shared our involvement with a crowd that included Mayor Breed, Assemblymember David Chiu, affordable housing developers, and neighbors.
North Beach Neighbors is proud to recognize the end of another successful North Beach Farmers Market season. As a founding group and sponsor of the market, we continue to champion the market as it completes its 4th season.
This year included a move to a new, larger location at Columbus & Greenwich next to Joe DiMaggio Playground. As a result, attendance grew by 60% and the number of vendors almost doubled!
The Market will be back open in Spring 2022, and you can follow along with all the updates on the market website.
North Beach Farmers Market Lead Organizers: Melanie Lesser, Miles, Nick Ferris, Danny Sauter, and Sri Artham
We’re thrilled to welcome three new members to our Board of Directors:
Blair Helsing, Kevin Robinson, and Sabrina R Matlin
We look forward to seeing how each will bring their love and passion for our neighborhood to the work of North Beach Neighbors. To learn more about our new board members, see our Board of Directors page.
Sabrina R Matlin
Blair Helsing
Kevin Robinson
Mayor London Breed joined North Beach Neighbors last week to celebrate the end of our North Beach Delivers program. She surprised a family with a delivery from Piazza Pellegrini, and also shared commendations with the organizers Teddy Kramer, Sri Artham, Danny Sauter, and Eric Dew.
The North Beach Delivers program raised more than $150,000 in revenue for local restaurants across North Beach, Chinatown, and Russian Hill. Thank you to so many of you that ordered each week, to our dedicated volunteers, and to our community partners who believed in our work.
North Beach Neighbors has lost a dear friend and the organization's first president, Marsha Garland, who passed away earlier this month. Read a full memory of Marsha’s life and a note of her passing.
In light of COVID-19 guidelines on Social Distancing, North Beach Neighbors conducted a survey of over 100 persons who live and/or work in the neighborhood, asking them how we can accommodate social distancing.
North Beach Transit Survey Results
Last month, we invited our members and the community at large to give feedback on transit in our northeastern corner of The City. You shared where the system was working well, and where it was falling short.
We're sharing the results of that Transit Survey with you so you can see how your neighbors feel.
Our work was also picked up by Streetsblog, a national publication devoted to covering transit news. See their full article here.
Washington Square Playground urgently needs a child safety gate to prevent our babies and toddlers from being seriously hurt.
The recently remodeled playground in North Beach is very well utilized but in the months since it opened, parents and care providers have been challenged to keep their little ones safe due to the lack of a safety enclosure.
This playground is designed for young pre-school-aged children when bolting and running away are common normal behaviors. The playground's proximity and unobstructed access to the very busy Columbus Avenue (at Filbert Street) with its speedy cars and busses make a dangerous invitation to a bolting toddler.
Join North Beach Neighbors in asserting the need for a child safety gate at Washington Square Playground as an urgent and important safety measure. Please add your name to our petition and share your stories or concerns that you or your children have encountered since the new playground opened.
Earlier this year, we released a Small Business Roadmap which contained 5 key recommendations on how to make our neighborhood a place where small businesses can not only survive, but thrive.
Our #1 recommendation was to make more allowances for restaurants and limited restaurants, doing so by changing the period in which a conditional use is required.
Now, we have good news. Our recommendation was adopted!
Moving forward, a conditional use will be required after 36 months of non-use, a significant improved from the previous mark of 18 months. This previous period was too tight, causing many new merchants to be caught in a spiral of endless delays if they missed the 18-month deadline.
Thank you to Aaron Peskin's office for their support on this legislation.
Thank you to the countless small businesses across the northern side of the city who supported our effort.
Thank you to Russian Hill Neighbors and Lower Polk Neighbors who endorsed this and see the value in building strong neighborhoods next to one another.
To be sure, much work remains. With vacancy rates in North Beach now over 20%, we cannot count on one change to reverse an environment which has been breaking down for years. We look forward to continuing to work with city departments, officials, and neighbors to make sure our neighborhood is one which is truly open for business.
A new community space for neighbors to gather weekly while Washington Square Park is closed.
Starting this Sunday, join us each week at noon at 699 Columbus Ave (at Filbert). In partnership with Piazza Pellegrini, we're transforming a parking lot into a community space with weekly programs. From recreational classes to social events, we're hoping to give the neighborhood back some of the open space it is losing with the closure of Washington Square Park.
June 3, 2019
San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority
Adrian Leung
Bike Share Program Manager
Re: New Bike Share at Marini Plaza in North Beach
Dear SFMTA,
We are writing to voice our support for a new GoBike bike share station at Powell & Union (Marini Plaza) in North Beach. Improved transit accessibility is an important issue for our 300+ business and residential members, and the new bike station is key to achieving this goal.
Our organization supported North Beach’s first bike share station at Columbus Ave. & Lombard St in November 2018. We did so with the intention of closely monitoring performance and usage to inform our future positions on bike share. Since its installation, we have been encouraged by the demand and believe the station has been a positive addition to our community. The results speak for themselves: 80 average daily trips emanate from the station, and rides are increasing month over month.
Whenever parking is removed, there is immediate opposition. But perspective is needed. Citywide, San Francisco has nearly 275,000 on-street parking spots, enough to line California’s 840-mile coastline. On Columbus Ave, North Beach’s main commercial corridor, only 14% of those surveyed arrived by private vehicle. Studies have shown that bicyclist and pedestrian customers spend as much or more, and more regularly than do motorist customers. Finally, bike share is a critical component of the city’s Vision Zero and carbon-reduction priorities, and District 3 suffers from some of the highest vehicle emissions and traffic injuries in the city.
In deference to those with physical disabilities that may be impacted by the loss of parking from this plan, we suggest that SFMTA consider using a linkage policy to create an additional handicap space near the affected area at the cost of the station operator.
This location is a second iteration of the original plan to place one on Filbert St, in front of St Peter & Paul Church. The modified plan is a testament to Lyft’s sincere effort to work with the community to identify the most appropriate location. This is an ideal location–close to transit hubs, Washington Square Park and neighborhood businesses–and now it’s time to move forward with the installation. We urge you to support it.
In community,
Danny Sauter
President | North Beach Neighbors
cc:
Director of Transportation, Edward D. Reiskin ed.reiskin@sfmta.com
Local Government Affairs Manager, Joél T. Ramos Joel.Ramos@sfmta.com
District 3 Supervisor, Aaron Peskin aaron.peskin@sfgov.org
Adrian Leung, Bikeshare Program Manager, adrian.leung@sfmta.com
Bicycle Advisory Committee, District 3 Representative, Marc Brandt
Charles Deffarges, Senior Community Organizer, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, charles@sfbike.org
Outreach Coordinator, Lyft, Justin Hu-Nguyen, jnguyen@lyft.com