Category Archives: Volume 10/Issue 05

Hayes Valley celebrates PARK(ing) Day [October-November 2010 print edition]

by Mari Hunter and Jamie Lopez
With a reputation of being at the core of ingenuity, San Francisco played a gracious host in 2005 as Rebar, an art and design studio, transformed a metered parking space into public space. Coined PARK(ing) Day, the project was created to bring attention to the significant discrepancies of developed public space, 70% for vehicles and 30% for everything else (Rebar, 2010). In addition to illustrating the need for more open space,

PARK(ing) Day’s mission also intends to examine the values that generate the form of urban public space including how it is created and allocated. The original PARK consisted of a patch of sod, a tree and a bench and stood for two hours. PARK(ing) Day is now an annual open-source global event where anyone and everyone is encouraged to temporarily convert metered parking spaces into a space that addresses specific community needs, generosity, cultural expression, socializing and play. Previous installations have ranged from free health clinics and ecology demonstrations to political seminars, free bike repair shops and a wedding ceremony.

PARK(ing) Day 2010, held on Friday, September 17, began as a typical summer day in San Francisco, with drizzle enough to wet your hair. The weather forecaster’s ‘almost rain’ didn’t dampen the spirit of Hayes Street merchants as they claimed the parking space in front of their respective stores, each a uniquely constructed statement of what could be.

True Sake, 524 Hayes
Quote: “Game on!” and “Welcome to Hayes Field”
True Sake created a miniature soccer field complete with netted training goals, boundary cones and, of course, a regulation soccer ball for those passersby who just can’t get enough of a great game.

Propeller, 555 Hayes
A car covered in grass sod with small porcelain pigs.

Zonal Art Park, 568 Hayes
This year featuring art installations by Mark Baugh-Sasaki Artist Mark Baugh-Sasaki and Zonal proprietor Russell created a user-friendly sculpture garden that encouraged people to have a seat, take some tea and experience the influence of art works amongst the neighborhood environment, whatever the space. “Public art is a necessity!”


Cisco Home, 580 Hayes
Quote: “Clothing optional!” A minimal garden/terrace setting with wood deck chairs, table for drinks and magazines. It’s summer – enjoy a staycation on Hayes Street.

Momi Toby’s Revolution Cafe, 528 Laguna
A spot of grass to create a place for play.

Neighborhood Parks Council and City Car Share, City Car Share lot on Hayes @ Octavia
“Neighborhood Parks Council and City Car Share have participated in PARK (ing) Day for many years. One car off the streets takes 15 tons of carbon emissions out of our environment. Our vision is instead to have a lot more green spaces in the neighborhood like we’ve created here today.” Victoria Bell, Deputy Director, Neighborhood Parks Council

Learn more about PARK(ing) day here.

AgeSong Film Screening

Heather Donnell, Hayes Valley resident and local independent filmmaker, proudly presented her latest short film, OMAKASE, for the AgeSong community on Saturday afternoon, September 18th.

Donnell was grateful to AgeSong who loaned her the audition room and rehearsal space for the film. In addition, AgeSong gave her permission to shoot a very romantic scene on their rooftop balcony. Donnell said, “Elke Tekin at AgeSong is very supportive of the arts and she’s really interested in keeping AgeSong a part of the community around it. I was excited to give back to AgeSong who had been so generous to us.”

Larry Kitagawa and Suilma Rodriquez, two of the lead actors in the film, attended the screening and gladly answered questions. AgeSong residents asked questions about how the film was created and about the actors’ lives. Phyllis Kind, a resident at Agesong who attended the screening, said, “The film is exquisite!”

Hayes Valley Playground & Clubhouse Renovation Project Update

By Gail Baugh

Thanks to everyone’s hard work during the design phase in 2008-2009, Hayes Valley Playground is under construction!

Over the next few months you will see the clubhouse progress from rough framing to a finished building. The site work will start soon as contractors build the two play areas, fitness zone, plaza, lawn and landscaping designed by the community in the planning workshops. Construction will be completed after the new year.

Please look to the next newsletter for a schedule update!

There are two upcoming opportunities for involvement in December: a gardening/planting project and a mosaic tile project. Please call Jen Isacoff at the Trust for Public Land (415) 800-5304 for questions or more information. For gardening and planting project involvement please join our neighborhood group now. Email Gail Baugh,g.baugh@sbcglobal.net

Wallet Friendly Holiday Events

By Richard Johnson

Like many I don’t have much money these days. Yet, here comes the holiday season, just the same. Wouldn’t it be great if we could put the stress of shopping aside and take the time to gather together and celebrate as a neighborhood?

That is why Community Partners United (CPU), founded in 2002, was created. Our mission is to provide community events, throughout the year, that bring neighbors together to foster a safe and caring community. In keeping with our tradition, I extend an invitation to participate in our 9th Annual Fostering a Safe and Caring Holiday Season 2010. For eight years CPU, of which HVNA is a founding member, has been hosting community gatherings around the neighborhood to bolster our connections, to strengthen our ties, and really, just to have a reason to hang out together! What could be more important during these uncertain times than to come together, young and old, weak and strong and support each other? There are several holiday events, which we host annually, scheduled from October through December around the neighborhood and you and your family are cordially invited to attend each one.

Scheduled upcoming activities (see calendar listing on back page and visit our calendar at www.hayesvalleysf.org for more details):

• Friday, October 29 – Sunday, October 31: Safe Halloween activities kick off our 9th Annual Fostering Season.

• Saturday, November 20: is our annual Giving Voice to the Season Thanksgiving Event

• Friday December 3: Giving Voice to the Season “Music in the Green and Community Mixer”

• Friday December 3: Participate in the Hayes Valley Merchants Block Party on

• Saturday December 11, 2010: Wreath and Card Making Event

• Thursday, December 16 and Friday, 17: Food Give Away to over 250 families

• Saturday, December 18: Community Luncheon We provide the food, fun, entertainment and venue. All you have to do is show up and have a great time.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming events!

An Intersection of Taste

By Bob Barnwell

With over thirty restaurants in Hayes Valley it’s hard to choose where to eat. If you’re lucky enough to end up on Hayes Street at Laguna you have five unique restaurants, each with its own flavor, to tempt you.

For seventeen years Suppenküche has been a fixture at the southwest corner of Hayes and Laguna. Its bright yellow building is a draw to large crowds for dinner starting at 5:00 PM every night of the week. Suppenküche also serves Sunday brunch starting at 10:00 AM. Specializing in German food Suppenküche is a beer lover’s paradise, with over twenty beers on tap served in seven stein sizes ranging from .2 liters to 5.0 liters and more bottled beer, patrons have plenty of choices to wet their appetite for the good food. Suppenküche is a family restaurant with family style seating. The owners have been longtime supporters of the Hayes Valley community and are members of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association. Suppenküche will soon have a second location – an outdoor restaurant and beer garden on the vacant lot at the corner of Linden and Octavia. For more information and history check their website at www.suppenkuche.com.

Across the street from Suppenküche at the northwest corner is Café Altano. For over a year and a half Café Altano has served European and Italian food nightly. The flavorful dinner dishes include the popular pork ossobucco and seafood fettuccine. The restaurant also serves lunch on weekdays. Located at 602 Hayes, Cafe Altano also serves brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 am to 3 pm. They have been generous in providing food for HVNA community meetings.

At the southeast corner of Hayes and Laguna is Marino. The 579 Hayes location specializes in Mexican seafood. The owner, Raul Vargas who lives in Hayes Valley, has been in business for over a year and has already provided food for some HVNA meetings. The fish tacos with your choice of six Mexican beers are a favorite for lunch and dinner. The Vargas family is well known in San Francisco for creating outstanding restaurants. Check out their family history on their website at www.marinorestaurantsf.com

Bar Jules is next to Suppenküche at 609 Hayes. For over two years Bar Jules has provided fresh food offered up on their chalkboard menu that changes daily. It’s often included on Bay Area “Best of ” lists.

Frjtz is at 581 Hayes and has another location in the Mission. Come for the belgian fries and accompany them with crepes, burgers or mussels for lunch or dinner. They also serve brunch on the weekends.

A History of 700 Hayes Street

By Gail Baugh

Picturesque and architecturally eclectic, the mansard-roofed, domed tower house at 700 Hayes Street at Buchanan Street has drawn admiring glances for over 125 years. In the book Victorian Glory, author Paul Duchescherer describes this home as “Italianate/Second Empire/Classical Revival/Queen Anne style…” The large single family residence (over 5000 square feet) has been home to five families since its completion in 1884.

Originally placed 30 feet west of where it stands today, the property included gardens, a small barn that housed the family cow, and a carriage house located behind the family home on Ivy Street. Asa Fisk and his wife Lydia commissioned architect Edward Hatherton, at one time the City Architect for San Francisco, to design their 15-room home in the grand style. The house features 14-foot ceilings on the 1st and 2nd floor, 8 fireplaces, and Cuban mahogany wood detailing throughout. There is a ballroom, roof deck, and botanical conservatory on the top floor. Nearly all of interior features are original, treasured by each family who has lived there.

Mr. Fisk came to San Francisco already a wealthy man. While in Boston he built the first street car line and was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. He and his family moved permanently to San Francisco in 1869, where he became a financial broker, amassing a new fortune through loans and investments. The house cost $20,000 to build, an enormous sum at the time. After Mr. Fisk’s death in 1897, the home was moved to its current location in 1899, and new income properties were completed by about 1900 at 710-714 Hayes and 709-711 Buchanan. The carriage house still stands on Ivy Street.

Gail Baugh and Jim Warshell purchased the house in 2003. They continue to restore it, honoring its original design. The Fisk House is a unique home in San Francisco, and they consider themselves caretakers of a small part of San Francisco’s history. They both love to garden, as did the Fisks. Stop by when you see them working in the gardens. You’ll learn more about their home!

HVNA Surveys 55 Laguna for Maintenance Issues

By Bill Bulkley

55 Laguna, the former UC Berkeley Extension site, has been vacant for over six years while development plans have been drawn, approved, and now flounder in economic limbo. Meanwhile, the five WPA era buildings, all listed on the National Register of Historic Places, languish in a state of disrepair. Recently, HVNA Board members, Art, Culture and Environment (ACE) Committee members, and concerned neighbors, conducted a walk around the campus to survey the state of the property.


Our group is primarily concerned with buildings falling into disrepair and site neglect. We observed specific types of building maintenance issues including moisture damage, ivy penetration and overgrowth, and graffiti. We also observed a variety of site maintenance issues including weed and ivy overgrowth, significant tree abandonment, broken sidewalks, and the presence of human trash and waste on site. The complete findings from this site survey will be presented to the HVNA Board and forwarded to UC Berkeley for action.

This property and others like it deserve better care. We would like to see regular painting over the graffiti to match the existing building colors, regular clean-up and waste removal from the site, general repair and waterproofing happen on the structures.

We continue to ask, “What is the potential for this property both in the interim and the long term? What is the state of the WPA art works on the interior?” Recently, the Lower Haight Neighborhood and Merchants Association organized a tri-neighborhood letter to UC on a proposed temporary mural at Laguna and Haight to combat blight on that corner and create a gateway to the neighborhoods. The HVNA Board strongly supports this idea.

Participants in the walk included ACE committee members David Winslow, Ed Bedard, and Rafael Ochoa, District 6 supervisor candidate James Keys, Save Laguna Street Campus members Cynthia Servetnick and Lavon Taback, concerned neighbor Adrianne Steichen, and HVNA Board members, Nathan Lozier and Bill Bulkley.

If you would like to know more about this effort or be more involved in the ACE Committee, please email Bill Bulkley at art@hayesvalleysf.org.

Brief Re-cap of 55 Laguna Planning History

By Jason Henderson

There continues to be a lot of uncertainty swirling around 55 Laguna (the former UC Extension campus bounded by Laguna, Hermann, Haight, and Buchanan Streets.) Many new people to the neighborhood may not be aware of the planning history of the site. Longtime residents might not remember how much went into neighborhood discussion of the site.

A brief recap can be helpful. In 2003 the UC Extension (aka 55 Laguna) was shuttered. A year later the AF Evans Company proposed to redevelop the six-acre site with an emphasis on housing but presented a plan that involved very little community input. HVNA passed a resolution protesting the urban design plan for the campus and requested that the UC and AF Evans work with the neighborhood. HVNA did not object to the reuse of the site, but there were many concerns with the bland design, the car-oriented nature of the proposal, and with the proposal’s razing of valuable historic buildings. So in spring 2005 HVNA’s Transportation and Planning Committee hosted six community meetings to fully discuss all available options for the use of the site. Around the same time HVNA also provided extensive comments to the environmental review for the proposal, specifically outlining concerns about automobile traffic and how it would undermine the goals of the Market and Octavia Plan. We urged the developer to allow good, mixed income housing, adaptive re-use of the site, but with more emphasis on walking, bicycling, and public transit.

In July 2006 HVNA passed two resolutions on the UC Extension site and asked the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission to intervene on behalf of the neighborhood. The first resolution outlined that we supported redevelopment of the site but only if it preserved public uses, reused existing buildings to the greatest extent possible (with the exception of the dental school), included more affordable housing, and aligned with the parking and zoning standards in the Market and Octavia Plan. Our rationale was that this is a publicly owned site and so should continue to serve the public good through sustainable urbanism and affordability, and not simply be redeveloped to make profit for a real estate developer using public land. The second resolution asked that the site be nominated to the National Historic Register. HVNA continued to work with AF Evans on the community benefits component of the project as well.

The project remained controversial but was approved at the planning commission in April 2008. The EIR was certified and the planning code amended to allow a special use district (SUD). However, no development occurred as AF Evans was hit by the national real estate lending downturn. No building permit was ever granted and by March 2009 AF Evans filed for bankruptcy.

According to the planning department, the special use district zoning has a five-year lifespan, although it can be extended by the planning commission. Technically the SUD will expire in April 2013. Additionally, if the development does proceed with little modification from the original proposal, the EIR is still valid. However if the development proposal was changed dramatically, a new EIR would be needed. If a new developer took over the site, all they would have to do is follow the original AF Evans proposal to get the project built. They would still need to get building permits. These have not been granted by the city yet. Inquiries to the planning department in late September suggest that the project proposal remains dormant at this time.

TaskRabbit.com Blurring the Lines Between On- and Offline Community

By Laura Surma

TaskRabbit.com, a web and mobile marketplace that provides people and businesses with an easy and trusted way to get everyday tasks done in their communities, recently launched in San Francisco. The website has vetted errand runners ready to serve Hayes Valley and the surrounding communities.

The new website harnesses the latent potential of existing physical communities by connecting people who need help with those who can provide it. When you use TaskRabbit, you meet members of the local community who use their real identities and build reputations by successfully completing tasks. They can do almost anything such as grocery shopping, soup delivery to a sick friend, furniture assembly, and pet care. By aggregating tasks, the site can also help reduce vehicle trips.


Although TaskRabbit’s approach is market-based and requires “Senders” to pay “Runners” based upon their bids, it has the potential to do a surprising amount of good in communities that embrace it. One of the most common tasks that San Franciscans have requested in the short time since TaskRabbit’s launch is donation delivery to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Community Thrift. In Boston, TaskRabbit’s birthplace, its founders were thrilled to find that visually impaired people were employing the help of Runners to navigate unfamiliar parts of the public transit system and regular volunteers were hiring Runners to stand in for them during vacations. TaskRabbit.com is free to join. Go to TaskRabbit.com/signup to create your account. You can start sending tasks right away or apply to become a Runner.