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General:
Our new meeting location is the
Castro Community Meeting Room above the
Bank of America on Castro and 18th. The move was necessary because the
Dept. of Parks and Rec. has started charging a considerable amount for
use of the space
— whether you're non-profit or otherwise. The CCMR charges a reasonable $25 per use.
We're hoping to set up a minimal website, blog or such to have
neighborhood information more readily available. Anyone able and
available to help set this up would be most appreciated.
Administrative:
Kevin
Dunn is our new Treasurer. Please mail your dues to him at
123 Corbett (or drop in mailbox). Make checks payable to
Corbett Heights Neighbors (dues are $15 per year).
Financial:
Our bank balance is
around $1300. Currently it is used for printing and the meeting room.
Our hope is to begin maintaining some of our pocket parks with the money
we collect.
Agenda Item #1
— Police & Safety
3 officers from Park Station attended the meeting. We discussed
crime and traffic-calming a bit. Any crime or suspicion of crime
should always be reported
— no matter how slight.
The general, non-emergency phone number is
553-0123.
There is also an online
site to easily report crimes:
http://sfgov.org/site/police_index.asp?id=28854
There is
a new Captain at Park Station
— Teresa Barrett. I spoke with her last
week. I inquired about the possibility of an occasional drive-by
in our area, and she said that they are now doing that.
Agenda Item #2
— City Business
Next to speak was Port Commissioner Ann Lazarus. She came
to discuss Proposition A, the parks bond. Despite the fact that
the mayor, all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors and every
environmental and parks advocacy group are all in favor of this bond,
there is still a possibility that it will fail. Bonds must receive
2/3 of the votes to pass. So please vote and support this valuable
bond.
Agenda Item #3
— Utility Undergrounding
Due to the fact that accurate reporting from PG&E, Comcast or AT&T
has been virtually non-existent, and many frustrated residents have had
no clue as to how to proceed, a couple of our neighbors
— Leslie and
John Koelsch
— took it upon themselves to find out which homes have
not been connected, and what procedures must be taken in these final
stages of the project.
A flier was printed up
and mailed to every homeowner affected, giving the most up-to-date
information and all of the phone numbers to call to complete the work.
This was done with help from the internet, our good friend, Lynn Fong
from DPW, and just walking door to door to check out which homes had had
the preliminary work done.
Thank you to Leslie
and John!
First to speak was
Ranjit Parhar from DPW. After telling me last year that we
would receive weekly, or at least regular, updates on the progress of
the project, I have yet to receive one email from her. At the
meeting, we were promised that these updates would now be forthcoming.
Next, Doreen
Martinez from PG&E said that after dozens of meetings to discuss
undergrounding, they are hoping that they are finally on track.
We'll see.
Representatives from
both Comcast and Smartech (doing the work for AT&T)
had promised to come, but were no-shows. Comcast emailed me
to say that due to the sheets that we mailed out with the phone numbers
to call, they have been receiving between 5
— 10 calls a day to complete
the connections. At this point they expect for the poles to come
down by MID-APRIL, but let's make believe they said before Christmas, so
we won't be too disappointed.
Kevin Dunn, a real estate agent at Herth, gave us some
information about home sales in our area. Apparently, despite the
gloomy news about home sales across the country, most of San Francisco
remains an oasis of prosperity.
He also reported that
the tree-planting that he's been working on with Friends of the Urban
Forest will finally take place in a couple of weeks.
And last, I read a few excerpts from Mae Silver's book Old
Corbett Road. Unfortunately it's out of print, but let me
know if you'd like to see a copy. It's also available in the
Public Library.
Our first garden cleanup day will be sometime in the last half of
February. Date and time to follow.
That's all for now.
— Gary
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