precita.org

Precita and Mission:
Officers Joseph Kavanagh and Rommel Baldovino were called to the Precita and Mission area on a report of two suspects committing graffiti offenses on vehicles and buildings in the area. The officers located the suspects on Coso. The suspects were in the act of vandalizing another vehicle and were in possession of graffiti markers. The suspects, who live in Palo Alto and the 2500 block of Bryant, were cited for malicious mischief. Case #070198970

Labels: graffiti

400 block of Precita:
Assault/homeless man struck in face with hard object

02/17/07 7:11 pm 400 block of Precita

Officers Jason Gallagher and Melonee Alvarez spotted suspected gang members in Precita Park. They stopped and tried to identify one person but he gave conflicting information. They finally determined that the suspect, who lives on the 3200 block of Cesar Chavez, was wanted on a no bail juvenile warrant. After being handcuffed the suspect took off running but was quickly captured. Case #070176528

A large Semi truck (Seneca Foods truck #318, Idaho plates) was driving north on Harrison at Precita where it got stuck making a turn onto Precita. Traffic was backed up on precita and had to go the wrong way to get out. It eventually got on Cesar Chavez heading East and on Evans and then into the loading dock of Restaurant Depot. The person in the left of the image is the driver who had gotten out of the truck to presumably check for damage from hitting the fire hydrant.

How did the truck get onto Harrison south of Precita there in the first place!?! This was a very lost truck driver.

It caused quite the backup on Precita and drivers were forced to go the wrong way to get back to Folsom.

Labels: fire hydrant, hit and run, precita

Precita Valley Neighbors meets 2nd Saturdays, 10 am to 11 am At Charlie’s Deli (Precita/Folsom)
CONTACTS: PVN Co-Chairpersons are David Robinson (285-5957), Gary Richmond (641-0115) and Demece Garepis (641-0507).

Feb 10th Meeting Report: (10 people Present)

TRAFFIC CALMING

Report of meeting with leadership of Cesar Chavez Puede, re: a bigger area-wide traffic study. David Robinson and Demece Garepis met with leader Fran Taylor. Judge has ordered a professional environmental study, which will result in a slower timeline. PVN and CCP will jointly support and work on this broader study, which will now include 25, 26, and Precita streets.
The talk with Adam Gubser, Bernal Area Traffic Planner was postponed. Reimbursement will be made if there are pocket expenses by the "Butterfly Garden Planter" (?)

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PROPERTY (Metro Arts School)

A probable sale of property by the Catholic Diocese for development of housing - likely condos. A Bernal Heights delegation may attempt to change the church’s mind and consider NON-PROFIT AFFORDABLE housing units. Current occupant, Metro High School vacates in the summer.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAK-INS

SF police have said that home break-ins are usually "daytime" and through "open back doors". Car stealing rates have risen.

SOLAR-POWER DISCUSSION POSTPONED

Bruno DeMartis is a neighbor and a Solar Power Consultant, who was going to speak with us on how we can organize a bulk solar panel purchase and installation – greatly reducing individual homeowner costs. INFO: Email and Web.

SF PARKS TRUST:

PVN hasa little money in its 501c3 account, received in the past from different park awards. The San Francisco Parks Trust, has, in the past, offered its direct support for Music in the Park, Butterfly Garden, Work Days, etc. Now our account now has been moved from former host Bernal Community Center to current host SF Parks Trust, which offers more services and free activity Insurance.

FESTIVAL IN THE PARK:

The planning is about to begin for a neighborhood mid- September Friday or Saturday event. Want to work on this? Contact: drinsf@pacbell.net

GRAY HORNED OWLS:

A pair has been spotted, by different people at different times, living on the hill!

GARBAGE BINS / STORE HOURS

Some Garbage Bins are not being put back off the street after the garbage collection. It has become both a public health, and beautification problem. Also, the current Park Bins, especially in the playground area, overflow almost every week, especially on the weekend.

One store in the whole Bern al Heights area (Alabama and Precita) is open each morning until 2:00 am. The rest close at midnight, as do all the Mission Precinct similar stores. This attracts loitering, drug deal galore, noise, and other neighborhood detractors. A delegation is going to go talk with Supervisor Ammianno, asking his help in getting some help in dealing with the issue.

Labels: Precita Valley Neighbors, pvn

Alabama between Precita and Ripley now has "traffic calming" via a chicane. Instead of a straight shot through the street, drivers must slowly zig-zag their way through the series of islands.

That's good in theory, but we're concerned that their might be more accidents where the drivers neglect to zig.

According to the North Bernal Heights Traffic Calming Project: The proposed measures are now mostly implemented:

• Bulbouts at intersections with Cesar Chavez, Ripley, Rutledge, Montcalm and Mullen
  


• Reconfiguration of Alabama/Precita intersection to clarify right-of-way and maintain continuous road widths
  


• South of Precita: perpendicular parking on west side between Precita and Montcalm and on the east side between Montcalm and Ripley
  

We would not like to be the car parked perpendicularly where the chicane starts and the road zigs.

This interesting article from BeyondChron.org about the politics of traffic calming on CC came out a few months ago, but we just found it now. This is a thorny issue, because some people stand to lose street parking, others fear traffic will be diverted onto their side streets (e.g. Precita).:

Efforts to humanize the street, especially the stretch between the freeway maze and Guerrero, go back years. In the late 1990s, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition proposed bike lanes for the two blocks between Bryant and the freeway. Neighbors got up in arms at the proposed loss of parking involved, and the coalition agreed to a compromise part-time lane on the south side only. An interesting byproduct of stormy meetings over this issue, however, was a unified disgust at the busy traffic that was making cyclists and neighbors alike miserable. Both sides took time out from disagreeing with each other to find common ground in a desire to make the street something other than a “traffic sewer.”

We think that reducing CC to 2 lanes in each direction and adding a center bidirectional turn lane (kind of like Valencia now has) would still allow room for parking and a dedicated bike lane.

Unfortunately, some of our neighbors disagree, and think that the reduction of lanes will cause more traffic to flow onto Precita.

We also think that the only thing that will slow people down is a photo-radar system, as much as we hate those kinds of things.

Much of the bad driving we've experienced comes from people swerving to get away from the left hand turning vehicles. A dedicated turning lane would solve this.

All these elements and history have gotten stirred up by a campaign put into motion last summer by a group of bicycle and pedestrian activists, neighbors, parents, and merchants. Monthly meetings have led to some concrete moves and a lot of heated discussion. The group, named C.C. Puede, or Cesar Chavez Si Se Puede, in honor of the UFW chant “Yes we can!”, collected over 600 signatures on petitions circulated in the neighborhood that suggest removing a lane of car traffic in each direction for the six-lane segment, installing bike lanes and left-turn pockets, and making crosswalk and other pedestrian improvements. Greening is proposed to reduce noise and pollution as well as slow traffic. The group has turned in the petitions to the DPT, with copies going to supervisors Dufty, Ammiano, and Maxwell and greening czar Marshall Foster.

We know many in Precita Valley are concerned that the removal of lanes will make more traffic spill onto neighboring streets, but we believe the lane reduction will actually make traffic move more quickly on Cesar Chavez... while reducing the maximum speed that vehicles are traveling. It worked on Valencia.

Davida Capler, the head of the tree department of the Recreation and Parks Department, contacted Precita Valley Neighbors with an update on trees in the park. They will be planting trees in conformity with the tree planting plan developed by Precita Valley Neighbors in 2004 and partly completed in 2005.

The department will replace trees that have been vandalized. On the south side of the park at Precita and Harrison there is a young acacia that is severely diseased. They will remove that tree and plant 3 ginko trees. They also plan to replant two cherries where there were 3 and only one remains. They will also plant 3 malice trees on the northwest side of the park. In the future they plan to put a couple of cedars on the North side of the park near Harrison.

It has been distressing to see the damage done to some of our new trees and we commend Davida for initiating the planting of these trees in our park. Her number is (415) 831-6338.

Traffic Calming
• Continued Discussion, with Adam Gubser, Bernal Area Traffic Planner, from the Metropolitan Transit Authority who will discuss updates on Northwest Bernal Traffic Calming.

Immaculate Conception Church Property
• Continued Discussion of use after Metro Arts moves out

Neighborhood Break-ins
• Continued Discussion

Revisiting Solar Energy
• Continued Discussion, with Bruno DeMartis, a neighbor/solar power merchant, who will present how we can organize a bulk solar panel purchase and installation – greatly reducing individual homeowner costs.

PVN Co-Chairpersons are David Robinson (285-5957), Gary Richmond (641-0115) and Demece Garepis (641-0507).


STAY INFORMED: PVN meets at Charlie’s Deli, 3202 Folsom (at Precita) on the second Saturday of each month. Please join us!

To join the PVN email list, contact: dcasella@sfsu.edu

(Thanks Donald for this info!)

Please join the following work parties on Bernal Hill at 11am January 21, February 18, March 18 and April 15. Meet at the foot of the road leading to the tower. For more info, contact Roland and Barbara Pitschel at (415) 282-5006 or email them at bpandrp@peoplepc.com.

The Bernal Hilltop Native Grassland Restoration Project is a neighborhood group dedicated to native plant restoration and weed removal on Bernal Hilltop (located in Bernal Heights Park). Meets every third Sunday at 11 a.m., in Bernal Heights Park (at the southwest road closure of Bernal Heights Boulevard).

(Thanks to Donald for alerting us to this!)

01/31/07 1:30 am 200 block of Precita

Burglary/back door/unlocked

02/01/07 6:05 am 1600 block of York

Burglary/front door/loss to be determined

01/31/07 9:25 am Harrison and Precita

Officers Herb Najarro and William McCarthy were alerted to a person acting strangely. A warrant check revealed that the resident of South San Francisco was wanted on warrants charging battery, driving with a suspended license and drunk driving. Case #070110849

01/31/07 9:52 pm Bryant and Precita

Officers Carmen Walsh and Armann Ramoso responded to Bryant and Precita where an ex-boyfriend had slapped a female victim on the face causing an injury. The officers arrested the resident of the 4000 block of Mission for assault. Case #070114017

02/01/07 7:43 pm Precita and Alabama:
Officers Ann Gamboa and Timothy Neves were in Precita Park where a suspect was drinking alcohol. The suspect, who has no permanent local address, was wanted on a driving with no license warrant. Case #070117641