Susie Cagle's SF Curbed Samples

Tuesday PM Linkage

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:35:07 -0400

[“Thriller in Dolores Park” courtesy Curbed SF Flickr photog r.wiesenberger]

Some sweet Sunday Streets snaps. [SF Citizen]
“Partially successful” Google renovation by Eric Schmidt is pretty universally loathed. [Valleywag]
Solar panels on our streets could reduce noise and power the city. [Inhabitat]
Seriously, in this market, a 42-year-old murder should be the least of her worries. [Apartment Therapy]
Some apartment dwellers actually use their green compost bins…? [SFist]
12 Galaxies rocks out one last time. [Mission Mission]

Transit Tuesday: Muni Pats Itself On the Back (All the Way to the Bank)

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:22:00 -0400

That much-discussed $1 fare hike at the Golden Gate Bridge went into effect today — and just to rub a little salt in drivers’ wounds, Muni proudly announced that city transit ridership rose 6.5% in the last year. So what are they doing with all those extra fares? Hiring more fare inspectors, natch! Muni more than doubled the number of inspectors riding the rails over the past two years. You’d think with all that bank they could at least keep the finicky change machines in working order… [Bizjournals.com]

Broker Babble: Avalon Mission Bay

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:27:55 -0400

“Wow! Live here & experience life!” Judging by the low-res photos of this 1-bedroom unit, that experience will be vaguely luxurious, glassy and possibly carpeted — and it’ll set you back $2565 a month. Luckily this place is also “wired for telecommunications”! Score!

255 King Street [Craigslist]

KID NATION MIGHT BE MORE FUNCTIONAL THAN ADULT ONE? Ten East Bay high school seniors have developed...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:45:57 -0400

KID NATION MIGHT BE MORE FUNCTIONAL THAN ADULT ONE? Ten East Bay high school seniors have developed a plan for an area of El Cerrito that left city planners stumped for years. The teens were working on the plan as part of their summer internship with the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee, who should really come up with a catchier name than all that. It makes you wonder what these kids might’ve come up with for the Valencia Street overhaul. Surely they wouldn’t have been ballsy enough to top $6 million! [Contra Costa Times]

Lennar Increases Cash Flow Not a Moment Too Soon

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:20:39 -0400

A new “strategic partnership” will buoy Miami-based developer Lennar Corporation’s big, big plans for Bayview, and keep their dream of wooing the 49ers to Candlestick Point alive. (Yeah yeah, affordable housing this and park-space that — we know what the real priority is here.)

After a rocky few months of dismal reports and tanking profits, Irvine-based Scala Real Estate and Perot scion Ross Jr.’s (pictured) Hillwood Development Company are pumping wind beneath Lennar’s wings and hundreds of millions of greenbacks into its sad lil’ bank account to salvage the biggest urban development project in the nation. Perot and Scala will replace Cerberus Capital Management’s 50% stake in Hunter’s Point, plus go halvsies on Candlestick, where Lennar previously held sole ownership.

Is this all that much of a surprise, though? With all that sweet land under their belts and less than three months off their Prop G victory, it’s no wonder that some money-hungry behemoths would try to cash in as Lennar falters.

It’s Happy Hour in Miami right now, and Lennar execs are probably on their fourth mojito of the afternoon.

Lennar Megaproject Surives [WSJ]

Pretty Classy Joint: 10 Carnelian Way

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:27:00 -0400

Although you wouldn’t guess it from the boxy gray exterior, inside 10 Carnelian Way is a lofty open floor plan complete with custom built-in cabinetry, storage space and sweeping views of downtown from the living room and deck. This 3-bedroom unit has been remodeled to update the kitchen with stainless steel appliances and add some classy finishes throughout, including a jacuzzi tub and mod light fixtures — though judging by the cream carpeting and cheesy art, not all that much has changed since the place was built in 1979.

The 2,124-square-foot townhouse condo located on a “wonderful cul-de-sac” in Diamond Heights is relatively affordable at $1,050,000.

10 Carnelian Way [MLS]

Greening Alcatraz: Almost as Awesome as Being Imprisoned There

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:17:00 -0400

Oh yeah, this is totally 100% worthwhile: the hippies have descended upon the abandoned pastures of Alcatraz in a beautifying effort that might be better focused on a place where people actually, you know, live (cough Tenderloin cough). Maybe they’re bitter about not getting that Global Peace Center? [SF Gate]

SEPTEMBER SALES SLOW? Conventional market wisdom holds that after the last scraps of summer...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:53:11 -0400

SEPTEMBER SALES SLOW? Conventional market wisdom holds that after the last scraps of summer vacations and before the holiday frenzy, September is a big month for home sales. July brought ~~good real estate news~~ less bad news than the first half of the year. But with the country’s continued march toward mass foreclosure, will this autumn really bring its usual bump? Zephyr’s got their fingers crossed, and there’s actually a teeny bit of good news for buyers, too (!!) — the national average for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages slid 0.07 percent from just last week. It sounds paltry, but any little bit helps, right? [Mercury News]

447 Fraconia Street, Spacious and Shady

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:19:20 -0400

This Bernal Heights 5-bedroom boasts three baths, brand-new flooring, decent appliances and sweeping hilltop views of the city — “perfect for large family or people who just wants a lot of space for entertaining” [sic]. But at $829,995 for 2,088 square feet of space in a “serene country setting,” it seems a little underpriced. Might all that lovely shade have something to do with it? Should you really need to turn all the lights on in the middle of the afternoon just to take some interior shots? Guess it wouldn’t be much of a problem if all that entertaining were done after hours…

447 Fraconia Street [MLS]

PUBLIC SERVICE REMINDER: YES, RENTER’S INSURANCE IS WORTH IT, YOU CHEAPSKATE. The Associated...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:12:57 -0400

PUBLIC SERVICE REMINDER: YES, RENTER’S INSURANCE IS WORTH IT, YOU CHEAPSKATE. The Associated Press reminds all non-owners to get one of those handy free quotes online. For less than $200 a year, your household belongings (and your vehicle) will be protected against Tenderloin crackhead break-ins and the damage from Mission blazes (but probably no quake coverage for you Marina dwellers). Now if only there were some insurance against your building being foreclosed on…

How Does Gavin's Garden Grow?

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:56:24 -0400

For a bit longer, it turns out.

When Slow Food Nation footed the $200,000 to dig up the lawn in front of City Hall and plant a “victory garden,” they were given until September 21 to compost their kale seedlings and scram. But not all the loud hippies were at Burning Man this weekend, and after a significant public outcry, Mayor Newsom has decided to keep the garden around until November, despite the additional cost of a full 24-hour security detail to keep the broccoli, er, fresh from the Civic Center’s homeless population.

The victory garden was the centerpiece of the Slow Food Nation conference, but it also made a lovely photo op for oh-so-green Gavin. Why wouldn’t he want to keep it around through election season?

Still, it doesn’t make up for the sorry state of San Francisco’s community gardens. If Slow Food was trying to convince urban residents that they could grow their own organic endives instead of buying them at Whole Paycheck, they really didn’t have much work to do — nearly all the gardens in the city have waiting lists, many of them years long.

But when all’s said and done, the garden’s plants will now be donated to local schools instead of being tossed in the trash.

Garden to Remain at Civic Center Plaza [ABC 7]

T-MOBILE USERS, YOUR SHINY NEW BARS MAY BE NIGH. The state utilities commission is investigating...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:09:31 -0400

T-MOBILE USERS, YOUR SHINY NEW BARS MAY BE NIGH. The state utilities commission is investigating claims that T-Mobile has violated regulations in their over-enthusiastic building of additional “microwave dishes” on commercial and residential buildings and water towers. (Yeah, that doesn’t sound like cancer!)

The new towers span Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties; if found guilty, T-Mobile could have to pay multi-million dollar fines and remove them.

The company is launching a big 3G update in San Francisco before the end of the year — might these new towers have anything to do with this upgraded service…?

State Probing T-Mobile Cell-Siting Procedures [SF Gate]

ARTSY YOUNGS SHOCKED, AWWED AT STATE OF RENTAL MARKET. Ah, we love the smell of investigative...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:37:29 -0400

ARTSY YOUNGS SHOCKED, AWWED AT STATE OF RENTAL MARKET. Ah, we love the smell of investigative journalism in the morning! SF Weekly sicced its pack of summer interns on 20-somethings in communal living situations to do a little muckraking. “Through interviews with a multitude of people looking to live with a group of soulful strangers, the Weekly learned there are many hurdles in San Francisco.” Those hurdles, as they’re fleshed out here, seem to mainly consist of getting Craigslist alerts sent to one’s iPhone quickly enough, plus having the sweetest weed stash this side of Bart. But in their profile of the seven-resident Cole Valley “Tiger House,” which has seen 33 renters in seven years, they don’t get into the real ugly stuff (communal living means communal dishwashing! And um, how many bathrooms are there?).

But the Weekly has really done all Cole Valley neighbors a favor here by listing the full names of all the Tiger residents, when their “theorizing” and “laughter echoes off the blue walls long into the night” and into the yard of the guy next door, whose parents didn’t purchase his three-story abode so he and his friends could chill, like, hard-core between their shifts at Cafe Gratitude. Twenty-four hour noise ordinance, kids!

Room with a Few [SF Weekly]

To Buy or To Rent at the Beacon?

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:43:00 -0400

The ginormous Mission Bay Beacon development sold out their 595 units in a flash back in 2005 — but since then, San Francisco residents have had a tighter grip on their wallets, and times have toughened for even the biggest, baddest condo structures. With fewer city residents choosing or able to buy property, the rental market is looking much less like the money pit it did a few years ago.

So while you can still buy a fifth-floor Beacon 2BR/2BA unit for $828,000 and $700 in monthly HOA dues, you can now also rent a near-identical apartment just down the hall for a non-rent-controlled $3450/month — and that deal includes your parking space.

260 King Street #577 — To Rent [Craigslist]
260 King Street #535 — To Buy [MLS]

Greener Than Thou: A Special Infighting Supplement

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:33:00 -0400

It was an ugly eco-saga that even the most imaginative writers at Fox News couldn’t make up. Earlier this year, a Santa Clara man took his neighbors to court over the big, leafy redwoods in their yard that were casting oppressive shadows on his new solar panels. The neighbors were convicted of a nuisance, and forced to prune some of the trees.

With nearly 30,000 solar-power systems installed in California, this could have meant a dangerous precedent for greenery. But now there’s good news for treehuggers, from an unlikely source. Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that protects the rights of trees in potential future hippie melees, so long as the roots were down before the panels were up. Unfortunately, there’s still no justice and no peace for the redwood neighbors, who are now in civil court battling over the same trees and the same eco-righteousness.

And unfortunately for the rest of this, the longer this drags out, the more misplaced anger we have toward the environmental movement as the rest of the country writes us off as the smug ecogeeks we so often are. You can almost hear the New York Times reporter giggling between the lines.

In California Neighbors’ Dispute, Officials Find It’s Time to Speak for the Trees [NY Times]

SF BUILDINGS: EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COLLAPSERS. Gavin Newsom and the building department’s recent...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:29:51 -0400

SF BUILDINGS: EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COLLAPSERS. Gavin Newsom and the building department’s recent campaign to analyze and retrofit thousands of wood-framed “soft-story” buildings is surely a necessary venture — but it’s holding up plans to also fix hundreds of concrete structures that could prove just as deadly come quake-time. Says David Bonowitz, a structural engineer on the city’s seismic safety committee: “They often are big and multistory, and when they collapse, people die.”

So, what’s the problem? Not enough analyst person-power to go around. In light of the recent SoCal quake, how much is it worth raiding already-slim city coffers to shore up all our aging architecture? Good thing for Gavin he’s already got City Hall retrofitted. [SF Gate]

Under 500 Club: "Trendyloin" Jr. One-Bedroom

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:28:00 -0400

Now that the neighborhood has been awarded with historic status, this “sexy” junior one-bedroom at the 20-story art deco Hamilton, San Francisco’s first building to go condo, might be a more decent investment than most. For $379,000, you get a glorified studio with sleeping alcove and kitchen with stainless steel appliances and cheap-chic concrete countertops. Other perks not outlined in the ad: an underground parking structure (for an additional fee, natch), sidewalks freshly hosed every four hours and an allegedly undercover police station across the street.

The 5th floor location probably won’t yield any spectacular city views, and depending upon the 24-hour door person’s bathroom break schedule, the shared roofdeck might end up looking more like Camp Agnos than your own urban getaway. But if you can steel yourself against the Leavenworth crackheads, it’s a nice centralized location convenient to all kinds public transportation and under $5 chicken tikka masala — because if you’re investing in “award winning” Hamilton real estate, you’re probably not hitting up Milennium every night. Now there’s just that little thing about snagging a mortgage…

631 O’Farrell #504 [MLS]

HOT FUZZ WORK UP A SWEAT. High gas prices are getting more police officers out of their Fords and...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:26:39 -0400

HOT FUZZ WORK UP A SWEAT. High gas prices are getting more police officers out of their Fords and out on the streets, walking off all those beignets and burritos. It’s a national trend with some serious local implications: fewer cars on the roads is undoubtedly a positive, but it’s probably a good thing the city police are getting a raise soon, to compensate for their extra efforts. Urban experts say cops out of their cars have a far more substantive effect on community safety. Of course, this could also mean a kink in community fun: it’s much easier for a foot patrol to nab your beers in Dolores Park on a sunny afternoon.

More cops have recently been spotted putting old-fashioned shoe leather to some hard-knock lower ‘Loin streets. Have the fuzz been up in your hood, too? Drop us a line and let us know what the coppers have been up to. And don’t forget to paper-bag it. [NY Times]