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GLEN PARK NEWSGLEN PARK NEWS
Official Newspaper of the Glen Park Associationwww.glenparkassociation.orgPublished Quarterly
Fall 2007
Glen Park Association Meeting Notice
Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 7 p.m.
St. John’s School
,
925 Chenery St.Meet Our New Police Captain, Denis O’Leary, at 7:00BART Officials Discuss Plans forGlen Park BART Development at 7:30
Entering the Glen Park Recreation Cen-ter public bathrooms long has been oneof those hold-your-nosepropositions, an urbanadventure not for thrillseekers but for those leftwith few alternatives.“I had to go to the bathroom, andI was shocked. It was so substandard,”said John Zaugg, a retired graphicdesigner who visited the menʼs room forthe first time in late June when he wason a four-hour outing at Glen CanyonPark as an assignment for a watercolorclass he was taking through City Col-lege.He returned the next day, this timewith a digital camera, to documentthe filth. Human excrement and urinesplattered the toilet and urinal, graf-fiti marred the walls, and toilet paperlittered the floor. “It was appalling,”said Zaugg, a 66-year-old resident of the Upper Haight who soon contactedBevan Dufty, Glen Parkʼs representativeon the Board of Supervisors.Dufty contacted the San FranciscoRecreation and Park Department,which responded with an explanationthat there was a shortage of custodians.Translation: The park bathrooms were
Volume 25, No. 3byRachelGordon
Capt. Paul C. Chignell, the popularcommanding officer of the SFPDʼs Ingleside Sta-tion since 2004, has beentransferred to a new com-mand, the Taraval Station,by Chief Heather Fong.The chief tapped Capt. DenisOʼLeary to take command of InglesideStation. The move, announced at ourpress deadline Friday afternoon, Sept.7,was to take effect Sept. 15. InglesideStation covers Glen Park, Sunnyside,Bernal Heights, Diamond Heights andseveral other neighborhoods includingthe high-crime Sunnydale near the CowPalace.Their reassignments were part of alarger group of unexpected transfers inthat rank. The job of station captain isconsidered a plum assignment in the SanFrancisco Police Department, but alsoone of the most difficult. The captainsoften serve as the public face of thedepartment, juggling the demands of residents, merchants, special-interestactivists, elected leaders at City Hall,police brass and the men and womenwho serve under their command. Bynature, it is a high-pressure job thatrequires political deftness and dexter-ity.Chignell, whose taste for politics isevident—he once served as mayor of San Anselmo in Marin County—saidthe Ingleside assignment has been themost rewarding of his police career.“I must say that in the three yearsand five months that I have had the
SFPD Station House Shuffle:Glen Park Gets New Captain
rarely cleaned—a sorry state of affairsfor the tiny tots, basketball players, dogwalkers, tennis players, joggers, naturelovers, baseball players and picnickerswho visit the popular park.But there is good news. And hisname is Glen Loi, a Recreation andPark Department custodian who wastransferred in August to the Glen ParkRec Center from Portsmouth Square inChinatown.“Now weʼre getting the bathroomscleaned every day,ʼʼ said Glen Park recdirector Allison Kent. “You come inhere in the morning and the first thingyou smell is bleach. Thereʼs a big dif-ference.ʼʼLoi, who works Monday throughFriday, isnʼt at Glen Park rec centerevery day, but is there most days heʼs onthe clock. For instance, he was assignedto work at Balboa Park one recent shift,he said.
Grotty Potties! City Vows Rec Center Improvements
Disgusting. Photo by John Zaugg
byRachelGordon
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
block of Chenery street toward herhome. In the distance, she heard thewoman screaming for help. One blockup, she saw a man running toward her,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
There are a thousand stories in the nakedcity. This is one of them.It was June 21, a sunny afternoon.A woman was walkingon the 200 block of Chenery when she heardsomeone come up frombehind her. She thoughthe only wanted to get by and movedout of his way.Instead, he grabbed her purse. Thevictim, despite the pain in her arm fromhaving it violently jerked, ran after theman yelling for help.The suspect, identified by police asJulio Ramirez, began to rifle through herpurse as he fled.At that moment, Glen Park Asso-ciation membership secretary HeatherWorld was walking along the 100
Chenery Residents Help NabStrong-Arm Robbery Suspect
byElizabethWeise
 
Glen Park News Page 2Fall 2007Glen Park News Page 2
The mission of the Glen Park Association is to promote the collectiveinterests of all persons living in Glen Park, to inform and educate aboutneighborhood and citywide issues, to promote sociability and friend-ships and to support beneficial neighborhood projects.
GPA Board of Directors and Officers for 2007
President
Michael Rice 337-9894president@glenparkassociation.org
Vice-President
Jeff Britt 239-4347vicepresident@glenparkassociation.org
Treasurer
Dennis Mullen 239-8337
Recording Secretary
Kim Watts 902-4767
Corresponding Secretary
Tiffany Farr 215-2320
Membership Secretary
Heather Worldmembership@glenparkassociation.org
Health & Environment
Michael Ameshealth@glenparkassociation.org
Neighborhood Improvement
John Walmsley 452-0277
Glen Park News
Elizabeth Weise 908-6728news@glenparkassociation.org
Public Safety
 
Volunteer needed 
safety@glenparkassociation.org
Recreation & Park
Richard Craib 648-0862
Traffic, Parking & Transportation
 
Volunteer needed 
 transportation@glenparkassociation.org
Zoning & Planning
D. Valentinedk_valentine@yahoo.com
Program
Volunteer needed 
Glen Park News
2912 Diamond St. #407San Francisco, CA 94131(415) 908-6728news@glenparkassociation.org
 Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth WeiseDeputy Editor Rachel GordonPhoto Editor Liz Mangelsdorf Design Editor Mary MottolaCopy Editor Denis WadeAdvertising Nora DowleyReporters Dolan EargleAshley HathawayMiriam MossPaula LevineJoanna PearlsteinKaren PeterosEmma Bland SmithBonnie WachBonnee WaldsteinColumnists Vince BeaudetJean ConnerSusan EvansRic LópezMichael WalshPhotographers Ellen RosenthalMichael WaldsteinJohn Zaugg
Glen Park News
The
Glen Park News
is pub-lished quarterly by the GlenPark Association.Signed articles are the opin-ions of the authors and notnecessarily those of the GlenPark Association.To advertise in the
GlenPark News
call 908-6728or e-mail advertising@glenparkassociation.org.
From the Editors
Help Plan Your Neighborhood
Itʼs been four years since the San Fran-cisco Planning Department endorsedthe Glen Park Neighborhood Plan,a document hashed out at a series of workshops attended by residents, localbusiness owners and representativesfrom various city, regional and stategovernment agencies.The process, according to city plan-ners, was a community effort in whichparticipants “worked hard to resolveexisting traffic, transit and parkingproblems, improve connections andpedestrian safety, enhance local busi-ness vitality, build transit-served hous-ing and explore ways of retaining thebeloved character of Glen Park into thefuture.”Turning that grand vision intoreality has a long way to go, and onceagain city planners are looking to theGlen Park community for help. A pub-lic meeting is tentatively scheduled forDecember—date, time and locationto be determined—to remind peoplewhatʼs in the plan and to give them achance to weigh in with new concernsand ideas.The timing of the forum comesbefore the City is set to commencedrafting an environmental impact reportthat will look at how the proposals in theplan will impact everything from trafficflow to open space.The City will contract with a con-sultant to conduct the environmentalassessment. Eventually, the goal isto incorporate the Glen Park Com-munity Plan into a more formal “AreaPlan”ʼ and eventually into the CityʼsGeneral Plan that serves as a guide todevelopment and preservation in SanFrancisco. The General Plan covers abroad range of areas, from air qualityand transportation to commerce andhousing.The environmental impact reportis not expected to be completed foranother year or so. Meanwhile, inaddition to the meeting planned forDecember, the City plans to hold atleast two other public forums over the
Glen Park Association News
I have read thousands of words aboutwhat happens to cars when they are notmoving, when we “park”them. Even the word parkis a bit ambiguous. Is itopen space with grassand paths? Is it a line of four-wheeled vehiclesalmost blocking your driveway? Linguis-tically, itʼs the same word, according tomy unabridged dictionary—an enclosureset aside for public use or for militaryequipment or for cars.When the Glen Park Marketplacewas proposed, many in the neighbor-hood wanted to see more parking. Whenthe Glen Park Association worked withthe City to tighten parking controls onBosworth Street, we heard complaintsabout loss of spaces near BART forcommuters. With more restaurants openin Glen Park, where will the patronspark? Is a one-off-street-space-per-unit requirement enough parking forhousing? If BART develops its GlenPark parking lot, what happens to the54 public spaces?Iʼve written before about the walk-ability of our neighborhood, our transitconnections, our urban village, but mywife and I do use our car for errands in
byMichaelRice
Glen Park and around San Francisco.Sometimes we make decisions on mov-ies based on the parking expectations.We have “secret” blocks for easy park-ing, in such neighborhoods as West Por-tal, the Castro, the Inner Sunset and theHaight. Well, no, I havenʼt figured outa secret parking spot in the Haight.I donʼt hide my bias for diversemixes of land uses vs. a lot of parking.I donʼt think we want Glen Park tolook like the Diamond Heights Shop-ping Center, or have a big garage. Letʼskeep open minds on parking, as the Cityand BART move ahead on plans aroundthe village, the BART station and theBART lot. The BART lot has been agood reservoir of parking for the mer-chants, BART travelers and shoppers,for a long time. I have already heardstrong opinions in favor of the parkingas is, and concerns on the scale and den-sity of any new development. Othersenvision a site that can become part of the neighborhood and less of a blacktopspace. There will be lots of discussion,opinions, studies and public reviewsbefore those decisions are made. TheGlen Park Association always will takean active role in the dialogue on thefuture of parking in the neighborhood.
 Michael Rice is president of the GlenPark Association
Join theGlen Park Association
Only $10 per person.PO Box 31292San Francisco, CA 94131or online atwww.glenparkassociation.org
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
 
Fall 2007Page 3Glen Park NewsPage 3Glen Park News
Letter tothe Editor
This letter was sent in response toGlen Park Association President  Michael Riceʼs column in the Sum-mer 2007 
Glen Park News.I read your article about “NewUrbanism” or “Urbanism” in thesummer
Glen Park News.
You are correct; we do have agreat neighborhood to maintain, butI question why it needs to grow.For instance, this BART proposalto jam 50 to 60 housing units ontothe BART parking lot brings up twoquestions: One, does Mr. Radulovichrealize the parking problem? The factthat the owners of Canyon Markethave to ask for volunteers to delivergroceries reminds me of a meeting Iattended where a young woman saidshe “could hardly wait to walk to agrocery store.” Two, does he have asecret water supply, or hasnʼt he heardthe dire prognostications about nextyearʼs water availability?We have to ask ourselves aboutsome of the proposals that have beenfloated about “improving” our neigh-borhood.Would we be better off if theCrosstown Freeway or the wideningof OʼShaughnessy Boulevard hadtaken place in the 1960s? City Hallersthought it a great idea. The peoplewho lived in Walnut Creek thought ita great idea. One lingering reminderof a commuter-friendly city is thetraffic light at Elk and Bosworth. Itcertainly does not favor the natives.BART itself constitutes a mixedblessing. Yes, we can zip downtownor to the airport. But it has, if not cre-ated the parking problem, certainlyexacerbated it. Pay to park in frontof your house—this is inprovment?Has moving St. Johnʼs Schoolfrom St. Maryʼs Park to its presentlocation helped the neighborhood?One questions how many childrenfrom Glen Park actually attend theschool when every school morningand afternoon a parade of cars goesup and down Chenery and Burnsidestreets. The school administrationdoes a good job of controlling thetraffic but putting the school theredisplaced many old-time residents.Does having a nursery school inthe Park improve the neighborhood?No other place could be found?Good things: The FACE programin the ʼ60s helped many Glen Parkresidents bring their homes up to codeand prevent Redevelopment (aka,move you out, tear down your home,put something else there). That, cou-pled with with Proposition 13, allowedmany older—or not very rich—peopleto remain in their homes.Actually, Glen Park was very niceas a “bucolic backwater” of the city!Joan SeiwaldLongtime Resident
 Editorʼs Note: Ms. Seiwald has out-standing credentials for critiquingGlen Park neighborhood develop-ment proposals. She was one of threewomen derisively dubbed “the gumtree girls” for their efforts to block the proposed crosstown freeway,which would have wiped out grovesof eucalyptus as it soared aboveGlen Canyon Park. She and her fel-low activists are largely responsible for saving the “village” ambiencewe take for granted today. The“freeway revolt” led by Seiwald, Zoanne Nordstrom and Jerry Arkushis described in Emma Bland Smithʼsnew “Images of America” book,
SanFranciscoʼs Glen Park and DiamondHeights
, available at Bird and Beck-
Note from Editors
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
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next year on the future of the neighbor-hood, said Charles Rivasplata, the newGlen Park project planner.The
Glen Park News
urges peopleto pay attention and get involved.If youʼre concerned about pedes-trian safety, traffic congestion, housingdensity, the viability of the Glen Parkcommercial corridor or any and allrelated issues, the Glen Park Commu-nity Plan is a good place to start. Formore information, check out the Cityweb site, http://www.sfgov.org, andtype “Glen Park Plan” in the searchengine. Rivasplata said heʼd also behappy to field questions. His directline is 558-6255.A lot has happened in GlenPark since the Community Plan washatched—and a lot more changes arein the works. The good news is that thepeople who live and work in our villagehave an opportunity to help shape ourfuture.
n
ett Books and Records.Under the Federally Assisted Code Enforcement (FACE) pro-gram, every residence in a FACE district was to be brought up to code,under City supervision. Low-inter-est loans were available for ownerswho couldnʼt afford the work. GlenPark and Bernal Heights each had a FACE district.
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