SF’s last piece of original waterfront envisioned as anchor of new Crissy Field

From the SF Examiner,

Photo: Erica Marquez

A stretch of mud facing San Francisco Bay in Hunters Point might as well be Siberia for most residents, but it is waterfront property in The City. 

That makes the trash-strewn collection of old, crumbling buildings and giant wild fennel valuable. 

And what makes this line of coast so special -- and worth the nearly $3 million The City recently paid for it -- is both what it was and what it could be: The last privately owned stretch of Bayfront property in San Francisco, envisioned as the anchor of a future network of parks that will be the Crissy Field of the south.

Read more at the SF Examiner 

SF Rec & Park to buy 900 Innes, make it a park

Supervisor Malia Cohen will be coming to India Basin on Saturday the 7th at 11:30 am to discuss the deal that Rec and Parks made to acquire the 900 Innes property which includes the Shipwright Cottage and the surrounding bay access.

This is huge, I mean really huge, for our little corner of the world.

Please come to find out all the juicy details and what this will mean going forward.

Who: Supervisor Malia Cohen
What: explains the Rec and Park Deal for 900 Innes
Where: 702 Earl St. at the corner of Innes Ave
When: 11:30 am Saturday June 7th.

Heron's Head

7x7 has a really nice photo essay on Heron's Head Park...

Check it out here.

IBNA Spring Egg Hunt

The INDIA BASIN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

presents the 2012

12th Annual SPRING EGG HUNT

Saturday April 7 Starts 11:00 Sharp!!!
FREE!
Everyone Welcome!
Bring Your Own Basket

India Basin Shoreline Park
Hunters Point Boulevard between Evans and Innes

PET THE SHEEP • HUNDREDS OF EGGS TO FIND • PRIZES Thanks to the generous support of your India Basin neighbors:
India Basin Neighborhood Association
SFFD
Station 25
www.INDIABASIN.org

Archimedes Banya ready to make big splash in S.F.

We have a new spa in the heart of India Basin - Archimedes Banya SF, located at 748 Innes Ave.  Sadly, I grew up in the age of Seinfeld, where the word Banya referred to a character by the name of Kenny Banya who had success as a comic despite being completely inept and unfunny.  Judging by the website for the spa, at BanyaSF.com, and like the Banya character, the spa owners certainly seem to think they're funny. I just hope they also have success.

From SFGate,

For Mikhail Brodsky, president and rector of Oakland's Lincoln University, and the owner of the new Archimedes Banya in India Basin, the "Eureka!" moment came when he realized that San Francisco lacked a true Russian bathhouse - and that he could set things right.

Knowledgeable about baths worldwide - from Tokyo's sento to Britain's Roman baths - Brodsky began working on his project 12 years ago. The bathhouse is a three-story blend of feel-good bathing techniques incorporating elements of Greek laconica, Turkish hammam and Russian banya, with an emphasis on banya traditions. It is scheduled to open to the public today.

Read more at SFGate

Bayview's Albion Castle SOLD!

From CurbedSF,

If you're a regular reader of Curbed SF, you know we're quite obsessed with 881 Innes, aka the Albion Castle in Hunters Point. The old home of the Albion Ale and Porter Brewery hit the market in late 2009 with a jaw-dropping asking price of $2,950,000, or $2,054 per square foot. Not bad for a castle, right? Wrong. The castle sat on the market for months and months while its price took chop after chop after chop. For over two years, the 1,436 square foot castle sat patiently on the MLS, waiting for an offer. And an offer it (finally!) got! So what if it took leaving the Millionaire's Club! We reported that in mid-October the sale of the Albion Castle was pending. We're happy to report that as of yesterday, the building has sold for $820,000. Congrats to all parties involved!

Funding Approved for Masonic EIR and Cargo Way Protected Bikeway

Cargo Way will see the city’s first two-way, on-street bikeway protected by a raised concrete barrier and fence, according to the memos. The bikeway will fill a gap in the San Francisco Bay Trail, connecting Third Street and existing bike lanes on Illinois to Heron Head’s Park and Hunters Point. It will be placed along the south side of the street to minimize conflicts with trucks accessing the north side.

Read more at SF Streets Blog

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Tours

HPNS Bus Tours:

Bus tours of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard are being scheduled for Friday August 26 & Saturday August 27. The shipyard tour is anticipated to include: Sites 7 & 18, Parcel C, E-2 Landfill, the Crane, Gun Mole Pier, and Dry dock area. Tours on each day will last approximately 1.5 hours. Limited seating is available on a first come, first served basis. The deadline for reserving a space is Friday, August 19. Cantonese or Spanish translation will be available during a tour if requested a minimum of 72 hours in advance (Tuesday, August 23 for the Friday tour or Wednesday, August 24 for the Saturday tour).

Tour space is currently available the following dates/times.

Friday, August 26 – 10am, 1pm, 4pm

Saturday, August 27 – 1pm, 4pm

If you are interested in attending a tour, please leave a message on the HPNS Information Line at (415) 295-4742 or send an email to info@sfhpns.com. Be sure to leave your name, telephone number, and include two tour dates and times that you are available, in case your first choice is already taken. You will be contacted with more information. Cantonese or Spanish translation will be available during a tour if requested a minimum of 72 hours in advance. Be sure to indicate which language you need translation for.

4th Annual Bayview to Breakers: A Ragtag Regatta

A Ragtag Regatta

Saturday, August 13, 9AM

India Basin Shorline Park

www.bayviewtobreakers.com

Founded by Richard Tobias Greene, the non-organized event was created to celebrate free public access to San Francisco's southeast waterfront, the most amazing and interesting waterfront for small, non-motorized watercraft in San Francisco Bay and Northern California. If small towns on small waters in the Midwest can have water festivals, so too shall the City by the Bay!

So grab your kayak, your canoe, or anything else that might be able to float for a while and hit the open water. Last year folks kind of made their way to the secluded beaches along the southern side of the Shipyard and had a rollicking picnic. This year there are rumors of heading north to The Ramp for lunch. Maybe there will be glimpses of Ellison's Oracle Racing boats, just around the corner from Islais Creek?!

You don't really know Bayview Hunters Point and the southeast waterfront until you've viewed it from afar on the open water. Kind of like the astronauts viewing earth for the first time from space.

There is still more than enough time to ask around to borrow a friend's kayak, rent one, buy one or build one.

We're surrounded by bay and ocean, but rarely do we ply its waters.

There are resources on the website to brush up on how to talk like a pirate, or curse like a sailor...

Arghhh!

h/t C Buck

Blue Greenway presentation Aug 17

Today, from Jill Fox of the India Basin Neighborhood Association:

The Blue Greenway is being planned now! The BGW concept is to connect neighborhoods from China Basin to Candlestick Park to each other and to the water. Some great project have already begun on Port property (for example, Heron’s Head park entrance). Come see the rest of the current plans -- and share your ideas for how the Blue Greenway can best serve India Basin, Hunters Point, and the Bayview.

SAVE THE DATE
The next presentation on the draft Blue Greenway Planning and Design Guidelines will be at the Port’s Southern Waterfront Advisory Committee (SWAC) on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 between 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Eco Center at Heron’s Head Park located at the end of Cargo Way.  Click here for a map

FYI: I have read the planning document and think the planning for India Basin past the Port property is weak and that the whole thing is not well linked to what we’ve heard is planned for the Shipyard. There are also 30-foot tall signposts planned for the entire length of the Blue Greenway that residents might want to check out since we will be living with them for years to come.

If you are interested in how the Blue Greenway can benefit our neighborhoods, and serve as the comprehensive planning method it claims to be, you might want to check out these documents and/or attend this meeting. Blue Greenway planning is paid for through a voter-approved bond -- it is our tax money at work! Let’s make sure it works for us.

IBNA will be submitting comments to this plan, but individuals are also welcome to comment to the Port about the plans.

Draft Planning and Design Guidelines

Parcels UC-­1 & UC-­2 Draft Finding of Suitability for Transfer

Environmental Protection Agency Technical Assistance Grant Hunters Point Shipyard Fact Sheet 

This fact sheet provides a brief summary of the draft finding of suitability for transfer (FOST) of Parcel  UC-­1 and for transfer of Parcel UC-­2 of the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site. The report was  prepared by the U.S. Navy. The FOST was prepared to document the  readiness of the parcels to be transferred to the San Francisco  Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) according to all relevant and  appropriate state and federal regulations including the  Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), known as Superfund. The report also describes the  readiness of the property for reuse with regard to laws regulating lead  paint, asbestos, petroleum, and other hazardous materials not  covered by Superfund law. The Navy is required to clean up  contaminants that it spilled but does not usually do lead paint or  asbestos abatement in buildings. That cleanup will be done by the  new owners according to regulations that govern these substances.  However, the Navy must disclose what it knows about these other  contaminants as part of the FOST report.

This FOST is different from a Finding of Suitability for Early Transfer (FOSET) because the FOST documents that all Navy cleanup has been completed to the satisfaction of the state and federal agencies. A FOSET such as the one described for Parcels B & G in an earlier Fact Sheet describes what remains to be cleaned up, not by the Navy, but by the new property owners under the watchful eyes of the same regulatory agencies. The transfers of UC-­1 & UC-­2 are not early transfers.

Public involvement is a requirement of the Superfund process. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency's Technical Assistance Grant program provides fact sheets such as this one  to inform  communities near Superfund sites to assist their understanding and participation in the process.  

Independence Day not free from violence in San Francisco

From San Francisco Examiner,

Violence shot off like fireworks in The City’s southeastern neighborhoods on the Fourth of July.

Two stabbings, a shooting, and a face splashed with bleach contributed to the rage in Bayview, Portola and Potrero Hill areas.

Around 11 a.m., a 23-year-old man was stabbed in the left elbow after trying to break up a fight at Connecticut and Wisconsin streets, police said. The injury was not life threatening.

An argument on a Muni bus around 8:45 p.m. led to the stabbing of a 17-year-old boy. He hopped off the bus at Dartmouth Avenue and Woolsey Street after realizing he’d been stabbed, police said. He was transported to South San Francisco Kaiser and is expected to survive.

More than an hour later, a 25-year-old woman was blinded with bleach and struck with a glass bottle in Potrero Hill, police said.

The suspect, described as a woman in her 40s, drove up to the victim in a white Acura in the 900 block of Connecticut Street, hopped out of the car, then fetched a bottle of bleach and the glass bottle. She splashed the bleach on the victim’s face, police said, struck her with the bottle and fled. The victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Finally around 11 p.m., a man walking in the 200 block of Harbor Road near India Basin heard gunshots and realized he’d been hit in the left leg and buttocks, police said. He was transported to San Francisco General with non-life-threatening injuries.

There have been no arrests in any of the incidents.

Shipyard Cleanup Fact Sheet - Parcel C Remedial Design

Public comment is due by May 5, 2011:

This fact sheet provides a brief summary of the draft combined Remedial Design and Design Basis Reports for Parcel C of the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site. The report was prepared by the U.S. Navy. The Remedial Design was prepared to implement the remedy for this parcel that is described in the 2010 Record of Decision (ROD). Both the ROD and the Remedial Design are documents that are required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), known as Superfund. Public involvement is required in the cleanup of contaminated Superfund sites. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s Technical Assistance Grant program was established to inform communities near Superfund sites to assist their understanding and participation in the process.
  


















Find more info on the IBNA Blog and their Google site:
http://hunterspointcleanup.blogspot.com/
http://sites.google.com/site/hunterspointcleanup/
And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask Kristine Enea (kristine@indiabasin.org), Alex Lantsberg (alex@indiabasin.org) or Mike McGowan at Arc (mikemcgowan@arcecology.org).

Job Announcement: Blue Greenway Brownfields Area-Wide Plan Project Director

Attached is the job description for a part-time Blue Greenway Brownfields Area-Wide Plan Project Director, the position that will facilitate Neighborhood Parks Council’s EPA grant (for planning cleanup and reuse of San Francisco’s southeast waterfront). (h/t Jill Fox)

This is a new position for NPC and Corinne Woods continues in her role as the Blue Greenway Coordinator.

Contact Meredith Thomas, Executive Director, Neighborhood Parks Council, 451 Hayes Street, Second Floor, San Francisco, CA 94102
p:(415) 621-3260; f:(415) 703-0889
www.sfnpc.org ; www.ParkScan.org

Wonders in our own backyard

Many of us would drive right by it and not know that Albion Castle, home to the former Albion Porter & Ale Brewery and later The Mountain Spring and Water Co, was even there. The castle as been for sale for some time, current asking price, $1.8M, but according to the listing (which is worth checking out just for the pictures) the sale includes water rights to the 10,000 gallon/day underground springs and rights to the name Albion Castle Brewery.

Susan Saperstein, Guildlines magazine, writes:

Nineteen-year-old John Burnell, already an experienced brewer trained in London, came to San Francisco in 1868. He bought a parcel of land with large flowing springs in an area where brothers Robert and Philip Hunter managed real estate transactions for the new city – an area known today as Hunter’s Point. Here in the 1870s Burnell established the Albion Porter & Ale Brewery. The building he erected, featuring a three-story tower reminiscent of a Norman castle from Burnell’s native England, has always been known as the Albion Castle. The Castle was recently in the news when it was auctioned off for $2.1 million.

Take a Walk on the Waterfront

Looking for an outdoor activity this weekend (rain or shine)?  How about checking out India Basin?

Saturday November 20
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Meet at Heron’s Head Park, Cargo & Jennings

FREE. Join the India Basin Neighborhood Association (IBNA) on a 3-mile flat walk along the beautiful shoreline & hear about the Community Vision for the future. This tour travels along what will someday be a portion of the Blue Greenway. See the only SF waterfront property not in the public trust.

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency has created a DRAFT Plan for the 76-acre India Basin Shoreline — from the PG&E Power Plant to the Hunters Point Shipyard — that changes: Zoning, Building Heights,Transportation, and Housing Density. Their plan calls for 1200 housing units and up to 85 foot building heights. Meanwhile, the IBNA Community Vision takes advantage of this unique location for active recreation and entertainment areas, jobs and business opportunities, family homes, boating center, community farm, dog park, skate & bike park, and creative transportation solutions. Find details on www.indiabasin.org

The walk begins and ends at Heron’s Head Park, with 8 informational stops. Wear sturdy shoes. All invited.