A monthly newsletter for the changing, mixed-use neighborhoods of South of Market, the NE Mission and lower Potrero Hill. The publishers seek to provide a voice and identity for the NE Mission, South of Market and lower Potrero Hill communities, to enable participation in the planning of our neighborhood. Please email your ideas and opinions to the editor: west @ madrinagroup.org (no spaces.) Email questions and comments.

Issue 1 - Archives are pdf files as they are sent to the printer.
The page size is 11" x 17" at 100%. They are large files. Starting with issue 2 we will be online.

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Index

SEISMIC

Earthquake Lessons Around Mission Creek, By Judy West, geologist
The 100 year anniversary of the Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire is this April 18. New books, scientific conferences and historic exhibits around the City offer something for everyone. For neighbors of Mission Creek, emergency preparedness is in order

HOUSING

Citizen’s Housing Corporation will break ground this summer on the site of the huge vacant lot where Mission Market has been at 18^th & Alabama. See the Rendering of the 19^th Street façade.

TRANSPORTATION

17th Street Bike Lanes coming soon! By Leah Shaham, director of the SF Bicycle Coalition
"Adding bike lanes on this important east-west route will make biking safer for those of us already riding, and will also encourage more people to give bicycle commuting a try," says Hitesh Soneji, a Mission resident who lives near the 16th St. BART station and bikes regularly. "We know that more people choose to bike when they have dedicated space, such as bike lanes. And we know that more people bicycling means better health, a cleaner environment, less congestion, and a safer, more livable Mission District."

LAND

Zoning Controls or Environmental Mitigation?
by Fred Snyder, resident & business owner in the NEMIZ
Senior staff of City Planning presented a new round of Interim Controls to the Planning Commission in February, intended to hold off any further construction projects that might conflict with the yet-to-be-determined new zoning. By State law, “interim” zoning controls are only allowed for 2 years, but most of the mixed-use neighborhoods of South of Market,  NE Mission and Showplace Square have had an endless string of moratoriums and interim controls since April 1999.

Who Decides What Gets Built in the Mission?, By Fred Snyder, resident and property owner
The existing residents and property owners of the land proposed to be rezoned this year, have been entirely left out of the process - again.

Why are there so many vacant lots and homeless encampments in the NE Mission?
Most of San Francisco’s eastside warehouse districts were designated as industrial zoning, in the 1970s which used to permit nearly every commercial business imaginable, but not housing. As the old style manufacturing concerns leave the city center for more economical settings, very large parcels of land are left as “opportunity sites”, where new buildings with different uses can have big impacts on a neighborhood very quickly. It takes deep pockets to develop these lots and much is at stake.

WATER

Storm Water Management as a Tool for Greening the Northeast Mission
By Alex Lantsberg, Alliance for a Clean Waterfront
Wintertime poses a serious problem for residents and businesses around the historic Mission Creek where sewer back-ups during heavy rains are always a threat. The start of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Sewer Master Plan (www.sfsewers.org) and the planned rezoning of the Northeast Mission provide unprecedented opportunities for Mission Creek residents and businesses to not only solve these flooding problems, but also beautify and green their neighborhood.  Mission Creek neighbors must get involved to ensure that these changes occur.

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