Corbett Heights Neighbors Minutes - Meeting October 23, 2008

We had a great meeting last Thursday. About 25 people showed up for a very full agenda.

I neglected to thank the folks who distributed the fliers, so I'd like to do that here. Having the meeting notices hand-delivered to over 750 households lets all residents in Corbett Heights know that this forum exists. I don't know of any other neighborhood association that does this. So much thanks to:
Kazumi, Ted, Leslie and John, Nathan, Janice and Ken.

Officer Robert Imbellino of Park Station's plain-clothes detail was the first to speak. He spends time in our neighborhood when most of us are asleep. He patrols with a partner. His partner usually drives while he walks. Most of the crime that has affected our area has been related to car break-ins. And according to Rob, 95% of all auto break-ins occur when something visible is left in the auto. A laptop, a briefcase, a GPS or some covered-up object. Another thing that attracts the burglars is an adapter left connected to the cigarette lighter in the vehicle. This hints at some possible electronic device stored in the trunk or glovebox. There is a street value to each of these items that enables the thief to acquire one night's worth of his drug of choice. What the officers look for is someone walking very close to the curb, right alongside parked cars. If an item is visible, the thief will use the tip of a sparkplug wrapped in a piece of cloth to shatter a window. After continuing to walk, he turns to see if he is being followed. If not, he returns, and in 30 seconds, he's broken in and taken what he was after.
You must remove everything from inside your car before locking up.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty spoke next. He arrived with his 2-year-old daughter, Sydney. Sydney's "God-daddy" and SF Treasurer Jose Cisneros arrived just in time to collect her and baby sit. Bevan mostly answered questions from people about the crimes of late, and other issues like the dimness of the new streetlights. I asked him to have someone check out the bus stop area of Clayton between Market and Corbett. Besides the rat problem, the dying pine tree and the overgrown ivy, the sidewalk at the bus stop has no ramp, and is way too narrow for either a wheelchair or a baby carriage. I also brought up the Corbett Slope. Many of you will remember our fight to save the huge green space between Market and Corbett - just east of 341 Corbett. It was slated to be put up for sale by the city when Chris Daly's "surplus property" hearings were going on. Nothing has happened on that front, and we can hope that it was just a huge waste of time and money.

Earlier this year we reintroduced the discussion on "traffic calming" on 17th Street. It's been discussed for many years, but this time we can be certain that some form of traffic calming will be in place by next summer. The first thing that we will likely see in the next month or so, is an electronic mileage reader. Many of you have probably noticed the one installed last year on Market near (I believe) Douglass. It does not transmit information but alerts drivers to the speed at which they are traveling. These units have been found to be very effective. Ours will probably be installed near the "hump" of 17th just before the descent before Ord. MTA needs a relatively tree-free area for optimum visibility, and an source of electricity. Antonio Piccagli of MTA's traffic calming division attended the meeting and spoke next. He offered a few of the options that his department has come up with. They consist mainly of varying configurations of traffic islands or medians that will be installed at the top of the Corbin stairs, or possibly at Temple. 7 people have expressed interest in being on a committee to discuss the options and select the one that we and MTA - and the Fire Dept. - feel is the most viable option. Let me know if you also would like to join in.

To say that AT&T is "dragging its feet" on completing the pole removal process would be putting it mildly. They have remained a stubborn obstacle as the utility undergrounding project has been nearing completion. Part of the fault has been with the company that they have subcontracted with - Smartech - or, as my tenant refers to them - IdioTech. A couple of weeks ago when they were cutting the old cables to the homes that supposedly had been connected to the new cables, my entire house was cut off, despite the fact that we were "completed" almost a year ago. AT&T/Smartech finally came out and connected us again - but to some extinct phone line. We were able to call out, but not receive calls on our land-line. 4 "technicians" were out today and spent over an hour trying to determine what they did wrong the first 2 times. At this point, we were promised that the poles will be gone by mid to late November. No further comment.

Because of the fines collected by the city from the company that PG&E subcontracted with to do the bulk of the digging and repaving, we have been granted a gift. Usually such fines just go into the city's general fund, but after much pressuring, they decided to do something that will benefit our neighborhood directly. They will repave Corbett from Hattie to Danvers - most likely in December.

The "Ord Triangle Park" at Ord, Corbett and 17th has always been one of the gems of Corbett Heights. Of late it had become overgrown and not as manicured as it had been previously. Rob Rynski of Douglass Street arranged a park cleanup and had DPW drop off a truckload of mulch. It is an incredible improvement.
If only we can clone those neighbors and go over the other 8 areas! I've collected a few names of volunteers, but PLEASE, if you would be willing to volunteer one weekend, please let me know.

Jane Warner of the SF Patrol Special Police spoke next about her services. I originally contacted Jane a couple of years ago when we were in the midst of another crime spree. Since then, she, or another officer from the Patrol, spends about 15 minutes at different times of every night driving thru every street in Corbett Heights. They drive an ominous-looking black Crown Victoria and shine their light on anything suspicious. The idea behind this is that the more police presence in our area, the less likely crimes will occur.
Many of us pay monthly for this service - whatever you can afford. Currently they are doing it at a loss in the hopes that their service will catch on. Please let me know if you are interested in participating in this valuable program.

Scott Wiener, the former president of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, came to talk about the Community Safety Forum that he will be moderating on Thursday, November 6th, from 7-9PM. Here's the info:

Community Safety Forum

For the Castro, Eureka Valley, Duboce Triangle, Corona Heights, and Corbett Heights

Thursday November 6, 2008, 7-9 p.m.
Eureka Valley Rec Center, 100 Collingwood Street

Panelists
Captain Stephen Tacchini, Mission Station
A Lieutenant from Park Station (TBD)
Greg Carey, Chair, Castro Community on Patrol
Tina D’Elia, Community United Against Violence (CUAV)
Steve Adams, President, Merchants of Upper Market and Castro
Oona Weil, SF SAFE
Ken Craig, Triangle Martial Arts Association
Jane Warner, San Francisco Patrol Specials

Moderator
Scott Wiener

This community safety forum will focus on various safety issues confronting our neighborhood, ranging from crime generally to hate crimes to homelessness to community policing to disaster preparedness. We will have terrific panelists, each of whom will give his or her perspective on community safety in the neighborhood. We encourage people with a stake in the neighborhood to come out, listen, and participate in the discussion. It will be an interesting and productive evening, and we look forward to seeing you there.

The forum is co-sponsored by Castro Community on Patrol, Eureka Valley Promotion Association, Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, Merchants of Upper Market and Castro, and Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District. For more information, please email info@castropatrol.org.

We have a bank balance, as of the end of September, of $1751.75. This money is slated to be used to improve our parks, so, once again, please volunteer to help out.

There were 2 changes we thought were necessary in our bylaws. First, due to the difficulty in finding people willing to fill a position on our board, the proposed revision would allow there to be only 3 officers, with a maximum of 5. The other change extends our boundaries to include the 400 block of Corbett.
The revised bylaws should be up on our website shortly. Any comments are welcome. If no objections by members are heard 30 days from posting, the revisions will be adopted.

Please check out our new website: www.corbettheights.org. Thanks Michael Sterling for putting this together!!!!
And also our blog which you can use to make comments or to contact us:
www.corbettheights.blogspot.com. Thanks Kevin Dunn for putting this together!!!

And last, dues are $15 per year. Email updates will be sent to members. The funds go to improving the beauty of Corbett Heights.

All for now,

Gary

Corbett Heights Neighbors - Minutes - JULY 24, 2008:

Traffic calming along 17th Street was the focal topic of the meeting. Adam Gubser, of MTA, attended the last meeting in April and discussed the process of slowing the traffic along the 17th Street corridor. MTA has been aware of the problem for some time, but would prefer to hear from the residents before designing any type of plan. We needed to get a minimum of 10 signatures to begin the application process. We submitted 40. Because we've demonstrated a concern and are willing to work with MTA to come up with a plan, it now appears that we'll be one of the next neighborhoods to be addressed.

First off, we will almost definitely receive a "speed radar sign" similar to the one on Market near Eureka. These signs flash the speed you're traveling as you pass them. The process that leads to a traffic calming solution is a bit lengthy and convoluted; First the homeowners fronting the area where the few parking spaces will be lost are notified. Then a rough draft of some potential solutions is produced and shown to the Fire Dept. and Traffic & Engineering. If they approve the plan, the neighbors (half block in either direction) are given a ballot. If 20% of those residents respond with a 51% positive vote, then the plan can go on to the next step - a public hearing.
Chicanes, which are bulbouts or traffic diverters, are one possible solution. A central median is another. In any case, we would lose a few parking spaces, and gain a few trees. The length of the chicane or median, and the number of parking spaces that need to be sacrificed, will be determined by MTA, and will be based on the amount of time it takes to slow vehicles down to the existing 25 mph speed limit.

There are several other steps before implementation. We will have a committee of neighbors that will meet to go over the plan. We will have a say in what is ultimately constructed. And I'll let you know the progress as it occurs.

A few concerns that were brought up were:

• Why don't we just put up a STOP sign? The purpose of a STOP sign is to yield the right of way - not to slow traffic. MTA's experts also feel that a STOP sign on such a steep grade would cause more accidents than it would prevent.
• Can we do something at Ord where there is no STOP sign, and at Roosevelt where cars regularly speed thru also? Not at this time. MTA's funds are limited, and the bigger problem is in the center of the grade. One problem at a time.
• If cars are diverted to the right while going downhill, what about the danger to pedestrians, cars, homes and street trees as they turn towards the curb? This is apparently a common concern. Adam told me that there are several options in dealing with this issue. We haven't gone over them yet.
• Could 17th Street be made 1-way going up, and divert the downhill traffic somewhere else? 17th Street is a main east/west artery, and there is no other street that could replace it.

Undergrounding: The news is better than I was led to believe prior to the meeting. PG&E is about finished. They have deliberately left 3 light poles up - mostly for the purpose of continuing to provide electricity to Comcast until Comcast is finished. According to my last report, they should now be finished also.

AT&T is another story; between both of the undergrounding phases in our area - upper and lower Corbett - there are still about 100 homes that have not been converted. I was originally told that finishing the final conversions, and removing the light poles and doing the finished concrete work would take us into January and beyond. This is apparently not the case. The person who gave the faulty report is new! We are still on track for September-ish. Corbett Heights Neighbors will be helping out to expedite the process.

About 2 years ago, the company that PG&E subcontracted with to do its work on Corbett, missed several deadlines, and had some considerable screwups. They were fined a substantial amount. After lots of negotiating, emailing and calling, for over a year, we are now on track to receive a "gift" for having to live thru the agony of their construction delays. Corbett, from Danvers to Douglass will be repaved this November. That stretch of road was severely damaged during the undergrounding.

Several of our neighborhood parks are in terrible condition. We formed a "garden committee" earlier this year, but so far we've only had one garden cleanup day, and it was not well attended. At the meeting several people signed up to be on a list to be notified when we have the next one. If you would like to be added to that list, PLEASE let me know. The next park that will be addressed is Ord Triangle Park at 17th, Corbett and Douglass. After that - or at the same time, we'll be doing the Corbin Steps. And Merritt Park after that. It makes for a fun and rewarding few hours.

Recently there was a hoard of skateboarders that descended on Corbin Steps. It was apparently a planned, advertised event. We're hoping that this will not recur. The police eventually came to stop them.

Jane Warner, and the SF Patrol Special Police still do nightly drive-bys in our neighborhood. Several of us still send money for this service. I am still convinced that their presence has helped keep crime at a minimum. If you are able and willing to help support them, please let me know. They are privately financed, and they are patrolling our streets for free - almost! Jane let me know that they would be happy to come out and deal with issues such as the skateboarding if we give them a call during the hours that they are on duty: Sunday thru Wednesday, 3PM - 11PM. Thursday thru Saturday, 6PM - 2AM. The phone number to call is: 415-559-9955. Please consider a small monthly contribution.

I will be speaking with Capt. Teresa Barrett of Park Station very soon. She was unable to attend this meeting but asked for you to let me know if there are any issues, or questions of the police department. When I spoke with her in January, I told her that the presence of patrol cars prior to her becoming Captain was non-existent. She promised to have cars patrolling frequently. Several of us have noticed the increase, and it's greatly appreciated.

Over the last several months, 2 very generous neighbors have spent hours and hours working on a neighborhood blog and a website for Corbett Heights Neighbors. Kevin Dunn has gotten the blog together. It will allow you to see up-to-date information and to contact us.
And Michael Sterling has spent months working on our new website. Both the blog and the website are up and running - although a bit of refining will be next. Here are the links:
Blog: http://corbettheights.blogspot.com/
Website: http://corbettheights.org/

If you are interested in having a bigger part in working with and improving your neighborhood, PLEASE - your help in running Corbett Heights Neighbors would be greatly welcomed.

And last, but far from least, it's dues time!
Dues are $15 per year per household. Most of that goes towards improving our parks and the printing of fliers. You will also continue to receive neighborhood updates.

That's it for now -

Gary

CHN Meeting Minutes - April 24, 2008

Minutes from Corbett Heights Meeting - April 24, 2008

Hi All -

Thanks to everyone (32 people) who attended the meeting last Thursday.

And also, thanks to all of you who helped distribute the fliers - Nathan, Ted, Rick, Kevin, Mark, Janice, David, Jeff and Cindy.

We had some great news: An hour before the meeting, I went to pick up a check for $5,000 that will be used to improve our pocket parks. Here's the background:

Several years ago, when the developer of the Corbett/Mars lot was hoping to get neighborhood approval of his plans, he at first was resistant to making any changes. In time - lots of time - he came around and actually became very receptive to our wishes. The first thing he did was to completely eliminate one of the 6 bldgs, leaving it as open space. He made an agreement with the neighborhood which covered the details of the design that we had agreed on, and a second agreement in which he agreed to donate a minimum of $5,000 on behalf of Corbett Heights Neighbors to be used to improve/beautify our pocket parks. This donation would be forthcoming on the condition that the neighbors would not resort to calling the authorities every time there was a complaint. I set it up so that any issue was directed to me and I either settled it personally with the neighbor or sent the complaint to the project sponsor. In most cases he was not aware of the issue and quickly took care of it.

He said the money would be given to us when 3 of the 5 units sold. That just happened last week. Bob Rickard was/is the project sponsor/owner, and we have him to thank for this.

The Neighborhood Parks Council is acting as our fiscal sponsor. They were ecstatic when I originally spoke with them about this process a couple of years ago. They said it was exactly what they were hoping to have happen with developers around the city.

Seventeenth Street has always been a traffic nightmare. There's never been a reasonable solution to the fact that cars speed dangerously down the hill endangering pedestrians and other vehicles.

I invited Adam Gubser, a transportation planner with MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Agency), to discuss our options for dealing with this problem.

What seems like the best, and possibly only solution is called a chicane. Here are some photos of what was done on Beacon Street, just down from Diamond Heights Blvd:

A pilot traffic chicane was installed in 2005 on Beacon Street to address further speeding on the street. A traffic chicane is a series of raised islands that force drivers to zig-zag their way through the device. Drivers who would usually have a chance to speed through the street in straight line would now have to slowly zig-zag their way through the series of islands in the street. Chicanes also offer the opportunity to add landscaping to the area.

The first photo shows Beacon Street traffic chicane, looking north. Drivers who had a straight shot through this street segment must now zig-zag through the series of traffic islands to get through.

The 2nd photo shows Beacon Street traffic chicane, looking south. Again, drivers must zig-zag their way through the series of islands. Note the additional trees and landscaping help beautify the area.

The 3rd photo is of an overhead view of the Beacon Street traffic chicane. This gives a better view of what drivers face when driving through a chicane. Instead of a straight shot through the street, they must slowly zig-zag their way through the series of islands shown.

If the photos don't come out, open up this link and scroll down almost to the bottom to "Traffic Chicane" Beacon St. Diamond Heights.

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/ocalm/13567.html

The only problem with this solution is that we would probably lose about 4 parking spaces on 17th St. I personally like the idea of the planted median in the middle of the street, but am not too impressed with the way they created the bulb-outs.

It's been determined that STOP signs would be ineffective in that location. And there's a very long waiting list for a streetlight, and Mr. Gubser doubted its effectiveness - in addition, the cost would be around $350,000.

I'll be sending out an email asking for your opinion on this. Whatever we decide to do, if approved, will take a while to have happen.

Jane Warner of the SF Patrol Special Police spoke about what she and the other officers have been doing since they began patrolling our neighborhood. About a year ago, after a spate of break-ins and other crimes, I invited the Patrol to consider including our district in their nightly patrols. As it is now, Jane or another officer cruises by in an ominous-looking, black Crown Victoria. They slowly go down every street in Corbett Heights. This takes about 15 minutes and is repeated nightly. The time of the drive-by changes nightly.

I personally have seen them on several occasions. The idea is that with a police presence, criminals are less likely to strike.

We have all acknowledged that the SF Police Dept. has a weak record on cruising down our streets. With the budget the way it is, it will only get worse. For this reason, the SF Patrol Special Police is a good deal for us. But we do need to support them. Currently people are paying between $25 - $50 per month per address. If you are able to contribute, let me know and I'll send you the payment information.

Next, Joe Curtin, President of CAPA (Castro Area Planning + Action) spoke about MUNI's TEP (Transit Effectiveness Project). MUNI is planning to reroute several bus lines in the city. A number of them will directly impact our neighborhood:

The 24-Divisadero would be rerouted to 24th Street, and be able to access the BART Station there.

The 33-Stanyan would turn at Castro to replace the 24 south of 24th Street.

The 37-Corbett would discontinue service to Church and Market. It would instead turn onto 17th Street at Castro and Market, go down Hartford (impossibly), then go down 18th Street traveling east and eventually stopping at the 16th Street BART Station.

The 35 Eureka would terminate at 24th Street, and would replace the current 37 route to Buena Vista and Cole Valley.

The Castro Shuttle would be discontinued.

There will be a meeting to discuss this on Saturday, May 10th at the Harvey Milk Academy, 4235 19th Street at Collingwood. 10:30AM. Neighborhood input will be welcomed.

More information on this can be found at the TEP website: www.sftep.org.

Undergrounding: Amazing that we can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the next week or so, PG&E will begin de-energizing and removing their overhead wires. This process will begin on the 900 block of Corbett. They expect to reach Clayton by the end of May. They will then begin the next phase - down to Douglass.

Comcast and AT&T need to do the same. AT&T is hoping to complete their de-energizing in June or July. Not sure about Comcast.

The poles are scheduled to come down in late summer (or early fall).

By the way, I have a copy of the original Corbett phase undergrounding ordinance that was submitted to the Board of Supervisors in late 1979, and finally approved in January of 1980. It was going to be started that year, barring hundreds of thousands of delays.

"Reclaim the Sky" event: Another neighborhood that went thru the same painful undergrounding process organized a celebration/block party when the poles were finally removed. We'd like to do something similar. Any ideas?

Walgreen's purchased Star Pharmacy in the late 70's. Star Pharmacy operated out of a single store on the corner of 18th and Castro for decades. Shortly afterwards, Walgreen's applied to increase in size by acquiring the Castro Cafe. Next they applied to the Planning Dept and the Merchant's Ass'n. to acquire the store across the street at 4129 18th Street. The promise was that this would be their last expansion. Until they opened up around the corner on Market and Sanchez. Then in the 90's they applied to expand again by taking over the Phoenix Bar (formerly Toad Hall). Once again they promised that this was it.

Adjacent to the 18th Street store, a decades-old, neighborhood-serving laundromat shut down. Walgreen's has had the lease on this storefront for over a year. Their plan is to open a "specialty pharmacy" on the site. They say that more interaction between patient and pharmacist would be possible. There are currently 60 of these specialty pharmacies operated by Walgreen's in Northern California.

If they are granted their conditional use permit, and are allowed to expand again, they will have a total of 14,606 square feet of retail space on 18th and Castro (between the 2 stores).

The members present at the meeting were asked to vote on whether we would support this latest Walgreen's expansion. The final vote count was: 0 in favor, 13 opposed, 4 abstained.

Aerial Pesticide Spraying to combat the apple moth is still scheduled to take place this summer. There has been a lot of opposition to this taking place in such a congested location as San Francisco. To get more information about this, visit these sites:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/15/BA6I105DG1.DTL

http://www.cassonline.org/

http://www.playnotspray.org/

Corona Heights Market Trends: Kevin Dunn gave a brief report on the real estate situation in San Francisco. We continue to be a bright spot as compared to the rest of the country.

Corbett Heights Neighbors is getting a website and a blog. Thanks to Michael Sterling and Kevin Dunn, these should be in place soon.

That's all for now.

- Gary

Friends of the Urban Forest Tree Planting Corona Heights and Cole Valley, Feb 16th, 2008

Hello All!

Planting Day is almost upon us. I have a few reminders.

• Friday morning at 7am the trees and stakes will be delivered to 649 Shrader St. Jan, Ruth, and Kevin Dunn volunteered to unload the trees, but we could use more help. If you are available for a couple hours Friday morning, please come by to help us.
• Gina, John, Tracy, Jay, and Eric have volunteered trucks for Saturday – thank you all and see you Saturday morning at 8am.
• For those of you with existing basins, please make sure all plants, roots, and bricks are removed by Saturday morning. If you have removed a tree, please make sure the stump has been ground down 2’ below sidewalk level and the roots are completely removed.
• Marie (mariesay@aol.com) is coordinating the potluck. If you haven’t done so by now, please contact her with your contribution. We have about 40 volunteers coming to help you all plant your trees! Thanks to Marie for coordinating this!
• Ruth at 1119 Stanyan has volunteered her home/garage for the potluck. Thank you Ruth!
  

If you haven’t done so by now, please mail me your payment with optional early tree care pre-payment. Please mail to P.O. Box 29456, SF, CA 94129-0456.

Lastly, thank you again to Kevin and Tracy for all their work in making this happen. Without their door-knocking, phone-calling, emailing, and xeroxing this wouldn’t have happened at all!

Please let me know if you all have any questions or concerns. Otherwise, I will see you all Saturday, February 16th at 8am!

Naomi LeBeau
Planting Manager
Friends of the Urban Forest
www.fuf.net

(415) 561-6890 ext.100

Corbett Heights Neighbors Meeting Minutes January 24, 2008

Hi Neighbors -

Last Thursday was our quarterly meeting. Approximately 30 people attended.

Our new meeting location is the Castro Community Meeting Room above the B of A on Castro and 18th. The move was necessary because the Dept. of Parks and Rec. has started charging a considerable amount for use of the space – whether you're non-profit or otherwise. The CCMR charges a reasonable $25 per use.

Mission Accomplished : We're hoping to set up a minimal website, blog or such to have neighborhood information more readily available. Anyone able and available to help set this up would be most appreciated.

Kevin Dunn is our new Treasurer. Please mail your dues to him at 123 Corbett (or drop in mailbox). Make checks payable to Corbett Heights Neighbors. (Dues are $15 per year)
Our bank balance is around $1300. Currently it is used for printing and the meeting room. Our hope is to begin maintaining some of our pocket parks with the money we collect.

3 officers from Park Station attended the meeting. We discussed crime and traffic-calming a bit. Any crime or suspicion of crime should always be reported – no matter how slight. The general, non-emergency phone number is 553-0123. There is also an online site to easily report crimes: http://sfgov.org/site/police_index.asp?id=28854
There is a new Captain at Park Station – Teresa Barrett. I spoke with her last week. I inquired about the possibility of an occasional drive-by in our area, and she said that they are now doing that.

Next to speak was Port Commissioner Ann Lazarus. She came to discuss Proposition A, the parks bond. Despite the fact that the mayor, all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors and every environmental and parks advocacy group are all in favor of this bond, there is still a possibility that it will fail. Bonds must receive 2/3 of the votes to pass. So please vote and support this valuable bond.

Now to utility undergrounding. Due to the fact that accurate reporting from PG&E, Comcast or AT&T has been virtually non-existent, and many frustrated residents have had no clue as to how to proceed, a couple of our neighbors – Leslie and John Koelsch – took it upon themselves to find out which homes have not been connected, and what procedures must be taken in these final stages of the project. A flier was printed up and mailed to every homeowner affected, giving the most up-to-date information and all of the phone numbers to call to complete the work. This was done with help from the internet, our good friend, Lynn Fong from DPW, and just walking door to door to check out which homes had had the preliminary work done.

First to speak was Ranjit Parhar from DPW. After telling me last year that we would receive weekly, or at least regular updates on the progress of the project, I have yet to receive one email from her. At the meeting, we were promised that these updates would now be forthcoming.

Next, Doreen Martinez from PG&E said that after dozens of meetings to discuss undergrounding, they are hoping that they are finally on track. We'll see.
Representatives from both Comcast and Smartech (doing the work for AT&T) had promised to come, but were no-shows. Comcast emailed me to say that due to the sheets that we mailed out with the phone numbers to call, they have been receiving between 5 – 10 calls a day to complete the connections. At this point they expect for the poles to come down by MID-APRIL, but let's make believe they said before Christmas, so we won't be too disappointed.

Kevin Dunn, a real estate agent at Herth, gave us some information about home sales in our area. Apparently, despite the gloomy news about home sales across the country, most of San Francisco remains an oasis of prosperity.
He also reported that the tree-planting that he's been working on with Friends of the Urban Forest will finally take place in a couple of weeks.

And last, I read a few excerpts from Mae Silver's book Old Corbett Road. Unfortunately it's out of print, but let me know if you'd like to see a copy. It's also available in the Public Library.

Our first garden cleanup day will be sometime in the last half of February. Date and time to follow.

That's all for now.

- Gary Weiss, President CHN