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