Sunday, January 15, 2012

MLK Weekend at McKinley Square, January 15, 2012

We had a special MLK weekend event at McKinley Square on January 15th, 2012.
Special guests Liam O'Brien from SFButterFly & D10 Supervisor Malia Cohen joined us.
Thank you for all the volunteers who braved the unusually cold windy and day.

Liam O'Brien giving a talk on the importants of Butterflys in the eco-system
D10 Supervisor Malia Cohen with community members Cris Rys & Stephen Solomon at McKinley Square.
Weeding and Mulching
Distribution of native plants to volunteers
Grindelia stricta coastal - Gumweed
Sticky Monkeyflower
Coyote Mint
Phacelia californica,
Yarrow,
Lupinus albifrons - silver bush lupine,
California Fescue

Gumplant and other plugs 

Another invasive weed 
Foxtail weed seed heads (arrow shaped, hazardous to pets)





Thursday, January 5, 2012

McKinley Square Sunday January workday 15th 10am-12noon, MLK weekend




Mark your calendars
A special volunteer day at 
McKinley Square for Martin Luther King Service Weekend
Sunday January 15th, 10am-12noon

  • Clear weeds on plants we planted in October
  • Improve trails
  • Remove fennel 
  • General clean up of garbage & debris
  • Planting new native plants


Special guests,  Liam O'Brien from SFButterFly, who will give a talk on the importance of native plants, and their support for native wildlife. 

Supervisor Malia Cohen, who also joined us with the MLK Day of Service workday at the 18th & San Bruno Ave Community Garden in 2010.
http://www.potreroview.net/feat10156.html

Lunch will be sponsored by Goat Hill Pizza.   Drinks by Chiotras Grocery

Volunteers are encouraged to bring gloves and tools if they have them.  Otherwise we will supply. 

All volunteers will get to go home with a few native plants for their back, side, and front yards.  Plants that promote native wildlife for the hillside is good for home gardens as well! 

RSVPs encouraged but not required. Helps us know how much pizza, drinks & plants to have on hand. RSVP to:












Observations on Parking Meters at SF Main Train Station

Parking meters may come to parts of Potrero Hill,  and likely around the 22nd St train station.
A draft of the plan is here:



Some observations I've noted around the 4th & Townsend train station.


In the past, I've seen the parking around the 4th & Townsend train station was completely filled with many vehicles in almost abandoned state .  So in this case I would consider meters are not necessarily a bad thing.  Perhaps if they were managed well, people would carpool to the train station, then take the train for their commute.

Parking meters have been added.   A metered car can get a 9 hour max (which is good if you take the train to work day).

However there are now hundreds of spaces available. Why the 100s of spaces?  I checked the price at 11am yesterday the price was $3.00 an hour.  Calculating this could be a $27 dollar increase per day commute, this only encourages people to drive to work rather than take Cal-Train.  This seems like it defeats the whole purpose of the Cal-Train. 

SFMTA representatives have stated their goal is to always have 1 empty space on a block.  It seems like they are failing with the 4th & Townsend main train station area.   

SFMTA should encourage people to take mass transit such as Cal-Train. And the price for meters around the train stations should start at 25 cents hour,  not $3 hour.  

Perhaps more parking (with reasonably priced meters) should be made available around the train stations, including the 22nd Street train station, which now seems to have parking for big-rig trucks, and other industrial projects instead of commuter parking. 

SFMTA can still adjust, perhaps something is already in the works, but until they prove themselves, can we can trust them to manage parking in Dog Patch & Potrero Hill?






Hundreds of empty train station parking spaces. Hundreds of cars now on the road?




Sunday, January 1, 2012

Old Ugly/Trashy Pictures of McKinley Square Hillside

Happy New Year Everyone!

These pictures were taken a few years back at / around the McKinley Square Hillside.

Its a pleasant reminder of how improved the hillside is now compared to not so long ago.

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for all your hard work and volunteer time!