Mission Bay Neighbors!

Two main topics this week: Safer Travels and Spring Has Sprung. Top Stories are a school construction update and local business news. A Calendar event features lunch for our cleanup crew! If there’s no MB News next week, it’s because the volunteer staff is on Spring Break.

CALENDAR
Friday, March 29: PUBLIC COMMENT FORM CLOSES. The Port of San Francisco’s Flood Study Draft Plan to defend infrastructure and housing near the waterfront from sea level rise will soon close to public comment. Here’s the link. Scroll down to find the fillable form that asks for your observations on where engineers should focus their attention for coastal flood resilience. You can submit more than one comment. You can also email the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers directly with your concerns: SFWFRS@usace.army.mil.

Chase Center’s Thrive City Programming
Thrive City has announced its 2024 spring programming schedule, which will feature approximately 80 events for the entire family spanning March through May, including an Easter Egg Hunt, Spring Golf Day, a Mother’s Day event, fitness classes, live performances, and more. Thrive City, in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente, has hosted over 170 events since July 2023, all free to the public and centered around health and wellness, arts and culture, sports and entertainment, and civic engagement. Below are details for the Easter Egg Hunt. To receive Thrive City programming announcements, contact info@email.chasecenter.com.

Sana G Easter Egg Hunt Presented by Kaiser Permanente
Date: Saturday, March 30
Time: 9 AM to Noon
Location: Thrive City Plaza, at the Chase Center
Details: Kaiser Permanente, Thrive City, 106.1KMEL and Sana G will host an Easter celebration with egg hunts, live entertainment from Old Skool Cafe, arts and crafts, Easter Bunny photo opportunities, bunny petting zoo, and more. The family-friendly event is free, however guests are encouraged to RSVP for upcoming events at ThriveCity.com. Neighbors can use the promo code “NEIGHBORS” on the event page. This code reserves exclusive slots for neighbors at the Sana G Easter Egg Hunt and the Mother’s Day Blankets and Blockbusters (May 11) events.

Mission Bay Cleanup!

Date: Saturday, April 13

Time: 9:00-11:00

Meetup Location: Basketball Court, 401 Berry St, under the I-280 overpass on the northside of Mission Creek Park. Volunteers meet here to receive and return litter pick-up equipment. Team up and spread out to clean. Work up an appetite, and lunch will be provided!

Details: Back by popular demand, this time volunteers who join the litter pickup will be treated to lunch by sponsoring partner University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)! Mission Bay Cleanup organizer Ina Lopez writes: “Your presence and support are greatly appreciated, and as a token of gratitude, lunch will be provided thanks to the generous sponsorship from UCSF. It’s an excellent opportunity to connect with fellow volunteers and make a positive impact on our neighborhood. Thank you for your dedication to our community. Together, we can make a difference!”

Please SIGN UP so Ina can ensure we have enough supplies and food for everyone: missionbaycleanup@gmail.com. Feel free to reach out with questions or concerns.

Cooking Matters for Adults at Kain Na
Dates: Six consecutive Tuesdays, from April 16 through May 21
Time: 3 – 5 PM
Location: Kain Na, 1340 Fourth Street
Contact: Charles Brochet, lets.eat@tndc.org
Details: Nonprofits Kain Na and 18 Reasons offer the Cooking Matters for Adults series of free cooking and nutrition classes. Participants learn food and kitchen safety, tips on planning, buying and preparing healthy meals on a budget, and nutrition knowledge. Eat a meal we prepare together (Kain Na means “let’s eat” in Tagalog), and receive a bag of free groceries that include fresh produce. Space is limited, so reserve a spot today.

TOP STORIES

Wine Bar at Thrive City Closes; Channel Street Location to Restructure

The team at Mission Bay Wine & Cheese sent an announcement to their Wine Club members last Saturday. After four years at 114 Channel Street and 15 months at their Chase Center location, they’ve closed their Wine Bar @ Thrive City. Mission Bay Wine & Cheese on Channel Street will remain open for retail and Wine Club pick up only, Noon to 8 PM daily through March 31.

The Channel Street business will temporarily close beginning in April for restructuring, and plans to re-open. The owners hope to have an updated status for the future of Mission Bay Wine & Cheese by June. The email closes: “With the deepest gratitude for your patronage, Peter, Debbie & The Mission Bay Team.”

The announcement comes a couple of months after New Belgium Brewing Company abruptly closed at the opposite end of that same block where retail spaces front on the raingarden park. New Belgium’s address and entrance was on Third Street.

It’s hard to know from the email whether this restructuring means The Bistro dining area Mission Bay Wine & Cheese had in the end nearest the raingarden park will return. The panini sandwiches, salads, cheese and charcuterie platters were a delicious addition to neighborhood lunch and dinner options. It would have been nice for this space with its wine bar to have opened its doors onto a raingarden park patio, like they did at New Belgium. That would’ve added visibility for The Bistro. It was also difficult to find The Bistro menu on the Mission Bay Wine & Cheese website.

The Wine Bar @ Thrive City, located at 640 Terry A. Francois Blvd., was obscured from the view of the Thrive City Plaza at Chase Center. For reasons unknown, that space and others in that row of shops had/have little signage visible to passersby on Terry Francois. Signage would help!

Pile-Driving Complete on the School!
Another milestone has been reached in progress toward the Mission Bay School! Kate Levitt, Communications Director, SFUSD Bond Program, shared the following notes: 

Mission Bay School update from SFUSD – brief summary for MB News
170 piles later, we are officially done with the pile-driving phase. Thank you to the neighbors and nearby offices and businesses for putting up with noise, vibration, and other disruptions so that we can build a strong foundation for the school!

More on the Mission Bay School foundation:

The foundation system and ground improvements at the project site include a surcharge program to consolidate the soil and reduce long-term post construction settlement, a stone column buttress wall at the north edge of the site to prevent lateral spreading potential, and driven steel H-pile foundations. The piles were driven to the lower Colma Formation layer which is a very dense sand section 23 to 36 feet thick whose bottom limit exists 90′-93′ below the ground surface. Fun fact: the Colma layer was deposited in the last Ice Age approximately 12,000 to 100,000 years ago. 

Schedule snapshot:

We remain on track to complete foundations in May 2024 and move to the steel structure over the summer. As we progress, we will share any schedule adjustments to the timeline below.

(Graphic Courtesy of SFUSD) thanks Kate, for contributing the Mission Bay School construction update, and for the fun fact on the Colma layer!

SAFER TRAVELS

Green Carpet Ride!

The photo below of the newly-installed “green carpet” for the two-way bike lane on Third Street was taken from the southeast corner of Third and King Street this past Wednesday.

(Photo credit: C. Rathbone)

This latest Quick Build project from SFMTA was an informational item at the last Mission Bay Citizens’ Advisory Committee meeting. The Third Street two-way bike lane will connect cyclists from the Bay Trail south of Oracle Park up to Townsend Street. The two-way bike lane is on the east side of Third Street, along the Oracle Park frontage, crossing King Street past the Baseballism store, Candlestick Sports Bar, EA Café, and Hyatt Hotel. 

As of yesterday afternoon, a reader reported, “The bridge is almost completed. The bike lane is ‘done.’ It’s just blocked off til the part by Hyatt is completed.” The reference to the Third Street (Lefty O’Doul) Bridge was to repairing the walkway damaged by loose barges a year ago. A District 6 legislative aide told us at last week’s CAC meeting that walkway work was scheduled to start soon. Lo and behold.

Quick Build projects like this focus on improving safety on the City’s high-injury network, which is the 12% of streets where 68% of severe and fatal traffic injuries occur. Quick-build projects are adjustable and reversible traffic safety improvements that can be installed relatively quickly with lower cost materials. Unlike major capital projects that might take years to plan, design, bid and construct, quick-build projects are buildable within months and are intended to be evaluated and reviewed shortly upon construction. Typical quick-build improvements can include: Road diet (i.e., travel lane removal); Paint, delineators, and signs; Parking and loading adjustments; and Traffic signal retiming.

SFMTA has recently posted photos as part of an implementation update that can show more clearly the path of the bike lane. Here’s a link to that website project update.

3 Turn Lanes from King Street Will Remain
SFMTA’s Third Street Quick Build team responded to my inquiry regarding whether the three left turn lanes will remain. Jacob Henke, Transportation Planner for Livable Streets | SFMTA, wrote back: “Yes, project team and SFMTA is aware of the three left turn lanes from eastbound King Street onto northbound Third Street. This configuration will not change as part of the project. The 3 left turn lanes will remain signal separated from bicycle – pedestrian crossings.”

Whether SFMTA will work with SFCTA regarding the Mission Bay School Access Plan, he added, “Thank you for pointing out the Mission Bay School Access Plan. I will reach out to those working on the plan. The SFMTA coordinates with the SFCTA, the SFCTA is aware of the near-term improvements along Third Street as they are administering the funding for the project.”

Speed Cameras to Deter Speeding
Speed cameras are meant to deter unsafe speeds on City streets, and the cameras in the pilot program listed in last week’s calendar will be prominently placed where drivers will see them. The goal is to reduce the loss of human life and limb on City streets, rather than ticket drivers – though that will also happen.

The camera that will be positioned on King Street to catch inbound speeding between Fifth and Fourth streets is the only camera that isn’t on a one-way street which will capture traffic moving in only one direction. The majority of the 33 cameras in the citywide pilot program will be able to catch speeding in both directions. Many of the cameras will be placed near schools or senior centers. District 6 will get seven cameras, more than any other district, because of all the high speeds and high-injury corridors through South-of-Market streets connecting to the Bay Bridge. After the first 18 months, a camera can be relocated, pending a data review.

Cameras won’t be monitored by human eyes. Lidar or radar will detect when a vehicle is travelling at least 11 miles above the speed limit and snap a picture of the vehicle’s rear and its license plate. With SFTMA’s Board of Directors approving moving forward with the pilot program in their meeting on Tuesday, the program moved a step closer to implementation. SFMTA staff at the Board meeting said they expect to turn the cameras on early in 2025.

SPRING SPRANG SPRUNG!
The Plants of Huffaker Park
Ginny Stearns has devoted many hours to making Huffaker Park, in front of the houseboats, one of the most pleasant places to walk in Mission Bay. For the gardeners among us, Ginny provided a list of the plants of Mission Creek’s Huffaker Park: Ceanothus, Coffeeberry, Toyon, Red Twig, Sages (Pozo, great for butterflies), Buckwheat, Buddleia, Echium, light colored Heliotrope, Abelia, Lupines, Grevillea, Lantana, Coyote Bush, Manzanita and Grindelia along the banks.

Visually, that translates to splashes of orange, yellow, deep purple, lavender, indigo, white, shades of green, gray-green, blue-green, yellow-green, and the crimson bark of the manzanita.

Easter Egg Hunt Used to Be a Parks Event
Once upon a time, in the early days of redeveloped Mission Bay, an Easter Egg Hunt used to draw families to the grand lawns of Mission Bay Commons, and later, to Mariposa Park.

Easter Sunday falls on March 31 this year, but cute-colored eggs won’t be hidden in either of those parks for the kiddies to find. It’s unknown whether programming like an Easter Egg Hunt will happen in Mission Bay Parks again. At least there’s the programming at Chase Center’s Thrive City to fill the void. But there’s no telling what an organized Mission Bay community coalescing under the new neighborhood association will be able to negotiate, with perhaps some support from the District 6 Supervisor’s office. Food for thought.

Has Anyone Seen the Goose?
In recent weeks, people have been asking, has anyone seen the goose?

The Canada goose in question was named Rita La Gansa in spring 2020, by Jose Vega-Boza of Mission Creek Senior Community. Jose explained that “gansa” means goose in Spanish.

It was early in the shelter-in-place and neighbors who were on Judy Langley’s email network around Mission Bay bonded over sightings of the goose, who’d chosen a conspicuous spot to nest, and our speculations over whether we’d see the goslings when they fledged. Her mate, dubbed Papa Gander, was often seen paddling around nearby on Mission Creek.

We missed Gosling Fledge Day the first time around, but caught it on April 2, 2021, after Rita returned to the same conspicuous nesting spot on the pier next to the Fourth Street Bridge.

Susan Fink, a local birder who has taken wonderful portraits of the neighborhood’s birds, was able to grab this photo of the four goslings and their proud and protective parents after they’d hung around the Creek all day after fledging. Toward evening, the family set off, first for McCovey Cove, where Susan took this pic, then the geese headed south into the Bay.