The annual Boosters Dinner, the most social Booster meeting of the year, is all set!
We’re on for Tuesday night, May 26 at 5:30 pm, at the California Culinary Academy’s Carême 350, 350 Rhode Island Street at 16th. (Click the link for directions.) Many thanks to Audrey Cole of the Boosters and everyone at CCA for hosting us!

Here’s the menu:

5:30 pm - No host bar

7.00 pm - Dinner is served, with complimentary wine and beer from Anchor Brewing and Yield

Appetizer :
Goat Cheese Tart with Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Herb Salad

Entrées – Choice of:
Lamb Shoulder, Braised Dandelion Greens and Pommes Anna
Chicken Breast and Artichoke Risotto
Fettuccine with spring vegetables in a parmesan cream sauce (Vegetarian option)

plus Dessert of the Day

This is always a fun event, where we install the new year’s Executive Committee quickly and efficiently, and recognize some of the hardest working among us for what they do in our community. It’s a great chance to bring a neighbor and show them what the Boosters are all about!

For tickets, mail your check today to Potrero Boosters Annual Dinner, 1459 18th St. #133, San Francisco, CA 94107. Write the number of reservations requested on your check and include a note with dinner choice (lamb, chicken, vegetarian). Tickets are $40 per person in advance. Your ticket will be held at the door.

Get involved!
Choose what is important to you, and call or email Tony Kelly or Dick Millet (contact info on the Contact Us page)

Cleaning up after the Eastern Neighborhoods re-zoning
Open space planning for Showplace Square: Channel Street?
Public Improvements – new infrastructure, services in new neighborhoods
More affordable housing
Historic building preservation in Showplace Square, Central Waterfront
Enforcement of the Residential Design Guidelines

Demolitions, monster homes, and luxury housing

Rebuilding Potrero Terrace and Potrero Annex

The SF Port
The AT&T Park parking lot / Seawall Lot 337
Pier 70 – developing waterfront property
The Blue/Greenway - public access and parks
Environmental issues: diesel trucking, cement crushing

Open space around the Hill
Starr King Park
Mission Bay Parks (and the Bluepeter building)

SF General Hospital rebuild and helipad

UCSF Hospital buildings and helipad

Closing the Potrero Power Plant

Parking and Traffic
Transit planning and improvements
A ‘downtown’ congestion charge?
Traffic calming measures around the Hill

Quality of Life
Neighborhood crime watch / Project SAFE
Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams
Parks & Rec – improvements, and more public recreation opportunities
Homeless and street issues – street camping, clean up, services, etc.
Underground utilities

Social Stuff
The Annual Dinner, Potrero Hill History Night, the Holiday Party

Government liaison and support
Volunteer staff support at Supervisor Maxwell’s office
Support of Webster, Starr King, ISA, and other neighborhood schools

Membership / recruitment
Outreach to other neighborhood organizations
New homeowners and new tenants

The annual Booster Dinner, the most social Booster meeting of the year, is all set!
We’re on for Tuesday night, May 27 at 5:30 pm, at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens Street (near 16th). (Click the link for directions.) Many thanks to Audrey Cole of the Boosters, Barbara Bagot-Lopez of UCSF Community Relations, and everyone at UCSF for hosting us!

Here’s the menu:

5:30 pm - No host bar

7.00 pm - Dinner is served, with complimentary wine

Organic Sonoma Greens with Roasted Beets, Baby Carrots & Pecan Crusted Goat Cheese

Entrées – Choice of:

Grilled “Painted Hills” Sirloin Steak with Whipped Bleu Cheese Mashed Potatoes & Grilled Asparagus

Pan Seared King Salmon with Roasted Ginger-Pepper Sauce on Sautéed Napa Cabbage & Steamed Jasmine Rice

Moroccan Saffron Chickpea & Vegetable Taginewith Toasted Israeli Cous Cous (Vegetarian option)

Brulee Poached Pear Vanilla Crème Anglaise & Fresh Berries

This is always a fun event, where we install the new year’s Executive Committee quickly and efficiently, and recognize some of the hardest working among us for what they do in our community. It’s a great chance to bring a neighbor and show them what the Boosters are all about!

For tickets, mail your check today to Potrero Boosters Annual Dinner, 1459 18th St. #133, San Francisco, CA 94107. Write the number of reservations requested on your check and include a note with dinner choice (steak, salmon, vegetarian). Tickets are $40 per person in advance. Your ticket will be held at the door. Park on the street, or at the UCSF garage — we’ll pay for it!

Many of my friends have asked me why I support the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association.  My brief on-the-fly answers never seem very convincing, regardless of my wholehearted belief in the organization.  Hopefully this article will answer that question more eloquently than I usually do in person.

I joined the Potrero Boosters when I first moved to Potrero Hill over 20 years ago.  The Boosters concern themselves with issues that are important to me as a resident of the Hill.  The amount of work some of the members do is PHENOMENAL!  I am not willing to put in nearly this much work to keep up to date on issues that effect the neighborhood, so I am very grateful to, and happy to support from the sidelines, those who are willing to do that work.  The small yearly membership fee is a pittance compared to the efforts the organization makes on my behalf.

Do the issues the Boosters champion affect me directly?  Not usually.  But things like power plants, light pollution from the ball park, density and planning in the Design Center and Central Waterfront affect the neighborhood I love, and because of that it’s important to me.  Not important enough to spend my own nights researching and trying to understand the issues, but certainly important enough to support wholeheartedly those who are willing to do so.

Do I agree with every position the Boosters takes?  No.  But in general the decisions they make and the fights they choose to be involved in are based on a sincere love of the neighborhood and desire to keep it – what? - certainly not “the same”; they’re not that foolish.  To keep it a nice neighborhood where I would want to live.

Do the Boosters win their fights?  They win some and they lose some.  But most of the people I vote for don’t win, either.  I support the Boosters for the same reason I vote – because I can; because I have to.  It’s one important thing I can do with little cost or effort.

Because of the support of neighbors like me, and the hard work of those most involved in the organization, the Boosters is a known quantity in the halls and courtrooms of the city.  It’s important to have at least a little clout so we don’t get completely run over by big developers and others who would profit in our neighborhood at the detriment of those of us who live here.  A strong, active neighborhood organization is a force to be reckoned with.

During one of my discussions with a friend who asked what the Boosters do, he interrupted me, asking “Is all they do fight?”.  He was using my own words.  Yes, they do often fight.  This usually takes the form of trying to keep development down to a dull roar.  They fight big, inappropriate development projects which would seriously degrade the character of the neighborhood we love.  They also fight for - for the parks, for street parking or signs, etc.  They also like to party and are becoming more involved in issues such as support for the local schools and libraries.

I truly appreciate the immense efforts of those neighbors and friends who are willing to spend considerable time educating themselves about important issues and showing up – over and over when necessary - to voice their opinions about things that are important to all of us neighbors on Potrero Hill.  I will continue to support the Boosters in whatever way I can.

Audrey Cole