On Tuesday, the Entertainment Commission approved the request for an after-hours permit from the Subway sandwich shop located on Geary near 21st Avenue. The permit will allow the restaurant to resume 24 hour operations.

Captain Eric Vintero and Tobius Moore, the Permit Officer for the Richmond District station, recommended conditions for the approval at the hearing, such as adding one security guard on Thursday through Saturday nights between 10pm-3am.

The final approval did not incorporate the recommended conditions, but Office Moore says they don’t anticipate issues with Subway being open again 24 hours a day.

“Considering we have never had a police issue at that Subway, we are confident that all will be well,” Moore wrote in an email.

The Entertainment Commission also plans to conduct a 6 month and 1 year review to determine if any conditions would be appropriate in the future.

So the next time you have a craving for a turkey sandwich at 4am, you know where to go.

Sarah B.

Next Saturday there are two volunteer opportunities for those looking to give back to the neighborhood. Both of these events are suitable for the whole family to chip in and help.

The Department of Public Works (DPW) is hosting a Community Clean Team event in the Richmond District from 9am until 12noon. Volunteers of all ages can help out with cleaning and greening the neighborhood including landscaping, painting over graffiti, cleaning tree basins, weeding, picking up litter, etc.

This is a great chance to get your whole family involved in helping take care of the neighborhood. The event kicks off at George Washington High School at 9am (600 32nd Ave at Cabrillo). Lunch will be served to volunteers at the end. To participate, be sure to sign up by emailing dpw@sfdpw.org or calling 641-2600.

Also on Saturday, as part of a city-wide “Love Your Parks Day”, the Friends of Mountain Lake Park and SF Parks Alliance are hosting a clean-up event and nature walk at Mountain Lake Park (Lake Street at 12th Avenue) from 10am until 1pm. Help with new plantings and cleaning the beach, followed by a “kid-friendly nature walk to learn about the lake’s history, habitat and resident critters.”

Volunteers will receive a free “Love Your Parks” t-shirt and lunch afterwards. Register online in advance to participate.

Sarah B.

Billington brothers and friend inside Sutro Baths, c. 1900

Recently, the team at the de Young Museum came across a stash of over seventy glass plate negatives in their basement, all depicting scenes from Land’s End and old San Francisco. The images are over 100 years old.

The negatives were sent to the paper conservation lab at the Legion of Honor for cleaning and restoration – you can get all the nitty gritty details about the work at the de Young’s blog.

The project brought to light some really interesting photos, including one of the foundation of the first Cliff House before it was built.

The photos were taken by photographers (and brothers) W.C.and J.R. Billington. “The Billingtons owned several studios during this time, most notably the Sutro Heights Gallery at the Land’s End Parapet, where they sold specialty views of Seal Rocks, Land’s End and the Golden Gate,” wrote the de Young.

I hope all of these negatives see the light of day in a future exhibition! As they said on their blog, “It couldn’t be more fitting that the negatives produced at Land’s End were conserved over one hundred years later, only a mile away at the Legion of Honor.”

Sarah B.

Cliff House from Parapet, Sutro Heights, c. 1900 (positive 2012)

This Sunday is Mother’s Day and SF Rec & Park is getting in on the celebration with a free flower promotion in the park.

Bring Mom by one of three Golden Gate Park landmark gardens this Sunday and she’ll get a free flower at the entrance.

Swing by the Conservatory of Flowers and you can check out their new Plantosaurus Rex exhibition that opened this week. Or stop by the Japanese Tea Garden for a little sushi or tea and stroll through the grounds. And if a longer walk is more what Mom has in mind, stop by the Botanical Garden to explore plants and trees from all over the world, and watch some feathered friends frolic in the pond.

Free flowers are available for the first 100 moms who grace the entrances of each garden, so be sure to get Mom fed and out to the park early! The Botanical Garden and Japanese Tea Garden open at 9am, the Conservatory of Flowers opens at 10am.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Sarah B.

This is SF Made Week, a week-long celebration of San Francisco’s manufacturing companies and people that bring locally produced products to fruition.

In addition to offering educational events and factory tours at local businesses, the event also puts on SFMade day, in which participating businesses host special retail events.

This Saturday, several businesses here in the neighborhood will participate in “Shop SFMade Day”, spotlighting their manufactured goods and donating 10% of their proceeds to SFMade, a non-profit that “sustains companies producing locally-made products, encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, and creates employment opportunities for a diverse local workforce.”

Stop by these businesses on Saturday to check out their unique, made-right-here-in-SF goods:

Paul’s Hat Works | 6128 Geary near 25th Avenue
Kumquat Art | 147 Clement
Foggy Notion | 275 6th Avenue
Covet Boutique & Design Studio | 391 Arguello
Table Asia Gallery | 1101 Lake Street

To see the full list of San Francisco businesses participating in SFMade week or Shop SFMade Day, visit the event website.

Sarah B.

We got word last week that a local Pedicab company is looking to expand across the city, including adding routes in the Richmond District.

Cabrio Taxi, known for their glittery red cabs, currently operates on the Embarcadero, offering rides to locals and tourists via their fleet of bicycle-powered taxis. According to their website, they also offer tours and services for special events.

Apparently business is booming and Cabrio wants to add more routes in the city. In their route map application to the SFPD and SFMTA (view application (PDF)), the company says they have plans to “grow into the cultural and commercial pockets of San Francisco such as the Marina, North Beach, SOMA, Mission, Polk St., Haight and the GGPark/Panhandle areas.”

Officer Tobius Moore, Permit Officer for the Richmond District station, said in an email that Cabrio Taxi wants to offer transportation between Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, and to support large events happening in Golden Gate Park (like Outside Lands, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass).

“Their main focus for the Richmond District is to provide “green transportation” for people between The Presidio and Golden Gate Park on normal days and nights. When there is a large event or festival in Golden Gate Park, the company’s focus is transporting people from Golden Gate Park to businesses and bus routes along Geary Boulevard, Clement Street, and California Street to help alleviate pedestrian congestion around Fulton Street and Golden Gate Park,” Moore wrote.

The route map in their application shows service running along JFK and MLK Drives in Golden Gate Park, as well as along Lake Street. Pedicabs would use 25th Avenue to exit and enter the park during the day, and 8th Avenue as well in the evenings.

No word on how much Cabrio Taxi plans to charge for rides. I haven’t been in a pedicab for years and the last time I inquired about a ride down on the wharf, I was pretty surprised at how high the price was. One Yelp reviewer notes that it’s “about twice as expensive per mile as a cab, but they can go up all the walking streets too!”

In addition to providing green transportation, Cabrio Taxi says the presence of their drivers can also help reduce crime in local neighborhoods. “Part of our legacy contribution to the City will be the fact that we will help in crime prevention. We hope to have our operators work with the local stations to become educated and certified for simple emergency response procedures. This has proven to be effective in other cities,” they wrote in their proposal.

Cabrio’s goal is to be permitted to operate their pedicab service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but note that they would likely not have any in operation between 4am and 10am in the mornings. Their “staging” areas would be at fire hydrants, per suggestion from the SFMTA.

Officer Moore notes that the pedicab company has engaged in ample community outreach about their plan, yet no Richmond District organizations made their contact list. In his email, Moore reached out to local groups like the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR), the Geary Merchant’s Association, The Richmond Review newspaper, as well as local business owners and landlords for feedback.

What do you think about a pedicab service operating in the neighborhood? Leave a comment to let us know.

Sarah B.

It’s not just the Great Blue Herons that are nesting and raising babies at Stow Lake right now. The Canadian Geese are busy too. Thanks to Thomas K. Pendergast for snapping this cute pic of a mom with her babes.

“What’s amazing to me is this is really the newest generation of dinosaurs, that is, birds in general are direct descendants of the dinosaurs who managed to survive the asteroid 65 million years ago. With these little goslings I can see them as tiny baby raptors,” Thomas wrote.

Sarah B.

Photo by Hanson Switzky

You still have a couple more weekends to spy on the Great Blue Herons that are nesting at Stow Lake!

Sarah B.