Photo by Jason J.
We’ve written a couple of times on the blog about the troubles at the southern border of Sutro Heights Park, including one late night fire in January 2013, and the reclusive resident who lives adjacent to the park.
For several years, the adjoining property – more specifically the fence surrounding it – has been neglected. Homeless encampments have often found refuge within the fence boundaries, sometimes starting campfires.
The home (and the one next to it) is occupied by a Wing King, a licensed physician who last practiced endoscopy at UC San Francisco. In March 2013 the Examiner wrote a story about King and his house woes, which included multiple fires on the property since 2004, false 911 calls, and lawsuits related to his business dealings. When a fire does break out, it’s challenging for SFFD as they have to access the location from down below on Balboa Street.
But to the delight of some neighbors and park users, improvements are being made to King’s property which should help prevent further issues with homeless encampments.
Earlier this year, a chain link fence was installed along the western edge of the property that borders the trail that runs up from Balboa Street into the park’s south side.
And last week, we received the above photo from reader Jason J., who noticed private contractors were installing a new fence on the property’s north side.
“I was pleased to see that workers are repairing the horrible fence on the Dr. King property,” Jason wrote to us. “Perhaps this sort of positive event happens every few decades. Better late than never.”
In March of last year, the city tried to address King’s property neglect by giving him 15 days to prove that the homes are occupied or he faced penalties of up to $7,000 per home. We don’t know what happened with the case, and it’s unclear if these latest improvements are a result of city or legal pressure.
Whatever the impetus, let’s hope this prevents further homeless encampments and issues from arising.
Sarah B.
A diagram showing where the SFFD set up at 48th and Balboa to tackle the 2013
fire that broke out. The red line illustrates the path they took with their
hoses to fight the blaze.
It’s about time! If that area gets securely fenced off, perhaps it will cut down on the number of campers up there who use the steps as their bathroom.
I walk past these houses several times weekly. There’s never any evidence of anyone living in the second house, the one in the middle, although the front yard has been cleaned up a little.
What I don’t understand is why the hydrant at the corner of 48th and Sutro Heights, literally across the street from these houses was not used by SFFD in putting out the fire. Did they forget it? Is it not operational? Do they like making their job harder?
I saw two older teens brazenly painting away in the afternoon. It made me sad to see such effort going into tagging. Parent fail.
If the King family wanted a permanent solution to the graffiti problem, I think this would be the best solution: Have a few well known and respected artists come out and paint murals all along the fence representing play land, lands end, the zoo, cliff house, etc. Now the key word here is Respected. Why? Because if you have Respected artists painting along the fence, taggers most likely won’t write over the mural. From what I understand, its like an unwritten code not to tag over a respected artists mural. If they did that everybody wins. Property value goes up. Its less of an eye sore. Tourists come back and take pictures. Lets see that happen!