AVNA UPDATE

Annual Meeting Just a reminder that our annual meeting is: This Saturday, May 12th from 10:00 am to Noon The meeting will be held in the Mall in the area vacated by Mervyn’s. Enter through the doors directly below the Mervyn’s sign on the same level as Payless Shoes. In addition to elections and addressing our neighborhood issues, there will be two guest speakers. One of the owners of the Mall will update us on the pending tenancy of Target and our own Dan Flanagan will provide an overview of Friends of the Urban Forest and how they can help us green our neighborhood. Please plan on attending as this will be a great time to meet and spend some time with your neighbors. Annual Dues Membership in our association is open to all residents and annual dues are $10 per Owner household and $5 per Tenant household. Dues can be paid at the meeting. For those of you who cannot attend, but would still like to support our organization and receive correspondence about what’s happening in our neighborhood, please mail a check payable to either the Anza Vista Neighborhood Association or just AVCIC to Mark Sander, 15 Fortuna Ave, San Francisco, CA 94115. Include your name, address, phone number, and if you have one, email address. Make it a Day After our meeting, you can walk down to Lyon Street between Hayes and Grove where NOPNA (North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association) is hosting their annual Block Party. This is always a fun event with a BBQ, Food Trucks, Live Music, Games and lots of children activities including a Bounce House. Arbol Lane and the Sonora Steps Mark Sander and I recently met with Principal Cheryl Foster at Wallenberg High School regarding complaints from our residents about students loitering and sometimes smoking pot on both the Arbol and Sonora Steps. Principal Foster was very concerned about any students disrupting our neighborhood and, while there may not always be school staff immediately available, offered to send someone out from the school if she is notified that there may be Wallenberg students engaged in any inappropriate activity. A couple of weeks ago based on a phone call from one of our residents, Principal Foster, herself, walked over to Arbol Lane and found three students behaving very inappropriately. Those students were severely disciplined and Principal Foster emphasized the incident at the following PTSA meeting. If you witness what appear to be students loitering on the steps, notify the school at 749-3469. If you suspect they may also be smoking pot, call the non-emergency police number at 553-0123 as well. Please bear in mind though that both steps are open to the general public and that not all teenagers that use them may be students at Wallenberg. New Red Curb Thanks to Paula Spooner and Elisa Sciaroni, co-chairs of the Fortuna Neighborhood Watch, who obtained enough signatures to submit a Traffic Calming Request to SFMTA, we now have a new red curb at the northeast corner of Baker and Turk Streets (by the Church). Since cars were usually parked right on that corner, making a right turn off Turk onto Baker often meant you had to swing wide into the middle of Baker Street and hope that there was no oncoming traffic. The new no-parking area should make that turn a lot safer. Residential Break-Ins While burglary arrests have risen 100%, residential burglaries have risen in the Park Police District as well as in other areas of the City by 73%. More troubling is that the number of “Hot Prowl” break-ins have also spiked. Hot Prowl refers to burglaries that occur when the thief expects someone to be home such as when the burglary occurs in the late evening. Needless to say, these types of break-ins are not only scary but dangerous. Suspects are getting into residences through a variety of ways; open windows (especially bathroom windows), climbing scaffolds and, on one occasion, breaking open a wall from an adjacent unit in the same building. With the current trend of warmer weather, it’s even more important to keep your windows closed and your doors locked. I’m attaching the latest Newsletter from Park Station which lists several tips (page 3) for keeping your home safe. It also describes an incident (page 4) which I won’t elaborate on that occurred on Terra Vista. You can request a copy of these Newsletters at SFPDParkStation@sfgov.org. Bay to Breakers Volunteers Bay to Breakers occurs on Sunday, May 20th. Last year, several neighborhood organizations initiated what turned out to be a very successful program called Neighborhood Ambassador Volunteers. Neighborhood Volunteers work in either the Panhandle or the Alamo Square corridors along the race route. They assist with monitoring conditions at the usual trouble spots and report unsafe conditions. They also provide information on the location of restrooms, trash receptacles, EMS services and other general information to keep the race flowing and to help avoid participants and onlookers flowing into adjourning neighborhoods including ours. Volunteers are on duty for only two hours. Last year, some of our residents participated in the program and if you might be interested, go to http://www.doitsports.com/volunteer2/jobs-by-date.tcl?event_id=214079. Food Truck Some of you have asked about the food truck that is periodically seen in our neighborhood. As many of you already know, food trucks have become increasing popular and over 100 truck owners are members of Off the Grid which schedules participating trucks at 15 various locations throughout the Bay Area. This particular truck, the Phat Thai, is owned and operated by a family on Anzavista. I had the opportunity to sample their food fare when their truck was operating next to old Kezar Stadium the other night. They definitely had the longest line and I found the food to be quite good. One interesting story that the owner relayed to me is that, when they were originally operating in the East Bay and the 1989 earthquake struck, there weren’t any restaurants open as there was no electricity so they cranked up the truck and provided food to their neighbors. (Sounds like they might be part of our own emergency preparedness plan.) At any rate, if you’re interested in where the truck is located from time to time, you can go to www.phatthaisf.com.