Vol. XLVII, No. 2
February 2023
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE Free Flusher Slated to Arrive This Summer
The Good, The Bad and The Neighborly
Nevada Company Ready to Donate $135,000 Floor Model
Mandelman Gives State of the City at January Meeting
By Matthew S. Bajko
By Kit Cameron
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f the decision was solely up to Public Restroom Company president Chad Kaufman, then the prefabricated toilet he plans to donate to the Noe Valley Town Square would already have been installed and put to use. Since it is already built, the restroom doesn’t require a lengthy installation timeline. “My install is one day,” Kaufman told the Voice during a phone interview in late January. “I could install it in two weeks if they wanted me to.” Alas, bequeathing the $135,000 singlestall restroom—with a sink on the outside—to the city for the small public park requires a far longer process. An agreement for the donation still needs to be approved between the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and Kaufman and his friend Vaughan Buckley, the CEO of the Volumetric Building Companies. The construction company in Tracy, Calif., is offering to supply free of cost to the city the union labor, estimated to cost $290,000, required to prepare the site for the roughly 10-foot-by-12-foot toilet and finish the other work needed to install it. A portion of the trellis on the left side of the town square must be removed to accommodate the commode. “I am going to give my best effort to
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“We are thrilled to accept this generous donation, which will allow us to deliver this important project to the Noe Valley community,” said city parks director Phil Ginsburg. “We work hard to be good stewards, and as a result our park system has benefitted from nearly $200 million in private philanthropy over the past 12 years.” Rec and park spokesperson Tamara Aparton had told the Voice Jan. 20 that the agency had been having “regular meetings” with Kaufman and Buckley
n Wednesday, Jan. 18, a score of Upper Noe Neighbors turned out for the group’s first meeting in 2023. The attendees got a chance to hear about Slow Sanchez rules, meet the city’s Neighborhood Safety Liaison, learn the results of a neighborhood survey, and pepper their supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, with questions about everything from transit to housing to the fractious subject of unhoused San Franciscans. The newly re-elected supervisor was greeted with warm applause as he joked that the number of rounds of votes for the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in January exceeded that of the U.S. House of Representatives for Kevin McCarthy but finally Supervisor Aaron Peskin had been elected. Mandelman, who chairs the county’s Transportation Authority, bragged that getting Proposition L passed in November gave the city crucial money to revitalize Muni. “We are closer than we have ever been to getting trains [from outside the city] going all the way to downtown San Francisco. It will be a seven-billion-dollar job, funded mostly by the state and federal government, with San Francisco
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When You’ve Got to Go. The shock waves that greeted San Francisco after news that a proposed restroom facility for Noe Valley’s town square would cost $1.7 million are still being felt, but a donor has stepped up to offer a better deal. Navigating the miles of city red tape should now, if not move smoothly, at least all come out in the end. Photo by Art Bodner
provide a restroom facility for the town square,” pledged Kaufman, adding that his aim was to have it done by the end of August. The rec and park department announced Jan. 27 it had reached an agreement with Kaufman and Buckley for the in-kind donations and expected the city agency’s public oversight commission to sign off on the deal in February, followed by a vote of the Board of Supervisors. Rec and park also announced that the regulatory approval process for the toilet would now only cost the city $300,000.
Top Authors in Word Weekend Lineup Bethany Church Hosts Events For All Ages March 3–5 By Corrie M. Anders
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ord Weekend, the long-running festival showcasing literary talent from Noe Valley and beyond, this year presents a trifecta of prominent authors, poets, and songwriters. “Oh my God, it’s going to be exciting,” said local resident Maxine Einhorn, who helped plan the three-day event along with Martha Dietzel of Folio Books. “We have a really good lineup.” The festival runs March 3 to 5 at Bethany United Methodist Church, 1270 Sanchez St. All events are free. (Please note masks are required.) Friday, March 3, will feature bestselling author Katie Hafner in conversation with Karen Joy Fowler, another novelist whose work has graced the New York Times top 10 lists. “We are very excited to have [them] as the headlining event,” said Einhorn, a Noe CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
Beauties Like This Tahoma Tempest Dahlia are likely to beckon as the group Friends of Noe Valley searches for gardens to include in the 2023 Noe Valley Garden Tour, set for May 6. Are your plants also seeking the sun? (See “Garden” Short Take, page 13.) Photo by Jack Tipple