Meet your neighbors
Q&A with Captain Rachel Moran, Commander of Mission Police Station
Enjoy some pics from Dolores Heights’ past
at the DHIC Spring Gathering
Monday, May 24 from 7-8 pm PDT via Zoom
Register in advance for this event:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
A fun historical tidbit, and a timely one as the hot weather sets in, learn the secret San Francisco history of Dolores Park’s long lost swimming pool!
(It cost just $128 to build!)
“I didn’t know they created a wading pool in Dolores Park soon after they cleared the temp housing after the 1906 earthquake. Seems to have been about where the playground is now.”
– John O’Duinn, DHIC member
As this beautifully repainted Golden Hydrant reminds us, April 18 marked 115 years since the earthquake in 1906 that did so much to change and define our city. As we look back, we should remember that being prepared for the future is the best way to honor our past, ensure the safety of ourselves and our neighbors, and preserve the beautiful buildings and public spaces that mean so much to us.
Our city is made up of many neighborhoods. We need to prepare to be one ready community when it counts. The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management offers several ways to get involved in keeping our city and citizens safe in the event of a disaster.
Another option is to get involved with the San Francisco Fire Department’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT), a free training program for individuals, neighborhood groups and community-based organizations in the city. Through this program, you will learn hands-on disaster skills that will help you respond to a personal emergency as well as act as members of a neighborhood response team.
The Mission Police Station Community Meeting:
Tuesday April 27, 2021@ 5 pm PDT
via Zoom
RSVP by email for link at
Community@sfsafe.org or SFPDMissionstation@sfgov.org
Please include name of station (or Captain’s name) and date for the meeting you want to attend.
Supervisor Mandelman is introducing two proposed housing ordinances. Although the two ordinances share some of the same DNA, they are separate and distinct in their intent, content and timelines. Neither bill directly changes the Dolores Heights Special Use District (SUD). Both bills would lead to process and zoning changes in the neighborhood. DHIC has not yet taken a position on either bill.
1. Monster Home” Ordinance: This ordinance has already been introduced at the Board of Supervisors and will be heard at the Planning Commission in April. The ordinance is, in part, a response to the onslaught of very large home developments in Dolores Heights.
The purpose of the ordinance is to make it more difficult to build a very large single family home, unless the project provides additional, and more equitably sized, units. The ordinance would require Conditional Use approval for a new home larger than 2,500 square feet, or any construction that expands an existing home by more than 50%, or beyond 2,500 square feet in size, unless the project increases the number of units on the lot.
2. Supervisor Mandelman is also drafting an additional ordinance that would allow for up to four units on corner lots, and on lots within a half-mile of a major rail station (i.e. Muni Metro underground or BART stations – stations with a turnstile). Per the chart below, some Dolores Heights properties are in a half-mile of the Castro Muni-Metro stop and will be covered by this upzoning.
The DHIC Green Garden Group hopes to be able to resume their monthly work bees on Saturday mornings as soon as City Health Orders permit. Fingers crossed for April! Keep your eye here on the DHIC Website and our Facebook page.
“A Place for All“, sponsored by our supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, provides a platform for ending street sleeping.
Our neighbors live with the effects of street homelessness. Street sleeping is not safe, not healthy, and not compassionate. A Place for All proposes a policy that the City provide shelter to all who will accept it. It also requires a City implementation plan to replace street sleeping with safe and healthy off-street interim shelter.
Sanctioned safe sleeping sites benefit both our unhoused and housed residents. They keep our unhoused residents safe from violence, crime, and the coronavirus. They also bring welcome relief to the City’s housed residents. Unsanctioned encampments in neighborhoods have produced blocked sidewalks, litter, open drug use, and crime. A January 2020 poll found that 71% of San Francisco voters identified homelessness and street conditions as the City’s top issue.
While the solution for homelessness is housing, the waiting line cannot be on our streets. SIP hotel occupants have priority for housing, and those on our streets slide further into chronic homelessness with over a majority suffering from behavioral health/substance abuse.
Safe sleeping sites operating for nearly one year are a proven model that now host approximately 300 people. Guests have safety, stability, and support services – a key first step on their path out of homelessness. The sites can be cost-effective when they shelter 100 guests as the legislation proposes.
A Place for All will have a public hearing in April. More details to follow. Email info@doloresheights.org with questions, ideas, or help.
WHAT IT DOES:
WHAT IT DOES NOT DO:
TO LEARN MORE VISIT:
Starting February 1st, the Street Crisis Response Team will be on the streets of northern District 8! The SCRT, which is comprised of a behavioral health clinician, a community paramedic, and a peer behavioral health specialist, will respond to 911 calls for people experiencing behavioral health crisis on the streets of Upper Market and the Castro (as well as the Mission.)
San Francisco has long lacked an effective emergency response to people suffering from addiction and severe mental illness on our streets. The creation of the SCRT was a top recommendation of the 2019 Methamphetamine Task Force co-chaired by Supervisor Mandelman. He also worked with Mayor Breed and Supervisors Ronen and Haney to secure full funding for this new program in the 2020-21 Budget.
Now when residents, visitors, and businesses in Upper Market and the Castro see a mentally disturbed adult in crisis and call 911, the 911 Call Center can dispatch the SCRT to respond. This diverts calls from police in situations that don’t involve violent behavior. Initially the Castro/Mission team will work Monday to Friday 8am-4pm, and will soon expand to 9am-9pm 7 days a week. As new teams are formed and deployed the goal is 24×7 coverage.
