CASTRO

NextBus Added to Two Castro Lines

Last month, the Castro became the first neighborhood in the San Francisco where Muni riders can get real-time arrival information for all of the main transit lines serving the area. Nextbus.com, which tracks transit vehicles via GPS transmitters in each vehicle, added two more Muni lines serving the Castro, #24 (serving Divisidero and Castro Streets) and #33 (serving 18^thStreet and Upper Market) to their service which already included all Muni Metro lines, the F Market line and the 22 Fillmore.

You can see the arrival information for all stops on any of those lines, and on how to get NextBus information on a mobile device by going to www.nextbus.com, Arrival information is also available at selected stops.

Housing Action Coalition Comes to CAPA

Kate White, the executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, will attend CAPA’s April meeting to give an update on the SFHAC’s current activities to promote well-planned and affordable new housing in the city’s neighborhoods. She will bring CAPA up to date on a variety of initiatives currently under discussion at City Hall and the Planning Department, such as the Rincon Hill plan. This would be a good opportunity for CAPA members who want to work on housing issues to meet Kate and find out how they can help both CAPA and SFHAC.

Better Neighborhoods Needs Community Uses

CAPA has been actively involved in the process of creating an exciting new planning code for the area around Upper Market and the Octavia Boulevard with the city’s Better Neighborhood program. If and when enacted, it could lead to the development of new mixed use projects that include housing and retail. The plan aims to make best use of the city’s transit and pedestrian infrastructure, and to create hundreds of new housing units, many of them affordable.

As wonderful as this scenario is, CAPA wants to ensure that community serving institutions, arts organizations and public resources are included in the plan, so that the new (and current) residents are can access many of the services that they need within the neighborhood.

Last month, CAPA members Michael Mullin and Joe Curtin met with John Billovits and AnMarie Rogers of the Planning Department’s Better Neighborhoods program to discuss ways to ensure that the Better Neighborhoods plan can include provisions for those community services and public uses in the plan. The Planning staff emphasized that the code can’t differentiate between non-profit office space and for profit office space, for example, but encouraged CAPA to help them develop language for the plan that could achieve these goals. Rogers did pint out that the plan has been amended to call for policies that encourage the creation of space dedicated to community services on Market Street.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE GENERAL MEETING

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Website Development: The website, www.capasf.org has been updated and will soon include links to other organizations such as the Lesbian and Gay Historical Society of Northern California, the SF Housing Action Coalition etc. Tito Vandermayden and Joe Curtin will work to keep it current, and will eventually have CAPA documents uploaded on the site for review by members and others. Other ideas for the site included adding photos of the neighborhood, and a glossary of planning terms.

Many members recommended setting up a Yahoo online group for ongoing online discussions about relevant topics, and to allow others to comment on CAPA’s projects, etc.

among members.

Housing Action Coalition: Kate White of the SFHAC has asked to address CAPA’s April meeting. One item of interest for CAPA will be SFHAC’s negotiations with eh developer of the 2140 Market site to ensure that the project is a good fit for Upper Market.

Public Uses in the Better Neighborhoods Plan: Michael Mullin and Joe Curtin met with John Billovits and AnMarie Rogers of the Better neighborhoods planning staff regarding providing for community and public uses within the Upper Market/Octavia Blvd. plan area. See more at left.

Community Survey: Demian Quesnol proposed that CAPA conduct a simple survey of the Castro, focusing on the commercial area to determine who uses the area, what their concerns are and general demographic information. A survey could be very useful in determining future projects and to get a better sense of how people use the services and businesses of the Castro. It should also be an effective outreach to potential members and other organizations. Demian will prepare a proposal for the next meeting.

Muni service: In light of recent proposals to cut service on Muni lines due to a budget shortfall, CAPA will contact official in Muni and City government to urge them to maintain service at current levels and to find sources of revenue that does not further burden riders. On the plus side two more Castro lines were added to the NextBus system.

AGENDA FOR THE GENERAL MEETING

Thursday, April 14, 2005, 7:30 p.m.

1. Call to Order/Introductions 7:30 p.m.

2. Approval of Agenda and previous meeting’s Minutes

3. Housing Action Coalition Update Kate White

4. Castro Community Survey Demian Quesnol

5. Website Planning Tito Vandermayden

6. Community Institutions Planning Michael Mullin

7. Castro Plan Update

8. Finance Report and Membership Update

9. New Business

10. Adjournment 9:00 p.m.