We are pleased to announce that CHN has a new fiscal agent sponsorship—Independent Arts & Media (IAM). Fiscal sponsorship is a contractual arrangement in which a tax-exempt organization (the fiscal sponsor) agrees to provide administrative and legal oversight, as well as financial management, to a group, individual, or project that lacks its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. This enables the sponsored group to receive grants and tax-deductible donations under the umbrella of the sponsor's 501(c)(3)
designation.
If you received a dues/donation refund for the period December 9, 2024 through June 5, 2025 or your membership dues expired June 6, 2025 to the present, each of you will receive an update of your membership status. If you are still current, you will receive a membership renewal notice as before at your annual notice date. (We will send you a personal email notice of your membership status within the next few days if you were refunded or your membership
is up for renewal.)
Our fiscal sponsor uses Mazlo as a donation platform, which is similar to Classy, the platform used by the Parks Alliance. It accepts ACH and credit cards. Of course, you can always mail a check payable to Independent Arts & Media with Corbett Heights Neighbors in the subject line, to CHN Treasurer, P. O. Box 14493, San Francisco, CA 94114.
You can select one-time or annual (recurring) household membership starting
at $25 or make additional donations. A recurring dues payment is greatly preferred as it is a huge time-saver! Please check if your employer offers a non-profit donation match.
If you are interested in
purchasing a copy of the Corbett Heights Context Statement, please email us at [email protected].
Block Party!
All neighbors welcome at the annual Block Party! September 13th at Ord St & Ord Ct. Please bring a dish to share!
Important Hearing—Family Zoning—September 11
The first hearing is scheduled for Thursday, September 11, 2025, at noon at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 400.
The Status of SB79 (Wiener) Update
SB 79 is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is scheduled for a vote where it is likely to pass. After that, it will move to the full Assembly (date TBD). If it clears the Assembly, it returns to the Senate for a concurrence vote on the final
version.
The first time around, the bill only narrowly passed the Senate with 21 votes—the bare minimum needed. It’s uncertain whether the senators who opposed it then will hold the line this time. There has been a great deal of horse-trading and multiple amendments. A concession made today by Senator Wiener often reappears in future legislation.
To express your opinion, contact San Francisco Assembly members: Catherine Stefani at 415 557-2312 or send an email Matt Haney at 415 557-3013 or send an
email.
Have You Been to Tank Hill?
If not, you must. It’s an insider’s secret. The views are amazing and there are no tour buses. It’s just outside our boundaries—Tank Hill Park is located near the intersection of Clayton Street and Twin Peaks Boulevard. The hill is named for the Clarendon Heights Water Tank built by the Spring Valley Water Company in 1894. The tank was removed in 1957, leaving
a concrete platform. In 1960 Tank Hill was sold to developers for $230,000 with plans to build 20 houses on the property. Tank Hill was saved from development by the Open Space Program and was repurchased by the city in 1977 for $650,000.
The Finance Committee of the Board of Supervisors, which included Dorothy von Beroldingen and John Barbegelata, were opposed to the city paying $420,000 more in 1977 than the city obtained from the 1960 sale of that parcel.
However, because of intense neighborhood opposition (2500 signatures in two weeks were collected to save the hill), a packed hearing room, and numerous neighborhood organizations (including our predecessor organization, Twin Peaks East Neighborhood Association), Supervisor von Beroldingen voted for preservation, stating, “There are times when we have to make choices between the dollar and aesthetic value…” “She was drowned out by applause.” (San Francisco Examiner, September
29, 1977, p. 4).
Tank Hill in San Francisco is characterized by a prominent outcrop of Franciscan chert. The Franciscan chert at Tank Hill is part of the larger Franciscan Complex, and is composed of microscopic skeletons of marine plankton that accumulated on the ocean floor millions of years ago.
Tales of the Grocers—4200 17th Street
Before the building at 4200 17th became Zephyr Real Estate in 1978, it was a long time grocery store. At the turn of the century it was Stelling’s Grocery. Later, it was
the Douglass Market.
The first tale we uncovered concerned Charles Stelling who was arrested by an undercover agent for selling alcohol without a license in August 1910. Appearing before a judge, Stelling explained that although his store did not sell alcohol, this woman claimed to be ill and approached Stelling as he was always helping people in need. Stelling was able to purchase a small flask from a friend for her. In court, Stelling wept and told the
judge about his hard time making a living, and Police Judge Shortall was moved and dismissed the case. (San Francisco Chronicle, August 20, 1910, p. 7.)
In 1949, the market was owned or managed by Nathan Mendelowitz. Two 14 year-old boys entered the store after noon and announced, “This is a holdup.” One 14 year boys wielded a .38 caliber revolver but Mendelowitz grabbed the gun and both youths fled. They were captured at Sanchez Grammar School.
(San Francisco Examiner, April 26, 1949, p. 14.)
Dorothy Harris (b.1917), who lived at 53 Douglass, was the owner/manager in 1958 when she was held up by a 25 year old man. Mrs. Harris refused to give him any money, “You can kill me, but I won’t give you any money. I have to work too hard for it.” She suffered a gash in the head when the gunman struck her with a pistol. He fled after failing to open the store cash register. (The San Francisco
Examiner, August 27, 1958, p. 6).
Three years later, Mrs. Harris was the subject of another robbery. The robbers were described by Mrs. Harris as “Mutt and Jeff”. One brandished a .45 caliber revolver. Mutt was 6 feet tall and threatened to kill her if she cried out and Jeff was 5 feet 4 inches. The two ran across the street to an empty lot and putted away on a motor scooter with $40. (The San Francisco Examiner, December 16,
1961, p. 35.)
And yet again, Mrs. Harris fended off another holdup. In September 1974, a man came in to buy a pack of cigarettes, left, returned with a gun and stuck the gun in her face. “Give me the money!” “No!” “Don’t you see the gun?” “I don’t care, you aren’t getting the money.” So he turned around and walked out. The week before this event, Mrs. Harris was held up by five juveniles and she had had enough. The police
arrested the juveniles who were driving a stolen car with plates that Mrs. Harris had memorized. (San Francisco Examiner, September 26, 1974, p. 1.)
The market was again targeted in October 1974 and robbed of $40. The robber was also arrested. (San Francisco Examiner, October 13, 1974, p. 33.)
In 1978, a robbery occurred when two men wearing ski masks took $300 and $30 worth of food stamps from Mark McSweeney, the clerk. They
had a sawed-off rifle, took the contents of the cash drawer, and got into a car with a waiting driver and fled. Both eventually were jailed after a police chase and a near-fatal auto crash. (San Francisco Examiner, April 10, 1978, p. 32.)
What about that gutsy Mrs. Harris! And the successful police work!
30-Day Public Notice
Beginning September 2025 and continuing through October 2027, Ronan Construction
has been hired by San Francisco Public Works to perform pavement renovation and sewer replacement. Questions: [email protected] or https://sfpublicworks.org/VL69.
Below is a list of the blocks scheduled to be
repaved:
Laguna Honda Blvd Sewer Rehabilitation – Balceta Avenue to Idora Avenue
Roosevelt Way Sewer Rehabilitation – Lower Terrace to Clifford Terrace
Miraloma Drive Sewer Rehabilitation – Juanita Way to Marne Avenue
Richie’s Picks: POCKET BEAR by Katherine Applegate, Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends, September 2025, 272p., ISBN: 978-1-250-90436-2
Richie
Partington, a Corbett Avenue resident, taught
children’s library services classes in the San Jose State MLIS
program. Richie has served on numerous American Library Association
award and selection committees, including the Caldecott Medal committee.
Richie generously and willingly agreed to let us print this latest review.
“Of course, I have brilliant ears that would put a human to shame.
I can hear a flea fart from
a mile away.”
– Zephyrina (the toy-stealing cat who narrates POCKET BEAR)
“He's five foot-two and he's six feet-four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
Been a soldier for a thousand years
He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain
A Buddhist, and a Baptist, and a Jew
And he knows he shouldn't kill
And he knows he always will
Kill you for me, my friend, and me for you”
– Donovan
“Universal Soldier” (1965)
POCKET BEAR is a fantastic fantastical story by Newbery Medalist K.A. Applegate. It features a pair of very old toy bears; a girl (Dasha) and her mom, who are war refugees and American immigrants; along with a diverse and colorful bunch of lost or abandoned stuffed critters. It is narrated by the klepto cat Zephyrina, who “collects” those toys from around the neighborhood, and masterfully weaves all of the tale’s pieces together for us. It is an
elementary level read that relates to today’s immigrant- and war-related news and issues. It all revolves around Pocket Bear.
“When they’d first moved into their apartment, Dasha had found Pocket in the back of a kitchen cupboard next to a chipped teapot and a box of bent spoons.
He’d been left behind by the previous tenant, an old man whose great-grandfather had owned
Pocket.
‘You mean your soldier?’ I’d asked him.
‘My soldier’s son,’ he
said.
‘And then you got passed down through the generations?’
‘More or less.’ Pocket shrugged. ‘Spent a lot of time in cedar chests and crowded drawers. I was
more memento than actual toy. In fairness, I’m not exactly cuddly.’
‘No,’ I agreed. ‘You’re more like a fuzzy rock.’
‘Thanks,’ he said.
‘Anytime.’
Fuzzy rock or not, Dasha was thrilled at her discovery.
She and her mother had arrived at the apartment with nothing but the clothes on
their backs and a little trash bag filled with a few belongings.
They were refugees, Pocket said, from a wartorn place called Ukraine.
They’d seen many dark things there, he said.
They’d lost people they loved. Including Dasha’s father, who’d died in the fighting.
I asked how Pocket knew this.
‘I listen,” he said. He poked at my tail. ‘You should try it sometime.’
Pocket said that Dasha’s leg had been badly injured when a bomb hit her house.
‘Why was
there a bomb?’
I’d asked.
‘War,’ Pocket finally answered.
‘Same as your war?’
‘No. A different war.”
Pocket, who is all of three inches “nose to toes,” was crafted a long time ago to be a mascot/good luck charm for a young soldier in the “War to End All Wars” (WWI). That particular young soldier was killed in action and Pocket had been passed down in the soldier’s family over the past one hundred plus years.
“There was something
about him.
Something that commanded respect.
Which was weird.
Because we’re talking about a dude who was pretty much the size of a Big Mac.”
Dasha, the crutch-assisted, bomb victim, refugee child, works to clean up, create fictional identities, and find new homes (second chances) for the lost stuffies that Zephyrina drags home. Little does Dasha know that once she and her mother are asleep, Pocket Bear, who oversees the other toys, and who has been
affectionately dubbed “Sarge” by the others, declares an “At Ease,” permitting the stuffed animals to all let loose and hang out, freed from their rigid, silent, daytime identities.
Into the scene arrives a smelly old stuffed bear that Zephyrina has picked out of a garbage bin and dragged home. It turns out that, like Pocket, the new bear is also something special.
Join them, and the rest of the cast in the dilapidated house (in a dilapidated neighborhood) that
is known as “The Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured.” Fun, friendship scheming, mayhem, and a big, slobbering dog all await you there.
It could all be so glorious, if only humanity could put an end to the greed, the hatred, and the never-ending cycle of wars.
