News

Now that the skies have cleared, many of us in the neighborhood are assessing and repairing damage from this winter’s historic storms. It’s a great time to give thanks to our neighbors who volunteer during rainy weather to keep storm drains clear from leaves, litter, and other debris.

Known colloquially as “storm drain troopers” or “drain daddies,” the civic program pairs people with nearby drains, and issues the proper equipment to keep water from backing up onto neighborhood streets.

One perk of being a volunteer? Getting to give your drain its own name. In true San Francisco fashion, many of the monikers are clever and playful. Some favorites in our neighborhood include Drain O’er Me, Drain “The Rock” Johnson, Catherine the Grate, Only Happy When it Drains, Drainiac, and Leaf Me Alone.

If you’re eager to get in on this fun, there are still a few neighborhood drains looking for adoption! Learn more .

Thank you, Neighbors!

If you've ever lived or worked in the Duboce Triangle for any length of time, you most certainly know the legendary Courtney's Produce market at 14th and Castro. Chances are you met the store's husband-and-wife co-owners, Patrick and Lola Courtney. Chances are your devotion to the store's fresh-made sandwiches, fresh-squeezed juices, daily-delivered produce - and especially, its iconic peanut butter and jam treats - are key to the store's enduring operation for over five decades, earning it status as a "Legacy Business" in January 2020 with support from Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

You may not know the sad news of Patrick's passing in November, 2022, We hope this account, drawn from a 2020 profile in the local newspaper Hoodline based on a timeline provided by Patrick's daughter Robin Courtney, can suitably hon- or our beloved neighbor.

Born in 1926 in County Kerry, Ireland, Patrick grew up in a very rural environment. "Everything they ate they grew as a family," his great-nephew Andrew Courtney told Hoodline. Patrick moved to New York

with his father in the1940s, where they worked for an Italian grocer.

Patrick came to San Francisco where he met his wife Lola in 1964. Together they founded Courtney's Produce in 1969 and moved the store to its current location in 1971. Andrew credits the people of the neighborhood for keeping Courtney's thriving: "With so many friendly and talented people around, it is easy to feel at home and happy here."

Andrew managed the store for Lola and Patrick in the mid 2010's before moving to San Diego and then to Ver- mont. Paul Xie, who has worked for Courtney's since

1992 and is the current store manager, agrees. "It's a fam- ily store," he told Hoodline. "We all work together."

As immediate neighbors and regular patrons of Courtney's since 1988, my family and I have had the privilege to know Patrick, Lola, Rob- in, Andrew and Paul well. I agree whole-heartedly with a message Robin sent me in July 2020 to assure me that her father was doing well after surgeries, even in the throes of the Pandemic: "He is a strong and beautiful per- son."

Indeed. This is certainly how I will remember Patrick Courtney.

McKinley is excited to return with a regular update to our community about everything going on at your neighborhood elementary school! McKinley has a new principal this year, John Collins, and we ’ve had a fantastic first half of the school year under his new leadership. As we come back from Winter Break, we have some important and fun events coming up in the second half of the year!

McKinley refreshed its mission statement this year to further deepen our school community ’s commitment to equity. The new mission statement is, “McKinley centers BIPOC voices to ensure an inclusive, trusting, and joyful learning community that eliminates inequitable patterns of student access and outcomes so that students reach their full potential.” The school celebrates Black Excellence month in a variety of ways, one of our favorites being the read aloud where parent volunteers read aloud stories that celebrate Black voices to students, a great example of our new mission statement in action. The district ’s African American Honor Roll celebration will also take place this month on February 16th.

The reading keeps on going with the beloved annual read-a-thon in February. Students collect pledges for reading every day for a month. This is the main fundraiser for our library, the literal heart of the McKinley building, and the figurative heart of our community. The funds raised go towards the purchase of engaging and thought-provoking books, as well supporting literacy programs at McKinley. Sponsoring one of your little neighbors is a great way to contribute to McKinley and encourage a lifelong love of reading!

Lastly, DogFest planning is already underway! Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 22nd with more information to come. If you ’re interested in volunteer opportunities for DogFest you can contact the PTA at pta@mckinleyschool.org.

One way of figuring out what we need to work on right now is to dream big about what a bright future would look like. DTNA ’s Vision 2030 started as immediate plans for activating the pandemic-era Noe Slow Street, but with that street now permanent, it has expanded to a vision of how it connects to the rest of the streets in the Triangle and beyond.

We know that whatever percentage of Triangle residents are still driving cars in 2030 (it ’s less than half of us now) those cars will be mostly electric, as California is phasing out gas-powered vehicles. We also know that even those of us who drive cars sometimes also ride an electric scooter, or an e-bike, or a bike bike, or we walk. Vision 2030 imagines the Triangle as a space where all those uses can happen seamlessly and safely together, at low speeds, quietly, and respectfully of both residents and the other modes of transportation. As a Spanish urban planner once remarked, “all the modes of transportation are equal. But the pedestrian is the most equal of all.”

But what about beyond the Triangle? Noe Street is not the only slow street in the city, and when we leave our houses our destinations are often in other neighborhoods, sometimes even in other cities (for example, I commute by bike and BART 35 miles each way to Lafayette every day of the week). How can we make our routes to the wider world as safe and seamless as the ones we are imagining for our local spaces?

It ’s only in the initial planning phases, but some bold visionaries have already started sketching out a city-wide map of bike and scooter routes that link the Slow Streets together. Right now the maps serve as rough guides, much like the celebrated Crosstown Trail that links parks and open spaces from the southeast to the northwest into one seamless hike. But the potential is there for more. Maybe not by 2030, but by 2050? We can all dream of a utopian future at least.

But the arc of history does not bend toward utopia on its own – it only bends that way because we get together in communities and make it happen – so join up with the folks working on this. SF Parks Alliance and “The People’s Slow Streets” has the most ambitious, one that would connect Duboce Triangle to every neighborhood in San Francisco, including the far-flung southern parts of the Excelsior and Bayview in a 100-mile network of slow streets. SFMTA is beginning a process to work on this as well, and has their own map. City processes can be slow and cumbersome, but if dedicated citizens keep pushing their elected officials and the bureaucrats whose salaries we pay to move in the right direction, things do eventually get done.

If you have any ideas for how the Triangle specifically can improve its contribution to the bike network (the main east/west corridor The Wiggle goes right through the heart of our neighborhood) and how DTNA can work to help connect our neighborhood to other neighborhoods by any means of transportation, contact us at dtna.org. And most importantly, get involved. Utopia is coming soon, to a neighborhood near you, but only if we work for it. Let ’s go!

Some bold visionaries have already started sketching  out a city-wide map of bike and scooter routes that can link the Slow Streets together.

The election of 2023 DTNA Board is three weeks away. Three current Board members are leaving their 2022 positions (Secretary and two Board Directors).

If you would like to pursue Duboce Triangle Vision 2030 which evolved from last summer's Slow Triangle workshops, now is the opportunity for you to join the Board and work with Hans and the Board in charting a course to make the multiple ideas that were generated a reality.

If you have an interest in joining the Board or would like more information, please email Bob Bush, 2023 Election Manager.

This week’s meetings:

Thursday, January 26th, 06:00PM to 07:30PM

Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association meeting

Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Aaron Peskin, the new president of the Board of Supervisors, will be presenting their agendas for 2023 in-person. Read more.

Thursday, January 26th, 07:30PM to 09:00PM 

Castro Theater Coalition of Stakeholders Town Hall will be held following the EVNA meeting at the same in-person location as well as virtually.

See Land Use Blog (Kevin Riley)

Time to Review Your Online Website Membership Profile

With the start of the New Year please take time to review your profile demographics and privacy setting. After you log in, Click the button next to your name which is found in the right upper corner on every webpage.

The default privacy settings for first and last name were reset to Members on 01/05/2023 allowing the Members-only Directory to be populated with all member names.

Membership Directory

The Directory is found in the dropdown menu (the three lines on the far right side of menu tabs) under the top banner on every webpage after a member logs in.

The member names are only viewable by fellow members when logged in. Members can make their name private and not visible in the Membership Directory by making changes in the “Privacy” portion of a member’s profile. If a member would like more of their information to be viewable by members, they can add their phone number, email address and/or street address in their “Privacy” settings. Otherwise, the default for that additional information will remain private. Please contact membership@dtna.org if you have any questions or concerns. 

2-Factor Authorization to Log Into DTNA Website

Wild Apricot is launching 2-Factor Authorization in early 2023 to log into the site. A verification code will be sent to the email address on file in your profile after you enter your password to log in. Then follow the instructions. Be sure to keep the email address where you want this notification to be sent up-to-date in your profile.

Newsletter Notification

All members should receive email notification when the Duboce Triangle News is available for viewing online.

New webpage added in November 2022: Triangle/Upper Market Businesses found in the dropdown menu (the three lines on the far right side of menu tabs) under the top banner.

If there is a Triangle business that should be added to the list, please email the name of the business to web manager Bob Bush.

Membership and Advertising

We hope you’ve had a chance to get familiar with our website - where you can join DTNA; pay your membership dues; and even pay advertising fees – all online. If you are paying your membership dues online, check the FAQ to learn how to access your account for the first time. You can still mail in a check if that is preferred. Membership reminders are now sent by email so please make sure to update your email address in your account.

Postcard reminders will be mailed to members without email addresses and as a final outreach to members who have not responded to the email reminders.

The Website FAQs has lots of additional information about all things membership.

All Officer positions and at this time six Director seats are up for election. There are two open Director seats with two 2022 Directors stepping down from the Board. Also, Rose Linke is stepping down as Editor. The position of Secretary is open as the current Secretary and newsletter copy editor, Erik Honda, is running for Editor. The other Board members are running for reelection. Election of 2023 DTNA Officers and Board Directors will be conducted online as it was in 2022 using Election Runner. An email an invitation to vote with instructions will be sent from Election Runner. Paper ballots will be mailed to members without email addresses. Online voting using Election Runner will start on Wednesday, February 8th and close on Tuesday, February 14th at 07:30pm during the February DTNA Public Meeting.  Mail-in ballots for members without an email address will need to be postmarked by February 14th and received by Tuesday February 21st to be counted. Any member who has an interest in joining the Board and has been a member for three months is eligible to be elected to the Board. Nominees should submit a 100-150 word candidate statement and picture for inclusion in the Election Runner ballot to Bob Bush, the election manager no later than February 1st. All nominees need to be able to attend monthly Board meetings. If you want to get more involved with DTNA initiatives to enhance the neighborhood where we all live, work, and play, consider running for a Board position. All members who have been a member for 30 days prior to the election are eligible to vote. If you want to learn more about how the Board and DTNA function, please contact DTNA at info@dtna.org or by using the website contact form or visit our website www.dtna.org.

The Directory is located in the drop down menu (three lines to the right of FAQs) at right side of menu bar under banner at the top of each page.

The default privacy setting for all member profiles was changed 01/05/2023 to allow first and last names to be seen by members and listed in the members-only Directory when members are logged in. In making this default change, other profile privacy data was made No Access.

Members may elect to have their phone number, email address and/or street address made visible to other members in the Directory. If you want to do so, you need to edit your privacy settings for these entries, changing them from No Access to Members (log in>click the button by your name in the top right corner of each page>view profile>click Edit profile>Privacy>make changes and then click Save). Members need to make this edit change from No Access even if these entries had previously been made visible to members. 

If a member does not want their first and/or last name visible in the members-only Directory, the member must edit the privacy settings in their profile and change the name entries from Members to No Access (log in>click the button by your name in the top right corner of each page>view profile>click Edit profile>Privacy>make changes and then click Save).

The New Year  – 2023 – is here and it is time for the election of members of the DTNA Board.

Election of 2023 DTNA Officers and Board Directors will be conducted online as it was in 2022 using Election Runner. Paper ballots will be mailed to members without email addresses.

Online voting will start on Wednesday, February 8^th and close on Monday, February 14^th at 07:30pm during the February DTNA Public Meeting. Mail-in ballots need to be postmarked by February 18^th to be counted and received by Tuesday February 21^st.

All Officer positions and at this time six Director seats are up for election, with two director seats currently unfilled. Nominations need to be submitted by Wednesday, February 1^st to be included on the ballot. Current Board members have expressed an interest in continuing on the Board except for Kevin Riley who is stepping down from the Board in 2023.  All nominees need to be able to attend monthly Monday Board meetings.

Any member who has an interest in joining the Board and has been a member for three months is eligible to be elected to the Board. Nominees should submit a 100-150 word candidate statement and picture for inclusion in the Election Runner ballot to Bob Bush, the 2023 Election Manager, by February 1^st.

If you want to get more involved with DTNA initiatives to enhance the neighborhood where we all live, work, and play, consider running for a Board position. All members who have been a member for 30 days prior to the election are eligible to vote.

If you want to learn more about how the Board and DTNA function, please contact DTNA at info@dtna.org or use the website contact form or explore the DTNA website.

Best wishes for the New Year,

Bob Bush

DTNA Vice President, 2023 DTNA Election Manager