Please join us on Thursday evening 7-8:30pm at the home of Robert Muehlbauer, 57 Majestic Avenue.
We’ll be joined by faculty and students from Academy of Art:
Sara Giarratana, Administrator
Yasmine Farazian, full time faculty member
An additional instructor
2-3 students
and DPW’s Sandra Zuniga and Rodney Hampton.
Please join us to talk about the next phase of our design project, our clean up day on Saturday June 21 and pot luck lunch afterward.
Meeting Notes Added 6/17/2014:
1/ We have our next Clean Up Day this coming Saturday, June 21st, 9am-12pm.
Staging area: Ridge Lane at Howth with potluck lunch to follow (12-1PM) Potluck will be at the staging area, on Ridge and Howth.
Brian Leese from the SF Parks Alliance will bring a group of volunteers to assist.
Coffee and danish from Starbucks’ Daniel Lee? (I sent him an email)
Please bring a dish to share, something to drink and a folding chair.
Connie Adamopoulos, (Josiah) will provide tables, tablecloths, utensils, serving utensils, cups, napkins and drinks.
Flyers: Eric Maier re-designs, Sandra prints, Lynn picks up and delivers to Patricia, Warren, others for distribution early this coming week.
Invited guests: All of our neighbors from the area around Ridge Lane (flyers), John Avalos (Robert M. invites), Mohammed Nuru (Sandra Z. invites), students from the Academy (Yasmine F. invites), volunteers though DPW (Rodney H. invites).
Work to be done: We’ll clean up (weeds and trash) the entire stretch of Ridge Lane, and be mindful of native plants that host beneficial butterflies and insects. The plan is to open up the path enough for easy access. Before the clean up we’ll walk the lane with our volunteers, to identify and mark the plants that can stay.
2/ Sandra Zuniga explains the status of Ridge Lane as an unaccepted piece of land, which means it’s not maintained by the city. The Street Parks Program allows the city to adopt spaces and the the Board of Supervisors can allocate dollars for this purpose. We received $150,000 for this purpose, spent $46,000 on the survey and the $104,000 that’s in our coffers is ear marked for landscaping and improvements. Since landscaping design is expensive, we have chosen to invite Academy of Art University to participate.
We have one year to spend this money and we hope to use the design plans of the students of AoAU, with the supervision of Yasmine F. and representatives from DPW.
It’s possible that afterward Ridge Lane will become an accepted city street, providing all of the qualifications are met and signed off on by the responsible city agencies.
Lighting and water are important features of an improved Ridge Lane. We need to make contact with PG&E (electric) as well as PUC (water) before beginning with the design phase and explain our impending plans and future needs (ideas that are shared are: water meter, water barrel, water catchment area, The Urban Farmer ‘Tom’ for advice).
Mary Beth d’Alonzo: could you be the point person for this? Sandra has contacts for you from other neighborhood initiatives as well as within the city.
3/ Julia Brashares: the Fiscal Sponsorship agreement needs to be completed in order to apply for funding (Community Challenge Fund). We need letters from DPW
(got it, thank you Sandra!) and other project leaders (John Avalos, Robert Muehlbauer inquires) as well as a page about our initiative (Eric Maier or Warren Longmire?).
I’ll complete the application and share it with Robert M and Robert R before sending it back to Julia.
4/ Yasmine Farazian explains the process with students from the Academy of Art University. Once the group is determined from within the student body (‘Design Studio’ or student volunteers), they will come out and collect the necessary information and documentation (mission statement RLN, resident input, survey, time line, utilities, schedule, etc.) and create a plan. This will form the basis for a first design draft, which will be reviewed by the interested parties (residents, RLN, city agencies), and so on.
5/ Next meeting: Thursday July 10th 7-8:30pm, location TBD.
I will be out of town from June 24th-July 17th and cannot attend our July 10th meeting. I have NOT reserved the SFPL/Ingleside Branch meeting room for that date, but I have secured the meeting room for three consecutive Thursdays on August 14th, September 11th, and October 19th 2014
Ridge Lane Neighbors 