Weekend Open House Report: South of Market Edition

PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

Department of Public Works to Test Wall Paint That Pees Back

UNDER $500K CLUB

The Smallest Condo for Sale in SF Is Just 291 Square Feet

COMMENT OF THE DAY

"This will just cause a shift in where they pee outside, not whether they do it or not." —potenza345 [Department of Public Works to Test Wall Paint That Pees Back]

COMMENTS

EATER TASTINGS

The 19 Best New Happy Hours; The Progress' Affordable Bar Menu; Japanese Ramen to the Tenderloin; More!

Welcome to Eater Tastings, where Eater SF editor Allie Pape shares the best restaurant and bar news of the week.

Photo via Patricia Chang
BAY AREA—Looking for a new happy hour to add to your rotation? We've rounded up the 19 hottest happy-hour deals going right now.

FILLMORE—You can now sample the Progress without paying $65 for the full menu: they're offering a menu of $5 and $10 bar bites, with no reservations. Think of it as a mini-State Bird.

TENDERLOIN—Tokyo's acclaimed Mensho Ramen is coming stateside for the first time—and opening up a location in the Tenderloin.

More restaurant and bar news this way >>

COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

DEVELOPMENT WATCH

Updated Design for Apartments to Rise at Mid-Market Food Hall

Rendering courtesy of Solomon Cordwell Buenz/Tidewater
Since last fall's opening of the Hall, the temporary food hall that developers War Horse and Tidewater opened in the former Hollywood Billiards building, we've been awaiting further details on the residential mid-rise that will eventually take its place. As you recall, the existing building will be demolished to make way for a 13-story structure, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, with 186 apartments over ground-floor retail. Not terribly much has emerged about the design, though an early image got fingered in a John King gripe about the "aesthetic tangle" planned for Mid-Market. Meanwhile, SCB and the developers have been working on refinements to the project, and they just sent us the latest rendering.

Will the Hall stick around? >>

MID-MARKET

3 COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

DAS KAPITOILE

One of our favorite longreads of the week is the Awl's deep dive on the history of toile. Writer Colette Shade delves into the fraught class consciousness threaded into its bucolic images of working folk, from shepherd boys tending to goats to bosomy peasant girls hiking up their skirts to better feed the chickens. "It's strange but telling that affluent people continue to decorate their homes with images of happy poor people," writes Shade, whose name sounds like a variety of toile. "Toile seems to hang in stately living rooms as a reminder that everything is okay, showing wealthy people how idyllic poor people's lives can be." [The Awl/Photo via 3275 Washington]

COMMENTS

SPACE ODDITY

Intergalactic Alameda Bungalow Achieves Liftoff, Hits $806K

When the bonkers bungalow at 1029 Broadway in Alameda came on the market, we marveled at its oddball collection of sci-fi flourishes. There's a bedroom with cutout lava-pit walls, fake jellyfish hanging from the ceiling, and mountains sculpted onto part of the roof—and that's a mere sampling of the home's over-the-top intergalactic vibe, with planets, celestial scenes, and crystals throughout. The bungalow is amazing in its own wacky way, but we figured that it may take some time to sell. But no: the home went into contract just over two weeks after hitting the market and sold for $806,500, which is a considerable $131,500 over its original ask of $675,000.

There’s no word on what the buyers plan to do with the house >>

ALAMEDA

COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

REBUILDING BACK BETTER

Construction began this week on the rebuild of the Alice Griffith housing development, which is one of the major components of the transformation of Hunters Point. The current 256 units will all be replaced, with current residents moving into the new buildings, while an additional 248 affordable apartments and 367 market-rate units will be added. The rebuild aims to integrate Alice Griffith, which has been notorious for violence and poverty, into its surrounding neighborhood. [SFGate]

HUNTERS POINT

COMMENTS

OPEN HOUSE REPORT

Weekend Open House Report: South of Market Edition

Location: 1097 Howard St. at 7th St.
Size: 1-bed, 2-bath, 1,086-square-foot loft
Price: $1.088M
Pitch: "This top floor, 1 br. plus den/2nd br. ,2ba loft has been completely remodeled and reconfigured to be onf of SF's most stylish & beautifully appointed loft properties. Rough concrete, 17 foot ceilings, & original industrial windows are counter-balanced by 2 beautifully appointed baths, a European style kitchen & disappearing walls of aluminum and glass. 1 parking space and a gigantic stgorage space are included. A roof deck offers 360 degreeeviews of the city. The Lighthouse Lofts are in the center of the dynamic SOMA neighborhood, which continues to evolve with new shops, restaurants and nightlife. Easy acces to freeways and downtown. Close to Muni & BART."
Open House: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4pm

More SoMa open houses this way >>

SOMA

COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

PARKLETS WANTED

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In time for the fifth anniversary of SF Planning's Pavement to Parks program, the department is issuing a call for new parklet proposals. Members of the public are invited to submit between April 13 and May 29, after checking out the guidelines posted here. This is Planning's first open call for parklets since the spring of 2013, and the process is designed to give all San Franciscans a chance to put up mini-parks, not just restaurants and shops, though we love their parklets too. [Pavement to Parks; previously/Photo: Dylan Pilaar]

COMMENTS

DEVELOPMENT WATCH

Housing Planned Next to Still-Empty Harding Theater on Divis

The old Harding Theater on Divisadero and Hayes has been sitting empty for years, trashed and covered with graffiti. At one point its owners wanted to turn it into condos, but their plans were dashed by a neighborhood preservation group that wanted the theater restored without condos or retail. The theater has been on and off the market since the condo proposal fell through. It sits next to a trash-covered empty lot covered that belongs to the owner of the Harding, and now that owner, Michael Klestoff, has turned his attention to developing just the empty lot. An application for nine one-bedroom units with a shared roof deck is making its way through Planning at the moment, according to Hoodline.

There’s no word on what will happen to the Harding >>

NOPA

COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

POPULAR

SETBACKS

Recently merged real estate websites Zillow and Trulia could lose hundreds of thousands of listings on April 7 now that partner Listhub, which is owned by News Corp., has terminated its contract with Trulia 16 months early. The decision to end the contract was triggered by the merger. Although Zillow Group filed a restraining order to keep the listings on its sites, a judge decided against Zillow this week. Zillow has been signing new contracts for direct MLS feeds and creating its own data platform in effort to minimize the impact of the lost listings. See everyone on Redfin, then? [SF Business Times]

COMMENTS

ON THE MARKET

Rare Glen Park Knockout Advertises Tech Buses, Period Charm

With its village atmosphere and hillside views of downtown, Glen Park is not short on charm, but the housing stock itself tends to veer between homely and somewhat frumpily huge (we're looking at you, giant house that's visible all the way down the hill from BART). And so we were quite pleased to see that among the cottages and careworn Victorians of Roanoke Street sits a neat but nondescript white two-bedroom that's hiding some stunning details inside. The property, which last changed hands for (begin collective wince) all of $315,000 in 1990, just landed on the market looking for $1.495 million. At 1,700 square feet, the 1908 home is roomy for a two-bed, one-bath abode. It's got dark wood floors, beamed ceilings in the living room, and a row of stained-glass-panel windows in the dining room—details we expect from the older, grander homes in the northern part of the city but don't see as often down south.

Swoon-worthy pics this way >>

GLEN PARK

7 COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

AM LINKAGE

Mark Zuckerberg's Neighbor Drama in Palo Alto; Mission Wary of Off the Grid?

Photo via jhk&alk
· Zuckerberg lawsuit documents show animosity with would-be neighbor [NY Times]
· Teamsters protest working conditions for tech shuttle drivers [CBS]
· Off the Grid eyes Mission park, neighbors a bit wary [Capp St Crap]
· Drivers for Uber, Lyft not part of SF safety training [Examiner]
· Castro Cares outreach program is up and running [Hoodline]
· Developer pageant for $6 billion Concord naval redevelopment hits final stretch [SF Business Times]
· The complete business case for converting street parking into bike lanes [CityLab]

COMMENTS

3 DAYS AGO

CURBED SF FLICKR POOL

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PIER 70 WIRE

Before one of the city's biggest new developments begins construction at Pier 70, the pier will play host to the San Francisco Street Food Festival. The festival used to take over six blocks in the Mission but was booted after it grew too large for the neighborhood. Pier 70 currently offers up lots of open space and great views of the bay, making it the perfect home for the August festival. [Eater SF]

COMMENTS

PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

Department of Public Works to Test Wall Paint That Pees Back

Photo: St. Pauli Pinklet Zurück via SFGate
No one wants to confront a public urinator. Aside from the sketchy stranger factor, any good samaritan-slash-neighborhood nag will have the laws of hydraulics working against them and should thus think twice, for the same reasons you don't sneak up behind someone operating a garden hose. In effort to shame the shameless, the city is looking for places to test a new wall coating that redirects an, er, stream right back at its source, onto the feet of the perp himself. The coating, Ultra-Ever Dry by Ultra-tech, is what waste-management professionals classify as "hydrophobic," and it has already met with success in the red-light district of Hamburg, where a sign warns, "Do Not Pee Here. We Pee Back."

Where should they test it first? >>

4 COMMENTS

4 DAYS AGO

ON THE MARKET

Quirky Arts & Crafts Fixer Next to Bernal Hill Asks Just $850K

Less than a block from Bernal Hill sits a two-bedroom, shingle-covered Arts & Crafts home built back in 1912. The house isn't huge, with only 1,250 square feet, but it is filled with surprises in its current condition. The very vintage kitchen is tiled in bright red, yellow, and orange. More confusingly, the floor of one bedroom is covered in a rainbow of colored squares. The home at 99 Ellsworth looks out on the unique mix of vegetation that makes this part of Bernal Heights feel like some sort of magical urban desert. The home just hit the market asking $850,000, which is, of course, a bargain these days in Bernal.

How much over asking will this place go for? >>