About Steve

Viewpoints from the Publisher's View

CommunityJanuary Issue, 2010, Potrero View

By Steve J. Moss

Most San Franciscans aren’t born here, but rather are drawn to the City chasing a job, an education, a mate, or a dream.  New arrivals traverse the hills and valleys searching for a good time, which can easily be found in our clubs, art galleries, restaurants, parks, and museums.  The partying can last a decade – for some of us, almost a lifetime – before, with the arrival of kids or the passing of years, we drift down from the entertaining fog to land, feet now firmly on the ground, in a particular place.  San Francisco: a city with its own history, neighborhood personalities, natural environment, peculiar culture, and politically correct politics.  A place, like any other place, where a central concern is how to live a meaningful life.  And that’s when we start creating neighborhood communities.

Quick access to freeways and Caltrain has attracted a population that typically works one place and lives in another.  Still, Dogpatch and Potrero Hill are blessed by a neighborhood cohesion that was supposed to have gone out of style 30 years ago.  Many of us know the people on our block, and are greeted by neighborhood merchants by name.  Perhaps one out of every three residents is actively engaged in a local civic or nonprofit organization, school, or church; if we had neighborhood schools – an essential ingredient to creating fully healthy communities – the number would be even higher.  Throughout the area trash is being picked up, schools are being rejuvenated, parks are being reclaimed, and gardens are being planted by citizens who want to create a better place.

The rise in citizen engagement comes just in time to help bridge a growing gap in public services.  Federal, state, and local budget deficits are eating away at the public sector’s ability to effectively address social problems.  Government’s capacity to solve vexing challenges is likely to worsen before it gets better.  “We’re here to help you,” the punch line for an old joke about the federal government’s penchant to appear even when it wasn’t wanted, will soon become a necessary refrain from our neighbors.  Now more than ever, if we want the sidewalk in front of our house greened, or a local park made safer, we need to grab a shovel and get to work.

Being a community citizen isn’t easy; it’s certainly more challenging than trying out the latest hot restaurant.  Some of our neighbors can be annoying; others may seem wrong about issues that matter.  As with family members, they may talk too much, complain too loudly, and stand too close.  The loss of anonymity – an exquisite point of pleasure when many of us first experienced city living – can be painful, particularly when that overly-chatty neighbor always seems to be right outside the door just when we arrive home, tired from a day’s work.  Being a good community citizen requires patience, empathy, respect, and, when it comes to struggles over public assets, relentless openness.  

This View issue is dedicated to the people and organizations that provide the glue that makes our community whole.  It’s dedicated to you.  If you’re new to the neighborhood – or have just now drifted down from the clouds or found a way to settle in after a long commute – welcome.  Please join us at a local restaurant or café, or at one of the monthly meetings of our various civic organizations.  If you’ve been actively involved for awhile, thank you.  And for those rare natives among us, some of whom have been here for generations, our particular gratitude, for making room for the rest of us.