Supervisor Eric Mar: New plans for Alexandria

Woman of the Year Award

March is nationally recognized as Women's History Month and to celebrate, each member of the SF Board of Supervisors will be honoring an outstanding member of the community. I have chosen to honor a long-time activist, teacher and labor leader, Hene Kelly.

Kelly is an Outer Richmond District resident and an elected member of the Democratic County Central Committee. She is also on the Jewish Community Relations Council and serves as vice president and legislative director for the California Alliance for Retired Americans, which has a membership of 850,000. Also, she was just re-elected as the first woman to serve as the sergeant-at-arms for the San Francisco Labor Council.

Kelly recently concluded a 35-year career as a classroom teacher, during which she taught English, social studies and family life. She has won awards and gained notoriety for her creative teaching techniques in sex education and was the first Holocaust Studies coordinator for the SF Unified School District and has been a member of the executive board of the United Educators of San Francisco.

Her daughter and son are also educators. Edith is a Spanish teacher in Redwood City and Nathanael is a special education paraprofessional in San Francisco. She is married to Dennis Kelly, president of the United Educators of San Francisco. Hene, along with many other extraordinary women, will be honored at City Hall on Tuesday, March 30, at 3:30 p.m., in Room 250. Please join us to celebrate!

Alexandria Theatre Building Update

I wanted to give everyone an update on the proposed plans for the old Alexandria Theatre site on Geary Boulevard at 18th Avenue. My office has been advocating for a new mixed-use development in this vacant and blighted site. I am urging that this development also contain affordable on-site family housing and community benefits to complement our existing community-serving organizations in the Richmond.

My office just received word from the SF Planning Department that environmental documents should be issued within the next couple of months for the Alexandria development. The plans for this site have changed quite a bit over the last few years and many discussions have taken place between the developer, the Planning Department and community partners and neighbors of the site, such as the YMCA.

As of now, the proposed project consists of a Planned Unit Development (PUD), which includes an adaptive reuse of the Alexandria Theatre building and construction of a new 65,385-square-foot mixed-use building with subsurface parking on the site of the existing parking lot on 18th Avenue, just north of the Alexandria.

The mixed-use building would contain approximately 6,550 square feet of retail on the ground floor, including a small eatery, 46 residential units on four floors and underground parking. The garage would provide 136 parking spaces, including 84 commercial spaces through attendant-operated stacker parking, and 50 residential spaces, with two disabled parking spaces and 32 bicycle parking spaces on two levels.

The Alexandria is one of the key historic icons of our neighborhood. I, and other longtime residents, have fond movie-going memories in the unique Art Deco building.

Within the historic Alexandria Theatre, a 250-seat boutique theatre would remain on the upper level and a new, approximately 8,000-square-foot restaurant would be constructed on a new second floor, set slightly back from the auditorium walls. Many character-defining features of the theater would be retained, including the Art Deco features of the exterior, lobby and auditorium.

Changes to the exterior of the building consist of refurbishing the 1942-era blade sign and marquee, creating openings along 18th Avenue for storefronts, and protecting murals and decorative finishes within the auditorium and lobby. Please contact my office if you have ideas or concerns about the project.

Farmers' Market in the Richmond?

I am asking all of those interested in organizing a community farmers' market to get involved with Richmond District Residents for a Farmers' Market. A successful farmers' market in the Richmond would need a lot of community support to work, especially in the beginning.

We need people to participate in a planning committee, work on finding a site for the market, help with outreach and set up and break down of the market. My office has been in touch with the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which has agreed to help guide us through the process of setting up a farmers' market. Please contact my office if you would like more information or to get involved.

Coffee with Eric

On Thursday, March 18, I will be at the Zephyr Cafe, located at 3643 Balboa St., between 37th and 38th avenues, at 5 p.m. Come meet with me and other Richmond District residents and share what's on your mind!

San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar represents District 1.