January 6, 2016 · 8:03 pm

Meet Go, Cat, Go!, The Inner Sunset’s Cat Consultancy

Hoodline, 1/28/15

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After more than a decade working with people who’ve adopted cats, Daniel Quagliozzi launched Go Cat, Go!, a consulting service that promotes understanding between felines and their guardians. Quagliozzi, an Inner Sunset resident who spent 13 years with the SF Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, now makes home visits so he can help clients find their way back from feline crises.

“You need to be somewhere in between a social worker and a cat advocate, so my experience with SFSPCA got me where I am now,” said Quagliozzi. His decision to launch a private consultancy was born from frustration regarding the limitations of the telephone. “I launched a business where I could go to people’s homes and see the problem in the environment where the cat is more comfortable. I try to interpret what’s going on for people to help them make sense of it.”

In a typical day, Quagliozzi sees a handful of clients in and around San Francisco and deals with a broad spectrum of cat behavior issues, including (but not limited to) litter box avoidance, spraying, aggression, undersocialized behavior, scratching, and excessive meowing. “My general fee for a first consultation in the city is $125, but for Inner Sunset residents, I offer a $25 discount,” he said, since he lives in the neighborhood. Each client receives 30 days of free correspondence for “troubleshooting,” and follow-up visits are $75 each.

Go Cat, Go! launched in 2013, but Quagliozzi said his business is now sustainable, adding that strong word of mouth and social media have helped him grow the business quickly. “I like to think I’m a good representation of San Francisco people, and my approach is unconventional, but it’s pretty straightforward. I’ll tell people that they’re effing up if they are.”

Quagliozzi’s top priority is resolving problems so cats can stay in their homes. “For me, when you say you’re going to surrender your animal, that’s life or death,” he said, explaining that adult cats surrendered to shelters have a hard time being adopted. “My objective is to avoid that suffering both in the animal and in the human being. When the human-animal bond breaks, that’s usually when the shit hits the fan. Or the rug.”

Since starting Go Cat, Go!, Quagliozzi was cast in Animal House, a reality TV show. “It’s kind of like ‘Extreme Makeover’ for animal shelters, only we’re not showing up with a big bankroll.” Last year, he shot a pilot in rural Othello, Wash., where Animal House “rallied a community together to build their shelter.” Program producers are currently seeking a network distribution deal so they can shoot additional episodes.

“The show really touches my heart because it’s about shelter work and changing shelter environments so they can save more animals or just serve their communities better,” said Quagliozzi, who plans to attend next week’s 4th annual “Be Mine” party at SFSPCA where attendees can enjoy a catwalk fashion show, cocktails and a “pop-up (REAL) tattoo parlor,” according to the event flyer.

Go, Cat, Go! Cat Behavior Consulting offers a $25 discount to Inner Sunset residents. For more information, call Quagliozzi at (415) 806-1351.

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January 6, 2016 · 8:01 pm

Century-Old Auxiliary Water Supply System Gets New Ashbury Heights Tank

Hoodline, 1/21/15

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And now, we bring news of a brand-new 500,000-gallon storage tank which now feeds the city’s century-old backup water system.

But first, some background. After San Francisco’s water supply failed during the 1906 earthquake and fire, city engineers developed the Auxiliary Water Supply System, a standalone high-pressure network fed by reservoirs, cisterns, fireboats and pumping stations.

After over a century, the AWSS is badly in need of repair; as part of that work, the Ashbury Street tank, a 500,000-gallon reservoir, has been completely rebuilt.

Below is a photo of the Ashbury tank pumphouse taken sometime prior to 1915. You can see that it looks much like the building does 100 years later (above), still sitting pretty at Clayton & 17th Street.

(Internet Archive)

Even in 2015, the AWSS is the only system of its kind in the United States. Three reservoirs located on Nob Hill, Twin Peaks and Ashbury Heights are linked to 135 miles of pipeline capable of carrying fresh water, as well as seawater from the Bay. As a backup, 172 cisterns with a combined storage capacity of 11 million gallons are located throughout the city.

Although the city’s water system hasn’t experienced a significant failure recently, SFFD uses the AWSS several times each year to respond to multi-alarm fires.

The storage tanks used by the AWSS are maintained at specific levels and are situated at higher elevations to maximize water pressure. At 491 feet above sea level, the Ashbury Tank is capable of producing pressures up to 241 pounds per square inch, compared to the 50 PSI output of regular hydrants. High-pressure hydrants are thicker and larger than typical hydrants.

Each AWSS hydrant is color-coded to the reservoir it draws from. Red-topped hydrants are connected to the Ashbury tank, black are fed from the Twin Peaks reservoir, and blue are connected to the Jones Street tank.

Hoodline/Walter Thompson

Upgrades to the system are funded by a series of Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response bond measures that passed in 2010 and 2014. These measures also cover the cost of a new Public Safety building, upgrades to firehouses and other repairs and improvements that impact first responders. Replacing the Ashbury Heights tank cost approximately $3 million and came out of the ESER 2010 core facilities budget.

The ESER bond measures will fund the construction of approximately 30 new cisterns, largely in western neighborhoods. Rarely used, these auxiliary tanks are located beneath intersections and are marked by a ring of bricks.

You may have noticed the stones around the city, but probably didn’t realize exactly what they meant. This underground cistern, located at Shrader & Frederick, was built in 1908 and originally had a 75,000-gallon capacity:

Hoodline/Walter Thompson

While photographing the cistern at Shrader & Frederick, a passer-by walking a dog asked what we were shooting. After receiving an explanation, she expressed surprise. “We keep that much water under the street? I had no idea!”

And there you have it: a quick history lesson on where your water comes from, plus good news about infrastructure repairs that should keep the city hydrated for years to come.

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January 6, 2016 · 7:58 pm

The Louies And The News: Saying Goodbye After 28 Years

Hoodline, 1/12/15

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After 28 years of selling newspapers directly to Sunset customers on weekend mornings, Daniel and Eric Louie are retiring from the news hawker game this weekend.
For Eric, a weekend job he stumbled into while selling candy in fifth grade helped fuel a desire to become a journalist. Daniel, his father, has shaken hands with local politicos, met thousands of his neighbors and become what he calls “the mayor of Irving Street.”
In 1987, then 10-year-old Eric approached an agreeable news vendor outside Uncle Benny’s Doughnut Shop to ask if he could share the spot to sell school candy. “When the [newspaper delivery] driver came by, he asked, ‘you can sell candy, can you sell papers?’ and I said, ‘yeah, I can do it,’” Eric told us.
Eric showed up the next Saturday and started working. Once a crime reporter in Stockton, Eric now owns a home in San Leandro where he works as a video news cameraman and caterer, but he’s been coming back on weekends over the last year to spend more time with his father. Daniel took over the business when Eric graduated from high school.
After that, Daniel would sell one pile of papers from Irving & 22nd on Saturdays and started a second corner outside a KFC at Irving & 20th on Sundays. At their peak, the father-and-son team sold about 100 copies of a combined early edition of the Chronicle/Examiner each day, enough to create an improvised chair.
Now, “my dad brings a seat, but I’m used to not having one,” said Eric. An average Saturday now consists of 18-20 sales, while Eric stands or leans against the facade of the donut shop.
In 1987, Eric said there were multiple news vendors between 9th and 19th along the commercial strips on Irving and Judah. “It used to be that on Sundays, this was a very quiet, seemingly remote location and there was really no activity,” said Daniel. “Now, there are a lot of people conducting commerce on Sundays.” With the arrival of Walgreens, Starbucks and other corporate retailers, there’s “a loss of local, historical or traditional neighborhood flavors,” he said.
“On Sundays, there’d be no cars parked here and all the businesses would be closed,” said Eric, who noted that a large influx of Asian-American residents in the 1980s changed the area’s character. He described a childhood incident in which a neighbor threatened to call police because someone lit fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year. “Now, the cops will escort the lion dancers as they blow up firecrackers,” said Eric.
Many factors have combined to erode street newspaper sales, such as a shift to digital content and a gradual decline in the number of elderly customers. “A lot of the older folks want something in hand to read,” said Daniel. “They haven’t become accustomed to reading online because they don’t have access or they’re not attuned to using a computer.” After the Chronicle started selling to local convenience stores, grocery stores and supermarkets, news hawkers took a big hit, Daniel said. “People would do one-stop shopping, plus they felt newspapers were being sold at a discount.”
Both Louies said they enjoy the strong social aspect of selling papers, but “it’s a good decision at this time, just to move on to different things,” said Daniel as Eric nodded in agreement. “It’s good money when you’re 10 years old,” said Eric, “and I have to say, for a little bit, it was more profitable to sell newspapers than write newspapers.”
Daniel and Eric Louie will sell their final editions of the Sunday Chronicle on January 18th, and have invited customers and well-wishers to say their goodbyes on Saturday morning. If you’d like to be one of the Louies’ final customers, you’ll find them outside Benny’s Doughnuts at 2049 Irving St, starting at 8am.

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