Neighbors itching to yell ‘cut!’ to Potrero Hill film production
Alittle bit of showbusiness is going a longway over on Potrero Hill, where an HBO production crewfilming the gay-themed series “Looking” has converted a block-long industrial building into a temporary sound stage— and gobbled up all the parking around it in the process.
“They came in and put up no-parking signs one day, and they did it without any warning,” groused Joe Talmadge, owner of the neighboring World Gym at 16th and DeHaro streets, which boasts 4,000 members.
For the past month, he says, the block around the 103,000square-foot-warehouse— until recently the home of dressmaker Jessica McClintock— has been taken up by dressing trailers, food trucks, lighting and equipment vehicles, and an assortment of fancy cars reserved for the production crew.
“Unfortunately, the building was the only space that could be turned into a soundstage for them to continue season two of ‘Looking,’ ” said city Film Com-
mission executive Susannah Greason Robbins. “Otherwise, we were on the verge of losing the whole production to L.A., and we would have lost all the jobs that go with it.”
Supervisor Malia Cohen, whose district includes Potrero Hill, has jumped into the fray with legislation thatwould require the Film Commission to followthe same rules as every other city department by giving neighbors a 72-hour heads-up any time the film trucks come rolling in.
“The Film Commission has already demonstrated whom they serve and their priorities— and unfortunately, it’s not the community,” Cohen said. “I drafted this legislation to protect the neighborhood’s interest and to make sure the film industry doesn’t overstep the boundaries and trample over the peoplewho live here.”
The show’s producers tell us they’ve done everything to try to be good neighbors— including purchasing a stack of memberships to World Gym. In fact, they say they’ve spent $174,000 in the Potrero Hill area in the past month, buying everything from coffee and lunches to lumber for the set.
But executive producer Sarah Condon says finding space to shoot in the city has gotten “a little tougher.” The space the production crew used last season in the Mission was sold to a developer, and the old Exploratorium space it had hoped to use this season at the Palace of Fine Arts is reserved for a pair of tech conferences.
“The Hollywood community was a little nervous about shooting here for a number of reasons — part of it not having the same tax rebates as other cities and productions having trouble finding sound stages here,” Condon said. “But we were dead set to do it here, and it has paid off big time— we love the city, we love shooting here.”
She also said the show’s producers have just sent out notices to neighbors that they intend to start moving many of the trucks to a parking lot off Third and 16th streets thisweek. Except, that is, for the two or three days aweek when they’re actually shooting on the set.
World Gym owner Talmadge says he’ll believe it when he sees it.
“They’ve been making these promises for three weeks,” he said. Old vs. new: It ought to be quite a showat City Hall on Tuesday when the old-school brick-andmortar housing activists take on the techies over howto legalize Airbnb-style rentals.
Averitable who’s who of the affordable-housing cartel— Calvin Welch, Randy Shaw, Ted Gullicksen and Sue Hestor— plus restaurant and hotel workers union leader Mike Casey, former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and public relations exec Dale Carlson have all signed a letter opposing Board of Supervisors President David Chiu’s legislation to bring Airbnb into the fold, and with it $10 million to $14 million a year in taxes.
The old-timers are fine with legalizing the homeshares, but they want a 90-day-per-year cap on all rentals— something Chiu says would hurt peoplewho need the extra money from renting out rooms year-round to stay in their homes.
The activists represent some of the most politically savvy organizations in the city and have a long history of prevailing at the board.
On the other hand, short-term rentals are extremely popular and have the backing of the newtech money.
It should make for an interesting measure of the times.