12-01-04 | News

Non-Profit Delancey Street

Caf????(C) and Park in San Francisco Receive Complete Vista Lighting System

 

The park at Delancey Street’s Crossroads Caf????(C) is illuminated with new Vista Professional Outdoor Lighting for improved aesthetics and night-time safety.

Delancey Street, San Francisco’s most successful non-profit rehabilitation center, had dreams of renovating the landscape lighting at their downtown Crossroads Caf????(C) and its adjoining park.

The Cafe, which is part of the Delancey Street Foundation, is located near San Francisco’s Embarcadero, the busy bayfront thoroughfare that overlooks the Bay Bridge and dockside piers. Like other Delancey Street ventures, Crossroads Caf????(C) is staffed and operated solely by Delancey Street residents, most of whom are ex-felons and substance abusers.

A supporter of Delancey Street’s mission, Vista Professional Outdoor Lighting of Simi Valley, California, offered to provide the lighting fixtures, transformers, plus design and technical assistance, to upgrade the Crossroads Park. “Cruz Perez, marketing vice president at Vista, was extremely supportive of our goal to revitalize the park,” said Dawn Carpenter, a Delancey Street spokesperson.

“Thanks to Cruz, Vista supplied more than 50 fixtures, plus the equipment and technical staff to help install the project,” said Carpenter. “The installation was completed one very long day in September,” said Carpenter. “Crossroads Park is now a beautiful feature of the caf????(C) and offers greater night-time safety and security to residents.”

Vista personnel Mike McPherson, sales manager for northern California, and Robert Betsch, technical specialist, were involved from the planning through the hands-on installation. McPherson specified the products that would be required and Betsch worked out the design and installation plan. “Thanks to Delancey Street resident-electricians Craig Douglass and Michael Wunder, all the preliminary work, such as running the main line wires, was completed before we arrived,” said McPherson.

Vista team members join Delancey Street residents at the Crossroads Caf????(C) Park for a group photo after the on-site installation. (Left to Right) Robert Betsch, Vista technical specialist, Michael Wunder, Delancey Street electrician, Dawn Carpenter, Delancey Street spokesperson, Michael McPherson, Vista sales manager and Craig Douglass, Delancey Street electrician.

“This made the job move much faster so that the entire project was completed by sundown?EUR??,,????'??? when we put the lights on to a very appreciative crowd. In fact, that was the night the Giants’ Barry Bonds hit #207 and we could hear the roar of the ballpark crowd,” he said.

The Crossroads Caf????(C) and park are located just two blocks from the Giants’ new SBC Park in China Basin. During Giants-Dodger games, Crossroads Park is open to local fans for special events.

Delancey Street was founded in 1971 by Mimi Silbert, a San Francisco psychologist with a PhD in criminology. The foundation provides a structured educational and living environment for men and women to learn the skills they need to rebuild their lives. It is supported solely by revenue generated by the residents.

Currently, 400 people live in the Delancey Street Center, near the caf????(C) and park. The residents live and work together, pooling all of their income earned through a range of business activities, including the caf????(C) and bookstore, moving and trucking companies, the award-winning Delancey Street restaurant and other ventures.

The foundation has 33 years of impressive achievements including over 10,000 formerly-illiterate people who have received high school equivalency degrees, over 1,000 people who have graduated with a diploma from Delancey’s State Accredited Post-Secondary Vocational Academy, a three-year program and more than 2,000 homeless people who have been moved into permanent housing.

The successful Delancey Street Foundation has been profiled in the national media, network broadcast interviews, the business press and studied by researchers worldwide. “The Foundation has pioneered an entrepreneurial pathway out of poverty,” said Delancey’s Carpenter, “thanks to the efforts and generosity of companies like Vista Professional Outdoor Lighting.”