SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — There’s a new community resource center coming to San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood.

The youth violence prevention group United Playaz broke ground on the project on Thursday.

It’s happening near Howard and Russ Streets in San Francisco.

“It’s going to be a resource community center built for literacy and re-entry services and everything else in-between that the community needs,” said Rudy Corpuz Jr., Executive Director of United Playaz said.

Just two doors down from its first location on Howard Street, United Playaz is expanding to a second location.

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“When you look at the statistics, people who can’t read by the third grade most likely end up in prison. And so, we want to teach kids, not only how to read, but to understand what they’re reading,” Corpuz said.

Several members of the organization have spent serious time in the criminal justice system.

The goal is to make sure kids in the next generation don’t follow in their footsteps.

“I was arrested in my development as a young man, because I gravitated toward that street and that’s what this building is about, so these young people could gravitate towards this positivity that the city got to offer,” Patrick, a United Playaz team member said.

The City of San Francisco says this $20 million expansion was made possible because of a total of $15.4 million in federal, state and city support.

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Of that, $9.4 million came from the city.

“The fact that they are here today and doing this work, and want to do this work and want to help change and save lives, is extraordinary,” Mayor London Breed said. “You don’t get this kind of combination of support anywhere else, I think, in this city.”

Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi was also there to present a $4 million check from U.S. Congress.

“This building, will be to dispel fear and isolation and restore it with hope and community, peace, peace for people,” Pelosi said. “This building will be a manifestation of the respect that we have for the dignity and worth of every person, that it is our responsibility to help meet their needs and to understand the resource that they are to the community.”

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And they’ve got the support of the Golden State Warriors, who share the same district.

Organizers say the team has agreed to help put in the roof when the time comes.

“This is an effort around everybody. It takes the hood to save the hood,” Corpuz said.

The center is projected to open by February of next year.

The San Francisco Giants front office has improved over the past few years.

While the team hasn’t played as well as many fans have hoped for, this past offseason was a positive indication of what’s to come for the future of the organization.

If they can continue to spend money the way they have and land high-end free agents, the Giants will eventually find the success they’re looking for.

This season saw them start slower than they had hoped, but May was a much better month for San Francisco. With players hopefully getting healthy soon, too, this could be the floor for how good the team could truly be.

Outside of landing free agents, keeping their own talent is just as important.

Camilo Doval, who made a name for himself as one of the better closers in baseball over the past few seasons, is the perfect example of that.

According to Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants offered Doval a contract in the $50 million range last year.

“The Giants demonstrated they want to make it a long-term arrangement with Doval, offering him a multiyear deal in the $50 million range last year, the Chronicle learned. The sides were unable to come to an agreement, perhaps because another closer, Edwin Díaz, had received a $102 million deal from the Mets not long before.”

Making a long-term commitment to the flame-throwing right-hander would be a wise decision.

Over his four-year big league career, the 26-year-old has posted a 2.77 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. He had 27 saves in 2022 and 39 in 2023.

Having a lockdown closer to win games is as important as any other position on the roster.

Doval, who owns a 2.78 ERA this season in 22 2/3 innings pitched, is just that.

He’s struggled with command issues at times, including this year, as he’s walked 15 hitters. However, his 29 strikeouts are also impressive.

Doval doesn’t hit free agency until 2028 but he could be an excellent candidate to get paid early.

“We want to comply with the city and it’s really expensive to do so, so we’re trying to figure it out,” Kaufman said.

For now, it has drastically scaled down its offerings to meet the city’s definition of providing complementary incidental food, which allows businesses to give away simple snacks and drinks without a health permit. The goal is to keep the space operational as leadership figures out its path forward, Kaufman added. 

“The Center is really this urban oasis where, for almost a decade, people have come to connect with themselves, connect with each other, and have respite in the middle of the city,” he said. “I think it holds a really unique place in the city of San Francisco, both in the kind of events and workshops that happen here, but also the kind of community that’s built here.” 

The Center needs conditional use authorization to run events and its beverage business in a residential district. Currently, “none of The Center’s activities—food, beverage, entertainment, institutional—are properly permitted,” Planning Department spokesperson Dan Sider told The Standard via email. “We’ve been trying to help them remedy this for the last three years.”