The new year is off to a start and it's been a doozy for the Upper Haight so far.

As you may have heard, the Haight/Stanyan intersection has already seen two violent crimes this week: a shooting early Tuesday morning and a stabbing that ensued after an altercation involving a skateboard and a dog, which occurred Wednesday evening.

In happier news: fresh local dining options. El Rancho Grande is marching ahead with renovations to open soon (above), as is DragonEats (schedule TBD). And Ginza Japanese finally rounded off its first week of business this week.

And In business shuffles and closures, the week saw Rusu shut its doors, Ambiance is closed for renovation until April, as well as vacancies at the former HYA and Tatyana (both at a cool $12K/month), and the former Shoe Biz space at 1420 Haight. And, lest we forget, the former Haight Ashbury Vintage (1711) remains shuttered and empty.

If you're looking to start the year with some civic discourse, the Park Station police department is hosting its monthly community meeting at the Park Station, 6pm January 12.

And the Park Station will begin its planning for (policing) 4/20 with local merchants at the Park Station community room January 20th, at 12 noon.

@HoodlineSF @uppercasing @virtuevision workers in action right now pic.twitter.com/tFNbtqzPXq

— Tyler Howarth (@tylr) December 31, 2015

For those following the saga of the mosaic murals at the Fei Tian Academy, we can report that the murals have been removed. According to tipster Matt Freeman, who was helping rally support for the safe removal and storage of the murals, three of the six are being stored in the school's driveway at 1950 Page St.; the whereabouts of the remaining three are unknown, with school officials refusing to respond to queries about them.

Art removal this morning at the old Boys & Girls club, current Fei Tian Academy pic.twitter.com/jCPPlMQZSE

— chris thacker (@alternapop) December 31, 2015