By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

On March 17th, in a unanimous vote, the Recreation and Parks Commission approved a 5- year lease agreement with the San Francisco Deltas for the use of Kezar Stadium for professional soccer.   The approval also included ending a 25-year ban on the sale of alcohol at any such facility. The agreement allows 15 to 20 games a year at Kezar and practice 5 days a week during the season at Kezar and at Boxer stadium in Balboa Park. The lease is to start in 2017.

The Deltas have agreed to pay Rec and Park $460k for one time capital improvements, mainly sound and lighting improvements necessary for the televising of the games, a requirement of the league to which they belong. In addition a $30,000 yearly fee will be charged for the use of the stadium, which by law must go to the General Fund of the City and cannot be earmarked for the stadium’s specific use unless so budgeted by the department. Kezar has never received a specific line time budget by Rec and Park over its 25-year life.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Housing and Land Use Board Member and Member of the Kezar Stadium Advisory Committee

For the entire 35 year history of the “new” Kezar stadium Rec and Park (or as it is known by long time San Franciscans, “Wreck the Park”) has attempted to transform the facility into a “pay to play” venue, generating revenue for the department,

HANC was asked in 1987 to support a campaign for a general obligation bond to demolish the derelict hulk of the old sixty-foot-high, 60,000-seat stadium that was left empty when Rec and Park and the 49ers left it for the friendlier confines of Candlestick Park. Neither had any plans or concerns for the site. They were happy leaving it to rot.

The community did, however, have a vision: reclaim the old Poly High School site and the old Kezar site and extend the residential community to Poly and Golden Gate Park to Kezar.

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February 26, 2016

San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission501 Stanyan Street
San Francisco, CA  94117

Dear Commission:

The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council ("HANC") met with Brian Helmick of the San Francisco Deltas Football Club, and while we find him to be a nice guy and have good intentions, our board voted against their proposal "as presented."  The board based its decision on the following core points:

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By Dave Groeschel, HANC Merchant Liason

On February 17, a partnering meeting with agencies involved in this project was held. The purpose was to set up guidelines for communication between the different entities and set goals to make sure the project is completed safely and swiftly. There will also be disruptions to parking and traffic during the estimated 18-month-long project. The project is expected to begin again sometime in March 2016.

DPW will assign an inspector full-time to the project. PG&E and Ghilotti Bros. will also have safety people on the project. When there will be digging, the safety reps will meet in the morning to go over maps of where gas lines are located. There will be more “pothole” digging to confirm.

All workers will undergo additional safety training. If there is a gas line hit, then they will notify the fire department and the public can use the SF311 app to report problems and get information.

This project will impact parking. There will be periods when spaces will be marked as tow-away to accommodate buses needing the extra space when the center of the street is torn up. There will be other times that spaces are needed for equipment parking or storing of materials.

By James Sword, HANC President

On Thursday, January 14th, both HANC and HAMA were invited to give presentations to the Board of Supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee, which is made up of Supervisors Breed, Peskin, and Yee. Both HAMA and HANC provided information similar to that presented at the press conference HANC called in October, and were followed by representatives from PG&E, CAPUC, SFPUC, DPW, & SFFD.

Ironically one of the topics on the agenda prior to this hearing was a recommendation by the civil grand jury that DPW have closer oversight because construction projects have been poorly managed. The recommendations by the civil grand jury for closer oversight of DPW were all ignored.

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By Rupert Clayton, HANC Board

Early in 2016, the city is due to review the pilot program under which it has been allowing the car-sharing companies ZipCar, City CarShare and Getaround to rent on-street parking spaces. The program was set up in July 2013 to run until August 30, 2015, and it’s not entirely clear why the review did not take place earlier.

The original expectation was that up to 900 parking spaces across the city might be converted from a mix of metered and unmetered use to be dedicated to specific Car-Share Organizations (CSOs). In fact, by July 2015, the three approved CSOs had only taken up 203 spaces. The pilot program required each CSO vehicle using an on-street space to be available at least 75 percent of the time during any given month. This clause allowed members of the “peer-to-peer” network Getaround to get a dedicated on-street parking space for $150 per month in Zone 2 (which covers most of the Haight-Ashbury), and still drive their cars 42 hours a week. Car-share spaces get an exemption from street-cleaning restrictions so that companies don’t have to move their vehicles; in exchange, the companies are supposed to clean their rented spaces themselves, which some have done better than others.

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By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Vice President

The Clean Power San Francisco (CPSF) program is moving along nicely. It is set to officially launch in late spring in the Southeast side of the city.  It will include all those who requested, through the website, to receive service early.  There will be two tiers: Green (30-50% renewable) and SuperGreen (100% renewable), both designed to meet or beat PG&E's current rates.

But, as SF Clean Energy Advocates (SFCEA) expected, more obstacles have been thrown in by SFPUC (the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission) and whoever else is seeking to slow things down. SFPUC suddenly replaced its CFO, and the new CFO now wants a far more granular business plan than is necessary before the launch. At a recent commission meeting, an announcement was made that the launch may be delayed because of this.

SFCEA and its partners are preparing for such notice of a delay. We are forging ahead in moving the public information campaign with the current target launch date. If the SFPUC will not honor that date to the residents and businesses of our City then we will be calling on you to express strong public opinion and to apply whatever pressure to assure CleanPower SF launches on time. Sign up today at http://CleanPowerSF.org.

HANC President James Sword, center, and Haight Ashbury Merchants Association  Board Member Christin Evans, (left of James)  joined by representatives  of ProSF, Alamo Square Neighborhood Associatio , and North of Panhandle Neighborhood  Association at an October 26th Press Conference, calling on Supervisor Breed to conduct a hearing on five recent Haight Street gas leaks.

James Sword, President of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, called upon the Board of Supervisors to hold a hearing on a series of five gas leaks that occurred in one block of Haight Street between April and October which resulted in three evacuations of both businesses and residents, two “pauses” in the project to sort out the problem, and its final postponement in mid-October.  The project is still not completed and there are no known dates for its final completion.

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