By Lisa Awbrey, HANC Vice-President, and Tes Welborn, HANC Board

HANC’s July 13 general public meeting at Flywheel Coffee Roasters, 672 Stanyan Street (between Haight and Page) was well attended.  It was another in our continued hybrid meetings, both in person and online via Zoom. We discussed the organization and influence of Dark Money, Tech billionaires, Super PACs and recently formed Astroturf groups, and how they continue to target our local elections. The speakers included independent journalist and author Christopher Cook, and HANC Board members and local activists Nate Horrell and Lisa Awbrey.  They provided amazing information on links between local politicians and big money donors, naming names, and showing who sponsors misinformation. This was documented in diagrams and charts.

We discussed the Merriam-Webster’s definition of astroturfing: 

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By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Board

Over this summer, SFMTA’s Bikeshare Program Director, Adrian Leung, announced to the neighborhood that a double-size bike docking station to rent Lyft/Motivate bicycles was slated to be installed at the southeast corner of Page and Cole. This would take up two parking spaces.

As you may recall from our actions in 2016 when this program started, HANC Membership and Board took a vote and spearheaded the opposition. The result was we were able to push back any bike docking stations on the stretch of Page St from Masonic to Stanyan. To that end a station was placed on the wrong side of Masonic (west side on Page) to which HANC Board intervened and the station was moved to the east side on Page St. The other station was installed in the cloverleaf on the north side of Fell & Stanyan intersection.

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By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Board

WHEN: September-October TBD

HANC will be hosting a Town Hall for its members and surrounding community to introduce the Race & Equity in all Planning (REP-SF)¹ Citywide People’s Plan.

HANC has been a member of REP-SF since its inception in August 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. Its mission and purpose is: “Needing to change the City’s approach to planning and land use, REP-SF works proactively for Desegregation, Affordability, Culture & Arts, Stability and Sustainability (DACSS solutions framework)². San Francisco’s political priorities, bolstered by mainstream media, rely on trickle-down, profit-driven, market-based approaches which only result in increasingly expensive housing, and displacement. REP-SF works to create new systems that deliberately address all the components of DACSS to achieve equity for people of color, immigrants, people with low and no incomes, seniors and people with disabilities.“

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September: Newsom Targets SF Housing, and Ballot Propositions E and M

October: The November Ballot: Propositions C, H, L, and O

November: Bikeshare, and Non-Violent Peace Movements. Panel: Adrian Leung, SFMTA’s bike share and bike parking manager, David Hartsough, a Haight-Ashbury resident on non-Violent Peace Making and Non-Violent Peace Movements

December: 19th Assembly District Assemblymen Phil Ting, and How the Haight Voted

January: City College Trustees, and Returning from the Pandemic (started hosting hybrid meetings). Panel: Susan Solomon (City College Board of Trustees), Alan Wong (City College Board Trustee)

February: Affordable Housing and the Housing Element

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By Tab Buckner, HANC Board

HANC’s June 8th general membership meeting focused on policing in our neighborhood and citywide. The hybrid event hosted Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone in person at Flywheel Coffee Roasters. Melissa Hernandez, Legislative Aide to District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston and Park Station Police Captain Jack Hart joined the panel via zoom.

“Outdated Policies”

Max Carter-Oberstone has been on the Police Commission for one and a half years. He said that he and his colleagues have focused on addressing “very outdated” policies that have been on the books for decades. An example is the collection and redemption of evidence at a crime scene that needs to reflect technological advancements that include DNA use. Another area of reform is phasing out an emphasis on low-level infractions such as traffic stops that extract a large amount of time and money and tend to disproportionately affect People of Color.

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By Lisa Awbrey, HANC Vice-President

A disturbing trend in San Francisco’s recent elections is unfolding. Venture capitalists, Tech, and real estate billionaires are spending millions of dollars to control the outcomes of our local district elections. They slander and blame democratically elected progressives with a goal of removing them from office.

Please join HANC at our next public meeting on Thursday July 13, 2023 @ 7 PM where we will discuss the organization and influence of dark money in local and future elections. We will discuss recently formed (and billionaire funded) astro turf groups and Super PACs like GrowSF, TogetherSF, RescueSF, Neighbors for a BetterSF, Vote&ChangeSF, SOAR, and Hi5D5. The stated objective of these well-funded and organized groups is to target and remove truly progressive Supervisors Dean Preston, Connie Chan, Hillary Ronen and Shamann Walton from the Board of Supervisors and replace them with moderates. 

The newly formed local neighborhood groups say they promote cleanliness, safety and health, along with “law & order” campaigns; frequent tactics include stoking fears about crime and blaming progressive office holders as the cause.

Your ability as a community member and voter to weigh in on local policy and decision making is being targeted. All San Franciscans are impacted daily by decisions and policy making to do with issues like housing, public transit, schools, unhoused neighbors and health care.

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By Danielle McVay, HANC Board

A quick internet search of “driverless cars San Francisco” will quickly solicit articles with fiery commentary and headlines such as “Fire chief warns against ‘unleashing’ self-driving taxis in San Francisco” (The Guardian), “San Francisco may soon get 24/7 driverless cabs. City leaders are fuming.” (The Washington Post) and a particularly funny video on the ABC 7 news site “Journalist documents wild ride inside Waymo self-driving car in SF'' which shows a very frustrated journalist give up on her Waymo ride and return to her private vehicle to make the trip to pick up her son at a popular destination in The City.

Most concerning is a letter from San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 sent on June 26th to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ahead of a vote initially scheduled for June 29th but currently postponed till July 13th to expand driverless cars offerings. The letter states “autonomous vehicles have a demonstrated track record of interrupting response to emergency incidents and making dangerous situations even worse….blocked our emergency response to a mass shooting in San Francisco's Mission District”.

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

Installation of Additional Bike Share Station

An SFMTA map dated January 1, 2022 (but showing installations from June 2017 through July 2022) shows 8 BikeShare stations installed in the Haight Ashbury: Fell at Stanyan (19 bikes), Waller at Stanyan (17 bikes), Carl at Cole (23 bikes), Page at Masonic (31 bikes), Haight at Lyon (27 bikes), Broderick at Oak (27 bikes), Central at Fell (31 bikes), and Grove at Masonic (31 bikes). There are additional stations nearby at Frederick and Arguello (19 bikes), McAllister at Arguello (19 bikes), Parker at McAllister (27 bikes), McAllister at Baker (27 bikes) and Grove at Divisadero (27 bikes). The map can be found at Bike Share Installation Map.

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