Membership Meetings: 2nd Thursdays ~ 7-9pm
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, SF, CA 94117 (except August)

HANC Membership Meeting - April 2023

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

It would be an understatement to say that 2020 was a year like no other.  We are still living through the global pandemic and economic crisis that both hit us last year.  Nationally, we had an impeachment, a primary election, and a general election.  Here’s a recap of 2020 from a very local perspective—HANC and the Haight-Ashbury.

We ended 2019 with a celebration of HANC’s 60th anniversary (our first meeting was in October, 1959, and our bylaws were adopted in March, 1960).  We had a new Supervisor (Dean Preston).  Our new District Attorney (Chesa Boudin) would be sworn in in January.  Our new Park Station Police Captain (Renee Pagano) had just started in November.  The Panhandle Playground had reopened in November, after 7 months of construction.  The Coalition for a Complete Community (CCC) held a community meeting in December to discuss the long-range development of the 730 Stanyan site.

By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

As you may remember, there was a shooting on February 8, 2020 at Haight and Ashbury.  A few weeks later, on February 24, two pedestrians were injured in a vehicle hit-and-run.  The victims in both incidents were homeless or formerly homeless individuals.

There were community meetings about the shooting at the Bindery on February 18 and later that same week at the Park Branch Library.  HANC was planning to discuss both incidents at our March, 2020 meeting, but the earliest response to the Covid-19 pandemic was to limit or prohibit gatherings, and the meeting was canceled.

San Francisco moved into California’s purple Covid-19 tier on November 28.  A (limited) curfew has been imposed from November 30 to December 21.  This means that outdoor gatherings are not allowed between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.  You are still allowed to be outside, alone or with people from your household, and you are still allowed to travel to or from an essential job at these hours.  More detail on what is and is not allowed can be found here:  https://sf.gov/news/sf-assigned-states-purple-tier-will-roll-back-many-non-essential-activities . With increasing cases and hospitalizations, another order, with additional restrictions, was issued on December 4:  https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/files/C19-07-Shelter-in-Place-Health-Order.pdf .

By James Sword, HANC Board

Our November general meeting was well attended by those logging on, calling in, and following a live twitter account of the meeting – which has become the norm.  We’re repeating a couple of announcements from the meeting: 1) if you are calling in to attend our meetings, please recheck your call-in number, so you can avoid possible high charges; 2) The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council is very sad to learn about the passing of former board member, and long-time Haight Ashbury merchant, Dave Groeschel of Mom's Body Shop. Dave embodied the Haight-Ashbury in many ways and was a good soul.

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

At HANC’s December General Membership meeting we will look at how our neighbors cast their vote for national, state and local races.  We will look at the three sub areas of our neighborhood - five precincts that make up the North Panhandle, seven precincts that make up the "Flatlands" and five precincts that make up the Hill precincts.  We will compare votes in selected races - President and Supervisor - to earlier elections in the same sub-areas and see what we may learn : hint—Trump’s vote INCREASED in the Haight Ashbury, more in some areas than others but an increase occurred in all three sub area

 Haight Ashbury Precincts

 

By Christin Evans, HANC Board

At our December meeting, we will discuss the state of storefront vacancies on Haight Street.  In 2016, when the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association (HAMA) started counting vacancies, Haight Street had 9 vacant storefronts, about 6% of the 150 storefronts in the neighborhood.  In February 2020, the number of vacancies had risen to 21 or about 15%.  And, no surprise, since March 2020, another 10 vacancies have been announced bringing the current vacancy total to 31 or 21%.  With the economic recovery far from certain in 2021, we might expect that number to rise further -- could we see as many as 1 in 4 or 1 in 3 storefronts vacant before we reach bottom? 

By Tes Welborn, Out-going HANC President

It's been a real privilege to serve as HANC president these last two years – thank you!  I have a hard time thinking back to summer, two years ago, when we were figuring out who would be willing to perform which officer or board position.  Many of us were supporting Prop C, a truly historic measure to tax the rich and significantly reduce homelessness, and were thrilled that it passed, despite the Mayor's opposition. That fall, the first Haight Street cannabis dispensary application was made. The Chinese School of the Arts proposed expansion – recently approved in fall 2020.  HANC discussed housing demolitions, often a way to eliminate rental units while building monster-sized homes. And in December 2018, the board discussed the proposed rental registry – likely to be approved December 2020!

  1. Update on 730 Stanyan Development
  2. Our City, Our Home Oversight Committee Meets
  3. CAMP - Temporary Safe Sleeping Village
  4. Squaky Clean Gutter Queens Clean Haight Street
  5. Pay for HANC Membership Online or By Mail
  6. HANC Officer and Board Nominations are Open

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