November at HANC

Join us at our general meeting on Thursday, November 8, beginning at 7:00 pm, at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street, as we discuss the changes coming for Masonic, Oak, Fell, and Haight Streets.

2013 will be year of significant changes for the major streets in our neighborhood.  Oak and Fell Streets are slated to have new bulb outs, medians and a bike lane. On September 18^th the MTA approved a series of bulb outs and a raised median strip for Masonic from Geary to Fell. Work is expected to be well underway by next year.

Last month Supervisor Olague and the Planning Department announced a year long planning process for Haight Street, officially called the “ Haight Ashbury Public Realm Plan”. The year long planning process was set in motion by the two year old Haight Ashbury Merchants Association (HAMA), led by Christin Evans, who came up with some concepts to make Haight Street more compelling to the neighborhood's residents.

With all of this in motion HANC has asked James Shahamiri from the MTA and Alexis Smith from the Planning Department to present as well as Ms. Evans from HAMA.

How these three efforts will fit together and work for the residents and businesses of the Haight Ashbury is of keen interest. There seems to be a rather large “gap.” for example, in the Masonic street plan which ends at Fell while major issues of car, bicycle, pedestrian and transit connections and conflicts at Haight and Masonic goes unaddressed. Moreover, how the Planning Department enforces existing codes and policies on Haight Street has come under criticism from HANC, with the violation of permit requirements occurring at Whole Foods, which is now using Page and Haight Streets for unloading large trucks when such use was banned by their permit.

Haight Street is officially designated as a “neighborhood shopping district” yet tens of thousands visitors from the world come each year. It is also a “transit preferential street” in formal plans, yet cars, trucks and bicycles conflict with buses and pedestrians on a daily basis. Finally, Haight Street has more homes than shops and is a residential street as well as a commercial street. How these multi-uses are merged with what physical “improvements” are no simple matter and if all of us are to benefit, it must be done with all of our participation. So please come, Thursday, November 8 at 7 PM at 1833 Page street.

Help Save Kezar Gardens, HANC Recycling Center and Native Plant Nursery!  At a recent meeting with Mayor Ed Lee and his staff, there was openness to discuss the relocation of the recycling portion of our site WITHIN DISTRICT 5 and to GRANDFATHER in the nursery and garden plots that already exist at the site. 

This is good news. We need your help NOW more than ever.  The Mayor needs to hear from people like you who use this center and can articulate how it impacts your life in a positive way. 

Please take a few moments to take action NOW.  Email or write a letter to Mayor Ed Lee in support of his openness to relocate the center within District 5 and grandfather the gardens in their current location.  Request to keep this center OPEN until this process is complete to ensure this vital public service is maintained.

You can send email to the Mayor at:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or, you can send the Mayor a letter at

     Mayor Ed Lee

     City Hall, Room 200,

     One Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

     San Francisco, CA  94102

If you have written a letter or postcard of support previously, THANK YOU!  We ask that you reaffirm your support by contacting the Mayor again NOW to respond specifically to his action to look at the relocation potential. 

We deeply appreciate the undying support of our community.  Each of you makes a unique contribution to this space and its camaraderie.  Let’s keep the dream alive. 

Local Ballot

Prop. A- City College Parcel Tax                      YES

Prop. B- Park Bond                                             NO

Prop. C- Housing Trust Fund                           YES

Prop. E- Gross Receipts Tax                             YES

Prop. F- Hetch Hetchy Plan                              NO

Prop. G-Oppose Corp. Personhood                 YES

State Ballot

Prop.30 -Gov. Brown's Tax Plan                      YES

Prop.32- Cuts Union Role in Elections           NO

Prop.33 -Insurance Company Price Plan       NO

Prop.34- Repeals Death Penalty                      YES

Prop.36- Three Stikes only for Violence         YES

Prop.37- Engineered Food Labeling               YES

Prop.38 -Tax Increase ONLY for Ed.              NO

Prop.39- Multi-state business tax                   YES

“The Struggle for Urban Recycling and Community Gardens in San Francisco” by Soumyaa Kapil Behrens

Where:  Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street, between Guerrero and Valencia

When:  Saturday, November 10, at 12:30 pm

While filming her graduate thesis project, My Garbage, My Neighborhood, a short that follows the struggle of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council (HANC), filmmaker Soumyaa Kapil Behrens became deeply committed to HANC’s mission and its community. From this personal involvement originates 780 Frederick, a grassroots docu-noir still in the making that traces the gritty politics of gentrification in the San Francisco Haight Ashbury Neighborhood. During this film and panel event, the filmmaker will show exclusive clips from her never-before-seen feature and will discuss with the parties at stake the issues revolving around the eviction, the process of gentrification, and perhaps the loss of the counterculture which once was at the heart of the Haight Ashbury community.

This film is part of SF DocFest.  For more information, click here

The Nominating Committee of HANC has made the following recommendations for Officers and Board members for 2013.  All HANC members are eligible to serve.  The election will take place at the November meeting.

President:                               Kevin Bayuk

Vice-President:                      Richard Ivanhoe

Recording Secretary:            Burt Phillips

Corresponding Secretary:    Robert Leon

Treasurer:                              Tes Welborn

Housing / Land Use Chair:  Calvin Welch

Recycling Chair:                     Karen Fishkin

Membership Chair:               Michele Welch

Nominating Chair:                 Joey Cain

Members-At-Large:             Colleen Rivecca

                                                 Bruce Wolfe

                                                 Jim Rhoads

                                                 Karen Masonheimer

                                                 Michael Behrens

Garden for the Environment will offer the following classes in November and December of 2012. All classes will be offered at Garden for the Environment, San Francisco’s organic demonstration garden at 7th and Lawton Street. Since its founding in 1990, the garden has operated as a demonstration site for small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening, compost education and low water-use landscaping.  For more information, call (415) 731-5627, or go to www.gardenfortheenvironment.org.  

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD
Organic Vegetable Gardening in November

Date: Saturday, November 10th, 2012
Time: 10AM - 12PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco Instructor: Carey Craddock, Organic Gardening Instructor
Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Year-round gardening is one of our favorite things about the Bay Area and now, as we find ourselves squarely in Fall, it's time to think about your winter vegetable garden. Join us for this class which we offer on the 2nd Saturday of every month for seasonal-specific instruction for year-round vegetable gardening.

This month we'll cover:

- Vegetables to plant and what to harvest in Fall and Winter
- Fall & Winter Plant Care
- Soil Fertility and Cover Cropping
- Weeds, weeds, weeds! What to do about them.

Read more ...

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Proposition C is a Charter Amendment creating a Housing Trust Fund within the General Fund of San Francisco. If passed the fund will devote some $1.4 Billion over the next thirty years to the construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of permanently affordable rental housing in San Francisco, down payment assistance for first time homeowner, a homeowner stabilization fund for moderate income owners facing foreclosures, and a Infrastructure Challenge Grant Fund for small neighborhood parks, pedestrian safety improvements and community service space. 90% of the fund will be aimed at rental homes affordable to households earning no more than $50,000 , a figure covering the vast majority of San Francisco’s families with children and seniors. It is expected that each dollar from the fund will leverage at least a dollar from state and federal sources, producing housing for well over 30,000 San Franciscans over the life of the program.

In addition, Proposition C will “incentivize” the development of middle income housing by reducing from 15% to 12% ( a 20% reduction) the requirement on market rate developers to build Below Market Rate (BMR) homes on the site of their market rate development. Since neither the current “in-lieu” fee nor the 20% requirement for “off-site” BMR production is reduced it is expected that more “on-site” opportunities for middle income San Franciscans will be created.

The proposal was developed by Mayor Lee and a Housing Trust Fund Task Force made up of business and labor, community and industry representatives. It seeks to replace funding lost in state and federal cuts to affordable housing assistance and has received the support of a wide coalition of supporters. It was placed on the ballot with the support of nine of the eleven Supervisors.

HANC will be campaigning for the measure and will help organize two weekend mobilizations in District 5 on September 29^th and October 11^th at 10 AM at the Richardson Apartments, at Fulton and Gough.

VOTE NO ON THE PARKS BOND

            We do not trust the current Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) management to spend taxpayer money wisely. RPD wants to evict HANC’s community garden, built at no cost to the City, and spend $250,000 to replace it with a community garden.

            RPD has not agreed to maintain or run what it builds.   It has locked out the public to sell or lease our parks to the highest bidder. Families have been priced out of many park venues. Free or low-cost events have been cancelled or moved out of the parks because of excessive fees. These include outrageous fees to the Park Patrol, which has been mired in scandal. RPD’s mission should be to provide parks and recreation centers for the public, but it prefers being a “public-private partnership” profit center.

            After last June’s election, RPD entered into a lease for Coit Tower that ignored the will of the voters. Ignoring public opinion has caused RPD to spend millions of dollars on legal fees.

            We support improving our parks and recreation centers, but only when they remain free and open to all.

            Don’t trust RPD; vote NO on Proposition B.

Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

www.hanc-sf.org