Summer Work Days in Buena Vista Park

Saturday, June 7th

Saturday, July 12th

Saturday, August 2nd

When:  9:00 a.m. - Noon

Where:  Meet at Children's Playground at Waller & Buena Vista West

Bring:  Tools and gloves are provided, but you can bring your own if you prefer

Wear:  Sturdy shoes and long-sleeved shirt.

Individuals kindly rsvp to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(need to make minimum & for tool count)

By Joey Cain, HANC Board

The annual celebration of pot known as "420" Day held on April 20th came to the Haight Ashbury again this year. Both the City of SF and the Rec and Parks Department were much better prepared than in previous years to handle the tens of thousands of participants who flooded into the neighborhood for it. In fact, some might say there was a bit of overkill in the street closures that were in effect. 

Street closure overkill?

Haight Street from Masonic to Stanyan was closed from about 10 a.m. to around 7 p.m. and both Waller and Page Streets were shut down as well, something that does not even happen for the Haight Street Fair which draws many more folks than the 420 celebration. Stanyan Street from Page to Frederick Streets was also closed all day long. It was definitely not a day to be coming to the Haight in a car!

As the crowds started to leave what is the holy ground and high point for the event attendees, 4:20 pm on Hippy Hill in Golden Gate Park, Muni seems to have had added many more buses to move folks out of the neighborhood. There were at least 12 Muni staff people working all day long at Masonic and Haight and a sizable contingent working the N Judah stop at Parnassus and Cole as well. Coming to the event by Muni proved challenging. I rode an N Judah from Fourth and Townsend about 2 pm that day and by the time we reached Powell Street it was packed and no one could get on for the rest of the trip until it reached the Cole Street stop. The next run was scheduled 13 minutes later. I have been told the surface buses were no better.

Read more ...

By Tes Welborn, HANC Board

Urban School reported few changes to its plan to build on St. Agnes's parking lot. They expect to start construction in May 2015 with completion by August 2016. They will return late summer with more detailed schematics.

The French-American International School's Page Street Pre-School will have 108 kids ages 3-6, and occupies the school district land on a 30 year lease. They plan to open in August this year. Several neighbors had issues about both the white zone location and the pick-up and drop-off plans. While the pick up times are spread out from 3:15 to 6 p.m., drop off is concentrated in 8:15 to 8:45 a.m. The school requires at least the parents of the youngest children to park and walk kids into school. They have 12 off-site parking spaces available for this. They think that this, plus shuttles from Oak campus, carpool encouragement, and site monitors will work for all. We asked them to return in 1-2 months to discuss traffic plans further.

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The University of California San Francisco occupies a large part of our neighborhood, has a large impact, and is one of the city's biggest employers.  It has been developing a long-range plan to cover the next about 25 years.  Some changes to agreements with the S.F. community the HANC Board feels are acceptable, such as maintaining the space ceiling and excluding the Aldea Housing and any new housing from it. 

The HANC Board is very concerned about the major changes to the Mt. Sutro plan, which go from true management, replanting natives, and conservation to a "chop and mow" approach.  This change also affects Rec and Park's management plan for the Inner Greenbelt, and the larger city plan of green belts.  The University is rushing through these changes before a new Chancellor is selected. 

Please voice your opposition re Mt. Sutro to the UC Board of Regents, Senior Vice Chancellor, Finance and Admininstration, John Plotts, and Vice Chancellor, Strategic Communications and University Relations, Barbara French.

By Karen Fishkin, HANC Board

Supervisor Eric Mar recognizes that San Francisco needs to take a look at the state of recycling in San Francisco. What is the plan? Is there a plan? Do we need a plan? Is there a price to be paid for closing neighborhood recycling centers? What are the benefits and who pays the price?

The Supervisor is holding a hearing on May 15th., room 250, at City Hall.

The meeting starts at 10 AM, but since the the agenda has not been determined as of yet, we cannot tell you just when this issue will be discussed. Check with his office the day before.

Expect to hear from small businesses, since they are facing daily fines, the Department of the Environment, (maybe they'll have a plan), the Coalition on Homelessness, and any of you who have concerns and/or ideas.

It is hoped legislation will follow.

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

The SFMTA withdrew its ill-considered seven-year-old proposal to remove 6 Parnassus service from the Upper Ashbury portion of the line and relocate it to Haight Street to make up for the previous loss of the 7 Haight line, and will keep service to the Haight-Ashbury unchanged. The decision was approved by the SFMTA Board on March 28 when it adopted the citywide Transit Effectiveness Program (TEP) which made changes to 59 of the City’s 81 transit routes. The plan also calls for the net reduction of two stops on Haight St.: the removal of the Haight/Cole stop and consolidation of two stops on either end of Buena Vista Park into a single new stop at Lyon and Haight.

HANC and other residents of the neighborhood consistently opposed the proposal since it was first made in 2007 when the TEP was first announced. HANC also strongly opposed the ending of the 7 Haight service, from Stanyan to the Transbay Terminal but SFMTA ended the service anyway as part of the original TEP “service enhancements”.Oddly, one of the reasons cited by SFMTA re-routing of the 6 from Ashbury Heights to Haight St. was to “provide more service to Haight Street.”

At HANC 's March general membership meeting, the odd history of the TEP as well as the current state of Mayor Lee's transit proposals were the subject of discussion by a panel made up of HANC's former President and current Senior Disability Action staff member, Pi Ra; Bob Allen, Acting Executive Director/Transportation Justice Program Director, Urban Habitat; and Peter Cohen, of the Council of Community Housing Organizations.

Read more ...

 Here is a summary of what they learned from and about the park dwellers:

• Park dwellers who spoke to volunteers from the Coalition on Homelessness said that they want to meet with neighbors about park issues and that they want to respect the park.

• Park dwellers are looking for an escape from poverty and homelessness, and many expressed the desire for employment, especially in helping keep the park clean and maintained.  Some of the park dwellers said that they'e be interested in working with neighbors to help clean up the park even if they weren't getting paid to do it.
• Park dwellers are frustrated with the removal of garbage cans from the park.
• Lack of bathroom facilities is a major challenge for park dwellers, who are frustrated about the human waste in the park.  With the closure of the bathrooms in the Panhandle and the loss of the drop-in space at Homeless Youth Alliance, it can be very difficult for homeless people to find a place to go to the bathroom in the neighborhood.
• Park dwellers said that they understand that people in the neighborhood don't want them to be in the park.  The problem, from their perspective, is that people don't want them anywhere.  
• Park dwellers consider the people who live near Buena Vista park to be "their neighbors" and they are interested in talking to neighbors about how they can work together to make the park a safer and better place.

It seems like a logical next step would be to set up a meeting between the housed and homeless neighbors so that they can talk further about park issues and how to solve them together.

On a related note, San Francisco has just started keeping track of requests for shelter beds with an online wait list, which is available at this 311 website.  As of the writing of this article, there are 661 homeless people who have requested shelter who are on the wait list for a bed.  That's right.  661 people who have no where else to go and want to be able to stay in shelter are waiting for a shelter bed to become available.  Where are they waiting?  Until San Francisco can provide basic shelter for the people who need it, we are always going to see homeless people outside.  

With the news of the sale of the Boys and Girls Club at 1950 Page Street to the Chinese Dance School, the start of construction for the French American School at 1155 Page, and the Urban School's plans for its new gym and classrooms on Oak street now at the Planning Department, we thought it might be time to revisit the major changes being proposed for Page Street, from Stanyan to Broderick.

In January the Boys and Girls Club announced the sale of the facility to the Chinese Dance School. The Boys and Girls Club will stay in the facility until “ at least October, 2014” according to Ms Maxine Wilson, BGC Vice President of Operations. What changes we can expect will be outlined by Ms. Sherry Zhan of the Chinese Dance School.

Mr. Aaron Levin is CFO and Director of Operations of French American International School and will lay out the plans and time lines for the completion of the project which calls for building nine classrooms for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes. Some 180 children, plus staff will be accommodate at the site. Of special interest to the neighbors is the drop off and pick up plans for the kindergarten classes planned for the site. 

Mark Salkind, Head of the Urban School, will outline the status of the proposed building of a 26,000 square foot combined classroom and athletic building in the parking lot behind St. Agnes Church and a 31,000 square foot below- grade parking structure for between 70 and 90 cars on the site below the existing St. Agnes parking lot. 

Please bring a friend and plan to join us Thursday, April 10^th at 7PM in the meeting room at Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street.