After cancellations in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid and a postponement in 2022, the Haight Ashbury Street Fair returned on October 16, 2022. Overcast skies gave way to some sunshine in the late afternoon. The crowd seemed happy and the 2022 fair can be considered a success. Here are some photos from the day:
By Christin Evans, HANC Board
The next meeting of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council will be held on Thursday, October 13 from 7-9pm via Zoom. We are hosting guests who will share the details of four important measures on the November 2022 ballot: Propositions C (Homeless Oversight Commission), H (City Elections in Even-Numbered Years), L (Sales Tax for Transportation Projects) and O (Additional Parcel Tax for City College).
Proposition C, placed on the ballot by a majority of the Board of Supervisors and opposed by the Mayor, is a Charter amendment to create a new Commission to oversee the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). The measure does not remove the current bodies with partial jurisdiction, including the Our City Our Home Oversight Committee (OCOH) and the Local Homeless Coordinating Board (LHCB), but adds a comprehensive 7-member commission to review the policies and programs of HSH which was created in 2016 and now has a budget over $600 million annually. With 4 appointees by the Mayor and 3 by the Board of Supervisors, the Commission is unlikely to have a significant impact on a department the mayor controls but it would create a regular forum for the department to give regular updates. The measure also requires the City controller to conduct audits of homelessness services.
By Lisa Awbrey, HANC President
The HANC Board recently heard from Dan Miller, Head of Urban School on an upcoming construction project to convert the old St. Agnes gymnasium on Page Street to a Performing Arts Complex and Community Center. Urban School has been talking about this project for 20 years; permitting was completed in 2015. Urban School’s current student body of 420 students requires a larger space, and currently has no formal assembly space for students and teachers. They use the old Gumption Theater building on Page, with a maximum capacity of 80, which is completely inadequate for 420 students. The new performance space will host theatrical productions, musical theatre, jazz, classical and chorale performances, along with school assemblies. Construction is set to begin some time after Thanksgiving/December/January 2023. Dan has hosted three community meetings with immediate neighbors attending.
By Tes Welborn, HANC Board
The Elections Commission is holding some meetings to review the recent Redistricting process and consider what, if any, changes may be needed for the next Redistricting in 10 years. Changes proposed may come in the form of a ballot proposition, sponsored by the Elections Commission or the Board of Supervisors.
I attended the Elections Commission’s September meeting in which they devoted about an hour to Q&A with three former task force members from the last three redistricting processes.
Cynthia Dai, Asian American, who served on the state's redistricting commission, is the Elections Commission’s point person for Redistricting. New commissioner Renita LiVolsi, appointed by the Public Defender, and is African American, volunteered to work with Ms. Dai on future Redistricting discussions. [FYI, other commissioners appeared to be white.]
The developers of the proposed affordable housing at 730 Stanyan are in the process of seeking funding for the project. If the funding is approved, construction is scheduled to begin in Spring, 2023, and to last through Spring, 2025. As we reported in March and July, the project is required to use part of the construction budget to fund art that is visible from the street.
Five artists were selected as semi-finalists based on their responses to a Request for Qualifications. Four have submitted proposals. Video presentations by these four artists, which include their backgrounds, previous works, and their proposal for art at 730 Stanyan are available at https://www.730stanyan.org/public-art . There is also a link to a survey from that webpage. The survey was due to close on September 30, but appeared to still be open at the time this article was written (October 3).
The HANC Board strongly supports Proposition E on the November ballot, and has submitted the following paid argument which will appear in the Voter Handbook:
We produce less than half of the affordable housing we need and 150% of the market rate housing we need. Prop E will help close that gap. Prop D will widen it. Vote No on D and Yes on E.
Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council
By David Woo, HANC Vice-President
The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has announced an investigation into San Francisco’s housing approval process. Newsom, a former District 2 Supervisor and former Mayor of San Francisco, is intimately familiar with the system of housing approval in San Francisco and how building permitting works. City government cannot force developers to build housing - developers develop housing, not the city - and Newsom knows that. Newsom’s “investigation” is all about pushing the build, build, build mentality, to the direct benefit of private developers and real estate interests, as he continues to target and undermine San Francisco’s local land use controls and policies. This directly and negatively affects tenants, the working-class, low-income residents and people of color in San Francisco. At the neighborhood level and as a city we must continue to organize for and put forward alternatives to the market-driven approach to housing, including supporting propositions such as Prop E and Prop M in November.
By Teresa Palmer, MD - Geriatrics / Family Practice
(Attending Physician at Laguna Honda 1989 - 2004)
A large bond issue was passed in 1999 to rebuild the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Facility (LHH). San Franciscans supported this, having been reminded that LHH is an important safety net.
After, City leaders wanted less general fund money to go to LHH. The Mayor and the Health Department decided it would be most economic to use LHH beds (costing a couple hundred dollars a day) for patients who could not otherwise be safely discharged from San Francisco General Hospital (where beds cost over a thousand dollars a day). This would save money for the system as a whole.
Other San Franciscans who needed a nursing home bed found it almost impossible to get in.
LHH management and staff learned that they could not say “no” to San Francisco General transfers-or they were replaced.