By Christin Evans, HANC Board

As previously announced in the Voice, the Mayor’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development (OEWD) initiated a survey in October of 2020 to gather information about the unmet needs of neighbors within the 10-minute trade area surrounding the Haight Ashbury commercial corridor.  Conducted by Livable City and Tom Radulovich, the survey asked where residents currently shopped for their household needs.   The goal was to identify potential opportunities to attract new businesses to Haight street that were most in demand from the immediate neighbors. 

The survey was conducted over 2 months and at a time when the corridor has been hard hit with storefront closures.  The Haight Ashbury Merchants Association (HAMA), which tracks the number of storefront vacancies had previously reported that a number of stores had closed between 2016 and 2020 due to a number of reasons including skyrocketing rents, higher costs of doing business in the city such as the rising minimum wage, and the multi-year construction work which disrupted foot traffic in the corridor.  The number of storefront vacancies rose from 6 in 2016, to 21 in February 2020 and 31 in December 2020. 

 

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board, and past member of the Advisory Committee for the Future of UCSF Parnassus Heights (2019-2020)

The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood existed before the University of California, then known as the Affiliated Colleges, opened in the fall of 1898 on Parnassus Heights.   By 1883, with the completion of the Haight Street Cable Car, some dozen blocks of homes had been developed in the neighborhood, with Haight Ashbury real estate being touted by speculators because of its location next to Golden Gate Park, the Chutes amusement park  (on Haight St between Cole and Clayton) and the California League Baseball stadium at what is today Frederick and Stanyan streets.

It is important to understand that the continued existence of the neighborhood’s  access to transit and housing has been an ongoing issue between the neighborhood and UCSF for much of its 120 year history on Mt. Sutro. And as the UC Regents ponder a new expansion plan for the campus, which will remove a forty -five year old agreement with the community to expand off the Parnassus campus, the neighborhood’s future is again to be decided by an unelected body advised by unaccountable campus administration.

By Christin Evans, HANC Board

To defund the police, it is politically necessary to create an alternative when citizens call for assistance. In January, activists in conjunction with Police Commissioner John Hamasaki and Supervisor Matt Haney launched a campaign for CART SF (The Compassionate Alternative Response Team). At HANC’s February meeting, we will host a member of the campaign’s workgroup to present its plan for such an alternative.

Every year in San Francisco, the city receives over 60,000 reports involving homeless and mental crises which it directs to the police.  This despite the reality that police officers are not trained social workers, mental health experts, or care professionals, nor do they have appropriate resources to offer.  Many such calls result in police directing the individual or individuals to simply pack up and move along.

By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Board

Captain PedriniLast year the Haight Ashbury was bestowed yet another Park Station captain in a short period of time, Captain Christopher Pedrini.

You may or may not know that there is a direct forum with the Captain. From the Police Department website, “SFPD hosts the city's Community Police Advisory Boards (CPAB's), which are composed of community volunteers who live and/or work in a specific geographical police district. A CPAB member’s role is to advise the district station Captain about public safety, crime and quality of life issues that affect their community.”

By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

Information about obtaining a Covid-19 vaccine has been inconsistent and confusing.  There are different Federal, State, and City websites, as well as information coming from private health plans and pharmacies.  Plus, California is in the midst of revising its vaccination plans.

Here is information we can give you (as of the end of January):

Eligibility - California

The California site (https://myturn.ca.gov/) will tell you if you are eligible for a vaccine, but is only booking appointments in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties for healthcare workers and individuals over 65.  California’s tier system is described at https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccines/#California's-vaccination-plan .

Eligibility-San Francisco

San Francisco’s site (https://sf.gov/get-notified-when-youre-eligible-covid-19-vaccine) will also tell you when you are eligible to be vaccinated.  Again, being declared eligible does not mean that you can get a vaccine.  Although individuals 65 and older are eligible, the State is first prioritizing those who are 75 and older, have high occupational exposure, or reside in vulnerable communities.  The State’s allocation guidelines (as of January 22) can be found at https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Revision-of-Allocation-Guidelines-for-COVID-19-Vaccine.aspx .

By Christin Evans, HANC Board

At our January 14th meeting, the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council will kick off the new year with its first member meeting focused on an update on the Politics of Affordable Housing.  With so many recent victories, including from 2018's Proposition C delivering $300M annually in new revenue through a gross receipts business tax, 2019's Proposition A authorizing $600M for affordable housing and 2020's Propositions A and I delivering even more funds, the question now is how quickly can those funds be pressed into service to bolster the city’s stock of permanent affordable housing.

Recent Affordable Housing Wins 

By Christin Evans, HANC Board

At the December meeting, we discussed the state of the Haight Ashbury commercial corridor and the opportunities for the community to play a role in its economic recovery.  The Haight Ashbury Merchants Association (HAMA) has been counting storefront vacancies since 2016.  In that time the commercial corridor saw storefront vacancies rise from 9 in 2016, to 21 in February 2020, to 31 in December 2020. 

This increase in vacancy rate from 6% to 21% of Haight storefronts is a challenge but also an opportunity for community involvement.  In November 2019, the voters passed the Storefront Vacancy tax which creates an economic incentive for landlords to quickly fill their storefronts with new tenants.  That legislation was put on hold by the Board of Supervisors at the start of the pandemic and will be taken up again in 2021. 

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

We looked at how the Haight-Ashbury voted for  President,  Supervisor and  16  ballot measures HANC recommended to Haight-Ashbury voters.  We analyzed how each of the three sub-areas of the neighborhood voted and compared that to the rest of District 5 and the Citywide vote.

Since 2010 HANC has made recommendations on 75 state and local ballot measures to its members and Haight-Ashbury residents.  Of those 75 recommendations  Haight-Ashbury voters have agreed with 70 over the last decade, or 93% .  This year we made 16 recommendations, 9 local and 7 state. With COVID 19 forcing HANC to suspend its monthly meeting in which these measures were usually discussed, HANC board members dropped over 4,000 newsletters with the reasons for our our recommendations door to door  in the neighborhood.  Of the 16 recommendations, our neighbors agreed with 15 for a 94%  average.

  1. 2020 HANC Year in Review
  2. Follow-Up on Two Serious Incidents from Last February
  3. Updated Covid-19 Restrictions and Testing Information
  4. HANC November General Meeting Recap
  5. December at HANC: How the Haight-Ashbury Voted in November
  6. December at HANC: Haight Street Economic Recovery