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.

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 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.

At the HANC general meeting on Thursday February 13th at 7:00pm at the Park Branch Library, representatives from the SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) shared about proposed water rates increases to continue investing in San Francisco’s aging infrastructure.  We also discussed as a neighborhood techniques and strategies we can use to conserve water and support a diversified supply in our homes and neighborhoods.  

Representatives from the PUC shared many details about the capital intensive projects underway to secure and develop the water supply to the city and emerging capital projects to repair and redesign core components of the sewage treatment facility.  What does this mean for ratepayers in the Haight (and across the city). Here’s an outline of the proposal they shared:

Time Span: 4 years, starting July 2014

Average Annual increase: $7-10 on monthly bill (for average single family)

The PUC advised the neighbors of the process for the adoption of these rate changes:

April 22: Staff and Rate Fairness Board Recommendations and Public Hearing at Commission

May 13: Commission considers Rate Adoption

May 19: Submit rates to Board of Supervisors

June 19: Deadline for Board of Supervisors to review rates

July 1: New rates become effective

By Craig Dawson, Executive Director, Sutro Stewards

At a public meeting held on November 21, 2013, the University of California San Francisco made a statement which has left neighbors, the conservation community, and environmentalists stunned. After 15 years of community planning and commitments to maintain and begin restoration of the the 61-acre UCSF Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve, UCSF is now proposing to ABANDON ALL PLANNED CONSERVATION EFFORTS on Mt. Sutro in favor of “mowing” 25 acres of understory as a “Hazard Reduction Measure” and leave the remaining 36 acres untouched.  

This will in effect remove critical habitat for wildlife as well as wipe out some of the few remaining indigenous plant colonies. Further this proposal does nothing to address the invasive ivies that are in effect killing the older and healthier eucalyptus trees, effectively suppressing re-growth and preventing the reintroduction of other species where ivies dominate the forest understory. 

The revised UCSF plans ignore the restoration of the Woodland Canyon, Woodland Creek, riparian corridor, which is Mount Sutro’s last remaining watershed and seasonal creek, where water often flows well into the summer. 

This stunning reversal by the University is in stark contrast to UC’s own legacy within the conservation movement including the founding of the National Parks system, the Sierra Club and the role it played in creating Yosemite National Park. It also ignores San Francisco’s own environmental policies and those of the neighboring GGNRA and Presidio National Park. By not including the conservation options within the revised DEIR this move could in effect prohibit all forms of environmental stewardship to take place within the 61-acre property. Further, by continuing the mismanagement in 36 acres of forest and proposing to leave it untouched, the fire danger will continue to grow on the Northern, Eastern and Western slopes of Mount Sutro as the rapid decline accelerates.

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By Tes Welborn, HANC Board Member

The SF Plaza Program is another effort of the City to privatize public spaces and to pass on their maintenance costs to private parties. It innocuously imagines non-profits and neighborhood groups being able to spare time and money to address City infrastructure maintenance, and then allows them to close the public space and hold private, entrance-fee events. We've seen how allowing Civic Center to be leased by private parties has led to the blocking off for weeks of Civic Center and portions of adjacent streets, followed by continued closure while grass is replanted. Imagine nonprofits set up by Twitter, Ron Conway, Google, etc. being able to take over even more of our precious and limited public space! AND put up sponsor signs!

The Mayor's office of Economic and Workforce Development gives a number of examples of current “activation” such as farmers markets, movie nights, food trucks, and dance that do serve the community. Why should the public have to maintain city facilities paid for by taxpayers? Why should private, admission-charged events occupy public plazas at the expense of quiet public enjoyment?

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By Michelle Welch, HANC Board Member

HANC has been invited to participate in a community-initiated planning process for the Panhandle.

Three Community Meetings have been scheduled:

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 11:00am – 12:30 pm
Panhandle Playground Bulletin Board (Rain or shine following Steward's Work Day)

TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
PRO/SF General Mtg @ Bread & Butter Café 1901 Hayes St

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1–2:30 pm
Park Branch Library, Park Meeting Room 1833 Page St

HANC has long been concerned about deteriorating conditions in the Panhandle (particularly the faulty sprinkler/irrigation system which creates drainage issues AND the southern pedestrian pathway) and RPDs general policy of “deferred maintenance” for non-revenue-producing neighborhood parks.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Housing and Land Use Board Member

Facing the most broad scale pressure in recent years as a result of Mayor Ed Lee's constant boosterism for the high rolling tech industry -from an increasing rate of state mandated Ellis Act evictions to historically rapid increases in rents- San Francisco tenants are “pushing back” and making some real headway in addressing their concerns. 

Propelled by the overwhelming vote against the 8 Washington project last November, tenant leaders have taken the offensive in defining that victory not as some sterile anti-height vote aimed narrowly at the waterfront but instead as a cry of opposition to the assault on San Francisco’s large majority of low and middle income tenants as a result of the tech boom.

At the February 4th Supervisors meeting Supervisor David Campos introduced an ordinance that would require landlords who want to file Ellis Act evictions pay their tenants the difference between the rent on that unit and market rent for a comparable unit in the same neighborhood, for two years. This follows Supervisors Mar's proposed legislation introduced last month which would raise the bar locally on tenants-in-common conversions by requiring that the Planning Department review conversions to make sure the units are up to code and require a finding of “extraordinary circumstances” before approval of the conversion.

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