by Jaime Michaels, HANC Board

In April 2020, a month into the City’s mandatory shutdown due to COVID-19, select corridors in Golden Gate Park were closed to private vehicles while remaining open to recreational use and limited commercial traffic. The closures were intended as a temporary measure to meet the growing demand of residents seeking relief from their quarantined-like existence indoors in a manner that also allowed adequate social distance.

Included in the closures was a 1.5-mile-long section of John F. Kennedy Dr. (from Kezar Dr. to Transverse Dr.) previously closed to vehicles on weekends and holidays only. Since taking effect, the full-time closure of this section of JFK has garnered supporters (e.g., recreational visitors) and detractors (e.g., museum goers and operators) whose positions have been rooted in seemingly conflicting needs for vehicle and mobility access, street parking, and facility operations and management. People with disabilities also have spoken up about access.

Stakeholder Working Group and Action Framework

In an attempt to achieve consensus over opposing views, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority convened a group of stakeholders (“The Golden Gate Park Stakeholder Working Group and Action Framework”) who worked to develop a set of initial findings to be used in the formal planning process for JFK Dr. under the direction of the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) and Recreation and Park Department (RPD).

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26 November, 2021

The Board of HANC would first  like to commend staff for its acceptance of the overwhelming majority of MUNI riders preference for the restoration of full service (called by SFMTA staff  the "Familiar Alternative") to MUNI .  Specifically,  we would like to commend staff for the partial restoration of the 21 Hayes and the full restoration of the 6 Parnassus and the 43 Masonic lines.  These are crucial services to the over 20,000 residents of the Haight-Ashbury and we welcome their return.

We, however, are disappointed with the proposals dramatic increase in headways for the 6 Parnassus (an increase from 12 minutes pre-pandemic to the proposed 20 minutes) and the 21 Hayes to 15 minutes (from the pre-pandemic 12 minutes).  We understand that in some measure these unacceptable increases in headways are due to the unavailability of drivers and that MUNI staff are hard at work to recruit and  train new drivers. We are disappointed that SFMTA does not set a timeline on when the 6 and 21 will return to their pre-pandemic level of service.

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San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) supported putting bathrooms, showers, handwashing stations, and referral services at 730 Stanyan as an interim use pending construction of affordable housing on the site starting in mid-2023, and issued solicitations for a service provider on September 7.  The Homeless Youth Alliance was chosen, and the services were scheduled to open by the end of October.

Approximately two weeks before the site was set to open, it was squelched.  Who actually squelched it and why remains a mystery.  Supervisor Dean Preston asked the Mayor at the November 9 Board of Supervisor’s meeting.  The Mayor claimed that there were insufficient funds and that “Not everyone in this community supports this project.”

The issue was addressed again at a meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee on November 18.  Included in those in attendance were Shireen McSpadden and Emily Cohen from HSH and Eric Shaw from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.  Supervisor Preston asked if the interim use could go forward if he found additional funds, and was told that it would not go forward.  He asked if there were any issues with the Homeless Youth Alliance, and there were none.

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HANC's Board for December 2021 through November 2022 was elected at our November meeting.  The new Board is:

President:                                             Lisa Awbrey

Vice President:                                   David Woo

Recording Secretary:                      Jim Rhoads

Corresponding Secretary:            Bruce Wolfe

Treasurer:                                            Christin Evans

Nominating Chair:                           James Sword

Membership Chair:                         Richard Ivanhoe

Housing & Land Use Chair:         Calvin Welch

Recycling Chair:                                Karen Fishkin

Members At Large:

                                                                   Tab Buckner

     Jaime Michaels

     Shira Noel

                                                                   Christian Vaisse

                                                                   Tes Welborn

by Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

We last reported on the Park Branch Library in the August issue of the Voice.  The article is also available on our website at https://www.hanc-sf.org/24-home/632-park-branh-library-s-reopening-plans .  At that time we reported that the library had moved from “SFPL to Go” pick up service to full in-person library services, with the hours remaining 10 am to 5:30 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

As of November 13, Park Branch revised its hours as follows:

Sunday:         1 pm to 5 pm

Monday         12 noon to 6 pm

Tuesday         10 am to 8 pm

Wednesday   12 noon to 8 pm

Thursday       10 am to 6 pm

Friday             1 pm to 6 pm

Saturday        10 am to 6 pm

The community room remains unavailable for HANC meetings on Thursday night, and we are continuing to meet online.

The San Francisco Library has plans for further reopening in early 2022, although we do not yet know the details.  Park Branch has scheduled some daytime activities for January, which can be found here:  https://sfpl.org/events/#!/filters?field_event_location_target_id=47 . 

We will keep you updated as we learn more.

Nov 11 2021

To: Everyone at the HANC meeting on Nov. 11'21 including Dean Preston

From: Louise Dunlap, Senior Working Group

I was cut off the meeting right after Calvin made his comments about the hold up on 730 Stanyan.  I couldn't get back on the phone site.

So, here are the comments I have about the hold ups:

1) The Senior Working Group needs access during the interim use period in order to help seniors sign up for any units when the building opens;

2)This access would be a  necessary part of  MARKETING units to seniors. A point Calvin brought up in his comments just before I lost my phone connection.  Thank you, Calvin!

3)Someone ask Dean Preston if the building construction could start earlier since no interim use is scheduled. 

The problem is the Developers need to set up providers for the ground floor uses (such as the Senior Center) before construction.  However, as Bo Han informed me, no organization applied to run the senior center for various, logical reasons.  So the  Developers are going to restart the application process [for on-site  senior services] next March.  I dont know if the same problem arose with either child care and or the cafe.  If so,it would have been for the same reasons as happened with the Senior Center.

I any  case, the selection delay prevents starting construction earlier than the exisitng time frame.

If you have any questions for me feel free to call:

            Louise Dunlap

            Senior Working Group

            415 346-3195

By Lisa Awbrey, HANC President

The most important sentence in the Brown Act is: “all meetings of the legislative body of a local agency shall be open and public, and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency except as otherwise provided.”

Now more than ever, especially during a global pandemic, transparency and accountability to the Public by our decision makers is essential. The People’s business and policy making must be done in the open air and sunlight. And the Public’s access to government meetings where decisions regarding complex quality of life issues (like local public transit, public space, street use, land use, and future development) are made and implemented is critical. Recently, when the SFMTA and its directors revealed a plan for the termination of local neighborhood serving bus lines, HANC joined with residents, numerous neighborhood organizations and community leaders to push for full restoration of ALL MUNI lines. At public hearings, through public comment, emails and demonstrations, the People called on the SFMTA to fully restore MUNI to pre pandemic levels. As of this writing, it appears SFMTA is changing course and listening because the public organized and spoke against the plan; none of this would have been possible without the Brown Act or without public engagement and public comment. The same could be said regarding recent public hearings on the controversial expansion of the UCSF Parnassus Campus, on various local D5 projects before the SF Planning Department and Commission and on decisions that impact our unhoused neighbors. 

The COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in many changes to how local governments conduct business, including significant changes to open meeting rules and the Public’s access to local officials. 

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By Bruce Wolfe and David Woo, HANC Board

The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council has joined the Race and Equity in all Planning (REP) Coalition, a citywide coalition of neighborhood and community-based organizations that are working to ensure that land-use and city planning is directed by racial and social equity as defined by the working class, people of color, and marginalized and impacted communities. Made up of over 30 organizations spanning the city, including the South of Market, Chinatown, Bayview, Mission, and Richmond, among others, REP is challenging the top-down market-driven focus of land use and planning that has guided and ushered in successive waves of gentrification and displacement in San Francisco.

REP’s vision statement reads “The Race and Equity in all Planning (REP) Coalition's purpose is to create an entirely new race and equity framework for self-determination of marginalized communities. We are working together collectively and with the City to dismantle the prevailing racist and oppressive systems of planning, land use, cultural and economic development that have resulted in redlining, gentrification, displacement, and extreme inequality, and replace them with new systems that support, nurture, and prioritize the dignity, health, stability, and aspirations of American Indian people, people of color, people with low incomes and immigrants.”

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