Come to a Redistricting Task Force Meeting

We are asking you to attend a Redistricting Task Force meeting:

Wednesday, April 4, beginning at 6 pm, at City Hall, Room 406.

For more detail about this meeting, click here.

Through the advocacy of hundreds of community members, the Redistricting Task Force Map (as of 3-22-2012) has progressed a great deal from where it started and now looks close to our Community Unity Map (pictured above and described below).  We need to keep the pressure, reminding the Task Force of the good work they are doing, and pushing back on new cynical maneuvers from real estate interests.  The April 4 Task Force meetings will literally shape San Francisco's future beyond the next decade.  Please join us at this meeting and tell others!

Why Should You Care?

Why do we want you at this meeting, and why should you care?  The short answer is that revised District boundaries could ultimately mean the loss of District elections and the loss of rent control.  Downtown interests (such as the Realtors Association and the Chamber of Commerce) want to make Districts 5 (Haight/Western Addtiion), 6 (South of Market / Tenderloin)  and 9 (Mission / Bernal) the only progressive districts.  This could result in a permanent 8-3 fix for downtown and business interests.  Those who remember the days when Tom Ammiano and Sue Bierman were the only progressive votes on a citywide elected Board of Supervisors know how serious this could be.  A couple of blatant examples of this kind of gerrymandering include a proposal to move Seacliff (a conservative voting bloc) out of District Two (which it shares with the Marina) and into District One (Richmond), or moving the western boundary of D8 to include Twin Peaks.

Read more ...

A very interesting project was initiated in our neighborhood last year.  There was a request from neighbors for the SF Metropolitan Transportation Authority to address traffic issues of speeding, pedestrian visibility problems and crosswalk issues.  The project area is Clayton, Downey, and Ashbury Streets between 17th Street and Waller Street, as well as Frederick and Waller Streets from Clayton to Ashbury Street.

There were two community meetings and two small committee meetings.  Most of the people who attended were long time residents with a variety of concerns.  A number of suggestions came out of these meetings, including speed humps and cushions, corner bulb-outs, painted and mountable areas at some intersections, red visibility curbs near intersections with stop signs.  There were two alternatives for the dangerous Clayton and Ashbury intersection.  People interested in this project can visit the website here.

Bound Together Bookstore is an Anarchist collective-run bookstore featuring radical literature and events.  History, politics, feminism, LGBT, fiction, and Noam Chomsky are major subject categories and available new or used.

Bound Together Bookstore was founded in 1976 to provide hard-to-find books on urban do-it-yourself subjects, such as bicycle repair.  The collective gradually realized they shared a common belief in anarchy and added this focus in 1983.

What is anarchy?  There are many flavors of anarchy, but the general understanding about anarchy is that there is no leader [an=without, archy=leader]. 

 The collective has about 15 members, operates by consensus, and is open to new members.  They volunteer their time to operate the bookstore.  Joey Cain is both a member of the collective and a HANC Board member.  The collective hosts discussion groups and speaker events, including the Anarchist Book Fair with numerous speakers (this year, Saturday, March 31, 10-6 pm and Sunday, April 1, 11-5 pm, at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, near 9th Avenue and Lincoln).

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February was a bit of a banner month on Haight Street as businesses closed fast and others started to slowly come back.

Three businesses closed their doors--El Balazo (1654), Martin Macks (1566) and Pure Beauty (1560)--with only one reopening--Martin Macks, under new management and a boycott by the old management.

Two other businesses, closed in an August fire--True (1417) and People's Cafe (1419)--showed some small signs of life as workers cleared out the remains of the ashes, slowly making their way to rehabilitation.

While the drama centered on the intra-owner fight at Martin Macks--with one owner filing legal action against another and then taking possession and replacing the staff while the original owner announced a boycott, the real mystery centers on the abrupt closing of El Balazo, the popular Mexican restaurant.  None of its business neighbors has a clue as to why it closed, literally overnight.  Work was underway on an ADA compliant elevator to its mezzanine.  Some customers had thought that perhaps that expense pushed the business over the edge.  Others speculated on ICE busts which had happened before but not recently.  No one knows why the popular eatery closed.  It's simply gone.

Read more ...

Effective January 14, Capatain Denis O'Leary left as Commanding Officer of Park Station, replaced by Captain John Feeney.  Captain O'Leary has assumed command of the Department's Traffic Company, based at 850 Bryant.

A 25-year career officer in the S.F. Police Department, Captain Feeney is familiar with the Haight Ashbury Community, having served as a Lieutenant for 17 months at Park Station during a 1991-92 assignment.  He was promoted to Captain one-and-a-half years ago and worked directly with two Chief of Police administrations.

Captain Feeney met with HANC at our February meeting.  The following day, this language appeared in the emailed Park Police District Newsletter, "Last night I met with HANC, and enjoyed meeting everyone who attended the meeting.  The issue of traffic safety throughout the Park Police District was discussed at length.  I made the following statement:  'We at Park Station are not waging war against bicyclists, motorists, skateboarders, or pedestrians; we are, however declaring war on behalf of traffic safety.'. . ."

Since then there have been two traffic sting operations.  Motorists were cited for not stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk at Beulah and Stanyan, and cyclists were cited for running stop signs and not watching for pedestrians along the Wiggle.

The website for the Park Police Station is here.  To subscribe to the Park Station's email newsletter, you can follow a link from the Park Station's website, or simply send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line "Subscribe me to Park Station."

HANC's November meeting will focus on proposed changes that will affect Haight Street and the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood.  

Food trucks have appeared in the neighborhood, and applications for more food trucks are pending.  Should they be allowed here?  If so, what limits should there be regarding location, hours, noise and fumes?  Why are there more applications in the Haight-Ashbury than in any other neighborhood?

Supervisor Mirkarimi has proposed extensive amendments to the Neighborhood Commercial Rezoning.  These amendments will directly affect Haight Street, but very few in the neighborhood know what these amendments are about or what effec these proposed changes could have on them.  

Come to our general meeting, Thursday night, November 10, beginning 7 p.m., downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street, for information about your neighborhood that you won't find anywhere else. 

HANC is supporting the Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) in their desire to develop a community garden at the site of the recycling center at 780 Frederick.  RPD has issued a termination notice for the current HANC lease which would remove the recycling center valued by thousands of nearby neighbors with the expressed intent to develop a community garden. RPD is proposing to spend $250,000 to implement just the first phase of a community garden (a few beds, etc.).

HANC has responded to a request from RPD to be involved with the community garden by offering to build out the garden at little or no cost to RPD (saving over a hundred thousand $ of RPD capital budget that could then be used elsewhere to make new gardens or other capital investments) while transitioning the recycling/redemption features off the site at 780 Frederick over a reasonable timeframe so as not to remove the neighborhood benefits of a recycling center.

RPD has expressed concern with this plan because they have stated that they do not believe that ANY gardeners would be willing to manage plots in a space where people donate recycled goods or redeem recyclables (even in the interim). HANC is wondering if that assumption is valid. If you (or your family or friends) would be interested in helping install or maintain a plot at the 780 Frederick site (Upper Haight/Cole Valley/Inner Sunset) please fill out the short form here:

http://bit.ly/HANCgarden

Please also forward this link to folks you think might be interested in signing up.