HANC’s January meeting was in three parts.  The first two segments were part of our 60^th anniversary celebration.  We started with a video from 1972, “A report from the Neighborhood.”  The neighborhood was, of course, the Haight-Ashbury, and the video included a HANC meeting, and some recognizable individuals.  It can be seen at https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/218071.

The video was followed with a presentation by David Wills, former Haight Ashbury resident and local artist.  David first visited the Haight-Ashbury in 1969, where he bought a sketchbook at Mendel’s and overalls at Cal Surplus.  He moved to the Haight-Ashbury in 1975  and lived on Ashbury Street from 1976 until 2008, and in the neighborhood until 2013.  David provided tables full of his art, which he showed at the meeting.  Examples included the first poster for the Haight Ashbury Street Fair, 1978 “Shop the Haight” bus ads (very few of the stores advertised still exist), and a 1982 poster showing the Haight-Ashbury surrounded by rising waters due to climate change (David gave away copies of this poster at the meeting).  There was barely time to mention David’s work with Rolling Stone, the Whole Earth Catalog, the Hookers’ Ball, Shady Grove, and Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver.

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HANC continued to celebrate our 60^th Anniversary at our December meeting, by honoring Haight Ashbury artists and writers and with a dessert potluck.  We were also presented with a poster commemorating the event by Stanley Mouse, the Haight Street Art Center, and SF Heritage.  We are offering signed copies of the poster, while our supply lasts, for donations of $25 or more.  You can either bring your donation to our January meeting, or mail it to HANC, P.O. Box 170518, San Francisco, CA  94117.

We continue our celebration in our January meeting:  we plan to show a 1972 video about the Haight Ashbury, which includes a HANC meeting, and we also planning to have a discussion with former long-time Haight-Ashbury resident and local artist David Wills.

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By David Woo, HANC Board Member

The Coalition for a Complete Community (CCC) at 730 Stanyan Street was formed to ensure a publicly accessible and community led planning process for the development of 100% affordable housing at the former McDonald’s site. 

The CCC held a community meeting on December 11th, 2019 that touched on the CCC’s proposal for the final development of the site, which includes housing and services for youth, families with children, and seniors. The meeting especially highlighted the senior component of the community proposal because the city process to choose a developer has not included seniors as an expected population to be included in the affordable housing. A working group was formed at the meeting to address the need to include seniors in the final development.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Board Member

Jen Snyder, Dean Preston’s campaign manager (and now Legislative Aide), and Jim Stearns, Chesa Boudin's campaign consultant, joined HANC’s Anniversary general membership meeting in presenting an "inside look" into both campaigns.  Calvin Welch also presented "How the Haight Voted".

One of the interesting insights of the evening was presented by Stearns who pointed out that Preston actually finished the voting day AHEAD of Brown by some 31 votes (11,239 to 11,208) before the ranked choice count due to the fact that some 200 D5 voters cast no first place votes but cast votes only for second place. Preston out polled Brown in those Election Day "second votes” 120 to 37.  Stearns also stated that "Chesa did not win the ranked choice votes, he SURVIVED it" in that the majority of second place votes went to Loftus, once again showing how ranked choice voting tends to favor "moderate" candidates for the simple reason that there are usually more such candidates than left/progressives candidates.

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The March, 2020 election will soon be upon us.  Early voting begins February 3.  In addition to the Presidential primary, there will be contests for U.S. Representative, State Senate, State Assembly, County Central Committee, one State proposition, and five local propositions.  HANC will discuss the election in our February meeting.

HANC supports San Francisco Proposition E and has written an argument in support of it, which will appear in the Voter Information Guide.  Proposition E  would tie the limit on the  construction of new large office projects in San Francisco to the City’s affordable housing production.  If the City falls short in meeting its Affordable Housing goals, then the limit on large office projects would go down by the same percentage.

Here is the argument HANC submitted:

The Board of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council strongly urges a Yes vote on E.

The unprecedented growth of the commercial office sector has overwhelmed the City's housing stock even though some 77,000 units have been approved in recent years. Investment in commercial real-estate yields more profit than investment in residential real estate, especially after the Trump tax cuts for office developers.  This "market reality" demands local regulation which links commercial office development to the production of truly affordable housing  Preposition E is that needed  linkage. 

By Karen Fishkin, HANC Board Member

“The San Francisco Public Library recently made major changes in its core borrowing procedures that adversely affects the most vulnerable patron population:  seniors, low-income and disabled library users.  In mid-September, without any prior notice, the S.F. Library eliminated mailed notices, which let borrowers know when library materials they have requested are available for pickup at branches.  These notices greatly facilitate and encourage borrowing of library materials.  Without them it is all but impossible for thousands of library users who do not have internet access to use to library’s vast collection.”

The paragraph above is a quote from the letter that was sent to the SF Library Commission (and to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors) by the California Alliance for Retired Americans in November.  (Editor’s note:  the full letter was published in the Richmond Review and can be found at https://sfrichmondreview.com/2019/12/02/12382/)

It is estimated that in San Francisco 138,000 residents do not have Internet access.  The Library should be serving all San Franciscans.

The HANC Board finds both the process and outcome of this new process to be problematic, and so the Board voted unanimously to support the following motion. 

            “Library card holders without computers and/or Internet access must be physically contacted with mailed notices.”

Rasputin Records closed its Haight Street store in November.  Within less than a month, Flamingo Vintage, a by-the-pound vintage clothing retailer, had moved in and was ready to open.  But Flamingo Vintage operates nearly two dozen stores in Europe, is expanding into Asia, and also operates stores in New York, Austin, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami.  San Francisco planning laws consider a chain with 11 or more locations globally to be formula retail, with a requirement to apply for and obtain a conditional use permit before opening.

Flamingo Vintage failed to apply for a conditional use permit, and thus could not open in December, as planned.  During its December 19 meeting, the HANC Board voted to insist that all formula retail businesses in the Haight Ashbury must go through the conditional use process, and that HANC will not oppose Flamingo Vintage’s conditional use.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Housing & Land Use Chair

Between 2010 and 2018 the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council made some 53 recommendations to our neighbors on both state and local ballot measures in seven elections over that period.  Only three recommendations were rejected by Haight-Ashbury voters, all on local issues, for a whopping 50 for 53 success rate (94% ).

We would like to think that HANC's recommendation was the deciding event in those votes but we know that is not the case.  What is surely the case, however, is that HANC reflects the majority sentiment of neighborhood residents on issues of importance to all of us.  We are, after all, the only neighborhood group that meets, in public, every month and our meetings are open to all unlike any other group in the neighborhood. That openness gives our members insights into the opinion and thinking of residents and our elections recommendations reflect that fact.

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