By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC President

2026 is an election year.  There will be a primary with Election Day on June 2 (and voting beginning on May 4) and a general election with Election Day on November 3 (and voting beginning on October 5).

You may have seen people with petitions for initiatives and candidates on Haight Street and in other parts of San Francisco in December and January.  This has slowed down because the deadline to submit initiative petitions for the June primary was February 2, and the deadline for candidates to submit signatures in lieu of filing fees for the June primary will also have passed by the time you read this.

We anticipate petitions to reappear on the streets shortly, as the deadlines for initiatives and candidates for the November election begin in May (signatures for Board of Supervisor) and run through early July (initiatives and signatures for assessor-recorder, public defender, board of education, and community college board).  State initiatives can only be voted on in the general election, so we expect a long ballot in November

On January 14, Tim Redmond published a guide to the petitions being circulated on 48 Hills (https://48hills.org/2026/01/should-i-sign-that-petition-a-handy-guide-to-the-clipboards-you-are-seeing-on-the-streets/).  He will be joining us at our February meeting, with an update on the status of these petitions, and his insights on the upcoming elections.

Join us at the Park Branch Library or online on February 12, for information you won’t find anywhere else.  Bring a friend (in person) or invite a friend (online) to share this information.

As we mentioned in the past two issues of the HANC Voice, we will be holding a Congressional Candidate Forum in place of our March meeting.

HANC has invited  Connie Chan, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Scott Weiner.  The deadline to file a Declaration of Candidacy with the California Secretary of State is March 6, so we may invite additional candidates.

Meantime, save the date of March 12, 2026 for our Congressional Candidate Forum, and think about questions you may want to ask the candidates.

We want your questions for the candidates.  Please send your questions to us by March 1 via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by US mail to Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, PO Box 170518, San Francisco, CA  94117

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Work on the SFMTA’s “Quick-build Oak Street Project” has come to the Panhandle with the temporary reconfiguration of the southwest intersection of Oak and Masonic.  According to SFMTA, the work will continue until January and will “build new corner ramps, relocate signal poles, and construct a short off-street bikeway segment that will ultimately connect to the future eastbound on-street protected bikeway.” (See https://www.sfmta.com/projects/oak-street-quick-build-project, for all details).

Part of the work has been the institution of “green lighting” of intersections along the area with the removal of some 26 spaces.  An additional 23 parking spaces will be removed from Ashbury to Masonic (north side) to accommodate a new (second) left turn lane and the new on-street Oak St. bike lane.

HANC has devoted two full membership meetings to discussing the proposal since its introduction in 2022.  While resident concerns over the loss of parking have been predictably ignored by SFMTA, concerns over the conflict between bike, and pedestrians, joggers and pet walkers  in the  Panhandle  raised by HANC members has been has also been basically ignored.

The plan calls for a confusing and absurd “solution” at the south west intersection of Masonic and Oak with two crossings planned for the intersection, one for bikes and one for everyone else, and also two left turn lanes for the same intersection, causing bicyclists to use the pedestrian path in the Panhandle.  The same basic conflict between bike riders and pedestrians occurs at the Stanyan and Oak as bicyclists again “share” access to a single pedestrian path before entering the new “street side” bike lane on Oak. 

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By Teresa Palmer, M.D.

(with some minor additions by Richard Ivanhoe, HANC President)

At our December meeting, Teresa Palmer, M.D., discussed “Looking at Optimal Outcomes If We Need Nursing Home Care.”

She advised us that nursing home care can cost from $8,000 to $15,000 per month, quickly draining an individual’s or a family’s savings. 

Medicare does not pay for “custodial care,” although it will pay for some “skilled nursing care.” Medi-Cal will pay for long-term custodial care, if you are eligible.  CAHNR (California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform) explains in further detail at this website: https://canhr.org/overview-of-medi-cal-for-long-term-care/. 

Eligibility for Medi-Cal is based on income, and, beginning in 2026, on assets.  The income limit is 138% of the Federal Poverty Level, or $21,597 for one person or $29,187 for two.  Beginning in 2026, the asset limit will be $130,000 for one person, plus $65,000 for each additional family member.  Some assets (main home, main vehicle, household items) are not counted toward this total.  Beginning in 2026, assets that have been gifted, sold for less than fair value, or transferred within the past 30 months (with exclusions for transfers in 2024 and 2025)  will be included in your total assets, or you might be penalized with ineligibility for Medi-Cal.  Dr. Palmer suggests consulting with an estate planning attorney before transferring assets to reach Medi-Cal eligibility.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has a perfect record of supporting Mayor Lurie’s housing policy. Unfortunately that policy is one that dramatically advances the building of high density market-rate housing while actively diminishing City support for housing the vast majority of current San Franciscans can afford and which could result in the demolition of tens of thousands of rent-controlled housing units which make up the vast majority of the housing in our neighborhood and much of District 5.

Mahmood embraces the YIMBY ideology and has received both the endorsement and strong financial support  from groups that share the same ideology.  His narrow victory over Dean Preston has been touted both here and nationally as a major “YIMBY” victory showing how San Francisco voters, in defeating the Democratic Socialist Preston  and electing a “moderate” billionaire Mayor have changed direction and embraced “market solutions” to all of its problems.

The public face YIMBYs place on their total embrace of the capitalist market is to describe it as “supporting the development of housing for all income levels”.  As Mahmood’s actual votes prove, that “public face” is simply a mask behind which YIMBYs  seek to  hide their real agenda:  the unimpeded  operation of a capitalist market in which real estate speculation is the motive force determining who works and lives here. 

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By Christin Evans, HANC Board

Billionaire interests (real estate, tech) are playing a long game to permanently put their thumb on the scale of power.  Significantly impacting San Francisco’s elections this past cycle was the redistricting that placed a larger number of progressive voters in fewer districts and saw unprecedented levels of PAC spending to usher in so-called ‘moderate’ Supervisors aligned with billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie.

GrowSF, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, Abundant SF and TogetherSF (recently rebranded to Blueprint) together poured millions of dollars into buying a slim majority of seats on the Board of Supervisors. 

Now the conservative-leaning political groups are taking full advantage of their majority powers as witnessed December 10th in the Mayor’s conference room in room 201 when the groups’ representatives set around a u-shape seating configuration to echo the Mayor’s talking points that his office needs more power.  Giving him more power will make San Francisco run more efficiently and effectively, Lurie says.

What’s in Lurie’s way?  Pesky voter initiatives, citizen-led oversight commissions, labor-backed procurement rules and an “unwieldy” 500+ page charter that is often difficult to interpret, Deputy City Attorney Jon Givner told the group.

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A Geriatric Opinion

By Teresa Palmer, M.D., Family Medicine / Geriatrics

Editor’s Note:  Teresa Palmer, M.D., will be joining us for our December meeting.  She has invited some Laguna Honda staff to help provide updates and answer questions

On a walk around the Haight Ashbury, the Panhandle, and environs I see a yearly increase in aging people who are, like me, past 70. As a prelude to discussion at the HANC meeting on December 11 2025, I am presenting my subjective version of a glossary for folks who may need long term care someday. About 50% of elders need nursing home care at some point in their lives. Optimal nursing home care occurs in a high-quality facility in San Francisco so family and friends can keep tabs on your care. Knowing the vocabulary is part of getting what you want!

Glossary: In regard to long-term care vocabulary there are very specific financial definitions by insurance companies: if you or your family uses these terms in a medical setting—be sure to understand the implications, given our broken health care system! We can discuss this more at the meeting!

Skilled nursing facility (SNF): A licensed nursing home able to do post-acute (after hospital discharge) rehabilitation. There are different types of “rehab”.  Being at an “SNF” specifically for rehab is different from living in one indefinitely. The facility may also be certified to do “Custodial” or long-term care.

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By Nate Horrell and Alice Mosley, HANC Board

HANC’s November general membership meeting heard an update from Chris Arvin on behalf of the Muni Now, Muni Forever Coalition, of which HANC is a member. Chris provided an update on the state of competing proposals to save Muni from a looming deficit that would result in severe and crippling service cuts if not a death spiral to our public transit system. Chris also serves as vice president of the SFMTA’s Citizen’s Advisory Council.

Chris reported that a regional sales tax measure will likely go before voters in November 2026 and stands to benefit Muni. Mayor Lurie has proposed a local parcel tax measure to complement the sales tax measure on the same ballot. Although both local proposals are structured as variable parcel taxes, taxing large buildings more than smaller buildings, the Muni Now, Muni Forever coalition has devised a more progressive and ambitious version of the local parcel tax which differs from Lurie’s proposal in several important ways:

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