Membership Meetings: 2nd Thursdays ~ 7-9pm
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, SF, CA 94117 (except August)
(October 4 to November 7)
October 9 – 7:00 pm – HANC General Meeting, Park Branch Library
October 15 – 1:00 pm – Commission Streamlining Task Force Meeting, City Hall, Room 408
October 20 – 1:30 (tentative) – Land Use Committee Hearing on upzoning, City Hall,
Room 250
November 4 – Election Day (Prop. 50).
Please send suggested Calendar items (November 8 to December 5) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Park Police Station has a new Captain, as of the end of July. We invited her to our September meeting, but she had a prior commitment. She will introduce herself to the HANC community at our October meeting. Meantime, she sent us this message:
I’m Angela Wilhelm, Captain at Park Station, and I appreciate the opportunity send an update to the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council.
Nominations for the HANC Board are open through the election at our November Meeting. All current HANC members are eligible to nominate other members. Those who have been members for at least three months are eligible to serve. If you would like to serve, or would like to nominate someone, you can do so at our October meeting, or before the vote at the November meeting. The term is from December, 2025 through November, 2026. The current HANC Board has made the following recommendations for officers and Board members for the upcoming term:
President: Richard Ivanhoe
Vice President: James Sword
Recording Secretary: Lisa Awbrey
Corresponding Secretary: Bruce Wolfe
Treasurer: Christin Evans
Nominating Chair: Danielle McVay
Membership Chair: Karen Fishkin
Housing & Land Use Chair: Calvin Welch
Members At Large: Kelley Cutler
Norman Degelman
Nate Horrell
Alice Mosely
Jim Rhoads
David Woo
By Tab Buckner, HANC Board
The HANC Board has invited a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to its September 11 General Membership Meeting. The ACLU of Northern California has been active since its 1934 formation during a time when it helped empower trade workers and labor organizers. It stood against the Japanese-American forced detentions during World War II.
In the 1950’s, the organization defended local poet and City Lights Bookstore Owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti by opposing obscenity laws for his selling Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. From the 1960’s on, the ALCU has been allied with the Civil Rights Movements of African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinx and the LGBTQ+ Communities as well as for Women’s reproductive rights and anti-war demonstrators.
The ACLU fought for the civil liberties of Muslims and people of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent following the 9/11 attacks. ACLU’s longtime campus protest defense has included supporting UC Berkeley’s 1964 Free Speech Movement and opposing UC Davis’s use of pepper spray on students exercising their free speech in 2011.
During the second Trump Administration, they continue to tackle voter suppression and challenge anti-immigration policies including the unlawful policing of immigrant individuals and families. HANC awaits confirmation of a Bay Area ACLU staff member to provide an update on its local community work.
By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC President
Ted Lieser, from San Francisco Heritage will provide an update on the Doolan-Larson House at our September meeting. At our July meeting, Tia Lombardi (also from San Francisco Heritage) spoke about the property—the large white building at the southeast corner of Haight and Ashbury. Here’s some history from the Doolan-Larson website (https://haightandashbury.org/heritage/ ):
Built in 1903, the Colonial Revival Doolan-Larson House is located at 557 Ashbury Street, on the northwest corner of Haight and Ashbury streets. After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, the building was elevated to accommodate the addition of six commercial storefronts along Haight Street. The ensemble comprises approximately 7,500 square feet.
It's Time to Show Up at a Prop E Taskforce Meeting to Voice Your Concerns
By Christin Evans, HANC Board
When voters went to the ballot in November last year, they rejected the meat axe approach of Proposition D which would have cut the number of commissions in half. But voters also signaled they wanted commission reform when they narrowly passed Proposition E creating the Commission Streamlining Taskforce. The measure promised a careful review of the citizen bodies which oversee and advise city departments to which they are attached.
But there may be a flaw to the execution of Prop E as the appointees who make up the taskforce appear to be carrying water for certain officials including the Mayor who have made several hostile moves to drastically cut out meaningful citizen oversight, and the transparency and accountability created by bodies such as the Police Commission, Library Commission, Arts Commission, Juvenile Probation Commission, etc.
By Alice Mosley, HANC Board
The hall in the main library was full to capacity on August 20th with people keen to find ways for Muni survive and thrive. In the face of a critical funding shortfall as of July 2026, organizers of the Transit Riders San Francisco invited a wide array of neighborhood and advocacy groups to join in a new coalition “Muni Now Muni Forever!” (MNMF).
At the summit, they set the stage by presenting facts and figures illustrating the challenges Muni and Bay Area Transit are facing, as well as interesting factoids about our Municipal Transport history. For example, where was the first publicly owned and accountable transport agency in a major city created in the USA? Many of us were surprised to learn that this honor belongs to San Francisco!
The thorniest issue is the $322 million gap in the SFMTA budget as of July 2026, but BART and other key transport agencies face major shortfalls in funding, too.
By Teresa Palmer M.D. Family Medicine / Geriatrics
Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehab Facility (LHH) is now a fully functioning “5-star facility.” However, the Federal Government (CMS-the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has refused to allow patients to occupy 120 safe and serviceable bedrooms.
This is based on a 2016 regulation for NEW skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). LHH is NOT new-it has been operating since the late 1800s and has never closed. It stayed open in 2022 after too many people died when, under CMS pressure to close, evictions were attempted: LHH COULD NOT be closed.
Laguna Honda has more than 1/3 of all nursing home beds in SF! (Even though 400 LHH beds were lost when a new, state of the art facility was constructed in 2010.) Many city “SNF” beds have been shut; there is a per-capita shortage of SNF beds in SF.
There are 769 SNF beds at Laguna Honda—over 550 of them are occupied now, and the remaining empty ones are filling. But with this Federal decision, only 649 may be occupied. Others who need to come to Laguna Honda either must take a chance on a facility out of county---many of which are severely understaffed-- or wait and hope that they will not get sick and die at a non “SNF” facility.
