The continuing saga of the 36 year old HANC Recycling Center & Native Plant Nursery got a new installment recently. HANC staff learned of discussions held by the Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) to close this valuable neighborhood resource.

Members of San Francisco’s urban agriculture community were called into Mclaren Lodge to give input on a plan RPD was developing. The plan was to replace HANC with something called a “Garden Resource Center”. A site specific drawing was produced. RPD staff seemed to dismiss the concern raised by a community member that their proposal was highly duplicative of both the Garden for the Environment located nearby at 7th and Lawton and the Native Plant Nursery itself.

When notified of the discussions, I was struck by the irony of San Francisco’s Green Mayor, who is running for Lieutenant Governor on a platform of green jobs and promoting the green economy, attempting to shut down a recycling center that employs ten people in his own neighborhood. How is that for “thinking globally and acting locally”?

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Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council’s April 8^th general meeting will feature an informational presentation and discussion on the Skate Board Park that is proposed for the Waller Street cul de sac off of Stanyan Street in Golden Gate Park. The Board of Supervisors, lead by Ross Mirkarimi, unanimously approved the park’s creation and passed an ordinance to that effect. The Planning Commission has approved it and there is $80,000 allocated for its design. Compared to other sports, skateboarding is an underserved sport and a park gives skaters a place to skate off the streets.

A group of neighbors adjacent to the proposed site and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition oppose this use. The Bicycle Coalition presently has developed the site for safe bicycling training and riding for children. A number of neighborhood events are held there including the annual Haight Ashbury Children’s Halloween event. In addition there is the proposed seasonal Ice Skating Rink and the ever elusive Farmers Market, both of which are slated to use the site. The site has also been mandated to provide overflow parking for events with over 5,000 expected attendees at Kezar Pavillion. A number of neighbors feel that the park will create an undue noise pollution burden for them and fear increased traffic congestion in an already congested area.

HANC has invited representatives from San Francisco Rec and Park, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, The San Francisco Skateboarding Association and neighbors opposing and supporting the proposal to come and provide the community with more information and to have a discussion about the proposal.

Also on the agenda for April 8^th will be a presentation from representatives of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission CleanPowerSF program. CleanPowerSF is the City’s program to provide an alternative to PG&E as a source of electrical power under the “community choice aggregation” program. CleanPowerSF must come up with a final plan this year on how to do that and this is an informational presentation. For more information on-line, go to http://www.CleanPowerSF.org

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Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

Elements of Effective Community Policing of the Haight-Ashbury

January 2010

“Police strategies and tactics must be driven by accurate, timely and reliable information supplied by current and emerging technologies and supported by the Department's systematic engagement of all of San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods.” (The SFPD Vision Statement) 

Introduction

The Haight-Ashbury is a residential neighborhood of more than 20,000 people. The overwhelming majority neither shop nor live on Haight Street. While Haight Street draws some 10,000 visitors a day in summer, is host to the second largest street fair in San Francisco and is also a regional destination of specialty retail shops , it itself has more residential uses than commercial. Indeed, often times events occurring off Haight street itself, in Golden Gate Park, for example, effect conditions on Haight Street. Any attempt to define the neighborhood’s primary policing needs as being determined by Haight Street misses the needs of the residents of the neighborhood and would therefore be doomed to be an expensive failure in the allocation of scarce public resources contradicting the stated mission of the SFPD to manage “our resources in a careful, efficient and effective manner” ( SFPD Mission Statement).

Elements of Effective Community Policing in the Haight-Ashbury

It is the policy of the SFPD to establish “Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS) as an integral part of district station policing” ( Department General Order, 3.11). Applying this policy to the Haight-Ashbury would have to place the policing of Haight Street in the context of the community policing needs of the entire neighborhood.

Below is a list of four primary elements that would make up an effective and comprehensive “community policing” effort in the Haight-Ashbury in the opinion of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council. The order of presentation of these elements does not indicate primacy of subject as all four, combined, must be part of any successful effort.

HAIGHT STREET

What happens on Haight Street rarely stays on Haight Street, and oftentimes doesn’t even start on Haight Street.

The need is for constant, predictable, visible and persistent patrols on Haight Street, Page Street and Waller Street from Stanyan to Baker. Additionally, the Panhandle must be viewed as an integral part of the policing of Haight Street as the two are linked by both residents and visitors. Foot patrols should be maximized on Haight Street while regular bicycle patrols should be the primary means used in the Panhandle. Regular car patrols can be used to supplement foot patrols for Page and Waller streets.

Care should be taken by the SFPD to pay particular attention to the area around Park Station itself, especially the area around the intersection of Haight and Stanyan, as it is a heavily used pedestrian, transit and automobile corridor with major retailers – McDonald’s, Amoeba and the proposed Whole Foods - joining the Alvord Lake, Children Playground, and Golden Gate Park pedestrian entrance creating a complex mix of tourist, visitor, shopper and resident users. Community attempts to smooth out these complex interactions through more police presence and various traffic calming proposals should be supported by Park Station. 

GOLDEN GATE PARK

No neighborhood is more directly linked to activities in Golden Gate Park (GGP) than is the Haight-Ashbury. The eastern end of GGP is the location of several large public events from the Aids Walk and Bay to Breakers to Opera in the Park; Kezar Stadium and Pavilion host both school and professional sporting events, including major cross town high school rivalries and the AAA Turkey Day Championship. These events impact the neighborhood and add to the complex mix on Haight Street. All too often co-ordination between Park Station, Recreation and Parks Department, event sponsors, and the neighborhood are poor to barely adequate.

An effective community policing program in the Haight-Ashbury must emphasize participation and planning between police, event sponsors , Recreation and Parks and SFMTA to manage and minimize neighborhood impacts of major events in GGP.

COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS

The Haight-Ashbury has an incredible array of social, health and service institutions located in the neighborhood. From UCSF and St Mary’s, to USF, the Urban School, the French American School, John Adams Community College, three SFUSD primary schools, scores of residential social services, three childcare facilities and several board and care facilities the Haight Ashbury has a daytime population of staff and visitors to these intuitions that more than doubles the size of the neighborhood on work days. This huge community institutional base creates both special needs and special challenges for the institutions themselves, police and the neighborhood.

For example there needs to be police presence at pick up and drop off times at the neighborhood’s schools with particular attention paid pedestrian and parking issues at day care and primary schools.

Any successful community policing program in the Haight-Ashbury must have Park Station “at the table” with these intuitions in an ongoing and predictable manner. Park Station should view these neighborhood based institutions as potential resources in dealing with the special needs of certain populations. The old saying that “when you need a friend it is too late to make a friend” obtains here. Park station should be leaning forward in making friends of these community institutions and their neighbors.

EARTHQUAKE PREAREDINESS

The Haight-Ashbury, given its location next to GGP, its concentration of major hospitals its large numbers of schools and social services and its possible large number of tourists (depending on the time of year) will have a particularly difficult set of challenges unlike many residential neighborhoods in the event of a major earthquake. GGP is a major Citywide resource as a place to temporarily house homeless earthquake victims. St Mary’s and UCSF will have special demands placed upon them. The neighborhood’s schools and residential social services may well have populations with special needs unable to be met in place. The official plan of San Francisco is that we are all to be on “our own” for “the first 72 hours”.

While the SFFD is the official “lead agency” in an earthquake, Park Station must have a plan and that plan should involve residents, merchants and our “community institutions”. Park Station along with the SFFD should take the lead in letting its community partners know what its capability and needs are in an earthquake. The sooner we know the sooner we will be able to plan a neighborhood emergency response plan which includes Park Station and a realistic appraisal of our needs for the first 72 hours during which we will be on our own.

Conclusion

These four elements of an effective community policing plan can address the general needs of our neighborhood and also, if augmented by additional discussions and suggestions from the community, guide the very special needs of any block in our neighborhood. HANC calls upon Park Station to begin the “systematic engagement” of the neighbored in the creation of the Haight Ashbury Comprehensive Community Policing Plan based upon these, or other, community suggestions.

Update on Cala Site

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board