Membership Meetings: 2nd Thursdays ~ 7-9pm
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, SF, CA 94117 (except August)

HANC Membership Meeting - April 2023

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Next Meeting

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Join us on Thursday, December 13, beginning at 7 pm at the Park Branch Library as we discuss the November election.

It should come as no surprise that Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney 10,710 (90% of the neighborhoods vote) to 591 (.04%) here in the Haight-Ashbury. Nor should it come as much of a surprise in this stronghold of political “chat” that some 78% of the registered voters of the neighborhood voted, a stronger turnout that the 73% in San Francisco or the 71% in California.

As the old saying goes: “All politics are local”; and Decembers meeting will get as “local” as it can get. 

The meeting will be devoted to a discussion of how the Haight-Ashbury voted this last November by individual precinct and by sub neighborhood areas . we will compare and contrast the neighborhoods vote with the rest of District Five and the City. We will look at key ballot measures and how HANC recommendation on 6 City and 8 State measures was greeted in the neighborhood. We will take detailed looks at Proposition C, the Housing Trust Fund, Proposition E, the Gross Receipts Business Tax which HANC members campaigned for door to door in the neighborhood. We will also look at the District 5 Supervisor race and who came in where here in the Haight- Ashbury.

Assisiting in bringing some analysis to the number crunching, done as usual by HANC Board member Calvin Welch, Decembers meeting will have long time gay community activist, local merchant and past President of HANC, Joey Cain. Joey will be joined by Prof. Corey Cook, of USF, the political science “source” of record for the Chronicle and long time observer of San Francisco elections and politics. 

Joey, Corey and Calvin will be loaded with facts and observations and you should come loaded with questions, observations and opinions on what just happened. It’s all happening at the Park Brnach Library, 1833 Page Street, 7 PM, Thursday, December 13.

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November at HANC

Join us at our general meeting on Thursday, November 8, beginning at 7:00 pm, at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street, as we discuss the changes coming for Masonic, Oak, Fell, and Haight Streets.

2013 will be year of significant changes for the major streets in our neighborhood.  Oak and Fell Streets are slated to have new bulb outs, medians and a bike lane. On September 18th the MTA approved a series of bulb outs and a raised median strip for Masonic from Geary to Fell. Work is expected to be well underway by next year.

Last month Supervisor Olague and the Planning Department announced a year long planning process for Haight Street, officially called the “ Haight Ashbury Public Realm Plan”. The year long planning process was set in motion by the two year old Haight Ashbury Merchants Association (HAMA), led by Christin Evans, who came up with some concepts to make Haight Street more compelling to the neighborhood's residents.

With all of this in motion HANC has asked James Shahamiri from the MTA and Alexis Smith from the Planning Department to present as well as Ms. Evans from HAMA.

How these three efforts will fit together and work for the residents and businesses of the Haight Ashbury is of keen interest. There seems to be a rather large “gap.” for example, in the Masonic street plan which ends at Fell while major issues of car, bicycle, pedestrian and transit connections and conflicts at Haight and Masonic goes unaddressed. Moreover, how the Planning Department enforces existing codes and policies on Haight Street has come under criticism from HANC, with the violation of permit requirements occurring at Whole Foods, which is now using Page and Haight Streets for unloading large trucks when such use was banned by their permit.

Haight Street is officially designated as a “neighborhood shopping district” yet tens of thousands visitors from the world come each year. It is also a “transit preferential street” in formal plans, yet cars, trucks and bicycles conflict with buses and pedestrians on a daily basis. Finally, Haight Street has more homes than shops and is a residential street as well as a commercial street. How these multi-uses are merged with what physical “improvements” are no simple matter and if all of us are to benefit, it must be done with all of our participation. So please come, Thursday, November 8 at 7 PM at 1833 Page street.

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Join HANC, community gardeners, and the urban agriculture community, at our general meeting on Thursday, July 12, beginning at 7:00 pm, downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street.

Within the last year, community garden and urban agriculture sites in San Francisco, including the Free Farm (at Gough and Eddy), Hayes Valley Farm (at Oak and Laguna) and the Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center (at 780 Frederick), along with the more high profile Gill Tract (on UC Berekley property in Albany in East Bay), have all had to reckon with the uncertainty of tenure and permissible use for growing food for people. Each of these sites has its own story of impending change of land use, displacement or eviction of farming activities in favor of housing and commercial development except in the case of Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center which is being faced with the possibility of being evicted in favor of another community garden. At the HANC general membership meeting on Thursday July 12th we will hear from community members involved with these sites and learn more about the current status of these sites and solicit discussion from members about land tenure and community gardens and urban agriculture.

The Free Farm is currently on a vacant lot owned by St. Paulus church at the corner of Gough and Eddy. Earlier this year, St. Paulus signed an agreement with Maracor Development to go ahead with a plan of selling the land to them and having it developed for market rate housing and a new church building for St. Paulus. The Free Farm has some 24-36 months until “entitlement” or when the city gives final approval for the building project. This will include an environmental impact report, community meetings with the neighbors, coming up with a design, and dealing with all legal and building issues. Once entitlement is reached the church signs the property over to the developer. Maracorp Development has required that the Free Farm be removed from the site 6 months before entitlement happens. The Free Farm is currently searching for a new location (or locations) in the city.

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Mark your calendar for September 13th at 7 PM at Park Branch Library (1833 Page Street) for it will be your first major opportunity to learn and discuss local ballot measures for this November's election.

While we all know more than we ever wanted about Mitt, his dog and his pony we are far less well informed about local ballot measures that will, arguable, have more direct impact our daily lives. From profound ( Props C, E and F) to simply symbolic (G), from important (A and B) to not so important (D) all local ballot measures will be discussed.

Taken as a whole the seven local measures, while fewer than usual, will have real impacts. The City College parcel tax ( A) and Park Bond (B) measures are not simply funding measures but also are imbedded with real policy issues. HANC opposes B and lays out its reasons in a separate article in this issue of the Voice.

Propositions C, the Housing Trust Fund, E, the new gross receipt business tax and F, a policy statement on the future of the Hetch Hetchy water and power system, have long lasting importance and involve billions of public dollars. These three are not trivial issues and you need to understand them. HANC will lay out its support for Proposition C ( see article in this issue) and has invited speakers on E and F.

It wont be until late September before the Comical addresses these issues ( if then) and the various local political blogs are all caught up in the personality slug fest of the Supervisors race, so HANC is the best place to begin an understanding of the issues on the ballot.

Plan to be there and bring a friend.

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