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By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Last month the Board of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council voted to oppose unless amended Supervisor Melgar’s rather misleadingly labeled "Family Housing Opportunity Special Use District" that included both the Haight-Ashbury and Inner Sunset in its boundary. Sold by the Supervisor as making it easier "for homeowners to add up to four units on their lots," she said repeatedly that the legislation was for "Westside homeowners".  

The legislation’s chief objective was to allow demolitions of existing units with neither public notice nor public hearing. In its initial form the legislation would have required that the property be owned only a year prior to applying for the no notice demolition, creating an unmistakable opportunity for speculators. Moreover, there were no affordability requirements for the density and demolition concessions, making it even more attractive for "buy, demo and displace” real estate "investors," nor was there a prohibition on short term rental use for the new units.

Had the legislation only applied to western neighborhood single family home lots such an open invitation to rampant speculation would have been limited in scope. The legislation however includes all of the Inner Sunset and Haight Ashbury, neighborhoods in which tenants outnumber homeowners three and four to one. Allowing such speculation in these neighborhoods would produce far more serious displacement of tenants for no additional affordability.

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By Danielle McVay, HANC Board

A quick internet search of “driverless cars San Francisco” will quickly solicit articles with fiery commentary and headlines such as “Fire chief warns against ‘unleashing’ self-driving taxis in San Francisco” (The Guardian), “San Francisco may soon get 24/7 driverless cabs. City leaders are fuming.” (The Washington Post) and a particularly funny video on the ABC 7 news site “Journalist documents wild ride inside Waymo self-driving car in SF'' which shows a very frustrated journalist give up on her Waymo ride and return to her private vehicle to make the trip to pick up her son at a popular destination in The City.

Most concerning is a letter from San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 sent on June 26th to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ahead of a vote initially scheduled for June 29th but currently postponed till July 13th to expand driverless cars offerings. The letter states “autonomous vehicles have a demonstrated track record of interrupting response to emergency incidents and making dangerous situations even worse….blocked our emergency response to a mass shooting in San Francisco's Mission District”.

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

Installation of Additional Bike Share Station

An SFMTA map dated January 1, 2022 (but showing installations from June 2017 through July 2022) shows 8 BikeShare stations installed in the Haight Ashbury: Fell at Stanyan (19 bikes), Waller at Stanyan (17 bikes), Carl at Cole (23 bikes), Page at Masonic (31 bikes), Haight at Lyon (27 bikes), Broderick at Oak (27 bikes), Central at Fell (31 bikes), and Grove at Masonic (31 bikes). There are additional stations nearby at Frederick and Arguello (19 bikes), McAllister at Arguello (19 bikes), Parker at McAllister (27 bikes), McAllister at Baker (27 bikes) and Grove at Divisadero (27 bikes). The map can be found at Bike Share Installation Map.

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By Tab Buckner, HANC Board

HANC’s June 8th general membership meeting focused on policing in our neighborhood and citywide. The hybrid event hosted Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone in person at Flywheel Coffee Roasters. Melissa Hernandez, Legislative Aide to District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston and Park Station Police Captain Jack Hart joined the panel via zoom.

“Outdated Policies”

Max Carter-Oberstone has been on the Police Commission for one and a half years. He said that he and his colleagues have focused on addressing “very outdated” policies that have been on the books for decades. An example is the collection and redemption of evidence at a crime scene that needs to reflect technological advancements that include DNA use. Another area of reform is phasing out an emphasis on low-level infractions such as traffic stops that extract a large amount of time and money and tend to disproportionately affect People of Color.

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