Newsflash

By James Sword, HANC President

On Thursday, January 14th, both HANC and HAMA were invited to give presentations to the Board of Supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee, which is made up of Supervisors Breed, Peskin, and Yee. Both HAMA and HANC provided information similar to that presented at the press conference HANC called in October, and were followed by representatives from PG&E, CAPUC, SFPUC, DPW, & SFFD.

Ironically one of the topics on the agenda prior to this hearing was a recommendation by the civil grand jury that DPW have closer oversight because construction projects have been poorly managed. The recommendations by the civil grand jury for closer oversight of DPW were all ignored.

Read more ...

HANC President James Sword, center, and Haight Ashbury Merchants Association  Board Member Christin Evans, (left of James)  joined by representatives  of ProSF, Alamo Square Neighborhood Associatio , and North of Panhandle Neighborhood  Association at an October 26th Press Conference, calling on Supervisor Breed to conduct a hearing on five recent Haight Street gas leaks.

James Sword, President of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, called upon the Board of Supervisors to hold a hearing on a series of five gas leaks that occurred in one block of Haight Street between April and October which resulted in three evacuations of both businesses and residents, two “pauses” in the project to sort out the problem, and its final postponement in mid-October.  The project is still not completed and there are no known dates for its final completion.

Read more ...

By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Vice President

The Clean Power San Francisco (CPSF) program is moving along nicely. It is set to officially launch in late spring in the Southeast side of the city.  It will include all those who requested, through the website, to receive service early.  There will be two tiers: Green (30-50% renewable) and SuperGreen (100% renewable), both designed to meet or beat PG&E's current rates.

But, as SF Clean Energy Advocates (SFCEA) expected, more obstacles have been thrown in by SFPUC (the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission) and whoever else is seeking to slow things down. SFPUC suddenly replaced its CFO, and the new CFO now wants a far more granular business plan than is necessary before the launch. At a recent commission meeting, an announcement was made that the launch may be delayed because of this.

SFCEA and its partners are preparing for such notice of a delay. We are forging ahead in moving the public information campaign with the current target launch date. If the SFPUC will not honor that date to the residents and businesses of our City then we will be calling on you to express strong public opinion and to apply whatever pressure to assure CleanPower SF launches on time. Sign up today at http://CleanPowerSF.org.

Following the closure of the Wednesday afternoon Upper Haight Farmers Market in August, the Recreation and Parks Department is proposing to “activate” the asphalt area at Waller and Stanyan by adding a second evening of food trucks.

Off the Grid has been bringing food trucks to the site on Thursday evenings since 2010. RPD has now floated the idea of “adding an additional Tuesday night market” which “will likely provide the healthy community engagement that the Department and the surrounding community and merchants desire.”

Read more ...

By Rupert Clayton, HANC Board

Early in 2016, the city is due to review the pilot program under which it has been allowing the car-sharing companies ZipCar, City CarShare and Getaround to rent on-street parking spaces. The program was set up in July 2013 to run until August 30, 2015, and it’s not entirely clear why the review did not take place earlier.

The original expectation was that up to 900 parking spaces across the city might be converted from a mix of metered and unmetered use to be dedicated to specific Car-Share Organizations (CSOs). In fact, by July 2015, the three approved CSOs had only taken up 203 spaces. The pilot program required each CSO vehicle using an on-street space to be available at least 75 percent of the time during any given month. This clause allowed members of the “peer-to-peer” network Getaround to get a dedicated on-street parking space for $150 per month in Zone 2 (which covers most of the Haight-Ashbury), and still drive their cars 42 hours a week. Car-share spaces get an exemption from street-cleaning restrictions so that companies don’t have to move their vehicles; in exchange, the companies are supposed to clean their rented spaces themselves, which some have done better than others.

Read more ...

The 38th annual Haight Ashbury Street Fair will take place this year on Sunday, June 14, from 11 am to 5:30 pm.  The first Haight Ashbury Street Fair was held in 1978 when neighborhood residents, merchants, and activists, with our Supervisor, Harvey Milk, planned the celebration to recognize the economic and residential rebirth of the neighborhood in the mid-1970s.

The street fair features arts and crafts, food booths, music stages at Masonic and at Stanyan, a family area (Children’s Alley) on Belvedere, and a forum for community groups, non-profits, and government agencies.  Visit HANC at our booth east of Belvedere, on the south side of Haight Street.

This year’s poster was designed by Park Station police officer Elizabeth (Lily) Prelinger, who was a graphic design major in college. 

The closing performers for the Stanyan Street Stage will be Barry “The Fish” Melton and Nick Gravenites.  Full schedules for both the Masonic and Stanyan stages and much more information about the street fair is available at www.haightashburystreetfair.org.