HANC Blog

By Bruce Wolfe, HANC President

San Francisco enjoys its community participation in government and community services by creating a plethora of advisory bodies. Almost every commission has one and so do many programmatic services. In fact, many SF Police Department districts have community meetings to voice their neighborhood concerns to the stations. Here at Park Station they meet every third Monday of the month from 5:00-6:00pm.

Perhaps you have heard this acronym before, CPAB. What is it? Who is on it? What does it do? What do they discuss? Community Police Advisory Boards or CPAB in San Francisco were created by then SF Police Department Chief George Gascon modeled after others around the country as a way for the community to chime in directly with various sections of the department. Here in SF, they were designed to advise the captains of each of the ten districts.

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By Tes Welborn, HANC Board

“San Francisco wound up with a sweeping new affordable housing policy . . . one that will encourage the demolition of some existing low-rise commercial buildings housing neighborhood businesses, increase density in many parts of town, and set affordability levels lower than what the voters approved last year but higher than what some supervisors wanted. It’s a compromise that is going to shape housing policy for the immediate future – and is aimed overall at encouraging somewhere around 30,000 new housing units without any discussion of how the city will pay for the infrastructure to support them,” said Tim Redmond.

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By Rupert Clayton, HANC Housing and Land Use Chair

HANC is supporting an appeal against the approval of the One Oak high-rise luxury condo project. The City’s Planning Commission certified the environmental impact report (EIR) for the project on June 15, despite many objections from neighborhood organizations, environmental groups and San Francisco residents. Jason Henderson of Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association has appealed this approval to the Board of Supervisors, with a hearing on September 5 continued to September 12.

So, what’s HANC doing getting involved in a condo development near Civic Center? There are two basic reasons: defending city-wide planning principles and looking out for the impact on Haight Ashbury residents.

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Dave Groeschel interviews Alex Aquino, HANC Board members

We asked Dave Groeschel, owner of Mom’s Tattoo (1408 Haight) to interview Alex Aquino, owner of Black Scale (1409 Haight). Here is the debrief he shared with us.

     I sat down with Alex Aquino, the owner of Black Scale on Haight Street, this morning to talk about how the 4/20 event went.  Alex put together a group of local sponsors, including Diamond Supply (1560 Haight), Cookie’s (1429 Haight), and Black Scale and some not so local ones like High Times magazine to raise $145,000 so the event would have security, clean-up, medical services, portable toilets and more.  

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By Christin Evans, HANC Board

Are all the storefront vacancies you see on Haight Street part of the normal turnover or is there something else happening along the commercial corridor?  The answer, of course, is both.  

Currently the most visible vacant storefronts you can spot are on the 1600 block where both Haight Street Shoe Repair and Kids Only (kids clothing & toy shop) were located.  Both of those businesses saw retirements nearly 2 years ago but the building owner has failed to list either space for rent.  Why?  With two levels of housing above, the building is listed in the city’s Soft Story Retrofit database and requires a foundation upgrade by the city’s deadline for Tier 4 buildings: “STATUS: Permit Required by 9/15/18” reads its entry on the city’s program website.

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By Christin Evans, HANC Board

In anticipation of the 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love celebrations in 2017, the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association requested a moratorium on non-emergency road work. However, the notorious water/sewer repair line project which plagued the 1400 block of Haight street for good parts of 2015 and 2016 is still not complete. Multiple gas leaks leading to evacuations and shelter-in-place orders, as well as, sinkholes and safety violations, led the city to terminate the sub-contractor overriding the primary contractor Ghilotti Brothers’ objections.

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