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HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend.

With five ballot propositions covered at the September meeting (recap is here), HANC’s October member meeting will aim to enlighten voters on seven more key initiatives on the November 8 ballot. HANC’s Board has recommended positions on these propositions (see next column), but members will want to hear the substance of each to make their own voting decisions.

Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, will speak on Propositions Q and R. Proposition Q is Sup. Mark Farrell’s initiative to further victimize and criminalize homeless people by allowing SFPD to remove them and their belongings from city sidewalks with 24 hours’ notice. It does nothing to provide any actual housing beyond a single night in a shelter but does give its backers a platform to present themselves as tough on “quality of life crimes” like being unable to afford a roof over one’s head. The Department of Justice recently advised other cities that measures that criminalize homelessness are very likely unconstitutional—just one reason to vote No on this initiative.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend 

All the votes have been counted and the election formally certified and so the November 2015 “Consolidated Municipal Election” is officially over.  Now the fun begins.

The Haight Ashbury Votes ( narrowly) for Stronger Regulation on “Airbnb” Rentals

How did the major issue and candidates do in the Haight-Ashbury?  How did Aaron Peskin win the most hotly contested Supervisor race in recent years against the Mayor’s hand-picked candidate? What patterns emerged here in District 5 and in the Citywide vote that might indicate what may happen in next year’s election when the majority of the Board of Supervisors is elected, including our own in District 5. 

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By Christian Vaisse, HANC Board

HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend .

For the first time this century, California voters in general, and San Francisco voters in particular, will be relevant when voting in a US presidential primary election. While this will surely drive more voters to the polls and allow them to finally weigh in on a vision for the future of their party, June 7th will also be an opportunity to vote on a number of propositions including California proposition 50, District proposition AA and San Francisco Propositions A through E. In addition, San Francisco Democrats will also elect members of their party’s County Central Committee.

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By:  Rupert Clayton, HANC Board

HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend 

If the city rented the parking spot outside your home to your neighbor for $150 a month there’s a good chance you’d
be pretty annoyed. But if ten of your neighbors sold the private cars they parked on your street you’d probably be much more enthusiastic, and wouldn’t much mind that their new shared car gets a reserved parking space. In fact, both those trends are part of San Francisco’s nearly two-year-old On-Street Car Share Pilot Program. Finding the right policy for on-street car-sharing is the subject of HANC’s July 9 membership meeting, part of our series on the impact of the “sharing economy”.

Panelists at the meeting will include Elliot Martin, a research engineer with UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center, Andy Thornley, the project analyst in charge of on-street car-sharing in San Francisco, and a representative from City CarShare.

Two recently designated on-street parking spaces for City CarShare on Cole St at Carl St lie empty awaiting a red curb paint.

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HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend .

Tim Redmond, editor of the internet newspaper covering San Francisco politics and culture, 48 Hills, will join HANC board member Calvin Welch in a conversation launching a HANC series of “Real Change vs Name Only Change” at HANC's April 14th general membership meeting.

HANC plans to devote its June meeting to discussing Real Change and Urban Transportation and its September meeting to Real Change and the Housing Crisis. At April meeting change in high-speed internet (see below) will be discussed as well.

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

This month, the topic of our general meeting (December 11 at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, beginning at 7 pm) is Cleaning Up in the Haight-Ashbury, plus an update on the Homeless Youth Alliance (HYA).  We’re not speaking metaphorically about cleaning up—we are not inviting speculators, and we are not featuring transients selling their northern harvest.  Instead, we’re speaking literally—sidewalk cleaning and showers. 

We have invited Christian Calinsky and Carlie Leduc from Taking It to the Streets.  The organization began this past February, with the goal of interrupting the cycle of homelessness and transitioning people back into housing.  One of the programs they started employs street kids (“kids” could be as old as in their 30s) to clean the sidewalks, abate graffiti, and acting as a liaison between business owners and the street population, in exchange for housing and food.

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