By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

The Haight-Ashbury kept its left liberal voting reputation in the June Primary, passing the CEO tax (Prop. D), defeating the lifetime term limit proposal of Supervisor Mahmood (Prop. B) and the billionaire funded corporate business tax cut (Prop. C). While giving Wiener a plurality of its vote for Congress some 48% of Haight-Ashbury voters favored either Chan or Chakrabarti.  But, like Citywide, voter turnout was higher in the more moderate voting precincts of the neighborhood than in the more progressive voting ones.

The analysis of the neighborhood vote centers on 12 precincts from three Supervisorial districts (1, 5 and 8) located in the three areas of the "core" Haight Ashbury: 4 precincts in the North Panhandle covering Stanyan to Baker, Fulton to Fell, 4 precincts in the “Flatland”, covering Stanyan to Baker, Oak to Frederick and finally, 4 precincts in the moderate voting "Hills” in the south of the neighborhood, bounded by Frederick to 17th, Stanyan to Delmar. In general, the 4 North Panhandle precincts tend to cast a "liberal” vote, the Flatland precincts tend to cast a "left/progressive” vote and the Hills tend to vote "moderate".

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By Lisa Awbrey, HANC Board

At HANC’s June public meeting, Calvin Welch covered the election results and how the Haight and adjacent neighborhoods voted. Voter turnout was the third lowest for a primary election in the past 10 years. 48 Hills independent journalist Tim Redmond also provided excellent insights to local election outcomes. Mayor Lurie continues to ignore the struggles of a majority of San Franciscans—those who are not billionaires. Too bad the YES on Prop D campaign didn’t frame Yes on D as NO on Trump.  After millions of dollars were spent to defeat Prop D, the measure barely lost by 47% to 53% (in a low and lackluster turnout election).

In the local congressional race, a majority of voters chose someone other than Scott Wiener, which should alarm him and his tech and real estate billionaire backers. Whoever replaces Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi will be centered in Washington DC, not in San Francisco. Scott Weiner is already Sacramento and state focused. Connie Chan has her finger on the pulse of working San Franciscans and will likely bring that perspective to Washington DC.

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC President

For HANC’s July 9 meeting, we’re inviting you on a treasure hunt.  No, we’re not providing a treasure for you to search for.  Instead, we want you to help us identify historic treasures within HANC’s borders (Arguello to Divisadero / Castro and Fulton to 17^th Street).

Here’s some background:  SF Planning recently adopted “SF Survey Findings for the Haight Street, Cole Valley, and Divisadero Street Neighborhood Commercial Districts.”  It can be downloaded from this website:  https://sfplanning.org/project/sf-survey-citywide-cultural-resources-survey#survey-findings.  In July, 2024, Planning adopted the “Citywide Historic Context Statement for Counterculture (1965-1975),” which can be downloaded at https://sfplanning.org/project/sf-histories-historic-context-statements#completed.  Both of these are important documents, and we want to build on this work.  The Survey is focused on Haight Street, from Central to Shrader.  The Context Statement for Counterculture identifies many specific locations, but the locations have not been indexed within the document, and the Haight Ashbury has history both before and after the 1965-1975 time period.  We want to identify historic resources in the last block of Haight Street (between Shrader and Stanyan) and we want our neighbors to help us identify historic treasures in the residential areas within HANC’s borders.

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By Tes Welborn, former HANC Board

June 14, Flag Day, for many Americans, was a day to stay inside and watch a live broadcast. The concert and energizing program was sponsored by a First Amendment organization and Jane Fonda. Our freedoms are at risk! We need to build our communities!

I recommend you still watch it, and share the links with friends and family.

Many name singers of all ages sang, including Singing Resistance! [join your local chapter]. There are many African Americans and other representatives of our diverse America, including Native Americans, religions, LGBTQ+, and more. And there are brief inspiring messages between wonderful songs!

Use this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxap5XA61ng.  Scroll forward to minute 31 for the concert (unless you want to watch people fill the seats).

By Alice Mosley, HANC Board

Muni faces the largest budget deficit in its history, according to the SFMTA. As of July 2026 the budget gap will be $307 million. There are multiple reasons for this crisis:  One-time pandemic relief funding has ended, state and federal funding has disappeared, and weekday ridership has not returned to its pre-pandemic levels.

However, Muni riders may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. BART and Bay Area transit riders may be able to avoid draconian cuts which have specified up to 15 BART station closures, elimination of 20 lower-ridership bus lines, reductions in frequency down to hourly service and shutting down at 9 pm.

A regional measure can help fund Bay Area transit in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, as well as San Francisco, including BART, Caltrain, Sam Trans, AC Transit and other transit agencies. It would be based on a sales tax of 1% and allocate additional millions to help Muni survive and thrive. Called Connect Bay Area, advocates and political leaders in Oakland celebrated the gathering of more than the 186,000 signatures required (more than 305,000) by volunteers and paid signature gatherers.

Public transport advocates in San Francisco have formed a coalition called Muni Now Muni Forever (MNMF) and proposed a new and fairer way of raising funds for Muni, based on the research of San Francisco Transit Riders. They have worked with the SFMTA, the SF Mayor’s Office, and the SF Board of Supervisors. Petition gatherers have also obtained adequate signatures for the local measure to go on the ballot this November.

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC President

Our May meeting began with discussions of ballot propositions for the June primary election.  Kurtis LaMore spoke in favor of Proposition D and against Proposition C; Otto Pippinger spoke in opposition to Proposition B, and Lisa Arjes spoke in opposition to Proposition A.  You will likely know how these propositions turned out by the time you read this.

Catherine Roscart spoke about The Big Art Loop (https://www.bigartloop.org/), a 34 mile sculpture trail around San Francisco.  The sculptures are meant to be temporary—the current permit is for one year.  Two of the sculptures have been installed in the Panhandle.  If you want to visit them, “An Attempted Murder”—two crows, because a murder of crows is three or more—just walk along Ashbury between Oak and Fell and look east: 

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As of June 7, when this article was posted, ballots are still being counted, and some races have not yet been decided.  Preliminary results for San Francisco are available at https://www.sfelections.org/results/20260602w/index.html and results for Statewide offices will be found at https://dp.electionresults.sos.ca.gov/.   For the most local results, join us at our June meeting to hear Calvin Welch discuss “How the Haight-Ashbury Voted.”

We will also be joined by Tim Redmond of 48Hills (https://48hills.org/), who will give his analysis of the primary election results, and his perspective on what it means for the November election.  He might also let us know what is likely to be on the November ballot, and which of the petitions currently circulating are actually worth signing.

Finally, we will be joined online by Anya Worley-Ziegmann from the People’s Budget Coalition (https://peoplesbudgetcoalition.org/).  The People’s Budge Coalition is a Citywide coalition of over 150 nonprofit organizations, unions, community groups, and advocates working together for a better San Francisco budget.  Anya will be online because she will be at a budget hearing at City Hall.   The Mayor released his proposed budget on June 1.  Learn about what comes next in the budget process, and what steps we can take to restore services cut by the proposed budget.

Join us on June 11 at 7 pm at the Park Branch Library or online for information you won’t find anywhere else.  Bring a friend.  Further information on how to join the meeting can be found in the accompanying article.