Membership Meetings: 2nd Thursdays ~ 7-9pm
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, SF, CA 94117 (except August)
By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board Member
On October 15, 1959, 200 neighbors met at the Dudley Stone School (now the Chinese Immersion School at De Avila) and unanimously decided to form the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council. Times were different (the meeting began with the Boy Scouts presenting the colors and with the pledge of allegiance), but the meeting touched on issues that are still relevant—Schools, Housing, Health, and Recreation.
In March, 1960, HANC adopted bylaws “amid flaring tempers and rollicking laughter.” (Haight-Cole Journal, March 24, 1960) HANC’s earliest work included planting trees, setting up tuberculosis screenings, clearing brush at Buena Vista Park, addressing overcrowding at neighborhood schools, and seeking supervision of play areas in the Panhandle and at the Dudley Stone School playground. But we are probably best known for our opposition to the proposed Panhandle Freeway, which was defeated at the Board of Supervisors in a close vote in October, 1964, but needed to be defeated again, with another close vote at the Board in March, 1966. In November, 1966, HANC incorporated as a non-profit corporation.
Here are some of HANC’s other accomplishments:
By Christin Evans, HANC Board Member
HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is usually 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.
You probably have seen an onslaught of mail already about this controversial November ballot measure. At our next meeting, HANC members will hear from both sides about Measure C which seeks to overturn the ban placed on e-Cigarette products by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year.
Voters had previously supported a June 2018 measure, proposition E, to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products seen as largely favored by younger users including teens. That ban was passed by voters by more than 68% of the vote. And merchants were given 6 months to liquidate their stock before the flavor ban went into effect January 1 this year.
Emboldened by overwhelming support of E, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted in June to prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes also known as e-Cigs. Our elected Supervisors cited their reasons for supporting the ban: e-Cigarettes are not yet approved by the FDA, they are relatively new products and the long-term effects on public health is largely unknown.
By Rupert Clayton, HANC Land Use Chair
After a year of prototyping and planning, a team from the Exploratorium is close to finalizing their set of exhibits for a two-year display around Alvord Lake at the Haight St entrance to Golden Gate Park. The approach they have selected is based on “Pathways and Pauses”, with some experiences designed to engage people just passing through that area of the park and others intended to encourage a longer stay to focus on particular physical phenomena.
The Lake Dock area will contain two exhibits that reveal the microscopic organisms at work in and around Alvord Lake
By Christin Evans, HANC Board Member
Facing steep rent increases and escalating payroll costs, long-time small business owner Massoud Badakhshan announced he’ll be liquidating stock and closing his doors in October. The Haight Ashbury Music Center opened in 1972 and would qualify for the legacy business program but Massoud says that with his 70th birthday coming up in a few months, he’s ready to slow his pace and is unable to continue with the necessary investments it would take to shift his business plan to be sustainable in the internet era.
The board of the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association urged the city to nominate the business for legacy status nonetheless and has undertaken a search for a new owner. The Haight should not be without a music store -- an independent community hub for the city’s musicians to brush up on their skills and outfit their bands.
An analysis of the Music Center’s financials indicated that the business could be made sustainable with investments in new service lines such as classes & events, and with reduction in rent and overhead costs. For that reason, HAMA has put out an open call for interested entrepreneurs and/or investors to contact the organization’s President, Christin Evans at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / cell 510-459-5451.
By Shira Noel, HANC Board Member
If you were unable to attend the July naloxone training or did attend and would like to be prepared in case you witness an overdose, CBHS pharmacy at 1380 Howard St (at 10th St), Monday - Friday, 9am - 3:30pm, provides a free training as well as the naloxone kit. It can also be purchased from your pharmacist without a prescription. Your doctor will write a prescription and have the cost covered by your insurance. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist and is used to reverse the effects of an overdose. It is non-addictive and is only effective if opioids are present. If no opioids are present, naloxone has no effect. It can be injected but is commonly administered as a nasal spray.
By Tes Welborn, HANC President
Some of you may have participated in a survey, open house, or meetings over the past six to nine months about the future of UCSF at Parnassus. Those participating found that the University was planning to increase Parnassus square footage by some 30% over the 1970's Space Ceiling. The Space Ceiling was a neighborhood effort to limit Parnassus within boundaries, set a maximum average daily number of people on the campus, and stopped UCSF from gobbling up adjacent housing. With the help of Phil Burton, this became UC policy.
Many neighbors thought that the vast Mission Bay expansion would lower pressure to expand at Parnassus, but now we are finding out, this is not so. Researchers, clinicians, and faculty at UCSF's four schools [dentistry, nursing, medicine and pharmacy] are envious of the new buildings and modern equipment at Mission Bay. They are finding it harder to recruit top talent to study and work at Parnassus. This professional population at Parnassus initiated a new round of six months' of community engagement meetings and open houses. The goal is to get community agreement with an increase of some 40% in square footage within the Parnassus boundaries.
By Calvin Welch, HANC Board Member
About forty neighbors joined our panel to discuss the dominance of "neoliberal" pro- market proposals coming from Sacramento (and room 400 at City Hall) to address the affordable housing scarcity plaguing the entire state and nation and what might be done about it.
Joseph Smooke, co-founder of People Powered Media showed a twenty minute film cleverly refuting the "pro market narrative" dominating the media . It pointed out that San Francisco "housing crisis" is one of affordability not a failure to build housing and how the market will never produce, unassisted by regulation, housing able to be afforded by low and middle income households.
Theresa Flandrich, Housing Organizer for Senior Disability Action shared her research which showed that the average senior in San Francisco earns less than that which is required to "qualify" for what the Lee administration calls "affordable housing". It was the policy of the Lee administration to rely on private developers to supply affordable housing in the form of "below market rate"(BMR) units in their market rate developments. Since the lowest affordability level of such BMR housing requires an income of $40,000 a year for a single person and since most seniors rely on a social security income that averages about $18,000 a year such "market based" affordability is simply unaffordable to most seniors