Membership Meetings: 2nd Thursdays ~ 7-9pm
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, SF, CA 94117 (except August)
By Tes Welborn, HANC President
Shakirah Simley, Legislative Aide to Supervisor Vallie Brown, said that future legislation will address people living in cars, as “everyone deserves to be inside.” The supervisor is also working on issues of equity in the city, including discrimination complaints by African American city employees. Another priority for Supervisor Brown is a Youth Navigation Center in District 5, though it will not be located at the former McDonald's site.
At our January meeting, Lee Hepner, Legislative Aide to Supervisor Aaron Peskin, explained the need to control the demolition of residential units—we cannot meet our affordable housing goals when we continue to lose affordable and rent-controlled housing. Over the past ten years, the City has shed over 4,200 units of rent-controlled or affordable housing, many of them lost to demolition and speculator-instigated evictions. That’s one home lost for every two homes built.
Questions by James Sword, HANC Board Member
Answers by Dr. Sherry Zhang, Xian Yun Principal
1 When purchasing the building and opening the school, neighbors were told of needed repairs and renovations. What repairs and renovations have been done in the years since the school purchased the building?
We purchased the property, which was previously used by the Girls and Boys Club, in December 2013. Our initial renovations were to make the building into a proper art school, by transforming rooms into large studio spaces for dance and arts classrooms, renovating academic classrooms, and building a school library. Later on, we fully repainted the building, upgraded the flooring, and made the school into a bright and welcoming space.
By Christin Evans, HANC Board Member
On Monday January 28th, City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a verification lawsuit in the San Francisco Superior Court to start the 60-day clock for other interested parties to join. This proactive measure of the city “suing itself” limits the amount of time others have to contest the Prop C win in the courts.
In November 2018, the ballot measure also referred to as Our City Our Home passed by approximately 62% of the vote. While the measure passed with a resounding majority it was still shy of a 2/3 super majority which would have made it lawsuit proof.
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.
At HANC's January meeting, we will hear from the head of the Xian Yun school of Chinese arts, a fully accredited school, about their plans to expand the current building on Page Street.
Many of you will recognize the former Boys and Girls Club two-story building. We welcomed the school, and Xian Yun has been operating for three years now at this location.
An Ordinance titled “Controls on Residential Demolition, Merger, Conversion, and Alteration” was introduced at the December 11 Board of Supervisors Meeting. The resolutions sponsors were Supervisors Peskin, Mandelman, Yee, Kim, and Ronen. The ordinance has been assigned under the 30-day rule to the Land Use and Transportation Committee.
48 Hills reported that “The bill would define any loss of residential housing as a ‘demolition,’ and would more strictly codify the city’s rules limiting demolition of residential structures. It would bar landlords from combining two or three units into one and would halt so-called ‘serial permitting’ of demolitions, in which a property owner gets a series of permits for small changes that in the end add up to the effective demolition of a housing unit."
By Tes Welborn, HANC President
Jen Snyder shared how Prop C won, with some 700 volunteers, and in the last few weeks, several million dollars to work with- very unusual for a progressive campaign! She emphasized the importance of a field campaign connecting to one's base and to persuading swing voters. With the extra funding, they were able to have serious Spanish and Chinese languages' outreach. Jen says, we are ready to go Bold!
Calvin Welch shared his popular How the Haight Voted analysis. HANC's positions well-reflected the neighborhood's votes, with five of the six measures HANC endorsed being approved. The turnout was unusually large at over 80%, compared to citywide 70%, and the June Mayor's election garnered only 53%. He concluded that Props C and 10 galvanized voters.
The build-build-build housing mantra of Yimbys took a big hit in the election, with Yimby candidates, and their endorsed ballot measures, generally losing by wide margins.
By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board Member
2018 was a busy year, world-wide, nationally, and locally. Here at HANC, we focused on the June election, the November election, and plans for the former McDonald’s site at 730 Stanyan. And there was more:
At our January meeting, we heard about the housing legacy of Ed Lee and California housing funding mechanisms. HANC endorsed the Tenant’s Right to Counsel ballot measure, which became Prop F. Later in the month, Rec and Park presented proposals for the Stanyan Street Edge (between Waller and Fell). Also during January, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) published a “Combined Findings of No Significant Impact and Notice of Intent to Release Funds” regarding 730 Stanyan, and requested comments from the public. Comments and responses to them were published in February