Membership Meetings: 2nd Thursdays ~ 7-9pm
Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St, SF, CA 94117 (except August)
Tim Redmond, of 48Hills and SF Bay Guardian, has been a longtime supporter of HANC and has been a speaker and panelist at our meetings numerous times throughout the years on many topics. Congratulations, Tim on your award!
The awards ceremony took place on November 15. The SF Press Club announced its Lifetime Achievement Award days before the ceremony with this announcement:
By Rupert Clayton, HANC Housing and Land Use Chair
HANC’s November membership meeting heard about the Exploratorium’s plans to bring interactive science exhibits to the Alvord Lake area of Golden Gate Park next year. Steve Gennrich, project director with the organization’s Studio for Public Spaces, explained how they had arrived at the half-dozen prototypes they’re currently testing.
By James Sword, HANC Board Member
Kristen Leckie, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Community Organizer for the Haight, and Natasha Opfell, Community Organizer for Walk SF, presented the latest information from their organizations about plans related to Vision Zero. There were no surprises about upcoming efforts from either organization (i.e. no push to move bike lanes onto Fell and Oak between Baker and Stanyan).
Much of the presentation was high-level overview of what both organizations do in the city. Questions were asked specifically about Masonic/Fell and the Baker Street corridor. At this time the best efforts to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety is creating better visibility at corners (removing parking spaces), and education.
By Rupert Clayton, Shira Noel, and Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board Members
For our October general meeting, we had scheduled arguments by proponents and opponents of Propositions C and D, and a discussion of Senate Bill 1045, which provides for conservatorship of those detained multiple times. Opponents of Proposition C were invited, but did not make an appearance.
Cannabis Dispensary Applicants
During our announcements, representatives from Cole Ashbury Group, LLC, introduced themselves and announced that the Office of Cannabis had selected them to move forward with their application for a dispensary at 1685 Haight Street (currently Silver Sprocket). Representatives from Haight Partners, Inc., who had submitted an application for a dispensary at 1673 Haight Street (currently Stanza Coffee Bar), also introduced themselves.
Editor’s Note: A hearing on transit only (red lanes) had been scheduled to be heard at the Board of Supervisor’s Land Use and Transportation Committee on Monday, November 5, but has been continued to December 3 at 1:30 p.m. in either Room 250 or Room 263 of City Hall. HANC submitted the following letter asking the Board of Supervisors to limit the use of these lanes to public transit vehicles:
San Francisco Board of Supervisors, City Hall, Room 240, San Francisco
Dear Supervisors:
Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council (HANC) opposes opening transit-only lanes to private, for-profit buses such as tech shuttle buses, casino buses, tour buses, Chariots, and other vehicles that we cannot yet imagine, without any study to show such permission won't harm MUNI and without compensation to the City for the use of a scarce public resource (city streets).
Robert H. Laws, Jr. died on September 27, 2018 with his wife and sons at his bedside. A long-time member of HANC, he served as president in 1967.
Robert was born on January 11, 1930 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. His family moved frequently during the Great Depression and war years, but the family eventually settled in Sausalito. After attending Tamalpais High School and the University of San Francisco, Robert earned a law degree from U.C. Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. Robert practiced law in San Francisco and Oakland for many years and was eventually appointed as an administrative law judge.
Robert worked to protect the powerless, defending civil and voting rights, developing homeless services and organizing the Presbyterian Church to oppose torture. Dr. David Smith said that he helped the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in its early days.
He was married to his beloved wife, Beatrice, since 1962 and had two sons, James Challiss and John Muir Laws. He was an avid fisherman who tied his own flies and spent a great deal of time hiking and camping with his family.
At the memorial service on October 13, many stories were told about his even-tempered approach to difficult situations. His son, James, related that one time when he and his younger brother were at a movie theater with their dad, a man sitting behind him kept kicking his seat. Robert turned and asked him to stop kicking. The man belligerently asked what he was going to do about it. Their Dad barely paused, then told the man that he’d go sit behind him and kick his seat. The kicking stopped.
Early voting for the November election begins at City Hall on October 9. This is also the date when vote-by-mail ballots will begin to be received. Mail-in ballots can be returned through Election Day, November 6.
HANC, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, cannot endorse candidates. We can endorse or oppose ballot measures, and have the following recommendations on ballot measures appearing on the November ballot:
|
Measure |
Description |
|
|
B |
City Privacy Guidelines |
NO |
|
C |
Additional Business Taxes to Fund Homeless Services |
YES |
|
E |
Partial Allocation of Hotel Tax for Arts and Cultural Programs |
YES |
|
1 |
Authorizes Bonds to Fund Specified Housing Assistance Programs |
YES |
|
2 |
Authorizes Bonds to Fund Existing Housing Programs for Individuals With Mental Illness |
YES |
|
10 |
Expands Local Governments’ Authority to Enact Rent Control on Residential Property |
YES |
Whatever your position, we encourage you to vote in the November election.
By Karen Fishkin, HANC Board Member
There’s a new category of conservatorship that the Mayor would like to bring to San Francisco. It is allowed by Senate Bill 1045, which has been signed by the Governor. This new form of conservatorship is welcomed by some, objected to by others, and will be accepted or rejected by our Board of Supervisors in the near future.
What is a conservatorship? It involves an involuntary move to a setting where an evaluation takes place by a professional, followed by an investigation by another professional, and finally a hearing before a judge. If someone is conserved, his or her right to choose where one lives, decisions about health care, and how the individual’s income is used, are removed from that individual and turned over to the conservator. The ACLU refers to this category and loss of rights as “The biggest deprivation of civil rights aside from the death penalty.”
This type of conservatorship is called an LPS conservatorship, named after the legislators (Lanterman, Petris, and Short) who introduced that law many years back. These types of conservatorship are carefully overseen, and used only when a person cannot provide food, clothing, and shelter for themselves.
The language in this new legislation as it was introduced referred to conservatorships for homeless individuals. That designation was deemed too inflammatory, and now it covers those who have been detained pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150 eight or more times in a year. We have all probably seen individuals on the streets of San Francisco who appeared to need adult supervision and support. No question. But how to best remedy their plight?