AN INDEPENDENT
VOICE FOR
HAYES VALLEY

CommunitY-ROOTED
Small business and resident-driven. Bringing clarity and advocacy to the issues that shape our neighborhood.

top reads

  • End of Year Message

    End of Year Message

    2025 in Review: Receipts, Resilience, and a Reset for Hayes Valley For the past five years, we’ve marked time with either an end-of-year reflection or a start-of-year reset. This year feels different, not because the challenges disappeared, but because the full picture finally came into focus. 2025 was the year the pattern became undeniable. What…


  • Parcel K “Community Board”: Why This Matters Now

    Parcel K “Community Board”: Why This Matters Now

    A quick update on an issue we’ve raised for more than two years, one that has become newly relevant. On Parcel K, a bulletin board labeled a “community board” sits behind locked glass on City-owned land. In reality, only one neighborhood faction holds the key. They use the board to promote their initiatives, including messaging…


  • Hayes Street Closure Post SFMTA Board Hearing Statement 

    Hayes Street Closure Post SFMTA Board Hearing Statement 

    LAST UPDATE: December 12th


  • The City Promised Balance. Closures Delivered the Opposite.

    The City Promised Balance. Closures Delivered the Opposite.

    Hayes Valley vs. the Market & Octavia Plan When the Central Freeway finally came down in the early 2000s, Hayes Valley felt like it had won. The teardown was celebrated as a turning point, a chance to reclaim land and reconnect the neighborhood (Hoodline, 2015). But the replacement street, Octavia Boulevard, didn’t live up to…


recent

Neighborhood Bulletin, SFMTA, Small Business

Head West Market SFMTA Permit 2026

LAST UPDATE: January 22nd

Closed Hayes Street

What Recent Discovery Reveals About the Hayes Street “Public Life Study”

A transparency update from Hayes Valley Safe Over the past …

Neighborhood Bulletin

What Civic Documentation Is and What It Is Not

Civic documentation is a basic part of how neighborhoods hold …

Neighborhood Bulletin

A brief statement on civic documentation and public streets

We want to briefly address a situation that has raised …

Neighborhood Bulletin

Two More Retail Exits on Hayes Street and the Pattern We Can’t Ignore

Two more retail businesses have exited Hayes Street. Timbuk2, a …

Closed Hayes Street, SFMTA, Small Business

Hayes Street Closure Activity

LAST UPDATE: January 17th

SFMTA

Hayes Street Closure Permit Noncompliance

LAST UPDATE: January 18th

Hayes Street Closure Series

Linden for Me, Hayes for Thee

How San Francisco’s Living Alley Rules Undercut the Hayes Street …

Hayes Street Closure Series

A private group is running a public street like it’s theirs

For nearly 2 years, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) …

Closed Hayes Street, Neighborhood Bulletin

Hayes Street Closure Sound Permit: What the Entertaiment Commission Approved and What Was Ignored

On December 16, the San Francisco Entertainment Commission approved a …

Closed Hayes Street, Neighborhood Bulletin

Final MOCAC Meeting Recap

LAST UPDATE: December 17th

Hayes Street Closure Series

When Asking Questions Became “Hostility”


A 2020 Governance Record of Retaliatory Exclusion in Hayes Valley …

Hayes Street Closure Series

A Coup in Hayes Valley

Most people remember COVID as a time of fear, isolation, …

Dispatches

Why We Document — And Why It Matters Now

For anyone new to our work, it may look unusual …

Neighborhood Bulletin

Sound Permit 400 Hayes Street

LAST UPDATE: December 16th

Closed Hayes Street, SFMTA

Hayes Street Closure Permit Analysis

What Changed in the New Hayes Street Permit — and …

Closed Hayes Street, News

When Retweets Become ‘Incidents’: What the Permit Holder Reported to City Hall

A particular email has stood out during a recent record …

Neighborhood Bulletin

Hayes Valley “Community Board”

LAST UPDATE: January 7th

Closed Hayes Street, SFMTA

SFMTA Hearing Materials Debrief: What the Public Is Not Being Told

posted at 11 am Our team has reviewed SFMTA’s staff …

Closed Hayes Street, SFMTA

How SFMTA Manipulated Sales Tax Data on Hayes Street

posted at 9am SFMTA’s presentation hides the downturn on the …

Opinion

Experiment or Exploitation? When temporary policy becomes permanent politics on Hayes Street.

The 400 block of Hayes Street is closed off on …

Hayes Street Closure Series

Activation or Appropriation? How Hayes Street Became a Stage Set

What began as a temporary pandemic closure in 2020 has …

Dispatches

The Hayes Street Reset: What We Want to See Happen

For years, the Hayes Street closure has been described as …

Dispatches

Statement RE: How a “Temporary” Street Closure Became a Permanent Political Project

San Francisco’s Shared Spaces program was meant to help businesses …

SFMTA, Small Business

What We Learned From Engaging SFMTA on Pay or Permit Parking

Over the past two years, Hayes Valley has been used …

Hayes Street Closure Series

The HVNA Myth: Why They Don’t Speak for Hayes Valley

For three decades, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) has …

Closed Hayes Street, SFMTA

What SFMTA Has and Hasn’t Done — A Case Study in Failure for Hayes Valley

400 Block of Hayes Street Closure A year since the …

Neighborhood Bulletin, Small Business

A 20 Year Hayes Valley Merchant Forced Out

This month, Hayes Valley will lose one of its most …

Closed Hayes Street, SFMTA, Small Business

49 Reasons the Hayes Street Closure Needs to End

The Hayes Street closure was supposed to be temporary. Instead, …

Hayes Street Closure Series

The Human Cost of Divisiveness Created by the Hayes Street Closure

What breaks our heart isn’t just the policy failures. It’s …

Hayes Street Closure Series

Why an “Impact/Feasibility Study” on Hayes Street Can’t Be Trusted

At first glance, an “impact” or “feasibility” study sounds responsible. …

Hayes Street Closure Series, Small Business

The “Abbot-Kinnification” of Hayes Valley — A Neighborhood Takeover in Real Time

There’s been a quiet but calculated effort underway to turn …

Dispatches

Spring Roundup 2025

A Neighborhood at a Crossroads It’s been a busy fall, …

Hayes Street Closure Series

“Make Hayes Promenade Permanent”? Let’s Get Real.

What the ‘Hayes Promenade’ petition doesn’t tell you Since September …

Hayes Street Closure Series, Small Business

EZ Is the New Formula Retail

How San Francisco’s “Activation” Agenda Is Gutting the Neighborhood Economy …

News

Why the Entertainment Zone fight in Hayes Valley reveals a deeper failure in San Francisco politics

December 2025 Update:When this piece was published in summer 2025, …

Dispatches

Advocacy in the Cracks: What Hayes Valley Reveals about the System

It starts small. A closed street here. A community board …

Hayes Street Closure Series

The Country Club Influence in Hayes Valley

How HVNA Skirts Democracy to Push Its AgendaThe Hayes Valley …

Neighborhood Bulletin

Entertainment Zone Updates

LAST UPDATE: July 3rd

Hayes Street Closure Series, Small Business

Who Gets to Speak for Hayes Valley?

The small business perspective on the gatekeeping, intimidation, and broken …

Dispatches

Summer Roundup 2024

With election day a few weeks away we wanted to …

we are on a compelling journey to find reason & answers to the most impactful initiatives affecting the neighborhood

because we have skin in the game