What Changed in the New Hayes Street Permit — and Why It Matters (New permit takes effect this Friday) Over the past few days we’ve taken a close look at SFMTA’s newly issued 2025–26 permit for the Hayes Street weekend closure. The rules differ dramatically from last year. Contrary to the perception that “nothing has changed,” the new permit introduces … Read post
A particular email has stood out during a recent record retrieval — not for what it proved, but for what it revealed. 1. The Hayes Street closure permit holder has been forwarding social-media posts about our account to the Supervisor as ‘incidents.’ On October 3, the permit holder sent an email chain titled “HVSafe barricade removal.” The message suggested there … Read post
posted at 9am SFMTA’s presentation hides the downturn on the closed 400 block by combining its sales tax data with two other blocks. Our team’s review shows that this approach was not a neutral analytic choice — it materially masked the harm and produced a misleading economic picture for the Board. This analysis explains how the data were combined and … Read post
This internal presentation, dated February 10, 2025, shows early coordination between the Supervisor’s office and HVNA on making the Hayes Street closure permanent. Weeks into office, the Supervisor met with HVNA to discuss making the temporary Hayes Street closure permanent—without any public dialogue or community input.
What began as a temporary pandemic closure in 2020 has stretched into its fifth year. Somewhere along the way, the City stopped asking if the street should reopen and started inventing new reasons to keep it closed. The most powerful of those reasons arrived in 2023 under a single word: “activation.” The Turning PointWhen the permit came up for renewal … Read post
For years, the Hayes Street closure has been described as an “experiment.” But experiments are meant to teach us something — not divide a neighborhood or drain the lifeblood of its small businesses. After five years of trial and error, the lesson is clear: this hasn’t worked. It’s time to move past the talking points and start telling the truth … Read post
The Backstory — Why These Rules Exist San Francisco’s City Charter isn’t vague about this: Supervisors make laws, they don’t administer them. That line was drawn for a reason — and it goes back to incidents like Aaron Peskin’s notorious late-night calls to department heads. Those drunken phone calls and attempts to direct agency staff triggered reforms clarifying that supervisors … Read post
Over the past two years, Hayes Valley has been used as the first large-scale test case for the City’s Pay or Permit Parking (PPP) program. The idea is simple: residents with permits can park for free, while visitors must pay at meters instead of following two-hour time limits. In theory, PPP is meant to increase parking availability, reduce circling, and … Read post
San Francisco politics is increasingly run through PACs and nonprofits. They raise big checks, buy access, and dominate the headlines. But here’s the difference: 1. Who We Are vs. Who They Are 2. Access vs. Exclusion 3. Incentives vs. Consequences 4. Accountability vs. Escape 5. What We’re Not 6. What We Are
For three decades, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) has been treated by City Hall as the voice of our neighborhood. Agencies check the box by consulting HVNA, and politicians cite HVNA statements as if they reflect community consensus. But here’s the truth: HVNA doesn’t represent the diversity of Hayes Valley. Its board operates in a silo, behind closed doors. … Read post
400 Block of Hayes Street Closure A year since the last renewal, Hayes Valley is still living with a “temporary” closure run by HVNA; SFMTA’s failures of process, enforcement, and accountability are clearer than ever. The Record Since Last RenewalAs the Hayes Street closure future remains in limbo, it’s worth asking a simple question: what has SFMTA actually done in … Read post
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 the promise. Instead of being … Read post
This month, Hayes Valley will lose one of its most cherished small businesses. After 20 years at the corner of Hayes and Octavia, Miette is relocating to the Fillmore. While their story continues elsewhere, Hayes Valley is losing a piece of its heart. For many, Miette was more than a candy shop — it was a place of celebration, of … Read post
What breaks our heart isn’t just the policy failures. It’s the way real people have been dismissed, week after week, through the Hayes Street closure. Take Viktor. For years, he’s poured everything into his Hayes Valley shop, Cotton Sheep, one of those rare places that gives a neighborhood its soul. When he spoke up in the early days about how … Read post
At first glance, an “impact” or “feasibility” study sounds responsible. But here’s the problem: if the street closure was pushed from the beginning without transparency or broad consent, the study can’t correct that bias. It just papers over it. And whether it’s branded as an impact study (measuring consequences) or a feasibility study (judging if permanence is possible), the purpose … Read post
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has been promoting what he calls a “first-time” SFPD Police Ambassador pilot in Hayes Valley and the Fillmore — retired police officers walking the beat as the “eyes and ears” for both the department and the community. The problem? This program isn’t new. Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Dean Preston rolled out the same initiative in 2023, … Read post
There’s been a quiet but calculated effort underway to turn Hayes Valley into the next Abbot Kinney. If that reference doesn’t hit right away, let us explain. Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach was once a quirky, eclectic strip filled with independent shops, creatives, and community culture. But over time thanks to a toxic mix of real estate speculation, political … Read post
A Neighborhood at a Crossroads It’s been a busy fall, winter, and spring. With summer upon us, we thought it best to take a pause and share some updates, especially as we’ve been fielding many questions in our ongoing conversations with neighbors. Had you asked us in 2020 what our community work would look like five years down the road, … Read post
What the ‘Hayes Promenade’ petition doesn’t tell you Since September 2023, the petition to keep Hayes Street closed has evolved. In its first phase it was all about “Car-Free Hayes.” Then, last year, the narrative shifted: suddenly it became the “Hayes Promenade.” But let’s be clear: there is no official Hayes Promenade. It’s a concept pushed by a narrow group … Read post
How San Francisco’s “Activation” Agenda Is Gutting the Neighborhood Economy Again Hayes Valley once set the bar for protecting small business. Its 2004 formula retail ban was designed to block chain stores and preserve a local-serving economy. But over the years, City Hall has quietly chipped away at those protections first by making exceptions, then by ignoring them outright. Now, … Read post
In the past, San Francisco mayors made space for constituents and neighborhood groups through the Office of Neighborhood Services. That office was closed under Mayor London Breed, and with it, a key conduit to City Hall disappeared. There was once a relationship however imperfect between residents and the people elected to serve them. Today, that relationship has all but vanished. … Read post
The small business perspective on the gatekeeping, intimidation, and broken politics behind the Hayes Street road block. When speaking up comes with consequences, staying quiet becomes a form of protection. That’s the reality for many small business owners in Hayes Valley who have been navigating the fallout of the prolonged Hayes Street closure. In Part 1, we explored the operational … Read post
In light of recent developments regarding the closure on Hayes Street, we’re answering the two top questions we ask and have been asked as of late:Who does a Supervisor really serve?And have you even talked to Bilal about the closure?Yes, we did. Once. It was a meeting that left the room stunned and the community even more demoralized. What follows … Read post
Hayes Street is more than just a place to eat or stroll, it’s a working commercial corridor that small, locally owned businesses and longtime residents depend on. The City is now quietly considering turning the heart of Hayes Valley into a permanent “entertainment zone”, a space with open alcohol, constant programming, and year round street closure. At first glance, it … Read post
With election day a few weeks away we wanted to share a few updates on initiatives that we’ve been busy advocating for which inevitably will drive our post election efforts. We believe it’s critical to share our discoveries and takeaways on issues that continue to shape our neighborhood — these matters impact both our quality of life and conditions to … Read post
Bad news: the SFMTA Board approved another year of the Hayes Street closure (under its current Friday/Saturday programming). Good news: Sundays were not added to the permit. While this outcome was not unexpected, it confirmed what many in our community have understood for years: the process surrounding this permit is not being run in good faith, and the people most … Read post
posted at 11 am Our team has reviewed SFMTA’s staff report and slide deck released ahead of next week’s SFMTA Board hearing. What is being shown publicly and what is being left out raises serious concerns about transparency, data integrity, and decision-making during one of the worst financial crises in the agency’s history. SFMTA now faces a $322 million budget … Read post
The 400 block of Hayes Street is closed off on Fridays and Saturdays to project an Instagram version of urban joy. Little music setups sprout up, chalk boxes appear, tango lessons unfold, and bubbles drift through the air between Octavia and Gough; meanwhile, playgrounds, parks, living alleys, and public parcels within blocks in each direction sit underused. But that’s apparently … Read post
