It starts small. A closed street here. A community board there. An event permit that seems innocuous on its face. But step by step, a pattern emerges and if you’re not paying attention, you might miss how fast the foundation shifts beneath your neighborhood.
Over the past five years, we’ve engaged in what should have been straightforward advocacy: asking for transparency, calling for process, raising concerns when things didn’t feel right. But what we’ve encountered instead is a system that isn’t broken … it’s rigged to work this way.
1. The Prolonged Street Closure
The 400 block of Hayes Street was supposed to be a temporary experiment. Yet here we are, years in, with a permit that’s been extended 28 times this year alone — despite documented violations and consistent community opposition. The city’s own data shows the closure has hurt retail and complicated public safety.
Instead of reevaluation, we got a press stunt and a legislative maneuver to make it permanent tucked into a broader “Entertainment Zone.”
2. The Event That Silences Retail
Then there’s Head West — a permitted event that has repeatedly exploited a loophole in SFMTA’s permit process, allowing public space to be handed over for commercial vending while shutting down brick-and-mortar business operations for the day. There was no public input. No outreach. Permits were quietly granted. Economic harm was brushed off. And when neighbors voiced concerns, they were dismissed as unimportant.
All of it done under the guise of “community.”
3. The Board That Controls the Message
At the same time, a “community board” a literal bulletin board – became a symbol of the broader fight. Flyers were torn down. The views of counter voices were erased under the claim of exclusivity by a single nonprofit. That group also happens to hold the street closure permit, sits on multiple city committees, and is now helping write the management plan for the Entertainment Zone.
What we’ve uncovered isn’t just censorship. It’s sanctioned gatekeeping …where “community input” means only voices that agree.
4. The Entertainment Zone That Wasn’t Vetted
The legislation to designate Hayes Valley as an “Entertainment Zone” didn’t come with public notice or engagement. It came with a list of pre-approved supporters (some of whom never signed off), a staged pr stunt on the 400, and a policy push that places bars and events over the lived experience of families, renters, and small business owners.
What’s being sold as “activation” is actually consolidation of money, of power, and of narrative.
What This Taught Us
The cracks aren’t bugs in the system – they’re features. They’re how power maintains itself in a city that still claims to value progressive process.
We’ve learned that:
- Permits can be extended indefinitely without public review.
- Events can be approved with zero neighborhood oversight.
- Neighborhood boards can become exclusive arms of political influence.
- Legislation can be passed without honest community engagement.
And through it all, the burden falls on ordinary people to document, organize, and resist.
Why This Matters Beyond Hayes Valley
This isn’t just about one street or one event. It’s about how neighborhoods across San Francisco are being reshaped …
sometimes without realizing it until it’s too late. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.
The fight for public space, transparency, and neighborhood self-determination isn’t theoretical. We’ve been living it. And we’ll keep showing up … not because it’s easy, but because the alternative is letting decisions be made for us, behind closed doors, under the guise of “community benefit.”