Under Shared Spaces Permit No. 1316522, the permittee is responsible for ensuring: These are not optional guidelines. They are enforceable conditions of operation. Over the past year, we have documented repeated violations of these terms, including: When residents have attempted to inquire about permits in the past, operators responded with verbal hostility. As a result, neighbors now document from a … Read post
At some point, it became clear that what unfolded in Hayes Valley was not really about a one-block street closure. If it were, the response would have looked very different. Disagreements over a temporary closure should not trigger years of exclusion, narrative control, retaliatory behavior, or institutional hardening. They should invite discussion, evidence, and course correction. Instead, the opposite happened. … Read post
From Campaign Support to Early Alignment This post documents our efforts to establish a working cadence with the District 5 Supervisor’s office in early 2025. It reflects contemporaneous correspondence from two neighborhood groups — Hayes Valley Safe (HVS) and the Hayes Valley Small Business Association (HVSBA). No interpretation is required; the record speaks for itself. The full email correspondence referenced … Read post
When a neighborhood association responds to routine civic oversight by reframing it as harassment, invasion of privacy, or harmful conduct, the issue is no longer about a street closure. It is about governance. In Hayes Valley, a private nonprofit administering activity on a public street under a city permit characterized ordinary documentation of public conditions as improper behavior. That response … Read post
Today, we issued a formal notice to City agencies documenting a sustained pattern of disparaging and delegitimizing communications that have affected civic participation and decision-making in Hayes Valley. The notice is shared for record and awareness. It is intended to document an ongoing governance failure that has distorted public process over time, with real consequences for residents, small businesses, and … Read post
For more than 60 consecutive weeks, residents and small businesses have documented permit violations on the 400 block of Hayes Street and submitted them to SFMTA. Over that same period, conditions have not improved. They have persisted, and impacts have escalated rather than been resolved. Repeated concerns about economic harm to neighborhood retail and increased traffic congestion on surrounding streets … Read post
The earliest evidence of undue influence and eroded process. In January 2025, just two weeks into Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s term, a SFMTA/ISCOTT hearing was held to consider the Head West street closure permit. This for-profit marketplace had begun seeking a higher frequency (4x) of dates in Hayes Valley during the early pandemic — compounding the impacts of the already contentious … Read post
A transparency update from Hayes Valley Safe Over the past year, residents and small businesses in Hayes Valley have repeatedly asked basic, good-faith questions about the future of Hayes Street — including whether the current temporary closure was being evaluated neutrally, and whether public funds were being used to advance a predetermined outcome. Those questions went largely unanswered. In January … Read post
