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, we believed reopening Hayes Street by year’s end was both reasonable and achievable based on agency signals and public input. That did not happen. What followed instead with the quiet advancement and passage of the Entertainment Zone ordinance only reinforced the core argument of this piece: that community process in San Francisco is broken, and that outcomes are increasingly detached from public will. In the past, San Francisco mayors made …

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

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 …

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Hayes Valley Traffic Sunday June 22, 2025

Grove Street Traffic from Fillmore to Gough Streetat 12 noon.Hayes was open … so this proposed overflow street is already over swamped … can’t handle normal traffic and to close Hayes Street permanently would make Grove St traffic problematic.

The Country Club Influence in Hayes Valley

How HVNA Skirts Democracy to Push Its AgendaThe Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) has been around for over 30 years. But today, what once billed itself as a neighborhood voice now acts more like a gatekeeping institution…one that leverages its nonprofit status and cozy ties to City Hall to push policies most residents never agreed to. Locals have a nickname for it: the country club. And it fits. A Nonprofit Acting Like a Shadow GovernmentHVNA is not a public agency. …

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Our Statement

The Hayes Valley Entertainment Zone: The Story is Unraveling San Franciscans deserve transparent governance, not a backroom deal disguised as community policy. To those of you who have stood with us – thank you. Please keep sharing this with neighbors, small business owners, and public safety and good governance advocates. Over the past several weeks, we have uncovered internal emails, planning notes, and meeting records that reveal a coordinated effort by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and his staff to deliberately exclude …

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Operation Booze Zone: The Power Play Behind the Closure

Since news broke about the proposed “Entertainment Zone” in Hayes Valley aka the Booze Zone we’ve been fielding a lot of questions. So here’s a straight-up explanation of what’s going on, and who’s behind it. This didn’t come from the neighborhood. It came from HVNA leadership and a first-term Supervisor who seems more interested in celebrating with the street closure permit holder than responding to the rest of us. Hayes Valley Safe and the Hayes Valley Small Business Association were …

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From Public Space to Political Tool: The Parcel K Board Scandal

How a locked bulletin board reveals a long-standing pattern of exclusion in Hayes Valley. It was billed as a public resource: a new bulletin board installed on Parcel K in the heart of Hayes Valley, just steps from the now-controversial 400 block street closure. But like many recent “community” initiatives in the neighborhood, what was framed as public and inclusive quickly became private and controlled. In reality, the board is overseen by two interconnected organizations: the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association …

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Who Gets to Speak for Hayes Valley?

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 disruption, economic fallout, and emotional exhaustion caused by a closure that has destabilized the business corridor. But beyond what’s visible …

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Who Does a Supervisor Really Serve? Hayes Valley Deserves an Answer

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 is our statement, written by a coalition that has been raising concerns about the Hayes Street closure since 2020. This …

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