Analysis

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 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 the past year? Unfortunately, the answer is not much and what they have done has undermined trust even further. Exclusion …

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

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 is the same: to turn a contested, one-sided experiment into a permanent policy …regardless of the neighborhood’s fractured reality. Here …

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EZ Is the New Formula Retail

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, a new threat is taking root: Entertainment Zones (EZs). And if you think they’re about vibrancy, think again. They’re about …

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