To our neighbors, public officials, and anyone paying attention—
For over five years, we’ve shown up in good faith and we’re still showing up. We’ve submitted public comments, organized businesses, met with agencies, and tried to elevate the voices of residents who’ve been left out of the loop. We believed perhaps naively that if we did the work, we’d be heard. But in Hayes Valley, the pattern is clear: government doesn’t listen to the neighborhood. It listens to whoever claims to speak for it. For too long, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) has positioned itself as the singular voice of our community. But HVNA does not represent all of us. It represents the people it chooses to work with, and punishes those it doesn’t.
Some of us were on the inside. We served. We contributed. But when we raised legitimate concerns about finances, policy, governance—we were sidelined. Shunned. Even some of HVNA’s own founders have been pushed out for speaking up. And now, from the outside, we’re seeing the tactics escalate. What’s worse is that SFMTA and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood have actively validated this exclusion. They’ve ignored documentation, dismissed opposing views, and pushed forward legislation shaped through private coordination with HVNA insiders.
We’re not just raising hypotheticals. We’ve submitted inquiries. We’ve filed complaints. We even issued a Notice to Be Included back in early 2021—driven in large part by the flawed SFMTA process surrounding the early stages of the Hayes Street closure. (We chronicled that early phase here: 500 Hayes – How It Started.)
But let’s be fair: not all of City Hall operates this way. Supervisor Dean Preston took the time to hear us out. Mayor London Breed’s office met with stakeholders and engaged in good faith. These aren’t endorsements, they’re acknowledgments that it is possible to lead with transparency, curiosity, and care. So we’ll say it plainly: we have a failure of representation by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and a failure by SFMTA to revoke a permit that’s been in violation of its own conditions for over 53 weeks
Here’s what we want the public—and every city agency—to understand:
- We don’t collect or manage money.
- We’re not paid to do this.
- We’re not part of a political machine.
We are simply neighbors, business owners, and residents who’ve been harmed by decisions made without us—and in some cases, against us. And just because someone isn’t part of the “country club” doesn’t make their concerns any less valid. Pushing back on the HVNA agenda shouldn’t make you a target either. But in Hayes Valley, it often does.
Is it any surprise we’re here—when HVNA leadership spent years scorning Supervisor Dean Preston, and one of its most vocal figures was employed by GrowSF? The disdain was never about policy. It was about power. And now that power has shifted, it’s being wielded in the same exclusive, punitive way. (We documented HVNA’s political involvement in detail here: Statement Regarding HVNA’s Involvement in Campaign Against Supervisor Dean Preston.)
When a 30+ year institution becomes a gatekeeper rather than a convener, and city agencies treat that gatekeeper as the only voice that matters, it erodes trust. It pits neighbors against each other. It damages democracy at the block level.
We’re not asking for a seat at their table anymore. We’ve built our own—because we believe the future of this neighborhood depends on it. Hayes Valley deserves better. San Francisco deserves better. And we’ll keep showing up until we see the change this city deserves.
With eyes wide open,
—From the HVSafe Collective