As part of the Hayes Valley Public Life Study, the San Francisco Planning Department is conducting a survey of Hayes Valley businesses regarding the Hayes Street closure.
Hayes Valley Safe was asked to assist with distributing the survey to businesses in our network. Before sharing it, we identified two questions regarding the survey design that we believe should be addressed.
Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HayesValleyStreetClosure
Question 18 and normal street operations
The survey asks businesses which street-closure schedule would work best for them and provides several alternatives involving continued recurring closures. It does not provide an explicit option for ending the recurring closure and restoring normal street operations.
Because the study is intended to evaluate the Hayes Street closure and inform future decisions, we have asked Planning whether that option can be added.
Anonymous participation
The survey requests a business name and location but does not clearly explain whether businesses may participate anonymously or how identifying information will be handled.
Based on six years of outreach concerning the Hayes Street closure, we have encountered businesses willing to provide feedback but reluctant to have their views publicly attributed to them. We have therefore asked Planning to clarify whether anonymous participation is permitted and, if so, to make that clear in the survey.
Stakeholder review
At the outset of the Public Life Study, HVS was invited to provide input on study scope, questions, metrics, and survey methodology. We were not asked to review this business survey during its development and received the completed instrument when we were asked to assist with its distribution.
We raised these questions with Planning and recommended holding off on participating until Planning responded.
Planning subsequently revised the survey. See the September 8 update below.
Update: September 8, 2026
Following HVS’s inquiry, Planning revised the business survey to address both issues raised.
The updated survey now includes an option to end the recurring Hayes Street closure and restore normal street operations. Planning also clarified that responses are not anonymous to City staff, but that individual responses will not be publicly attributed to a specific business; responses will instead be combined and summarized.
HVS has also noted a broader limitation of the outreach process: after years of recurring street closures and significant turnover among independent businesses, some of the businesses whose experiences could inform the study are no longer present to participate. Planning subsequently clarified that the study is primarily focused on existing conditions. In our view, that creates an inherent limitation in evaluating a six-year-old program when some of the businesses that experienced its earlier years are no longer present to participate.
Update: September 30, 2026
HVS subsequently raised broader questions with Planning about how the Public Life Study is incorporating the existing six-year stakeholder record, including the experiences of residents, businesses and others who may not be captured through present-day event-based outreach or surveys.
On September 23, Planning advised that the project team was discussing these concerns internally and would respond by the end of that week. As of September 30, we have not received that response.
We will update this page when additional information is provided.