Hayes Valley Safe has formally requested that Head West voluntarily limit its Hayes Valley marketplace events to no more than one per calendar year beginning in 2027. The request follows years of correspondence and objections concerning recurring street closures, impacts on established small businesses, and the absence of a meaningful resolution regarding event frequency. The correspondence below outlines the history of these concerns and HVS’s request for a voluntary reduction ahead of the 2027 permitting cycle.
October 23, 2026
Attention Head West:
We’re reaching out ahead of Head West’s 2027 planning and permitting cycle regarding concerns that Hayes Valley Safe (HVS) and the Hayes Valley Small Business Association (HVSBA) have raised consistently since 2022. Our groups advocate for residents, locally owned and owner-operated small businesses, and neighborhood stakeholders whose daily lives and businesses are affected by recurring street closures and marketplace programming. Our concerns have remained straightforward: repeated Head West events impose cumulative burdens on existing businesses, storefront access, parking, traffic, and additional competition from temporary vendors operating within the same commercial corridor. Our request has consistently been to reduce the frequency of these events.
In March 2023, you acknowledged shortcomings in communication and committed to engaging with all neighborhood organizations, including HVS and HVSBA. Despite those assurances, we have seen no meaningful follow-through on broader engagement or resolution of our concerns. Our direct engagement has remained limited to email correspondence, while we’ve continued raising our concerns through written submissions and participation in ISCOTT hearings. In February 2024, we again made clear that event frequency remained our central concern. That same year, the Office of Small Business recommended establishing stakeholder consensus before increasing event frequency. That consensus was never established, yet Head West continued pursuing four events annually, including four approved for 2026.
As we’ve repeatedly emphasized in our correspondence with City agencies, support expressed by individual merchants or stakeholders who are also active participants in the Hayes Street closure should not be mistaken for broader neighborhood consensus. Nor does such support resolve the longstanding concerns raised by residents and independent businesses affected by Head West events. After years of correspondence, assurances of broader engagement, and continued objections from local business owners and residents, our central request remains unresolved. Head West determines how many events it seeks to organize in Hayes Valley, and we believe it is time for that decision to reflect the concerns we’ve consistently raised. We are therefore asking Head West to voluntarily commit to no more than one event per calendar year in Hayes Valley, beginning in 2027. This would preserve an annual opportunity for Head West and its participating makers while substantially reducing the recurring impacts on existing businesses and residents, some of whom have questioned whether the marketplace belongs on this commercial corridor at all. We believe this is a reasonable and measured accommodation given the history and the continued absence of a meaningful resolution.
We’re approaching you now, before the next permitting cycle, so that this request can be considered before additional event dates and vendor commitments are finalized. We would appreciate a written response by November 6 specifically addressing whether Head West is willing to adopt this annual limit. We hope you’ll give this request the serious consideration that the history and the affected community warrant.
This correspondence has been edited for clarity and conciseness. Routine greetings and contact details have been omitted; the substance of the communication remains unchanged.