A quick update on an issue we’ve raised for more than two years, one that has become newly relevant.
On Parcel K, a bulletin board labeled a “community board” sits behind locked glass on City-owned land. In reality, only one neighborhood faction holds the key. They use the board to promote their initiatives, including messaging tied to the Hayes Street closure, while others are denied access and relegated to posting around the area, where their flyers are routinely removed by the same actors.
A public bulletin board on City-owned land should serve everyone. Instead, it has become a curated messaging tool for a single organization.
After two years of silence from the City, we sent a formal follow-up asking for equal access, neutral oversight, or if that cannot be guaranteed – a path toward establishing a truly public board.
This issue is not isolated. Multiple small businesses along Hayes Street have tried to use the board, only to learn there is no access unless they go through HVNA
I have my position that Hayes ought to be reopened, yet every time I walk by the ‘community board’ I only see flyers pushing the closure, and now calls to make the shutdown permanent. The HVNA has used its exclusive control over the board to shape a one-sided narrative that this is community driven, when in fact it’s not.
— Longtime Hayes Street merchant
For over 2 years, the board’s selective access helped manufacture the appearance of unified support for the Hayes Street closure, shaping public perception while shutting out any counter viewpoints from residents or businesses.
Full letter here: https://www.hvsafe.com/continued-exclusion-at-parcel-k-bulletin-board/
Background on how this board became a tool of selective access: https://www.hvsafe.com/from-public-space-to-political-tool-the-parcel-k-board-scandal/
Public communication spaces on City-owned land cannot function as the property of any private group. They must remain open and accessible to the full community, not restricted in ways that elevate one organization’s viewpoints over everyone else’s.
I used to live in Noe Valley. The Community Board was put up only after it became clear that the Noe Valley Community Business District Board was serving as a mouthpiece for the four people who have run that organization since its inception 18 years ago. A group put up a separate board for anyone to put up information. It was and remains far more popular and representative than the NV CBD board & board ever was.
The function of a community board is to represent the community in all its forms. Certainly an occasional tidying is needed – not a purge – but that is easily done by a member. If the HVNA is genuinely interested in representing the area instead of presenting its own agenda, the display board would be unlocked. Should the HVNA argue that a public posting board is unsightly and creates garbage, I would point to the overflowing garbage bins and the trash that accumulates at the curbs when the street is closed & after that LA company’s street market.
As a founding & current member of HVNA, I find it both insulting and disrespectful to the spirit of our group to openly censor & control dialogue on critical issues facing our community. HVNA’s founding principal under Patricia Walkup was to facilitate open dialogue amongst the community in an open forum so people could engage with the aim to reach a consensus to a community concern. As is, there is no difference in behavior between King Donald and the current Country Club attitude of the HVNA BOARD. They are using fear and oppression to steamroll their agendas. What we’re seeing at both the national and local level is Authoritarian Leadership. The calls to end censorship in San Francisco need to be taken seriously – this cannot continue. SF leadership needs to unlock the Community Board and let a true & democratic spirit evolve.