Hayes Street Closure Activity July 5, 2025
Saturday July 5, 2025 12:20 pm
Saturday July 5, 2025 12:20 pm
It starts small. A closed street here. A community board there. An event permit that seems innocuous on its face. But step by step, a pattern emerges and if you’re not paying attention, you might miss how fast the foundation shifts beneath your neighborhood. Over the past five years, we’ve engaged in what should have been straightforward advocacy: asking for … Read post
Since news broke about the proposed “Entertainment Zone” in Hayes Valley aka the Booze Zone we’ve been fielding a lot of questions. So here’s a straight-up explanation of what’s going on, and who’s behind it. This didn’t come from the neighborhood. It came from HVNA leadership and a first-term Supervisor who seems more interested in celebrating with the street closure … Read post
May 30, 2025 Dear Members of the Rules Committee, We write to raise serious concerns about the legislative maneuvering underway to codify Hayes Street as part of a permanent “Entertainment Zone.” What is being framed as a citywide policy is, in practice, a means of entrenching a deeply contested weekend street closure that has harmed small businesses, lacked public process, … Read post
A reflection on advocacy, frustration, and the failed policy behind the Hayes Street closure. We never imagined we’d have to fight this hard for fairness. Like many others, we simply cared about our neighborhood-its businesses, its streets, and the people who live and work here every day. But once the aim evolved to keeping the street closed, and the impacts … Read post
A Street Closure That Fails the Climate, the Community, and Common Sense You’ve probably heard the pitch: closing streets is good for the environment. Fewer cars, more walk-ability, climate wins. But here’s what actually happens when the 400 block of Hayes Street is closed and why it undermines the very goals it claims to support. Let’s be real: Hayes Valley … Read post
Update (Dec 2025):This piece was originally published in May 2025. More than six months later, the issues raised here remain unresolved — and in many cases have intensified. Subsequent permit renewals, “activation” programming, and political messaging have reinforced the same pattern described below. Documentation Hub For the full record of the Hayes Street closure permit, monitoring logs, and policy analysis, … Read post
May 22, 2025 SFMTA, SFCTA and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood: We write to follow up on our recent letter (below), which outlined urgent concerns about the Hayes Street closure…chief among them: ongoing noncompliance, lack of transparency, and the exclusion of the broader community from shaping its future. We’ve learned that an event has been announced for tomorrow, Friday, May 23rd, promoting … Read post
Friday May 2, 2025
April 28, 2025 Attention SFMTA: Road block conditions and permit violations for this past weekend have been documented here:Friday April 25, 2025Saturday April 26, 2025 {includes welding activity} Permit violations include but not limited to: We also want to notate that city property Parcel K/Proxy and Parcels R &S (Hayes Valley Art Works aka HVAW) sat idle while an event … Read post