400 Block of Hayes Street Closure
A year since the last renewal, Hayes Valley is still living with a “temporary” closure run by HVNA; SFMTA’s failures of process, enforcement, and accountability are clearer than ever.
The Record Since Last Renewal
As the Hayes Street closure future remains in limbo, it’s worth asking a simple question: what has SFMTA actually done in the past year? Unfortunately, the answer is not much and what they have done has undermined trust even further.
Exclusion by Design: Instead of opening the process to all stakeholders, SFMTA has channeled coordination almost entirely through the permit holder, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA). Staff confirmed in conversations that HVNA had been briefed and consulted directly while other residents and merchants were left out. The message was clear: access depended on affiliation, not on being impacted.
Non-Enforcement: Week after week, the closure has been out of compliance — cars parked inside barricades, unpermitted vending, and the recurring “Signature” clothing tent. These violations were reported repeatedly. Nothing changed. Enforcement has become optional if you’re part of HVNA’s orbit.
Delay and Deflection: When we pressed staff for answers, the response was not action but stalling. We were told studies could be commissioned, or that our questions were “good ones” — but no commitments were made. Even the meeting time limits underscored the point: community concerns were not a priority, just something to squeeze into a schedule.
Double Standards: Small businesses were told the rules were “non-negotiable,” yet HVNA-linked vendors and events were allowed to operate freely. Complaints were brushed aside, even as the selective enforcement became undeniable.
Silence When It Matters: Detailed community questions about the program remain unanswered months later. The cycle is predictable: silence, renewal, repeat.
Financial Harm Ignored: Small businesses have consistently reported lost revenue tied directly to the closure. These losses have no place in a permitting process that is supposed to be temporary and community-serving. Instead, they’ve been disregarded.
Vendor Events Competing with Leaseholders: Under the current arrangement, vendor markets and pop-up events are staged directly on the closed block. These are not neutral “activations” — they put outside vendors in direct competition with brick-and-mortar leaseholders, who pay rent, taxes, and employ staff year-round. Instead of supporting stability, SFMTA has greenlit a system that undercuts it.
Engagement by Pursuit Only: There has been no proactive outreach or dialogue from SFMTA. Every scrap of engagement has happened only because we pushed, hounded, and refused to let the matter drop. Simply put we’ve been stonewalled.
Selective and Misleading Data: Even when information is presented to the Board, it has been incomplete and underrepresented — shaped by selective reports and staged events rather than the lived reality of small businesses and residents. This is how tango nights and bubble machines end up standing in for neighborhood consensus, while economic losses and community division are left out of the record.
How Did We Get Here?
It’s worth remembering that in 2023, SFMTA itself was prepared to end this closure because of the many problems it created. Since then, the issue has only gotten more political with the agency caving to a supervisor whose ideological agenda has overridden its own professional judgment. The fact that one elected official can overrule an entire agency underscores just how controversial this has become.
And what no one is saying out loud is this: the closure has been a fabricated effort to rebrand a once-thriving business corridor into a promenade. Hayes Valley doesn’t need that. The neighborhood is already surrounded by public parks and open spaces. What it needs is a functioning street where its long-term businesses and residents can thrive.
The Human Cost of Bureaucratic Neglect
This isn’t just process. It’s people.
- Small businesses have lost revenue.
- Longtime neighbors have been dismissed.
- Public safety has been compromised by blocked access and unchecked violations.
The dismissiveness from staff didn’t just frustrate the community, it wore people down. The agency has made clear through its behavior that it is not a neutral party. It has taken sides.
The Events Excuse
SFMTA and HVNA often point to weekend block parties, vendor markets, or tango nights as proof the closure is working. In reality, those events only underscore the problem. They show how the street has been turned into an event space, without accountability, and without the broader neighborhood being kept in the loop.
How This Can Be Remedied
The solution is not another renewal. It’s restoration. Hayes needs to be reopened to the public right-of-way. Events should return to being properly permitted, with City oversight and neighborhood-wide notice. That’s how you ensure safety, fairness, and real participation. This isn’t about being anti-events, it’s about ending a failed experiment that has hurt businesses, divided neighbors, and eroded trust. This November, SFMTA must correct course: restore Hayes Street. Restore fairness. Restore trust.