What Supporters are Saying
– Resident • Hayes Valley 11.18.24
– Henry Karnilowicz, Resident and Small Busines Owner• SOMA 11.17.24
– Sammy Zoeller • Castro 11.17.24
– Linda Simonin • West Portal 11.13.24
– Citizen • Noe Valley 11.13.24
– Citizen• Outer Sunset 11.9.24
– Marisa Johnson • Hayes Valley 11.9.24
– Citizen • Noe Valley 11.8.24
– Citizen• Hayes Valley 11.8.24
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.2.24
– Michael Regan • Ingleside and Ocean View 10.9.24
– Diana Dubash• Hayes Valley 10.9.24
– Citizen• Outer Sunset 10.8.24
– Citizen• Outer Sunset 10.6.24
– Padraic Lackey • Hayes Valley 10.6.24
Our businesses are struggling and we need to do more to encourage people to patronize them, not create barriers.
This is purely a punitive anti-car measure that does not make things safer and dissuades people from coming to the neighborhood.”
– Keith Freedman • Castro 10.6.24
– Citizen & Small Business Owner • Mission 10.5.24
– Larry Quantz • Outer Sunset 9.27.24
– Citizen • Golden Gate Park 9.27.24
“Being a resident of Lake street and having fought SFMTA and London Breed for 3 years after the permanent and illegal closure of Lake street I believe your statement and that we should all work for the removal of London Breed and Jeffrey Tumlin. We have a chance to do so in November. They are ideologues driven by donors with no interest in helping small businesses but only themselves”
– Citizen • Outer Richmond 9.27.24
– Citizen • Cole Valley 7.29.24
– Citizen • Civic Center 6.22.24
“Please stop making decisions that are hurting businesses big and small!!! Please!!!”
– Kayla Brooks • Hayes Valley 4.12.24
“These shutdowns create more danger and congestion on adjacent streets. Our massive budget deficits can’t be resolved by these giveaways to restaurant owners. We need reduction in government headcount. Start by reducing the SFMTA staff that works on these make busy projects.”
– Citizen • Outer Richmond 2.28.24
“I oppose yet another unnecessary closure of a public city street. It restricts access to many elderly and disabled citizens.”
– Diana Dubash • Hayes Valley 2.20.24
“I need to park to shop and go to restaurants in Hayes Valley. I use Hayes St. to get home while driving. I am a SF native and homeowner. This closing of streets needs to stop. If I can’t get close enough to park I shop on the Internet or on the Peninsula. I would much rather support small businesses in our city.”
– Felicia Valmonte • Hayes Valley 2.19.24
“
“Street closures are true barriers, forbidders of access. They in no way promote equity of access, of mobility, and choice. I find it appalling how imbedded this “all for me, none for thee” mindset has taken over SF Public (ie. for everyone) Policy.”
– Jennifer Drennan • Outer Sunset 2.19.24
“Stop penalizing those of us who rely on our cars to travel through San Francisco. Greed is killing our city; enough is enough!”
– Melissa Glass • Bayview-Hunters Point 2.19.24
“This inequity has to stop. It is pitting neighbor against neighbor. Creating a windfall for those living on the street while punishing homeowners on adjacent streets. Very few of these streets if any are utilized in the fantasized manner. Mostly it’s a new lane for parking on street sweep days. It’s a shameful waste of funds and absurd considering the challenges the city faces. This is not the time to create limitations on residents and expect acceptance.”
– Wendy Miller • NOPA 2.19.24
“These complete, permanent street closures makes navigating San Francisco that much more difficult than One Way Streets EVER were, not to mention hard on small businesses that rely on customers or residents being able to park close by!”
– Citizen • Outer Sunset 2.19.24
“Small business is the life blood of our neighborhoods. Hayes Valley Small Business Association says they need Hayes Street reopened in order to survive. The SFMTA’s ongoing “green agenda” will result in the destruction of all private transport and traffic that feeds small businesses. Stop the madness and listen to the small businesses that you claim to support. OPEN Hayes Street now.”
– Citizen • Castro 2.19.24
“Stop the madness of SFMTA.”
– Citizen • Outer Richmond 2.18.24
“Keep our publicly tax supported streets open to everyone, stop discriminating against seniors, physically impaired, and owners of vehicles.”
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 2.18.24
“Keep Hayes Street open to cars forever!!!!!!! ♥️”
– Elisa Smith • Outer Sunset 2.18.24
“SFMTA is running amok in our city. Stop the insanity!”
– Citizen • Inner Sunset 2.18.24
“Let the business corridors DO BUSINESS before we have none left. OPEN HAYES 24/7. Stop letting SFMTA steamroll over small businesses!”
– Citizen • Outer Richmond 2.18.24
“We’ve seen the disastrous results of this unchecked power by SFMTA in other parts of the city. They are destroying this great city and must be held to account . The voters should be making these important decisions, not appointed ideologues with agendas. Give us our city back!!!”
– Colton Weeks • Hayes Valley 2.18.24
“When is enough, simply enough! The takeover of the streets by a small but overtly vocal crowd who think that their own priorities should be everyone else’s. Most people do not want their tax payer streets closed. Especially with the Great Highway and ridiculous lane closures that only serve to congest traffic and create even more pollution from the more frequent stops and starts of vehicles having to maneuver through the newly created maze. Somehow the politicians are paying homage to the squeaky wheels without really knowing what their true constituents really want. I would suggest a vote, only that the lies and diatribe propaganda would be in full swing as shown when the SFMTA was created. It’s time to open the streets for their intended purpose. Smooth flowing traffic lessons congestion and pollution.”
– Citizen • Outer Sunset 11.27.23
“As a mobility impaired/disabled resident I find accessing my City is getting harder and harder so my world is getting smaller. Disabled people need to be able to part of a community and not housebound because there is no access. We need socialization and access.”
– Citizen • Outer Sunset 11.11.23
“They are in the crossfire alright. Everything these people shut down should have reopened to pre pandemic status like the mayor promised. Wonder whose getting my vote come election time.”
– Citizen • Ingleside 11.8.23
“Desist in removing handicapped parking spots and giving those spots to privatized businesses!”
– Citizen • Outer Sunset 11.7.23
“Slow streets discriminate against those with mobility challenges, the very young and very old. Widen the sidewalks, add bike lanes, but don’t make it harder for people who already live with enormous barriers to live in and enjoy this glorious city.”
– Citizen • Inner Sunset 11.7.23
“Our store is a national-wide and even an international destination for all things Japanese Sake outside of Japan for 20 years. We are not just a shop that caters to a city and neighborhood but to the majority of the nation. Closing the street will not only hurt our store greatly but the sake industry and who they serve. Hayes Valley has been our home for 20 years and this act of closing the street would destroy our business. If streets are closed permanently, how are other restaurants, retail shops, and other businesses supposed to receive deliveries and send out packages? Hayes Valley is a commercial street; where commercial vehicles need to be present to supply and support businesses.”
From a simple survey that we sent out to our shop’s newsletter subscribers, in summary:
81.1% uses Motorized vehicles to get to our shop 73.2% of that Drive in.
The remaining 18.9% walk or bike to our store.
63% of the people taking the survey said they were inconvenienced by the closure.
43.5% replied saying that do not visit us during street closures.
44.9% replied saying they would still come to the store if streets were closed permanently, but a huge 28.3% of our customer base said they would not visit and only 26.8% said “maybe”.
62.3% said they would visit our store less frequently if streets were permanently closed.
Our customers bring business for other Hayes Valley businesses: 70.3% said they visit other businesses while stopping at our shop with only 24% saying sometimes.
Main concerns and Complaints about street closures:
- Majority complained about the lack of street parking and difficulty finding parking. Closing streets will prevent them from coming even more.
- Break-ins and safety while shopping.
- Disabled people will have a harder time shopping if roads are not accessible for vehicles.
- Unable to carry cases of sake if streets were closed and bringing bottles on public transit is not ideal.
- Customers living outside of SF/Bay Area have no convenient public transportation to visit HV so closing streets would make it extremely difficult to visit.
– Mei H, True Sake • Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“I believe all streets in Hayes Valley and San Francisco, including the Great Highway should be open to motorists and commutes 24/7.”
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“I like the idea of a weekend street closure. Permanent closure is overkill. BTW, closing the park severely impacted my street. It’s a real pain when trying leave the house during rush hour but I have come to terms with it. The park is free of cars and safer because of it.”
– Citizen • Inner Sunset 11.7.23
“The Covid-19 pandemic is over. Please restore San Francisco streets back to normal pre-pandemic conditions effective immediately.
The American Public Works Association & Trade Show (APWA) has rated San Francisco as the City with North America’s worst streets. There is only 1 place with streets worse than SF–Albuquerque, New Mexico with the worst street design, spalling asphalt, large potholes, and multiple accidents. Since New Mexico is not an accredited member of APWA, their streets were never officially rated and San Francisco received the honor. Hayes Valley is the crown jewel of potholes and inadequate paving.
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has stated that SF is 10+ years behind in street paving with no continuous budget allotted for maintenance. This has resulted in limited low quality micro-paving and inadequate slurry sealing targeting less than 30% of SF’s streets. Rats are crawling out from these potholes.
Street closures and traffic/pedestrian diversions will further deteriorate the streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, catch basins, pipe (sewer, water, fiber) lines, drains, etc. I demand that you immediately stop wasting precious limited resources on street closure arguments and please reallocate those resources back to street maintenance and paving as recommended by ASCE and APWA. Third party civil engineers should be making decisions regarding streets with data and decades of knowledge using structured logic and inductive reasoning……versus SF politicians making emotional decisions which placate a few. Thanks.”
– Wire Mold • District 4 Outer Sunset 11.6.23
“I’m voting everyone in support of slow streets out of office. Traffic is a mess, driver anger is rampant, my son has mobility issues and I spend 3h in a car each day, to drive him to school and then to get downtown and then back home in the afternoon. It’s ridiculous when I live in Nopa the center of the city. I’ve been a resident in SF for 23 years and I’ve learned to hate living here.”
– Citizen • Western Addition 11.6.23
“I’m holding on by the skin of my teeth as a small business holder. First, it was the Covid, then the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association sold out Hayes Valley to the Urban Air Market – taking away business away from the local tax-paying businesses, then there’s other festivals that serious detract from people shopping small & local. We were broken into during Covid & the thieves made away with $100,000 worth of goods. Then they stole our catalytic converter outside of our store. The list goes on. During the street closure in the 300-block, it looked like the bombing of Dresden. People stood in the open street & didn’t even notice the shops on the sides. The HVNA sold us out by letting street hawkers & vendors put up their junky stuff on the street – so that distracted shoppers even more. It’s been a disaster from start to finish. The closure is truly the nail in my small business 20-year career coffin in Hayes Valley.”
– Kristina Runske, Citizen and Small Business Owner • Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“The street closure is extremely negative for our business on Hayes street in the 300-block. It detract from people going into the local shops & keeps people away from shopping. Our customers get stuck in the traffic lines that form after the streets are closed. Then they aren’t able to find parking as the street is shuttered. Regular customer stay away when there’s street closures. There’s too much hoppla & mayhem. Also a traffic jam is formed in the Ivy street one way lane. The car fumes build up so fumigate our home on Hayes. Yes, I live & work on Hayes. Although, I don’t have a car, we still live in a world that still use cars to get to & fro. Given that Hayes Valley is a destination for many people to come around the Bay Area as well as the world, it’s imperative they’re able to drive their cars here.”
– Citizen and Small Business Owner • Hayes Valley 11.6.23et 11.6.23
“Stop strangling this city! Restaurant goers do not need to walk down the middle of the street. This is not Europe we will never be Europe. Europe has superior public transportation Europe’s law-enforcement, patrols with automatic weapons.”
– Citizen, Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“San Francisco’s businesses are struggling on many levels in the post-pandemic, post-lockdown, world, and limiting access to shops by closing streets will only further discourage–and by extension, erode–the tax base of our great city.”
– Citizen • Outer Sunset 11.6.23
“Blockaded streets are one of the worst ideas SFMTA has ever adopted. I have mobility issues, and I need open streets and street parking to get around.”
– Kenneth Sarocky • Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“SFMTA, SF BIKE COLLABORATION, and current GOVT have already closed enough streets. They have no right to do so and read it it’s in the papers -these people are all corrupt. SAVE THE CITY FROM THESE PEOPLE BEFORE THEY RUIN IT.”
– Citizen • Outer Sunset 11.6.23
“Maintaining street closures hurts businesses in SF. As well as no parking.”
– Ginger Pepper • District 4 Outer Sunset 11.6.23
“The SFMTA itself is a behemoth controlling vast areas of San Francisco government, and yet it lacks basic public accountability, like an oversight commission — a basic tool of good governance that most departments already have — to set standards and review contracts, the result has been a recipe for manipulation, a complete failure to keep our streets safe and clearly scrambling for money from our pockets to make for bloated projects.”
– Paul Dohrmann • Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“Stop all street closures and stop taking away parking. Businesses are hurting!”
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.6.23
“I am again offended by the lack of respect for the public’s input by SFMTA and Jeffrey Tumlin. Dean Preston is completely self serving.”
– Citizen • Pacific Heights 11.5.23
“Closing Hayes Street which is now a safe and thriving neighborhood with charming and necessary individual businesses and thousands of residents is asinine. Traffic moves smoothly, pedestrians are kept safe with wider sidewalks and curb cuts. You’ll render disabled residents less able to move across the city without the 21-Hayes as a transit option. Could Dean Preston’s SFH stick Edwardian home on Hayes facing Alamo Square Park be coloring his viewpoint? What is it, “None for all and all for me?” Leave Hayes Street OPEN AS IS.”
– Jennifer OLoughlin • Hayes Valley 11.5.23
“The Mayor ignores our emails and tweets re: MTA and Jeffrey Tumlin and continually looks the other way to enable whatever they do. Tumlin was kicked out of SoCal for trying to do to the city of Santa Monica what he’s been given full reign by our Mayor to do here in San Francisco, and the East Bay didn’t want him either… but typically our dysfunctional Mayor allows him to continually close streets, eliminate parking and virtually punish anyone who drives a vehicle. Tumlin’s continued obsession with cars is pathological… MTA is much more interested in spending their budget on policing cars in the city while their dilapidated transit system sits in shambles. They have changed countless parking meters in the Richmond district and other parts of the city to commercial vehicles status for no reason whatsoever and those meters sit empty all day. Like many of us are already doing, I encourage drivers to do your shopping OUTSIDE OF THE CITY and our businesses can suffer as a result of what MTA is doing to San Francisco. Tumlin needs to go, and he needs to go NOW. VOTE BREED OUT IN THE NEXT ELECTION, WE’RE SICK AND TIRED OF BEING IGNORED.”
– Citizen • District 1 Outer Richmond 11.5.23
“As a Hayes Valley homeowner and small business owner, I find the closure of our commercial corridor disturbing. As the owner of one of the oldest small businesses on the street, I have seen profound changes in this neighborhood, but none that has so divided the community as has the closure of the street. The lack of transparency of those who initiated the closure and claimed to speak for merchants can only be interpreted as boldly manipulative and self serving. The duplicitous nature of the process itself and of our elected and non elected officials has resulted in a lack of trust and general fear of reprisal among merchants and residents alike.”
– Citizen and Small Business Owner • Hayes Valley 11.5.23
“The outreach to small businesses conducted by SFMTA clearly showed that a majority, 66%, were willing to accept the recommendations put forth by SFMTA to reduce the street closure to 1 day. We agreed to this reset in the spirit of compromise. After putting up with traffic and navigational issues for 3 years, most of us would like to see the full reopening of the street. It’s shameful of SFMTA to have set us up to support its own recommendations, only to backpedal on us. Equally shameful is allowing a self-designated spokesperson to have the last say on an issue the community clearly isn’t in agreement with. While the supervisor has made his position clear regarding vehicles and city streets, his claim that the small business community has benefited from the closure of the street is a false narrative. He has been made very aware, beginning with the initiation of the closures during the pandemic emergency, in numerous conversations with small business owners, of the negative impact the closures have on our businesses. This is the second time he has allowed our experience and collective voice to be hijacked and misrepresented. If the goal is to calm traffic, put in speed bumps and full stop traffic lights with no right turn on red lights. The handful of anti-car activists who show up at these meetings could still ride their bikes in the middle of the street if they wanted to. It’s hard not to conclude the real goal in all of this is to decimate what is left of our eroding shoreline of local entrepreneurs. Here’s a thought you might want to bear in mind: It’s absurd to claim that any small business owner would object to a program that benefits or has no impact on their business.”
– Citizen and Small Business Owner • Hayes Valley 11.5.23
“I’m tired of the Breed/Tumlin coalition! Lake Street & all the “slow streets” are stupid & ridiculous. You’re hurting the businesses on Hayes Street!”
– Eileen S • Western Addition 11.5.23
“SFMTA has been given way to much power in how they redesign our streets. It’s not equitable since some benefit but most others don’t. Just another glaring example of the wealth and political divide in this city.“
– Maura Healy • Hayes Valley 11.5.23
“Closure of Hayes Street has been nothing but nonsensical and not beneficial for business, pedestrians nor motorists. Only winners are stoners and skateboarders.”
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.4.23
“The city continues to destroy the quality of life in the Hayes Valley and Lower Haight neighborhoods by those of influence who don’t live here or care about residents. Boondoggle programs to “improve” these neighborhoods have had a negative impact instead: automobile traffic is almost unnavigable with unnecessary stop lights, no left turn signs and seriously reduced residential parking; Bicycle racks and street – side water parklets generate noise continuously at unreasonable hours. Enough with the failed misguided attempts to enhance our quality of life. Find another way to get re-elected.”
– Citizen • Lower Haight 11.4.23
“We believe that sharing the road is the best option for our neighborhood. We have given enough to the bicyclists in this neighborhood and enough is enough. We the Long term residents and seniors living in this neighborhood demand to be a part of the process in deciding what is best for OUR neighborhood. Unfortunately it has become a nuisance to have bicyclists who refuse to comply with the rules of the road and put Senior at risk by their flagrant disregard for pedestrians in this neighborhood. We want everyone to enjoy our neighborhood and to feel safe.“
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.4.23
“Roads were built for cars. Pavements and sidewalks for people. Stop this insanity. I support green initiatives, and this is madness. Cars and traffic stalling on other streets just makes our environment worse. For the small businesses, they need the ability to unload quickly, customers to have quick access. Please open up the street (and all slow streets in sf) again.”
– Citizen • Mission 11.4.23
“SFMTA rules with impunity with no regard for what their own surveys that show 2-5% of SF wants/needs slow streets closed streets and now Neighborways. They amount of mismanaged dollars must be staggering while they fold small and large businesses alike and drive out hard working families.”
– Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.4.23
“We had the same issue on Lake Street and fought to eventually be blindsided by the SFMTA and the Mayor office. The only way I see forward is to vote London Breed out and fire Jeffrey Tumlin sadly the Mayor is being owned by the Bike Coalition and donors.“
– Citizen • Inner Sunset 11.4.23
“We don’t want the surrounding streets to have more traffic, more people circling for parking, and more Ubers circling and double parking so that one block can be closed for a couple restaurants to put tables and heat lamps in the street. It’s absurd. On weekends Laguna often now looks like it does on weekdays with traffic at a standstill. During the past year I’ve had the hardest time getting just driving out of the neighborhood. In a city with zero traffic enforcement, it’s infuriating to have more traffic diverted to our streets while simultaneously disrupting the 21 bus and making people stand in the rain to catch it on Grove where there aren’t west bound bus stops.”
Citizen • Hayes Valley 11.4.2023
“Stop the division between neighborhoods. Please respect SFMTA Staff work & don’t be hoodwinked by Supervisor Preston and a couple of special interests neighborhood groups.”
– Richard Johnson • Hayes Valley 11.3.2023
“The problem was caused by those that started this program and missed their desired outcome. Since then they have been doubling down and trying to manipulate the program to justify the continuance of a problematic closure. Our supervisor has turned his back on small business trying to close down our business corridor 24/7.“
– Citizen and Small Business Owner • Hayes Valley 11.3.23