Communications

May 7, 2025

Dear SFMTA:

The Hayes Valley Small Business Association opposes the proposed 2 additional dates Head West is seeking for this year.

Over the last few years you have heard from our business members on Hayes, Octavia and Laguna repeatedly regarding the negative financial impacts this event presents and the unpleasant experience we’ve had with the event operator Jimmy Brower. We cannot underscore enough that the prioritization of this promoted event for outside retail vendors is anti-small business and bad policy. Jimmy has managed to exploit a loophole that must end.

By denying this permit you are giving us back 2 Sundays which we desperately need due to the detrimental impacts of the Hayes Street Closure.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
HVSBA

January 22, 2025

Dear ISCOTT SFMTA:

The Hayes Valley Small Business Association opposes the 4 proposed 2025 Sunday dates for Head West.

Over the last few years you have heard from us repeatedly regarding the number of negative issues and impacts that this event presents to our neighborhood. Foremost this event presents competition which results in financial losses.

Last year the Office of Small Business recommended that SFMTA work with stakeholders to arrive at a consensus regarding the frequency of this event in Hayes Valley before issuing any permits for 2025. Unfortunately the much needed consensus building did not occur with the previous administration. We ask you deny this permit request at this time and put this matter on hold until the March 27, 2025 ISCOTT hearing so that we can have the time/opportunity to take this matter up with the new leadership.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
HVSBA

November 18, 2024

Attention SFMTA:

We support a reopening of Hayes St.  We oppose this permit renewal.

The unilateral control that has been granted to the permit holder is problematic. It is dumbfounding that this sketchy-at-best permitting process has yielded a situation where a permit holder has the ability to produce events on a regular basis that compete directly with Hayes Valley independent small business operators. Repeated efforts to underscore the financial harm we are left to endure continues to fall on deaf ears.

We have not been equal partners in any decision making regarding this program. There has been no outreach this past year from any city Agency regarding ongoing developments while we witness a shift to privatizing this street for recreational use while Parcel K sits vacant and a host of other open spaces are available within a mile radius.

There has been a concerted effort (on public record) by those pursuing this closure to negate our right and authority to speak on behalf of our own interest and for our neighbors who share our views on this and other matters. The lack of process and the manipulation of our City leaders, elected and appointed, and self-declared spokespersons for the merchant community has been exhausting and dispiriting.   

We ask that you deny this permit renewal. A continuation of this closure will force us to pursue all available options.

Sincerely,
HVSBA

October 9, 2024

Attention ISCOTT and SFMTA:

We do not support a street closure expansion. We believe this closure has run its course and should be concluded. The current effort to shift to half baked events on Hayes Street are better relocated to existing venues in Hayes Valley like Patricia’s Green, Parcel K and Linden Alley.

We have not been equal partners in any decision making regarding this program. There has been no communications or outreach this past year from our supervisor. Even the notice for this hearing was inadequate. This is unacceptable.

Even more concerning: there has been a concerted effort (on public record) by those pursuing this closure to negate our right and authority to speak on behalf of our own interest and for our neighbors who share our views on this and other matters. The lack of process and the manipulation of our City leaders, elected and appointed, and self-declared spokespersons for the merchant community has been exhausting and dispiriting.  

For these reasons (and many others) we ask that you deny this permit renewal.

Sincerely,
HVSBA

April 10, 2024

Attention ISCOTT and SFMTA:

Our position regarding an increase in event frequency for Head West remains the same; we are not in support of this plan. We ask that you prioritize our small business operators/members who have repeatedly taken the time and energy to express their opposition to this unfair process.  We demand that you deny this request.

Respectfully,
HVSBA

February 21, 2024

Attention ISCOTT and SFMTA:

The street closures for the Head West events have a detrimental impact on our small business operators.

We oppose the 4x a year event frequency that Head West is currently seeking approval on. 2 dates for this event is more than sufficient.

We also ask that this event take place on Saturdays instead of Sundays (to coincide with the current street closure programming).

The ongoing encroachment by Head West into our commercial corridor is time consuming and exhausting while we repeatedly voice the same concerns about this event each year. The scheduling times of these hearings make it difficult for local proprietors to attend.

Head West has not been a good neighborhood partner. After repetitive requests on our part Head West continues to dis-include our organization from any dialogue or planning. The HVSBA believes in listening to our community members and putting their needs first. The fact that ISCOTT/SFMTA rewards this bad partner and grants a frequency beyond what our small business community consistently demands is troublesome.

Please prioritize our small business and neighborhood needs over an out of county for profit company  – please deny this permit request.

Respectfully,
HVSBA

November 6, 2023

We maintain our position of being in support of a reset on the programming to establish a level of success for the neighborhood and small business; this should occur before any efforts for an “exploration of any expansion” are put forth.

We do not support an expansion to 2 days or a permanent closure. We demand that you approve the 1 day programming that your own Agency studied, reviewed and recommended based on outreach to merchants.

We are very disheartened with how politicized this issue has become and the harm it has done to the voice of the small business community in Hayes Valley. 

HVSBA

September 1, 2021

Dear San Francisco Planning Commission:

The Hayes Valley Small Business Association (HVSBA) does not support the proposal for a Rivian Automotive in Hayes Valley. A luxury car showroom, funded by Amazon, Ford Motor Company, and Blackstone does not lend itself as a neighborhood serving business.

Formula Retail legislation in Hayes Valley is at a critical juncture. Lack of monitoring and weak enforcement have created loopholes and opportunities for emerging and established chains to circumvent legislation intended to prevent predatory entities from displacing the local business community. The legislation needs to be strengthened rather than relaxed. 

Locally funded small businesses in Hayes Valley (many of which are our members) built the equity and appeal of our business community, which now has the attention of deeply pocketed interests. The interests and efforts of our local entrepreneurs are deeply intertwined with the unique character of our neighborhood. 

The encroachment of Rivian (or any emerging chain store) on our commercial landscape is a direct threat to the ability of small businesses to compete for leases, resources, and the political will of our City leadership, elected or appointed. Hayes Valley should continue to strive to be an environment that encourages and supports local entrepreneurship. 

We ask that you deny this request for a CU.

HVSBA

July 21, 2021

Dear San Francisco Planning Commission:

The Hayes Valley Small Business Association (HVSBA) does not support the proposal for a Trader Joe’s in Hayes Valley. Loopholes in the enforcement of Formula Retail Ban (FRB) have allowed for a significant increase in Formula Retail Chains. The economic impact of Covid-19 is facilitating the exploitation of those loopholes.

A chain store of this size coming to the neighborhood is alarming. The impact it will have on existing independent small businesses, traffic, parking and local hires gravely concerns us.  

555 Fulton was set to usher in a “family grocery store” – which Trader Joe’s definitively is not. A national chain with centralized purchasing and marketing power threatens the very foundation the merchant corridor of Hayes Valley was built upon. 

As our businesses struggle to recover from the impact of the pandemic, we are entering a critical period which will likely determine their survival as well as the character of our business community. Our organization, HVSBA, requests that you consider the additional stress of this weakening of the formula retail ban on our local merchants. 

Please reconsider this approval.

HVSBA

3.9.2021

Many residents and merchants in the Hayes Valley community are increasingly frustrated with the way the City relates to our community entirely through the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA). The HVNA is NOT a democratically run organization nor is it officially sanctioned in any way as representing this community. The leadership is entirely self-appointed, does not seek neighborhood input, and marginalizes and even excludes residents who do not share their views. The “candidates” for elections are a slate of one person per office chosen by the outgoing board. We have stated this fact repeatedly to Kyle Smeallie, Dean Preston and all city agencies. This issue has been acknowledged yet city agencies continue to meet solely with the HVNA to make decisions that affect all of us. 

Recent examples:

HVNA initiated the permit process for the Shared Street program in late summer of 2020. The program was initially slated for 7 days a week because HVNA claimed there was broad support among merchants when in fact many merchants opposed it. HVNA told SFMTA there was a general consensus and they just accepted it as fact. The street closure was presented as a done deal, to be implemented in two weeks, by Supervisor Preston at the very first community Zoom meeting. It was only because of neighborhood push back that it was scaled back to one evening and two days. Once the program rolled out an entire merchant block was forced to circulate a petition to demonstrate the negative financial impacts the closure had on their business; residents who sought to expand outdoor space with street closures were pitted against businesses struggling with the economic impact of the pandemic on the merchant corridor. All of this was avoidable had there been proper outreach, vetting, and input from impacted merchants. The HVNA did not deliver on collecting adequate community input.

Worth noting: there has not been an active merchants association in this time but rather an extended “merchants” sub committee of the HVNA. Just as HVNA doesn’t speak for the majority of residents, this committee does not represent the views of many merchants.

Another recent example involves SFMTA announcing that there are plans to alter parking in our neighborhood. The SFMTA website cites that the plan is being formulated with the HVNA. While the changes do appear positive it’s extremely frustrating to the community at large to hear about these efforts so late in the process with the false claim that they represent the majority.

Moving forward, we demand the following:

We do NOT want any more meetings with the HVNA and City representatives that do not include other neighborhood voices. Specifically we want a representative from Hayes Valley Safe (HVS), which was formed last summer and the newly formed Hayes Valley Small Business Association (HVSBA), and preferably one community member at large to be present at ANY meetings conducted with City officials and agencies regarding any proposed changes or policies which impact our community.

Thank you.

This notification was sent to City Agencies on behalf of the HVSBA and HVSafe.