LoHaMNA meeting- October 17, 2016 Minutes
General meeting
Public Comment
Kirk- when will Haight street be re-surfaced and done with construction? Sup Breed offered to send detailed timeline to LoHaMNA or any individual who interested
Brian- what is the status of LoHaMNA’s group, how you operate?
Azam- same question, why meeting date changed last minute and 2 days before board of appeals meeting? Are you 501c3 yet?
Pierre- block captain of Lower Haight, co-owner of Lo-Cost meat market, LoHaMNA started due to crime in neighborhood and wanted to get merchants and neighbors together to stop the violence, now something went wrong, this was a community effort
Better BART presentation
Veronica and Carrie, $3.5 billion bond measure on ballot in Nov, measure RR to re-build BART, carry 450,000 people every day, 44 years old, replacing 90 miles of track, reinforce tunnel walls in underground stations in SF, NOT routine maintenance; focus on safety, reliability, relief of crowding, renewing electrical and stations, new rail cars (three doors on each car), more efficient, train control so that trains can run closer to each other, oversight committee, BART has triple A bond rating, on average this bond will cost $9 per $100,000 assessed value of your home over the life of the bond
Blue bottle update
Lawrence Li, interested in corner of Waller/Steiner, they are chain store/formula retail, LoHaMNA has put online survey and spoken with merchants, prelim data shows 25 responses (online or in-person), 1/3 neighbors and 2/3 merchants, overall 84% against Blue Bottle, reasons in favor activation of the corner, corporate employer with good benefits, new activation would attract higher paying tenants/revitalize the neighborhood, some wanted another café on specialty coffee, reasons against were primarily that it a well funded corporation so competitive advantage over local spots, smaller local merchant would bring something more unique to the neighborhood, concern about homogeneity of the neighborhoods, other Blue Bottle less than a mile away, LoHaMNA continuing to collect feedback and encourage you to fill out survey, next Board meeting LoHaMNA will be taking a position on Blue Bottle
Questions: concern that survey is overweighted towards merchants but neighborhood is primarily residents. Gio updated that will sample residents in the coming weeks, Robert updated that on Facebook LoHaMNA page and on link for agenda
How are you going to make decision to support or oppose LoHaMNA? Use the data of the survey, Board discussion
Suggest posting of survey on SFist, NextDoor, and Hoodline
Asking why Blue Bottle is different/getting special attention from LoHaMNA
Formula retail is 11 locations worldwide
Several individuals expressed concern about how LoHaMNA makes decisions, Board structure, decision making process,
Amy suggested that we meet/people volunteer to have a community discussion regarding Board structure: Matt, Brian, Joel, Nicky, Pierre, Robert, Joe, Peter, Yaniv volunteered
Suheil- against Blue Bottle as owns coffee shop himself
Will Eagle- moved back to SF 3 years ago, wine business for many years, wants to serve the community via a wine shop/wine bar, requires two licenses, waiting to hear from landlord, ideal hours would be 10a-10p, 1100 square feet, not yet in conditional use permit phase, under 49 seats, will not serve food that needs cooking, considering pairing with local restaurants
Urban Solutions– Robert Patterson, Sup Breed office has given them a $50 k grant to help neighborhood to fill vacancies and help existing businesses to take better advantage of the neighborhood, Lisa and Corinne will be walking merchant corridor, they are non-profit broker so can address vacancies, can help with tenant improvement, lease negotiations, analyze blight in neighborhood, willing to meet or talk one-on-one, will meet with merchants, landowners and will share plan with us
Green Team- Stephanie (3 year resident) and Adrienne (4 year resident), work for recology and want to see Lower Haight cleaner so wanted to start clean and green team, illegal dumping, trash, use 311 app, more calls to 311/more attention to our neighborhood and perhaps more resources from DPW
Administrative Planning- Yaniv, posting of bylaws and minutes online, unincorporated organization currently, considering using Robert’s Rules of Order in order to allow for open discussion
Sup Breed suggested bringing outside facilitator and agreeing to Code of Conduct, get us to place where we can all work together
Gio- created website and reminded that we all volunteers, looking for someone to help run the website
Joe- Art walk on Dec 3, trying to extend to Scott St