11.14.2016 November Public Meeting Minutes

LOHAMNA Community Meeting 11/14/16 Notes

–Michael Gaines made general welcome to everyone. He also provided general announcements. The Friend of the Urban Forest have secured planters for the 300 block of Haight that are available to be placed with foliage as part of a City sponsored beautification project as soon as 10 people who live on the block can provide their signatures with addresses for the City.

–Gio Acosta introduced Adrienne Gembala, a LOHAMNA neighbor. Adrienne is interested in helping to make Lower Haight cleaner and greener. On November 13th Adrienne and an additional neighbor walked the 500 and 600 blocks of Haight to speak with neighbors and merchants about 311. 311 is a free service offered by the City to help manage pickups of unwanted items and public trash outside of the standard weekly pickup. Lynn from incense shop on 400 block of Haight mentioned that she as used 311 in the past with my great results. Michael said that he would reach out to a contact at 311 to get more information on what their typical response time is. Adrienne also mentioned that the more all’s from a particular neighborhood prompts the City to canvas neighborhood more for trash pickups.

–Thea Selby gave a brief updates on the WalkStop project. WalkStops is a citywide project fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Parks Alliance. The goal is to encourage people to walk more and explore. There will be a major WalkStop installation at the corner of Haight and Fillmore, in front of CVS, featuring an inlaid compass on the sidewalk and a wayfarer sign indicating distance to nearby points of attraction (Upper Haight, Alamo Square, Duboce Park, etc). Installation is currently planned to be complete by March 31, 2017.
Robert Patterson has been attending meetings with GroundPlay, a city initiative to bring art into communities. Currently there is a $50,000 grant for a public piece of art to represent the Lower Haight. The art is not restricted to a medium. If you or anyone that you know wants more information, please contact Robert Patterson through the LOHAMNA website.

–Robert has also been in communication with Urban Solutions. Urban Solutions is a service provided from Supervisor Breed’s office to assist with the vacant storefronts in the Lower Haight and to assist the current businesses receive assistance to loans and grants. Urban Solutions has met with 17 businesses. 1 business is looking to sell and 6 businesses are currently looking at small business loans. Urban Solutions is currently speaking to building owners and landlords in the neighborhood. Lynn mentioned that Pierre from Lo-Cost Meats could have benefitted from the program and offered to contact him about Urban Solutions.

–The last item that Robert shared was the results of the survey regarding a potential Blue Bottle at the corner of Waller and Steiner. The survey is currently overwhelmingly against a Blue Bottle. The survey has been extended for additional people to give their feedback as many people had expressed that they were unaware of the survey.

–Gio also wanted to share that the next Art Walk is December 3rd from 6 pm – 10 pm.