Tag Archives: SF JAZZ

SFJAZZ Center to begin construction

Update from SFJAZZ’s Randall Kline, Executive Artistic Director, and Felice Swapp, Executive Operating Director

We are excited to be moving forward with the SFJAZZ Center project at the corner of Franklin and Fell Streets, which is intended to maintain and enhance the vitality and character of the existing neighborhood, and serve as a community facility we can all be proud of. The facility will also be the first concert hall on the West Coast designed with the specific, and various needs of jazz in mind.

We are pleased to announce that the project is moving forward on schedule. We plan to begin demolition of the existing building on May 1, 2011 and expect it will take approximately 2 months.

Hayes Valley press first week of April

Busy week for Hayes Valley in the news/blogosphere:

SF Weekly’s foodie takes a look at Fatted Calf’s Meatloaf sandwich, which you can get at FC’s shop at 320 Fell Street:
Read the review here

The Seven by Seven Magazine’s Lauren Ladoceour gives her perspective on the neighborhood’s evolving self:
7×7 magazine’s look at Hayes Valley

The SF Chronicle does a write up on recently opened Room Service, at 549 Hayes Street. Read the article here sfgate.com

February/March ’11 President’s Column

By Karen Mauney-Brodek

Over the next year, our neighborhood will continue to see proposals for new development. We will see pop-up retail and temporary uses of land and buildings that otherwise would stand empty. We will also see some long-term projects. Over the past few months we have welcomed new businesses in the neighborhood, as well as housing and community partners. We in Hayes Valley have experienced much in the last ten years: from a freeway removed, to a boulevard built; new parks, a temporary farm and community gardens, new business, new traffic patterns and new neighbors. We must work vigilantly to ensure that support for our neighborhood’s new and existing residents is there. This includes supporting and improving our public transit, John Muir Elementary School, community services and our parks.

The Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) has distinguished itself as a passionate and active group of citizens. We have a proven track record for working with organizations, developers and city agencies to meet shared goals and improve projects along the way. Last year we reviewed and improved the final proposals for 555 Fulton, which will bring a new grocery store and housing in a new attractive building; the future Whole Foods at Market Street and Dolores; the new SFJAZZ Center; and numerous other projects. Recently, HVNA and other non-profits worked together to ensure that the new clubhouse building at Hayes Valley Playground will open with the services of a local non-profit, Opportunity Impact, in place.

As 2011 opens and the new HVNA board gets to work, creative partnerships and models for community services will be developed to meet the needs of our neighborhood. HVNA will continue to set the bar for participation and collaboration.

Join in the dialogue – come to our next General Membership meeting on February 24th at 7pm at 745 Buchanan St. We will elect our new board, get an update on Living Linden Alley and hear a presentation by Recology. I look forward to seeing you!

Transit Wins and Community Development [August-September 2010 print edition]

Haight/Market Street transit and pedestrian improvements coming soon:

Transportation & Planning Committee is pleased to report that San Francisco has been awarded a Federally-funded Livable Communities Grant to reintroduce two-way bus service on Haight Street. The “straightening” of the bus route will shave-off 3 to 4 minutes of time for buses from Fillmore Street to the Market and Van Ness intersection. The $2.8 million grant funds the following improvements:

  • The conversion of Haight Street between Octavia Boulevard and Market Street to a two-way street.
  • New overhead wires for the transit lane on inbound Haight between Laguna and Market Street
  • The extension of the transit lane on Market Street from Franklin Street to Gough.
  • Pedestrian infrastructure on Haight and Market Streets including enhanced corner bulbs, additional pedestrian refuge islands, more directly aligned crosswalks, new pedestrian signals, and additional street tree plantings.

Additionally this project improves bicycling by removing transitbicycle conflicts on the Page Street bicycle route and adding safe-hit poles to the bicycle lane on Market Street.

The HVNA has a long history of supporting the reintroduction of two-way bus service on Haight Street and removing the current ‘jog’ of the Haight Street buses to Page Street. HVNA advocated for this to be part of the city’s “Transit Effectiveness Project” and it is part of the Market and Octavia Better Neighborhood Plan. The grant was a joint San Francisco Planning Department/ San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency proposal and we are grateful for their successful application. This project will now enter a design phase and will be watched closely by the T & P committee.

SF Jazz approved

The proposed SF Jazz performance and educational center at 205 Franklin Street (at Fell Street) was approved unanimously by the San Francisco Planning Commission in July. SF Jazz found an excellent location in the heart of an already established performing arts district, allowing the type of agglomeration economies that make talent and creativity thrive. It is easily accessible to the BART Station at the Civic Center, and to the Muni Metro Lines on Market Street, as well as the Hayes Street bus line. It is also in the center of a dense, walkable, mixed-use neighborhood with many dining and entertainment opportunities.

The T & P Committee is pleased that the project sponsor is not building a parking garage at this site, in keeping with the transit first policies of the Market & Octavia Plan. If a patron needs to drive to the venue, there is adequate parking in the Performing Arts Garage and in the Civic Center Garage.

At the July Planning Commission hearing, the commission directed the department to work with SF Jazz and HVNA to get the crosswalk reintroduced on the east side of the Fell and Franklin Street intersection. This intersection will have a considerable increase in pedestrian activity with a new 800-seat venue and education facility, and it is critical that the crosswalk be introduced in tandem with the project. The T & P committee will also work closely with SF Jazz and other immediate neighbors to make Linden Alley a “livable street” between Franklin and Gough Street. A critical component of the open space plan for the Market and Octavia Plan is to provide living streets. In this case, making Linden Street into a living street in conjunction with the project is a logical extension of the proposed transformation of Linden Street between Gough and Octavia Street.

2001 Market Street

The 2001 Project (aka Whole Foods on Market) is likely to go before the San Francisco Planning Commission in late September or October. In June the T & P committee met with the Prado Group to get the latest iteration of the project. We are pleased to report that Prado has dropped its pursuit of excess parking and will keep the project aligned with the hard-won parking standards outlined in the Market and Octavia Plan. Prado is now proposing 0.5 parking spaces per residential unit. We thank the staff of the San Francisco Planning Department, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association for joining HVNA on the parking issue.

While this project is just beyond our neighborhood borders, it will have a dramatic impact on our neighborhood, especially with potential traffic on Buchanan, Laguna, and Market Streets. We will continue to engage with the project as it moves through the planning process. One outstanding issue is the location of the affordable housing component. It is not clear whether the project will have on-sight affordable housing, as required by the City, or if the developer buys-out of providing on-site affordable housing by paying in-lieu fees to the city. The HVNA believes that in keeping with the spirit of the Market and Octavia Plan, affordable housing should be built on-site. We need to make sure that people of lower and middle income backgrounds can afford to live in the transitrich, walkable Market Street corridor. We will continue to monitor this project and advocate for on-site affordable housing.

Congestion Pricing

There will be a presentation at the HVNA general meeting in August.