July 2025 Community Meeting Summary

July 2025 Community Meeting Summary

Upper Noe Neighbors
July 16, 2025
approximately 40 total attending

Agenda:

Introduction / Announcements/ Icebreaker
Project Fund-raising – Manny Yekutiel
Sidewalk Maintenance – DPW Outreach and Enforcement, Ms Ennis Harris and Jessica Salamy
Crime & Safety / Neighborhood Watch – Steve Matthias, Dave Burke
UN Merchant debrief of our recent presentation at the Small Business Commission
J-Church and other SFMTA updates
Door prize drawing courtesy of La Copa Loca

Introduction / Announcements

Icebreaker (Tony): attendees stayed by their seats and introduced themselves to someone they don’t know.

National Night Out – August 5 more info
Community Police Academy – August 21 more info
Upper Noe Block Party – Sept 27, from 11 to 2 pm at Upper Noe Rec Center. Contact hello@uppernoeneighbors.com to participate with a booth or activity.

Project Fund-raising – Manny Yekutiel, Executive Director Civic Joy Fund

We invited Manny as a former neighbor who understands the struggles of starting and operating a business in San Francisco, but also as a shrewd fund-raiser who could provide insight in how we might continue supporting improvements in Upper Noe during these lean economic times now that resources have dried up and disappeared.

Manny lived at 24th and Castro for 7 years. He now lives in the Castro. He is first a small business owner, operating Manny’s, the civic and political events space in the Mission. He started the Civic Joy Fund (CJF) with Mayor Lurie two and a half years ago. The first project was lighting up Valencia Street. Then, twelve more commercial districts. CJF became a non-profit, raised over $2M, and initiated a number of projects: 11 Night Markets in the last two years, the very successful Downtown First Thursdays, beautifying utility boxes with Paint the City, a Block Party fund, and Summer of Music in the streets of SF. Manny started his coffee shop/ bookstore as a political space and now has 600 monthly sponsors.

We asked him:
What are some funding solutions for our neighborhood and our park?
What are main issues for small businesses in SF today?
How can neighborhoods help small business to thrive?

Neighborhood leaders need to encourage residents to patronize local businesses. Empty storefronts hurt surrounding properties but landlords don’t want to be locked into a long-term commitment and/or consider it a tax write-off. Neighborhood groups can help by reaching out to property owners and finding creative solutions. Encourage their use as pop-ups with little short-term leases and little obligation to either party.

Funding for civic projects can still be found through SF New Deal, which was established to revitalize the city’s downtown area and support local businesses during economic downturns. Avenue Greenlight still has money and the Community Challenge Grant has been resurrected.

Sidewalk Maintenance – DPW Outreach and Enforcement Team, Ms. Ennis Harris and Jessica Salamy.
We asked how we can be more effective at getting cleaner, well-maintained walks? What are our responsibilities and liabilities?

Homeowners and businesses are responsible for keeping sidewalks clean and in good repair, and for cleaning up the area under sidewalk trees. Some exceptions include damage from street trees and utility infrastructure. Colored dots and marks indicate who is responsible for repairs and what type of work is being planned:

White: property owner
Green: City (DPW, Fire Dept, MTA etc)
Yellow: PG&E gas
Blue: PUC water
Orange: communications (Comcast, AT&T, etc)
Red: electric

What’s with the threatening lien notice that people receive for minor issues with their sidewalks?
Liens are a last resort, happen rarely, and only when the property owner refuses to repair their sidewalk and doesn’t pay the bill when the City has to do it.

What are the most common fines?
Sewer vent missing. A replacement only cost $9 at Home Depot but $250+ if owner doesn’t replace it and the City must do it.

311 is the best way to report all sidewalk issues. Inspectors will assess who is responsible for repair and initiate work orders. Pictures help DPW to assess the severity of the situation. If you follow up with SPW after reporting to 311, have the 311-case number handy.

Some other common reasons to call 311 include:

Illegal dumping;
broken door latches;
cleaning out smelly public garbage receptacles;
improper storage of Recology totes or totes left out on the curb (DPW does not patrol looking for this but relies on 311 calls to send inspectors to issue a warning).
Graffiti clean-up (If you have large walls, look into having a mural painted to avoid graffiti).

Crime & Safety / Neighborhood Watch – Steve Matthias, Dave Burke.

Steve Matthias is part of a small group of retired SF police officers at Neighborhoodsafety@sfgov.org who have managed Neighborhood Watch since the demise of SFSAFE. They help citizens start groups, provide support, offer free home and business security assessments and documentation, and host safety & security workshops.

Upper Noe Neighbors has suggested a forum for local NW block captains to strengthen the ability of groups to support each other. Contact hello@uppernoeneighbors.com if this is something that interests you.

Dave Burke is the District 8 Community Safety Liaison. He meets with neighbors, groups and businesses to assess criminal activity and help victims. Garage break-ins continue to be one of the most prevalent kinds of crime here. Securing your garage is easy and he can help. Email him at dave.burke@sfgov.org .

Citizens Police Academy – this free ten-week course meets 6-9 pm on Thursday evenings at SF Police Academy in Diamond Heights and provides citizens with insight into police training, equipment, resources and procedures. The next academy starts August 21. See https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/CPA or contact SFPD.CPA@sfgov.org to learn more and enroll.

Ingleside Police Station commander, Captain Amy Hurwitz, was just transferred to Southern Station. Our new captain is Gerry Newbeck who comes with long and wide experience on the force. Captains moved around at all stations in SF. Because of the sudden personnel changes, no officer was available to attend our meeting as planned.

National Night Out is August 5 from 5 to 7 pm at Ingleside Station in Balboa Park. Join your neighbors, community groups, Ingleside officers and our new captain in a fun and informative free pizza party.

Upper Noe Merchants at the Small Business Commission – Judy Marrocco
UNM was invited, along with other business associations across SF, to present before the commission about our projects, challenges and aspirations. We heard from over a dozen prominent business corridors and discovered that we share many of the same issues.

Events/Resources/Tools Support Small Businesses

Grant from Avenue Greenlight provided colorful banners and decorative string lights to define and promote the neighborhood, provide inviting atmosphere, instill a greater sense of safety, and enhance foot traffic
UNM individual sponsors at neighborhood meetings brings awareness of local merchants to the community.
Spotlighting businesses and boosting merchant presence on Instagram.
Sponsoring neighborhood block parties at the rec center with wide community involvement and near unanimous business participation.

Merchant Challenges and Solutions

Maintaining access for shoppers: Short-term Parking

Upper Noe’s terrain is not walkable for all.
Commuters occupying the free parking.
More parking meters are being considered.

Functional J-Church service provides access and foot traffic

A one-seat ride to downtown is necessary to promote ridership
MUNI projects undermine the viability of Church Street business.
Building and maintaining relationships with SFMTA will help.

Improving the Upper Noe brand / Filling empty storefronts

Neighborhood festivals, banners, lights, social media
Demonstrating that opening a business in Upper Noe will be beneficial
Letting businesses know the city is here to support small business

J-Church updates and other info from SFMTA – Chris
The SFMTA J-Church Team met with UNN recently to provide updates about the current (2023) J-Church project https://www.sfmta.com/projects/j-church-safety-and-accessibility-project :

No further J-Church changes are coming to Noe Valley. Their focus is only on completing both ends of the project (Balboa, Market St) and have dropped all plans for here.
They haven’t seen any complaints about the J-Church transit stop changes.
They are researching info to determine whether a traffic light is advisable at Church and Cesar Chavez. That is something that was in the (2019) J-Church project and is still sought by residents and businesses there.
No data exists to indicate that 30th and Church is a dangerous intersection, as suggested by some residents. No mediation is warranted and, given the MUNI lines, no intervention is considered possible. They probably cannot update the MUNI traffic signal to be less confusing either.
There was discussion that having the J-Church go all the way to Day St to stop and open its doors, rather than stopping mid-block, might reduce traffic confusion at 30^th and Church and speed up the J. It’s just an idea at this point. FYI: having the stop on 30^th St at Church before the turn did not work out when they tried it in 2019; it interfered with the 24 bus and traffic patterns.
Next Generation Sanchez Slow Street construction is planned for mid-August/September. See the design at https://uppernoeneighbors.com/slow-sanchez/

Door Prizes!
Our meeting sponsor was La Copa Loca Gelato who donated four gift certificates! Four people walked away with delicious prizes. Congratulations!

Our next Community Meeting is September 17