We had a big crowd at our January 21 community meeting. Over 90 people attended. Here’s what happened.

We opened with an icebreaker:  Random groups of three chatted on the prompt, “What do we want to improve in our neighborhood in 2026?” and shared a picture from their phones of something they love here.

Announcements:

1.  We are filling storefronts:

• Church Fitness opened on January 20 at 1710 Church St. (empty since 2008)
• Kawanoya restaurant opened recently at 1689 Church St.
• 1793 Church St construction finished and is now for lease (former Pomelo’s)
• 1772 Church St is for now for lease (former Pinnacle Kidz , Edward Jones)

 

2.  Upper Noe Gardening Group is meeting on Saturday mornings to plan work days. Whether you are an avid gardener or someone who just enjoys pitching in and volunteering at the park, join in. The next meeting is Saturday, January 31 at 10 a.m. in the courtyard at Upper Noe Recreation Center. Email: chris@uppernoerecreationcenter.com

 

SF Family Zoning – Planning Dept. – David Garcia
The Family Zoning Plan legislation went live Monday January 12. It was identified in San Francisco’s Housing Element as a primary action to undo zoning laws that have served to exclude low-income communities and communities of color from certain parts of the city. SF needs to create 82k units plus buffer. We have 58k in the pipeline. The City’s plan is to put taller buildings, 6-8 stories, near transit along Church St and 24^th St and 4 stories elsewhere. The plan seeks to create certainty for development.
See https://sfplanning.org/sf-family-zoning-plan

Historical Preservation – Planning Dept – Alex Westhoff
Supervisor Mandelman initiated 27 landmarks in District 8 but not many in Noe Valley. 14 have been approved so far. Please send them local historic sites you feel should be on the list. View the current list of proposed landmarks at
https://uppernoeneighbors.com/wp-content/uploads/UNN-Nov2025-presentation.pdf
For more information from Planning, contact: <sf.housing.choice@sfgov.org>  and visit https://tinyurl.com/sf-historic-preservation

 

State Senator Scott Weiner

Budget:  Working to fill in what the Federal government is taking away.

Civil Rights Bills:

• authored and passed SB 627 that took effect January 1 Prohibits local and federal law enforcement from concealing their faces with ski masks and similar extreme masking.
• authored and passed (on Jan 27) SB 747, the No Kings Act, allowing individuals to sue federal, state, or local officers for civil rights violations.

Energy:  Working to pass a bill for plug-in solar that’s been very successful in Germany that can lower energy bills. Also, a bill to make it easier to get heat pumps and move away from gas furnaces, lowering carbon emissions and cost.

Transit:  Our public transit systems could collapse. Introduced a law for regional Bay Area funding for transit to resolve BART, Caltrain, and half of MUNI’s problems. We will be asked to vote on regional and SF funding measures on the ballot in November.

Crime: Thanks to new law, auto break-ins have completely collapsed; SB 905 removes the requirement to prove the vehicle was locked. Also passed the SAFE Streets Act SB 276 to prevent sales of stolen goods on the streets.

Questions:

1. When can people use plug-in solar? Jan 1, 2027 if it passes.
2. Will landlords be able to push back on tenants if they want to put in plug in solar? The bill doesn’t speak to this.
3. Why is transit facing collapse? Muni is at 80% of pre-pandemic ridership. BART mostly runs on fares, and a small parcel tax. Caltrain gets donations from the counties it goes through. Transit systems have land use authority in Asia, but they have very little here, which makes this more difficult.
4. Who is opposing your work? Factions with economic interests mostly. California is so big that it has many different interests. Even legislation that looks like it benefits everyone finds some resistance.
5. Why does CA have a budget shortfall when it’s the fourth largest economy in the world? Healthcare – like all of America, we deliver less at a higher cost. Boom/bust tax system – income and cap gains on highest earners have significant impacts on state budgets. Prop 13 keeps our property taxes low, and made us too reliant on these individual high earners. Our schools went from best funded to worst funded after Prop 13 passed. So, we have big surpluses and big deficits. We have built up reserves of about 30B. We are trying to build it up even more, so we don’t have to make significant cuts during the downturns.
6. Will the billionaire tax scare people out? I support progressive taxation. This November, we will need to re-up the ballot measure that Jerry Brown had in place. I have no position on the billionaire tax until we know whether or not it’s on the ballot.

 

Board President and District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman

One year left in office. The Mayor and Board of Sups are getting along.

City Charter:  The 1932 charter aimed to avoid corruption by having professionals rather than politicians in charge: Chief admin officer (unelected civil servant) and commissions (wealthy citizens and businesses) ran the city. The 1990s saw the emergence of the powerful mayor theory. We got Mayor Brown. Afterwards, organization evolved to keep the mayor in check. These three theories of govt compete and make it hard to get things done and run the city. Mandelman has introduced charter reforms to clean up the org chart, clarify the mayor’s role, and beef up the city administrator (chief admin officer unelected civil servant) responsible for procurement and capital projects. This will likely be on the Nov ballot.

Budget:  SF has 12 or 13 lawsuits to keep the Trump admin from being able to condition our funding.  HR-1 public health funding will be cut by hundreds of millions or a billion dollars.

Safety:  SF street conditions have improved. Police officer decline has stabilized and new recruits has modestly increased. Derrek Lew is our new chief of police. Crime is down. Mission, SoMa, and the Tenderloin are still problem areas.

Mental Health: A bill to try to keep people outpatient but require them to get medications will be on the November ballot. The mayor signed a bill to add fifty beds for people who can’t be let back out onto the streets but keep refusing care.

Assistance:

• Sophie Marie ­– D8 aide for help with neighborhood problems. <Marie@sfgov.org>
• Dave Burke – D8 Public Safety Liaison for help with ongoing crime problems. <dave.burke@sfgov.org>

Questions:

1. why are these people ending up on the streets; what is wrong with them? They have a mix of mental illness and drug use. We also need to make our city less attractive to people who need this care.
2. Drugs are illegal; why not arrest users and put them in jail or treatment? Our county doesn’t have the resources for this. Our jails are already full and there are too many of them. It needs to be done at a higher level.

 

Community Goals

We have been successful together, as a community, at getting banners and lights on Church St, sound panels in the auditorium, filling store fronts, a stop sign at 28^th and Church Streets, a water fountain in the dog park, hosting community meetings, and so much more.

2026 Goals:  Attendees submitted input at the last meeting. Your input is requested. Email <hello@uppernoeneighbors.com> with suggestions!  A set of achievable goals will be presented at the March 18 community meeting.

Here is your feedback so far grouped together.

People like:

• Dog park
• Rec center
• Dog water fountains
• Our local small businesses
• Slow street (the most popular and best-looking)

Things to improve:

• Sidewalk repair
• Parking – It’s becoming increasingly difficult. We have been discussing more meters. We also do not have a permit system like other neighborhoods; we’re one of the last to not have that. It’s something we will be discussing.
• Want more life on the streets.
• Nightlife, music
• Traffic enforcement, esp. at 30^th and church
• Paint the cross walks at 30^th and Church; perhaps paint some pretty to attract more attention.
• Add a PA system to the auditorium to assist hearing.

 

Door Prizes – Church Produce was our sponsor with 2 gift certificates.
Please shop our merchants!
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Our Next Meeting is March 18 at 7 p.m.
featuring safety updates with Ingleside Station’s Captain Gerry Newbeck