This acclaimed S.F. food hall helped low-income chefs. What do they do when it closes? August 30, 2023

This acclaimed S.F. food hall helped low-income chefs. What do they do when it closes? Photo of Mario Cortez Mario Cortez Aug. 30, 2023 Updated: Aug. 30, 2023 10:05 a.m. Ivonne Cruz serves a guest at Los Cilantros inside La Cocina Municipal Marketplace. With the closing of the food hall, the restaurant is relocating to Berkeley. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle When ambitious San Francisco food hall La Cocina Municipal Marketplace closes its kiosks to the public on Friday, where will its women and immigrant food entrepreneurs go next — and how will the celebrated nonprofit move forward with its city-leased space in the Tenderloin? One person asking is Tiffany Carter. She started her Louisiana-meets-California soul food business, Boug Cali, by selling rich gumbo and po’boy sandwiches at her uncle’s church in the Bayview. As part of La Cocina’s incubator program, Carter got the chance to run her own subsidized restaurant kiosk as one of six original vendors at the Marketplace, which opened in April 2021 in a disused post office building at 101 Hyde St. But at a meeting in July, everything changed. La Cocina told Carter and her fellow vendors that the nonprofit would soon convert the food hall to commercial kitchen space, like at its original Mission District facility. Only the front coffee bar would continue to serve walk-in customers, featuring one La Cocina pop-up at a time. “I’m still processing that it’s happening. It’s surreal, and it doesn’t feel good,” Carter said on a quiet Thursday morning, waiting for the midday lunch rush. “I almost feel more sad for the community than for myself.” After Friday, La Cocina Municipal Marketplace in San Francisco will only be open to in-person customers for special events. A cafe will serve food from one rotating pop-up restaurant. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle Many more stakeholders — from the city, which subsidized the hall with $1.5 million in pledged funding, to Tenderloin businesses and residents — are also weighing the magnitude of the loss. In a neighborhood without grocery stores, low-income residents could use EBT for fresh meals at a reasonable price. The market served more than 5,000 meals for $5 to diners in need, no questions asked. Though sales at the kiosks totaled more than $1.5 million, La Cocina Executive Director Leticia Landa said they ultimately fell short of expectations, citing San Francisco’s slow downtown recovery and remote work. In its initial pre-pandemic plans for the hub, La Cocina expected each kiosk to bring in around $40,000 in monthly sales. Recently, sales ranged from $7,000 to $12,000 per kiosk. “Just with the math, you can understand why we’ve made this decision,” Landa said. Still, up to 70% of Boug Cali’s revenue comes from her kiosk, Carter said, with the rest from catering. She wants to keep serving diners in downtown San Francisco. She has looked from the Tenderloin to the Embarcadero for a new venue, but rents have been out of her price range. One location she liked charged $14,000 per month. At the La Cocina food hall, rent began at $500, with tiered increments based on sales percentages that capped out at $5,000. The dining area inside La Cocina Municipal Marketplace will be used for commissary kitchen space. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle Just steps from Boug Cali, Nafy Flatley serves Senegalese and West African fare like peanut stews topped with vegetables, and tamarind chicken thighs. She’s open to moving her business, Teranga, almost anywhere in the city, but rents are high. She liked a property in the Fillmore that was $9,000 a month, but found it too small for a restaurant and catering operation. In the meantime, Flatley will hold a three-month pop-up at the Embarcadero Center as part of the city’s Vacant to Vibrant program, which will bring 17 pop-ups to vacant spaces in the Financial District to rev up business activity in the area. Flatley considered an affordable location in the Tenderloin but turned it down on a second visit, citing the problems she’s had working in the neighborhood. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable walking with my kids or leaving by myself at night,” she said. More from Mario Cortez Vegan Mexican restaurant closes after 14 years in S.F. One-of-a-kind Salvadoran restaurant brings wood-fired pupusas to the Bay Area Safety, which La Cocina hoped to improve with its presence in the Tenderloin, proved a constant concern. In interviews, vendors described drug use and crime after dark. At least one person was found dead in the hall’s restroom, according to vendors and La Cocina. La Cocina has spent $667,735 on private security services for the hall since opening, and installed $65,809 in security equipment. As a precaution, the hall has kept its Hyde Street door locked on one side, acting as an exit only. “Our environment is not conducive for thriving small businesses,” said Kate Robinson, executive director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, a neighborhood nonprofit. “That is something we have to put on the forefront, because it all starts there.” The exterior of La Cocina Municipal Marketplace. The food hall hoped to bring new life to the former post office building, but crime and drug use in the area made doing business difficult, food vendors said. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle With the coming closure, several entrepreneurs are shifting their attention to other ventures such as food trucks. Algerian food kiosk Kayma, known for its couscous chicken bowls and veggie-lentil stews, is parking its existing food truck at the Presidio Tunnel Tops park on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays in an arrangement facilitated by La Cocina. Mexican food kiosk Mi Morena will do the same Friday through Sunday. It could be a more lucrative approach: Jose Alberto Salazar, who works with his mother and Mi Morena owner Lupe Moreno, said the truck brings in four times more revenue than the kiosk, which would only get around 20 customers per day. Some food hall tenants are smoothly transitioning into new brick-and-mortar locations — just not in San Francisco. Los Cilantros, which serves tacos, tostadas and more Mexican plates at the hall, is moving to South Berkeley’s La Peña Cultural Center. There, it will take over a renovated cafe space starting Friday. The business is already familiar with the neighborhood: It previously ran a restaurant at 3105 Shattuck Ave., which closed during the pandemic. Los Cilantros owner Dilsa Lugo is cautiously optimistic about the new space, aware that Los Cilantros survived inside the food hall thanks to subsidized rent and assistance from La Cocina. But the change in scenery could be good for business. “I don’t think my food didn’t work,” Lugo said. “(The Tenderloin) is just a hard neighborhood, and the post-pandemic situation is also hard.” Tiffany Carter, right, works behind the counter at Boug Cali inside La Cocina Municipal Marketplace. “I almost feel more sad for the community than for myself,” Carter said of closing her kiosk, which is her main source of revenue. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle La Cocina’s original commercial kitchen space in the Mission District is currently packed, with 44 businesses running consumer packaged goods operations or preparing food for farmers’ markets or catering engagements. Now, some will move to the Tenderloin space, though they’ll need new licenses for the location. The downtown food hall is currently zoned for restaurant use, and La Cocina still needs to file for a permit change. No construction or remodeling work will be done. “By pivoting to it being a commercial kitchen and being able to serve more business, this is our attempt to be able to serve the community as best we can and not just roll down the windows and walk away,” Landa said. La Cocina’s lease on the Tenderloin property runs through the end of 2025; the city eventually plans to build affordable housing at the site. Entrepreneurs like Carter want to see the city support more dedicated affordable business spaces, akin to affordable housing. “We need those small spaces for very low-income small businesses to survive in San Francisco,” she said. Law students Noelle Ruane, left, and Saamia Aziz eat tacos from Mi Morena inside La Cocina Municipal Marketplace. “This space has been a space for everyone,” said Boug Cali owner Tiffany Carter. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle In September, Boug Cali will occupy the food hall’s single pop-up space, giving Carter a bit more time to serve customers. “People need spaces where they feel welcome. This space has been a space for everyone,” she said. During her time at the food hall, she served law students, tech and construction workers, neighborhood families, tourists, and many others. “I can’t think of anywhere else that has that commonality.” Reach Mario Cortez: mario

IN SF, OPEN DRUG MARKETS ON FEDERAL LAND March 29, 2023

IN SF, OPEN DRUG MARKETS ON FEDERAL LAND by Randy Shaw on March 20, 2023 Photo of Corner of Federal Bldg Fills With DealersBy noon dealers fill land at Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building Feds Must Step In San Francisco’s largest open air drug market is at Seventh and Stevenson Streets. Most of the 50-100 dealers are selling on federal property. The sidewalk borders what was renamed last December as the “Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. We honor Nancy Pelosi by allowing her namesake building to host an open air drug market? I took the above photo in the early morning before most dealers arrive. By noon there are so many dealers on federal property the sidewalk is barely visible (I did not feel it was safe to take photo then). Why aren’t federal officers clearing that area? I’m told that last Saturday there were 50-60 dealers in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Seventh Street. That’s also federal land. Federal drug crimes carry longer penalties. So why aren’t the feds arresting dealers and closing open air drug markets on federal land? Federal inaction toward deadly drug sales on federal land is not limited to SOMA. A federal building at 50 UN Plaza is why the famous 1977 disabled activist Section 504 sit-in led by the late Judy Heumann took place there. Currently, the Federal Security Service only patrols the outside of the Federal Building. That’s why dealers are rarely seen there. The Federal Security Service once agreed to cover the space between the Bart entrance and 50 UN Plaza. That’s not happening anymore. Why not? Biden Administration Must Act The federal government once made closing San Francisco drug markets a priority. On August 7, 2019 then-U.S. Attorney David Anderson announced a Tenderloin drug crackdown. Anderson’s team charged 32 people with selling drugs in the Tenderloin; most were connected to the longstanding drug scene at 101 Hyde, the current site of La Cocina. That 2019 scene is a small fragment of what emerged after COVID. I regularly talked with Anderson’s team between his announcement and the March 2020 onset of COVID. They were very committed. But COVID put their drug operation on the back burner. Anderson resigned following Biden’s election, leaving the San Francisco US Attorney spot vacant for over two years. Ismail Ramsey, son of former Berkeley council member and “warrior for justice” Henry Ramsey Jr., was only recently appointed. In his February State of the Union speech, Biden pledged to “launch a major surge to stop fentanyl production, sale, and trafficking.” Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address as Prepared ... The White House The United States Capitol Mr. Speaker. Madam Vice President. Our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Con... Last December, Biden extended a National Emergency to deal with the global drug trade. The President stated, “The trafficking into the United States of illicit drugs, including fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, is causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans annually, as well as countless more non-fatal overdoses with their own tragic human toll. Drug cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and their facilitators are the primary sources of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals that fuel the current opioid epidemic, as well as drug-related violence that harms our communities.” Sounds like a President who wouldn’t be happy to learn that in San Francisco drug cartels sell openly on federal land. Mayor Breed’s Outreach SFPD insists it can close the city’s drug markets without federal or state help. That’s why the Mayor has not called for the California Highway Patrol or National Guard to help close drug markets. While the Governor is reluctant to use the National Guard to stop drug sales, last week he authorized them to help deploy tiny homes in four counties across the state. One wonders why the National Guard can help cities with the homeless crisis but not with the national emergency caused by drug cartels. Mayor Breed sought federal help on the drug crisis when she met with the DEA, DOJ, and Nancy Pelosi’s office on her recent trip to Washington DC. Her staff plans to send a letter to the new US Attorney urging federal help on closing drug markets once he is sworn in. The SFPD believes the supplemental enables them to close all drug markets. Let’s hope that happens. But if not, plans for federal and state intervention must intensify. At a minimum the U.S. Attorney must ensure that federal land is off-limits to drug markets. Allowing the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building to host drug dealers is an embarrassment for the nation and particularly for San Francisco.

One corner in the Tenderloin embodies hope and despair amid S.F.'s fentanyl crisis 2-27-2021

One corner in the Tenderloin embodies hope and despair amid S.F.'s fentanyl crisis Photo of Heather Knight Heather Knight Feb. 27, 2021Updated: Feb. 27, 2021 4:25 p.m. Private security guard Ron Haysbert keeps an eye on the sidewalk on the corner of Hyde and Golden Gate, a known corner for drug traffic, where La Cocina is preparing to open a new space for immigrant women to sell their food. Nick Otto / Special to The ChronicleWafa Bahloul and husband Mounir load food they prepared in the kitchen at La Cocina in the Tenderloin that will be delivered to the Glide Foundation. Every morning before sunrise, Damian Morffet arrives at San Francisco’s most distressing street corner. There, at Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street, each dawn looks bleaker than the one before. Dealers hawking fentanyl have already staked their territory. Those addicted to their wares are already high, splayed unconscious at the dealers’ feet. People huddle around makeshift campfires to keep warm or cook their drugs. Trash litters the sidewalk. Like a Sisyphus of the Tenderloin, Morffet will spend the next 11 hours pushing forward the chaos, keeping the perimeter of 101 Hyde St. clear, even though he knows the misery will be back as soon as his shift ends. He and his fellow security guards earn a combined $17,500 a month from La Cocina, a nonprofit that’s five years into its quest to open a food hall inside the building and needs the outside passable. “People every day who live in this neighborhood come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for being out here and doing what you can.’ And I don’t really think we’re doing anything,” Morffet said, while adding that City Hall does even less. “It’s been a big, giant wound for a while, and they basically put a Band-Aid on it, and it’s still overflowing with blood.” Finally, the city may begin to staunch the bleeding. Supervisor Matt Haney, the budget committee chair who lives two blocks from that miserable corner, will propose a package of fixes on March 17 designed to ease the city’s fentanyl crisis. He wants more effective prosecution for dealers and their suppliers, more outreach to people who use drugs on the streets and better oversight of people addicted to drugs who live alone, and often die alone, in single-room-occupancy hotels. The goal is to lessen the overdoses that killed 699 people in San Francisco in 2020 and 61 more in January alone. “Without a plan like this, we’re just pushing people around, which isn’t working,” Haney said. “We need to try some new things. Otherwise we’re on pace to have a worse year — more awful and deadly and ghastly — for our city than last year.” Guadalupe Moreno prepares food in a kitchen at La Cocina in the Tenderloin. La Cocina is preparing to open a new space for immigrant women to sell their food in a building that used to be a post office at the corner of Hyde Street and Golden Gate Avenue. Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle The package, still being finalized, would cost in the ballpark of $6 million to $7 million a year, Haney said. About a third would go to District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office for a new unit devoted to fentanyl. Six new prosecutors and two new investigators would focus on fentanyl dealing and try to build larger cases against the drug’s suppliers. Boudin has repeatedly said he needs “kilos, not crumbs” to fight the fentanyl trade, even though a kilo of fentanyl is enough to kill more than half the city of San Francisco. He mostly releases dealers after their arrests with stay-away orders from particular blocks or corners — orders they often ignore. If the misery at Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street is any indication, other legal efforts — including City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s effort to keep the most prolific dealers out of the neighborhood entirely — aren’t yet making a difference. The city settled a lawsuit over conditions in the Tenderloin with UC Hastings last year, but the dealing persisted. Haney wants to hire outreach workers on foot and in vans to encourage people addicted to drugs to enter treatment as well as to test their drugs to ensure they’re not unwittingly getting a product laced with fentanyl. Haney also wants to expand an SRO overdose prevention program that was started by Mayor London Breed in 2019 but never fully implemented as the pandemic struck. He wants all staff in SRO hotels and supportive housing complexes trained in overdose prevention, administering Narcan and connecting people to treatment. His package of proposals also includes accelerating the expansion of the city’s new Street Crisis Response Team, which sends teams of three — a paramedic, a clinician and a formerly homeless or drug-addicted peer — to respond to mental health crises. Haney’s proposals seem smart, if long overdue. But won’t it be deeply satisfying if it’s a team of immigrant women with mean culinary skills — and not politicians — who really help turn around that corner in the Tenderloin? After all, economic development is one of the best ways to fight poverty and hopelessness. LOCAL 2020 was S.F.'s deadliest year for overdoses, by far BY TRISHA THADANI LOCAL S.F. sees record overdose deaths, even as police seize... BY TRISHA THADANI Eventually, the city intends to develop 101 Hyde St. into affordable housing, but anybody who follows that process in San Francisco The corner represents what’s broken in San Francisco, but La Cocina represents what’s working. It’s a Mission District nonprofit that helps women — mostly people of color and many of them immigrants — establish food businesses. Some participants live in the Tenderloin and sell food in their SRO hotels. The inside of 101 Hyde feels like paradise compared with the outside. Woven baskets line shelves, and portraits of neighborhood residents hang on a pink wall. The kitchen is built. The tables and chairs are in place. The seven booths where the women will sell their food — always with one meal option available for $5 or less — are ready. An eighth booth will feature rotating pop-ups. Caleb Zigas, executive director of La Cocina, said the coronavirus has delayed an official public opening until the summer, but the women are already using the space to cook for nearby SRO residents. “Our hope is that the city and other folks understand that, long-term, patient investment in a space like that can have deep, positive impacts for the whole neighborhood,” he said. Zigas said that when La Cocina agreed to open the food hall, the conditions on the corner weren’t as dire as they are now. The nonprofit invested $5 million to improve the building, using its own reserves plus government and private help, and is spending $300,000 a year in operating costs. And that’s before it’s even open to the public, demonstrating just how hard it is to start a small business in San Francisco — even though outside, an illegal, deadly business is allowed to proliferate and reap rich rewards. And that’s where Morffet comes in. The 57-year-old San Francisco native can’t believe his city has become a place where people die of overdoses at a rapid clip, while nobody seems to do much about it. “I love my city, but it’s ugly,” he said. “There’s no compassion out here at all.” Sporting an orange vest, he kindly but firmly tells people to move. Soon, there’s a wall of dealers and people using drugs in front of the building next door. For now, Morffet’s sidewalks are clear. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf Instagram: @heatherknightsf

San Francisco and UC Hastings and Co-Plaintiffs Announce Settlement Agreement Regarding Tenderloin Friday, June 12, 2020

San Francisco and UC Hastings and Co-Plaintiffs Announce Settlement Agreement Regarding Tenderloin Friday, June 12, 2020 A fundamental principle of the agreement is the shared goal of improving the livability of the Tenderloin community and promoting a healthy and vibrant neighborhood for all of its residents, including the housed and unhoused, visitors, employees, employers, shoppers, and people with disabilities San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and UC Hastings Law today announced that the City of San Francisco and UC Hastings and its co-plaintiffs Fallon Victoria, Rene Denis, Randy Hughes, Kristen Villalobos, and the Tenderloin Merchants and Property Owners Association have reached a settlement agreement in the form of a stipulated injunction regarding conditions in the Tenderloin with an ambitious plan to dramatically improve them going forward. The six plaintiffs filed suit on May 4, 2020, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against the City and County of San Francisco seeking remedy for the Tenderloin’s dangerously crowded sidewalks and to provide safe and sanitary shelter for the unhoused people who have been camping there in escalating numbers since the outbreak of COVID-19. A fundamental principle of the agreement is the shared goal of improving the livability of the Tenderloin community and promoting a healthy and vibrant neighborhood for all of its residents, including the housed and unhoused, visitors, employees, employers, shoppers, and people with disabilities. The problems facing the Tenderloin are substantial, long-standing, and not easily solved. All parties recognize that the COVID-19 crisis has created additional challenges to achieving the shared goal. The agreement stipulates that by July 20, 2020, the City will remove up to 300 tents and encampments representing approximately 70% of those inventoried in a June 5, 2020 census. Occupants of the tents will be relocated to shelter-in-place hotel rooms, safe sleeping villages outside the Tenderloin, or off-street sites such as parking lots in the Tenderloin. The City will then work to ensure that former encampment sites do not become re-encamped. The City will continue offering free COVID-19 testing to all residents in the Tenderloin during the duration of the pandemic. While the City is hopeful that most people offered an alternative location will be willing to accept the opportunity, the City will employ enforcement measures for those who do not accept an offer of shelter or safe sleeping site if necessary to comply with the stipulated injunction. After July 20, 2020, the City will make all reasonable efforts to achieve the shared goal of permanently reducing the number of tents to zero, along with encamping materials and related personal property. For the proposed settlement to become final, it must be approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Also, as part of an ongoing collaboration to address drug dealing and street safety in the Tenderloin, Mayor Breed has invited UC Hastings’ Chancellor & Dean David Faigman to work with the City, local law enforcement, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to incorporate best practices and deploy innovative strategies to improve conditions in the neighborhood. “COVID-19 has impacted many communities in our City, but we know that the Tenderloin has been particularly hard-hit,” said Mayor Breed. “We share the concerns that UC Hastings and residents of the Tenderloin have about what’s happening in the neighborhood, and we look forward to working collaboratively to implement the Stipulated Injunction so we help our unsheltered residents off the streets and into safer environments. The challenges that existed around homelessness, mental health, and addiction existed before COVID-19 and they’ve only become more exacerbated now, but both the City and UC Hastings are committed to address the short-term challenges while we work towards long-term solutions.” “Mayor London Breed is showing the bold leadership that has typified her response throughout the pandemic. She is taking on the challenge of providing for the needs of the unhoused, and the whole of the Tenderloin community, in ways that have eluded her predecessors. The key is providing housing and shelter alternatives, including hotels and safe sleeping villages, for those currently having no alternative but to live in sidewalk encampments. All residents and merchants of the Tenderloin are indebted to her stewardship during these difficult times,” said UC Hastings Chancellor & Dean David L. Faigman. Also reacting positively to the settlement were co-plaintiffs Fallon Victoria, who said, “If the Mayor starts cleaning up the streets, then that would be great. I definitely believe in her,” and Randy Hughes, who uses a wheelchair to get around the neighborhood, who said, “It would be nice to get some space back.” Co-plaintiff Kristen Villalobos said, “Since the emergence of the COVID-19 virus, I have watched in dismay and with growing horror as the conditions in the Tenderloin have deteriorated past a point that I had ever considered possible. These last few months have been frightening and frustrating, but I’m hopeful about the agreement that has been reached. I look forward to seeing the City take meaningful action to address both the temporary escalated crisis created by the pandemic, and the crisis conditions that already existed on our Tenderloin streets before it came along. It will take long-term solutions, but I know that these problems can be solved if we have the courage and the will to see it through. I love my neighborhood, and I look forward to working with the City in any way I may to continue ensuring a better life for everyone who calls the Tenderloin home.” “All of the neighborhood merchants will be happy that the City is not only moving the tents, but getting the unhoused people into shelters,” said Rene Colorado, executive director of the Tenderloin Merchants and Property Owners Association and manager of two restaurants on Larkin Street. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City’s shelter system has had to reduce occupancy by up to 75% in order to comply with social distancing and, as a result, San Francisco has seen an increase in unsheltered homelessness and tents on the street. This is particularly true in the Tenderloin, which has seen a large increase in tents and homeless residents. This agreement outlines a number of short-term and long-term steps that the City, UC Hastings, and the co-plaintiffs are committed to implementing in order to better serve people experiencing homelessness, and all residents and businesses in the Tenderloin. Other measures include an increased emphasis on safety, enforcement against drug dealing, and community development projects long in the works. One such project is the nearly completed Municipal Marketplace in the heart of the Tenderloin at 101 Hyde Street. Operated by La Cocina, a nonprofit, this facility will provide low-cost, high-quality food options and will activate and improve the safety of one of the neighborhood’s most troubled corners, currently plagued by drug dealing and addiction.

To Be Discontinued: The Postal Service identifies 170 suspended post offices for permanent closure May 2022

To Be Discontinued: The Postal Service identifies 170 suspended post offices for permanent closure Steve Hutkins Steve Hutkins11 hours ago Earlier this week the Postal Service shared a list with the Postal Regulatory Commission identifying 170 post offices that were “temporarily” suspended several years ago and that will soon be closed permanently. The list was submitted as part of the PRC’s Public Inquiry into what can be done to push the Postal Service to clear up a backlog of over 400 long-standing, unresolved emergency suspensions. In its filing with the PRC, the Postal Service explains that the effort to resolve these suspensions has been hampered by the pandemic and organization changes made in 2020, but it is now prepared to proceed. The Postal Service says it has “identified 170 sites that qualify for swift official Discontinuance,” and it plans to complete this project by the end of September 2022. Not that there has been anything “swift” about the discontinuance process on these post offices. Six of the suspensions occurred more than 20 years ago, 63 occurred more than 10 years ago, and with a couple of exceptions, they all occurred at least five years ago. When an emergency suspension first take place, whether it’s due to a problem renewing the lease (the most common cause), unsafe conditions or damage to the building, the Postal Service almost always reassures the community that the closure is only “temporary.” After a suspension occurs, the Postal Service is required to reopen the office by fixing the problem that led to the suspension (relocating if necessary), or it can decide that the suspension is a reason to initiate a discontinuance process. The law doesn’t put a time limit on this process, so the Postal Service can start the discontinuance process by posting a proposal to close and perhaps proceeding to the required public meeting and circulating the customer questionnaires, and then put the process on hold. There’s currently a backlog of 425 unresolved suspensions. A few of these offices may be reopened, but most are headed for discontinuance. For 32 of the 170 offices now slated for discontinuance, the Postal Service has completed 29 of the 30 steps in the process, and all that remains is publishing a notification in Postal Bulletin. For the other 138, the Postal Service hasn’t made a final decision (although it’s clear what that decision will be), so the final determination notice has not yet been posted. The notice contains a paragraph at the end explaining that customers have 30 days to file an appeal with the PRC. Normally this notice would be made available for inspection at the post office being closed, but when a post office has already closed by suspension, it can only be posted at other nearby post offices. It’s not very likely, then, that anyone will come upon a final determination notice at a post office a few miles away from the one that was suspended and learn that it’s now possible, after five or ten years, to file an appeal. Most likely, the people in these communities will not even become aware that the Postal Service has, at long last, made a final determination to close the post office. If there’s no appeal, the administrative record documenting how the suspension and discontinuance process was conducted never becomes public. That’s unfortunate, especially considering that the process for many of these closures was surely flawed (as discussed in this 2018 OIG report), providing fertile grounds for an appeal. The PRC has shown little interest in how the Postal Service has conducted the discontinuance process on these long-standing suspensions. The focus has instead been on just getting the Postal Service to clear the backlog so that it is not “out of compliance” with the law governing discontinuances. The Commission will probably be content to see that progress is being made. The Postal Service’s list of the 170 offices identified for discontinuance is here. More details about these offices can be found on this table, derived from the “Save the Post Office” Suspension Dashboard. There’s more about the suspension backlog and the dashboard in comments that I filed earlier this week for the PRC’s Public Inquiry, here. See also the comments filed by the PRC’s Public Representative, here. (Photo: Former post office in Hacker Valley, WV, suspended in 2006, appealed in 2009, and the subject of a story on NPR in 2010. Credit: Noah Adams/NPR.) 170 suspended post offices, to be discontinued by Sept. 2022 CIVIC CNTR P O BOX UNIT, CA 94102 CIVIC CNTR P O BOX UNIT, CA 94102 101 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 Suspension date: 4/25/2016 Reason: Lease terminated by lessor ...

USPS alarms neighbors with Civic Center post office closure letter June 18, 2020

USPS alarms neighbors with Civic Center post office closure letter by Carrie Sisto@carries1981 June 18, 2020 The U.S. Post Office at Fox Plaza in Civic Center is not closing — despite a confusing letter recently sent to customers with P.O. boxes at that location. Dated June 8, the letter says that it's "seeking community input" for officially decommissioning the Civic Center Post Office in the 94102 zip code, without stating the address of the office in question. Since the Fox Plaza post office is located in the 94102 zip code, tipsters reached out in alarm about potentially losing the sole post office serving Mid-Market, Civic Center and Hayes Valley. A copy of the notice sent to Fox Plaza P.O. Box customers. | PHOTO: BEN Z./HOODLINE TIPLINE But the letter is actually about the post office at 101 Hyde St., which closed in December 2015 after losing its lease. (It's eventually set to become an affordable housing development, but will serve as a food hall for culinary incubator La Cocina in the meantime.) Even though it's been closed for five years, the post office needs to be formally decommissioned — an official process involving community meetings, including one with people whose P.O. boxes had to be moved from 101 Hyde to Fox Plaza. Though the move was controversial at the time, the meeting somehow never happened. So the Post Office has to hold it now. “Current Fox Plaza P.O. Box holders were left a notice in their boxes to fill out a survey of their previous use of the 101 Hyde St. location, in addition to asking them if they wanted to participate in a virtual community meeting via phone,” explained USPS corporate communications representative Augie Ruiz. “Unfortunately, we caused a lot of confusion to trying to rectify what should have been done when 101 Hyde was closed." The post office at 101 Hyde St., pictured two years after its closure. | PHOTO: CARRIE SISTO/HOODLINE The misunderstanding was probably exacerbated by the USPS' ongoing financial crisis. Already struggling under more than $143 billion in debt at the start of the year, the agency expects a loss of more than $13 billion this year, due to reduced mail volume from the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are no plans to close the Fox Plaza location, Ruiz said. The USPS is also considering potential new locations to replace the post office that was formerly in the Union Square Macy’s basement. For anyone who does want to discuss the long-ago closure at 101 Hyde, the virtual meeting is at 5:05 p.m. tonight, June 18. Call in at (678) 317-3330, and use conference code 1619757204. Thanks to tipster Ben Z. See something interesting while you’re out and about? Text Hoodline and we’ll try to find out what’s going on: (415) 200-3233.

Bus investigated in connection with SF pedestrian fatality May 12, 2019

Bus investigated in connection with SF pedestrian fatality Photo of Trisha Thadani Trisha Thadani May 12, 2019 Updated: May 12, 2019 7:05 p.m. Comments A man was struck by a vehicle around 7:30 p.m. at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street, police said. A bus is being investigated in connection with the death of a pedestrian Saturday night in the Tenderloin, San Francisco police said in a statement. A man was struck by a vehicle around 7:30 p.m. at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street, police said. The bus was stopped at the scene. The victim was rushed to a hospital, where he later died. His name has not been released. The fatality prompted Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes the Tenderloin, to call for changes to the intersection. He said the police told him that the man was hit by the bus. “It’s an incredibly dangerous intersection,” said Haney, who lives a few blocks from where the crash occurred. “The traffic in this area is very fast moving, and there are quick, rapid turns and a ton of pedestrians.” The fatality marks the eighth pedestrian death in San Francisco this year, according to Vision Zero SF, a safe streets program. Haney said he would like to see the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency change the intersection to forbid turns while pedestrians are crossing. The agency recently changed an intersection a few blocks away at Golden Gate Avenue and Leavenworth Street to halt traffic in both directions when people are crossing. The change — which is called a “pedestrian scramble” — occurred after another pedestrian was killed in the area. “We need immediate and similar changes across the Tenderloin,” Haney said. “This intersection (Golden Gate and Hyde) cannot stay the way it is now.”