Elections, Events, Meetings

Next General Meeting is Here!

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President’s Update: July 2019

Mark D McHale

What’s Shaking These Days in the Valley?

 

It’s summer, and school is out- and Karl is making the days chilly and windy this year! We’ve had a few of those perfect days though, you know, the ones where the breeze is warm and promising, the trees are sporting their new leaves, and the sidewalks are clear and clean… those days that remind my of why I moved here in the first place!

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Our general meeting location is changed this time to the upstairs multi-purpose room at the Eureka Valley Rec Center...100 Collingwood Street on Wednesday, July 24th, 2019, doors open at 6:45pm and meeting goes till 8:30pm.

We’ve got some good stuff to cover in the meeting- Our D-8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will update us on the latest SF Budget which passed earlier this month, and includes extra funding for some issues that are very important to EVNA. You can get his latest newsletter by clicking here for a sneak peak. Find out if funds were approved for additional beds, mental illness and rehab services that have been on everyone’s list of high-priority demands this year.

As you know, we are featuring one new candidate for District Attorney each meeting. Last meeting, we heard from Lief Dautch, and this month we’ll hear from Suzy Loftus. Ms. Loftus will introduce herself and tell us a little about her career experience and her aspirations if elected to the post. 

Hats off to our board members and volunteer crew for assembling this quarter’s Castro Welcome Packets for delivery to all our new neighbors moving into the Eureka Valley since April. The crew prepped almost 400 bags, and we’ve got teams signing up to make the deliveries. If you haven’t helped yet, just know this is absolutely fun. Welcoming new folks is central to our core values as a welcoming community. Deliveries are scheduled to go on from July 20th to August 10th...when we have a party to meet everyone face to face!

 

Our second new neighbor’s mixer is coming up and also being combined with our member’s mixer- save the date! Saturday, August 10, 2019 from 10:00am to 11:30am...located again at the Spark Arts Gallery at 4229 18th Street. Join us for coffee and pastries, see a cool art exhibit, and meet some old and new friends!

Elections for the Board are Coming up in November- we’ve got a great group, and we’ve got room for more good souls to share the fun and work with us- we keep EVNA running and relevant! Of particular interest are candidates who can bring new voices to the conversation: if you’re  non-male, of any age but certainly between 21-50, and any non-white ethnicity, let’s talk. This year we’ll be focusing more on community events, and would appreciate skills in marketing, PR/Events, communications, advertising and social media.

Hope you’ll make it to the general meeting on Wednesday, July 24 starting at 7pm and going till 8:30pm. Doors open at 6:45, come early!

Eureka Valley Rec Center (100 Collingwood Street x 18th), Upstairs

In the meantime, I hope to see you around the neighborhood!

Governance, Transit

Transit and the J-Church Improvement Project

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Our Own Supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, is hard at work. He's launched the J Church Improvement Project and writes: Muni’s J Church line serves nearly 17,000 riders each weekday in Noe Valley, the Castro, the Mission, Glen Park and Mission Terrace. Our office has been working with the SFMTA to create a plan to better serve those riders, and starting in May we launched the J Church Improvement Project. The first step in the process is a Listening Tour, where the SFMTA is asking riders about their top concerns and what improvements you would like to see. The SFMTA will be putting together proposals over the summer to address these issues based on what we hear. ​​​​Check out the upcoming schedule by visiting the J Church Improvement Project page, and visiting these upcoming neighborhood meetings:

  • Mission Dolores Neighborhood Assn, 6/11, 6:30pm
  • Upper Noe Neighbors, 7/17, 7pm
  • Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association, 7/24, 7:00 pm

In addition, you can tell the SFMTA what improvements you would like to see on the J Church by emailing JChurchProject@sfmta.com.

Governance

A Small Step Forward to Help Some of Those Struggling on Our Streets

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There's a glimmer of hope from the Board of Supervisors, who struck a deal to pass SB-1045 after all.

For all the hand-ringing and political posturing it took to arrive at even this meager solution to get the absolute worst cases of mentally ill off the street and into some modicum of care, it's no surprise why we can't seem to solve this huge problem given the huge amounts of energy, money and social cohesiveness  it's been sucking from our community and city budget. This bill will purportedly apply only to 2-5 people across the entire city.

Thanks to our own D-8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Carolyn Thomas and Jared Goldfine (Ford Street Action Group), and all our neighbors who got involved, showed up at City Hall, and made their support known to our Supervisor and the Board.

Read this write up in the Chronicle for more details.

Newsletter

EVNA Newsletter Help

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Hello EVNA Members,

We are looking for someone, or a few someones, to help with our bi-monthly newsletter.  The newsletter goes out to the membership every other month on the odd numbered months (Jan, Mar, May, etc) and takes a couple of hours to produce.  If you have any tech skills that would be a plus.  In 2019 we started to produce the newsletter on-line and got away from the bulky and costly paper version.

 

If you are interested please contact me at: robcox@evna.org.

 

Our next newsletter is July and we'll start putting it together at the beginning of the month.

 

Thanks,

 

rob

Governance, Meetings, Quality of Life

It’s Time to Speak up for Some of the Most Vulnerable Among Us…

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EVNA Members- Call to Action

As president of EVNA, and as your neighbor, I'd like to ask you to be at this meeting at city hall tomorrow- will you show up to support SB-1045, The Conservatorship Law?

San Francisco needs to address the serious and inhumane crisis on our streets. Mental illness affects nearly 25% of individuals living outdoors.

We've seen it everywhere in our neighborhood- it's distressing, overwhelming, and at times terrifying to witness the extreme and out of control behavior of people who are obviously suffering from mental illness, whether organically or chemically induced. It's shameful that we've allow this to go on, and it's inhumane to leave them outside to survive in often brutal circumstances.

There's a time when, with care and transparency, we need to help these worst-case individuals by taking them into care, stabilizing their situation, and hopefully help them into services to improve their lives over time.

The SF Board of Supervisors is deliberating the merits of SB-1045 (The Conservatorship law) and is taking public input as to what citizens think would be in the best interests of our city, carefully weighing civil liberties and conservatorship.

The hearing is Monday 5/13 at City Hall, Room 250, beginning at 10am. The Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association is in support of applying SB-1045 Conservatorship to the most hardcore individuals, estimated to be 5-12 people in the entire city. They need us to speak for them- let's take this small step in the name of human kindness...

Good Neighbors, Social

Let’s welcome our new neighbors…

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We're having our first "Welcome New Neighbors!" mixer tomorrow, Saturday, May 4th, at 10:00am to 11:00am.

Aviva, owner of SparkArts Gallery  (4229 18th Street, near Mollie Stones) has generously donated her space for us to use. New neighbors have been invited as a part of the Castro Welcome Packs we delivered in April.

We'll have coffee and pastries while they last, and some great conversations with those in attendance. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to stop by, say "hello", and share what you love about living in the Castro/Eureka Valley.

Hope to see you there!

Working to Improve Life in Eureka Valley Since 1881