If you attended the new Mission Bay Neighborhood Association’s inaugural meeting with Supervisor Matt Dorsey last Thursday, May 7, THANK YOU!
Attendance exceeded expectations! We covered a lot in a question-and-answer interview format that led up to questions from the floor. It couldn’t have happened without a stellar executive committee, directors, and volunteers:
Bettina Cohen, President
Christine Eriksen, Vice-President
Ikonija Lopez, Treasurer
Prodan Statev, Corresponding Secretary
A-Jay Nicolas, Recording Secretary
Yann Kaiser, Director of Communications
Antoine Justin, Director at Large
Kallie Ford, Director of Community Engagement
Below is a pic of the Certificate of Honor the Mission Bay NA board received from Supervisor Dorsey when the meeting ended. It reads, Mission Bay Neighborhood Association Inaugural Meeting, Thursday, May 7, 2026:
“In recognition of the Mission Bay Neighborhood Association and its Board on the occasion of its inaugural meeting, and in appreciation of your commitment to keeping Mission Bay residents engaged, informed, and actively connected to their community. Your leadership and dedication are helping strengthen neighborhood relationships, encourage civic participation, and support the continued growth of Mission Bay as a vibrant and welcoming community.”
Certificate of Honor to MBNA on the occasion of our inaugural meeting.
It’s signed by Supervisor Dorsey and below that, by the rest of the BOS.
LUMA Hotel provided the meeting space at no charge, and SPARK Social is boosting the new group in a variety of ways which are making this community-led initiative possible. Attendance topped 60. Here are brief recaps of most of the topics covered in a Q&A moderated conversation:
Public Hearing on May 28 for SFPD’s Plan to Staff Southern
The latest figure on how understaffed San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is citywide is 730, Supervisor Dorsey told us. “We should have solved this problem years ago,” he said. “We knew cops retire. We knew we were going to go off a cliff,” if cities like San Francisco across the United States didn’t prepare to replace a large cohort hired around the same time a couple of decades ago. Last year was the first in many that more cops were hired onto SFPD than the number that retired. However, in the Southern Police District that Mission Bay falls within, and which conforms closely to supervisorial District 6, the shortfall is more keenly felt than in any other police district in San Francisco.
The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee of the SF Board of Supervisors (BOS) that Dorsey chairs will hear from SFPD staff on their plan to staff up the Southern Police Station on May 28, 10 AM, in City Hall. Dorsey invited audience members to attend and give public comment and/or submit written correspondence to the committee.
Update on Traffic Circle
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) expects to share two revised recommendations on the traffic circle, and we can expect a second round of public engagement in early June. The key reason the outreach timing has slipped is that the team identified a state grant which could fund implementation of the plan. SFCTA has been dedicating staff resources to exploring this opportunity so they can move quickly and pursue it if the community supports the revised recommendations. One outcome of the Mission Bay School Safe Access Plan is already underway – the Mission Bay Blvd. Quick Build improvements.
Improvements on Terry A. Francois Blvd. – LONG OVERDUE!
There are improvements to Terry A. Francois Blvd. in front of ATWater Tavern that you might have noticed if you bike, hike, jog, or ride a scooter on that stretch of roadway. From Chase Center, it starts at Mission Rock Street. Previously, the pavement on this stretch was cratered and unpleasant to walk on, and pedestrians, joggers, scooter riders and bicyclists in both directions vied for space on a single common path. Now, there’s a freshly painted, green-striped, two-way path for bikes and scooters on one side of white safe hit posts, and a separate white-striped walkway for pedestrians or joggers. No more rough asphalt; it’s been repaved.
Specific Street Safety Concerns?
A Berry Street neighbor brought up traffic issues during the Q&A. Berry is an overlooked trouble spot. Many motorists looking to bypass King Street after exiting I-280 blow through the STOP sign at Fifth and Berry and speed to Fourth Street. One neighbor wrote in before the meeting, suggesting a 15 MPH zone on the 200 block, between Fourth and Fifth streets.
“If there are specific changes you’d like to see, please work with my office. We have built a great relationship with MTA and have a great open dialogue,” Dorsey said. A couple of Berry Street residents met during the meeting and now plan to get together on Berry Street issues.
Dorsey recalled that he’d asked former Mayor London Breed to appoint him in 2022 (to the D6 seat Matt Haney vacated when elected to the State Assembly), so that he could bring a public safety focus to a district that has been an outlier in the city for its upward-trending crime statistics, much of it related to drug use in the mid-Market area, and retail theft, which is now trending down in Southern. (Dorsey’s work anniversary of being sworn in for the D6 seat was May 9.)
Mission Bay has a different perception of public safety, he learned.
“In this neighborhood, public safety means street safety,” Dorsey said. He held a Mission Bay Street Safety Town Hall last month, following a fatal collision at Fourth and Channel on Feb. 27, when a 2-year-old girl was killed and her mother seriously injured while walking in a crosswalk on the cross signal.
Scooter rider trails a procession of bicyclists on the green-striped, two-way bike path on Terry A. Francois Blvd. Pedestrians and joggers have a separated white-striped walking path all to themselves now, and it’s smooth pavement for all. Photo by Bettina Cohen
Drug-Free Housing
This initiative of Dorsey’s has drawn criticism from homeless advocacy and medical groups, which believe in “housing first” with “harm reduction strategies” for people who live in permanent supportive housing (PSH). Dorsey’s legislation would expand options for residents seeking sobriety and curb the overdose risk in permanent supportive housing, where about 26 percent of the city’s fatal overdoses from illegal substances occur.
The drug-free housing legislation would apply only to new city-funded housing sites, and would allow legal drug or alcohol use, but not use of illegal drugs. Dorsey, who speaks openly of being in recovery himself, said that opponents have mischaracterized the proposed legislation. A lively dialogue followed.
Several nonprofit organizations own and manage affordable rental buildings with supportive services in Mission Bay. Residents of a few of those buildings were present, and said that allowing illegal drug use isn’t fair to other residents in the buildings, especially those who are working on sobriety. A few spoke of staffing shortages. Dorsey remarked that nonprofit PSH providers are too often being asked to take on problems that really isn’t their mission. Nobody spoke against the initiative. Dorsey’s drug-free housing initiative goes to the BOS for its first vote on Tuesday, May 12, and for its second vote on May 19.
High-Rise Housing?
SB79 was also covered. Dorsey noted that most districts in San Francisco – and throughout California – resist new housing production. Not so in District 6, which includes former industrial areas that now have underused lots which constituents would like to see developed for housing. MBNA’s Corresponding Secretary noted that Mission Bay has many mid-rise buildings. What are the Supervisor’s thoughts on high-rises? Dorsey said he enjoys living in a 24-story building, and has heard from constituents who want more of them. He asked for, “A show of hands — How many in the room support more high-rise residential buildings here?” A risky question to ask anywhere else. Easily half the room raised hands.
Some D6 constituents including some of us in Mission Bay would much prefer to see a few high-rise residential towers constructed on 900 Seventh Street’s approximately six acres, instead of a single structure enclosing a last-mile package delivery center that will bring a lot more traffic to local streets, 24/7.
2030 Census: D6 Will Again Have the Largest Population
The moderator observed at this point that constructing large developments here or in South-of-Market will result in another big population increase in Mission Bay and throughout District 6, especially when compared to population changes (or stagnation) elsewhere in the city. Between 2010 and 2020, Mission Bay nearly doubled in population; at last count, it was between 17,000 and 18,000 residents. (During the same decade, the population in some other districts either didn’t grow, or decreased, resulting in unequal representation in City Hall.)
The 2030 U.S. Census is on the horizon, and D6 will again show a disproportionately larger population increase than other supervisorial districts. The 2032 redistricting to reset populations to more or less equal in the city’s 11 supervisorial districts, so all have equal representation in City Hall, is likely to shape up as a 2022 redo. Because Mission Bay is the southernmost neighborhood in District 6, sharing a border with District 10, Mission Bay found itself in the crosshairs of a citywide brouhaha in 2022, and several times the neighborhood came close to being divided into Districts 10 and 6.
Ironically, D6 lost a chunk of territory at its northern border in 2022 when the Tenderloin was drawn into D5, and gained Showplace Square, formerly in D10 across the Caltrain tracks on the west; and along with it, 900 Seventh Street.
The moderator’s point was, Mission Bay could again find itself at the center of a maelstrom of calls from other parts of San Francisco to split us up in a few years, because of the growth in District 6, and specifically, in Mission Bay. If we as neighbors want to keep our neighborhood intact within one supervisorial district, we need to start thinking of ourselves as a collective community of interest now, well ahead of the next supervisorial redistricting hearings in 2032.
What Do We Do for an Encore?
Program ideas for follow up meetings are being kicked around by the Mission Bay NA executive committee, and we’ll be planning an encore soon.
MAKING MISSION BAY A SOCIALLY COHESIVE NEIGHBORHOOD
From the website Just Security, this article about socially cohesive neighborhoods gives us food for thought. Here’s an excerpt:
“Socially cohesive neighborhoods are local communities characterized by a strong sense of community ties and strong relationships among neighbors. Neighbors in such communities feel connected to one another by shared values, high levels of trust, and a willingness to work together to help one another and the local community. Studies have found that socially cohesive neighborhoods tend to be healthier, happier, less crime-ridden, and recover more quickly from natural disasters. They are also more likely to embrace and participate in democracy. Americans living in socially cohesive neighborhoods vote at higher rates and exhibit higher levels of civic engagement.”
Here’s to a socially cohesive neighborhood!
District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey presented a Certificate of Honor to the Mission Bay Neighborhood Association for helping strengthen neighborhood relationships. Photo by A. Supporter
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