Netzband and Nelson, along with dozens of others, were in the park to watch Songs of Earth, a 2023 documentary set in Norway, on the big outdoor screen. It was the first of five Friday movie nights scheduled for the 9th annual Fall Film Festival at PROXY, an outdoor space at Octavia Boulevard and Hayes Street that features local businesses, Sunday concerts and free events like the film festival.

The space opened about 15 years ago as a placeholder for an affordable housing project.

Housing is a top concern for many San Francisco voters, and the candidates for mayor and the board of supervisors have rolled out plans to tackle the housing crisis. San Francisco, the slowest city in California to approve new housing, is under pressure to build 82,000 housing units by 2031.

In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing state officials to dismantle tent encampments. On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the number of tents on the city’s streets is at the lowest point since before counting began in 2018.

In District 5, which includes the Tenderloin, Japantown, Western Addition, Haight Ashbury and Hayes Valley, incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston’s housing record has been criticized by pro-development groups and his challengers. PROXY, officially known as Parcel K, has been a part of Hayes Valley for as long as many residents like Netzband have lived in the neighborhood.

Preston has made developing Parcel K a priority since he took office in 2019, dividing residents who have fallen in love with the space.

“When you promise affordable housing on a site as part of land-use planning, you damn well better deliver it,” Preston said at a rally in support of Parcel K development last month.

After voters approved a proposition to replace the central freeway west of Market Street with Octavia Boulevard in 1999, the surrounding land was parceled off for different uses. The city planted about 400 feet of grass and trees and put in concrete tables to create Patricia’s Green, named for Patrica Walkup, one of the activists who inspired the roadway teardown. Parcel K was earmarked for low-income housing.

Preston and Board President Aaron Peskin said that an affordable housing proposal for the space would gain the approval of the supervisors. If a developer did get the rights to build, they wouldn’t have to pay for the land. Thanks to a nearby market-rate development deal, Preston said a builder would get $1 million for the project. Still, 21 years since being designated for housing, there isn’t one rendering of what the apartment complex might look like.

Preston blames Mayor London Breed, who was endorsed by SF YIMBY, the city’s pro-development movement, in July. Before anything can happen, Breed has to issue a request for qualifications to invite bids from developers, which Preston said the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development agreed to do last year but hasn’t.

“It was determined that we would not prioritize Parcel K for development in the immediate term and instead focus on advancing projects that are more competitive for State funding and located in priority equity neighborhoods,” a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development said in an email.

The spokesperson said that PROXY saves the city roughly half a million dollars a year in holding costs and contributes to the neighborhood. The debate over what to do with Parcel K is just one of many policy tug-of-war between YIMBY groups and progressives in the fight to solve the housing crisis. Preston and Peskin have been quick to point out the hypocrisy of those who label them NIMBYs.

“You would think the YIMBYs would be here,” said Peskin, who is running to replace Breed, after last month’s rally at Patricia’s Green in support of Parcel K.

About 30 people attended the rally, including members of the advocacy group Hayes Valley for All and affordable housing advocates, to celebrate the delivery of a petition signed by 1,600 people asking Breed to issue the RFQ immediately.

In 2021, SF YIMBY volunteers published Dean Preston’s Housing Graveyard, a website chronicling more than 30,000 homes the group claims he’s opposed. GrowSF, a moderate advocacy group trying to oust Preston in November, put up a billboard near a shuttered Touchless Car Wash in the Haight that it said should be affordable homes. In June, a housing advocate filed a lawsuit over Preston’s depiction of his housing record on his reelection paperwork.

Preston’s main rival, Bilal Mahmood, who GrowSF and SF YIMBY endorse, has campaigned on meeting the 2031 requirement.

“We are not going to meet those housing goals if we follow the pattern that [Preston] does, which is pick fights in the community against single parcels and not be developing simultaneously and trying to get things done in as many spaces as possible,” said Mahmood, who has secured endorsements from Breed and San Francisco’s Democratic Party.

Besides Preston, he is the only other candidate in the race who signed Hayes Valley for All’s petition — reluctantly, according to organizers. He said District 5’s supervisor should be focused on building on other sites, like the car wash at 400 Divisadero St.

“Dean wants to continue to make this a specific personal campaign issue because he’s failed to build housing,” he told KQED. “He’s also failed to build housing in other empty lots and other parcels and we need to be building housing in as many places as possible.

Some of the units Preston is accused of opposing by SF YIMBY are projects requiring developers to increase the percentage of affordable units to gain his vote, including at 400 Divisadero St. and another potential development at 650 Divisadero St.

Preston said that in 2022, there was a developer in contract to acquire the graffitied, fenced-off car wash lot for a fully affordable project. He blames Breed for failing to acquire the land. Now, a market-rate project with 200 units is proposed for the site. Only 23 are expected to be affordable.

“We’ve been supporting housing at all levels, but when we say that, we mean that includes housing the market won’t build, which is housing that low-income and working-class people can live in,” Preston, who Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi endorsed in July, said.

But he’s also opposed projects before because of the way they could impact neighborhood character. Before he was supervisor, Preston was a leader of Affordable Divis, which advocated for affordable development on the street that would “contribute to the architectural character of the neighborhood.”

“This is the hub of this neighborhood,” Netzband said of PROXY, adding that the neighborhood wouldn’t utilize Patricia’s Green the same way if a tall apartment building was built on Parcel K.

He’s lived in San Francisco for 30 years and said Hayes Valley’s sense of community has kept him in the neighborhood for half of that time. Netzband said he’d vote for Preston but feels that his push to develop Parcel K is out of touch with the community.

“Over the past 15 years, [Hayes Valley] has grown tremendously,” Netzband told KQED. “New housing has brought thousands of people into this neighborhood, and this park is way too small for a neighborhood that’s as dense as this.

“I’m all for public housing, but this needs to stay the hub of the community because this community will suffer if we don’t keep it.”

Preston told KQED that Parcel K development would include ground-floor retail, like most of the buildings in the Hayes Street commercial corridor. It could accommodate about 100 units and be around eight stories, compared to surrounding three- and four-story buildings.

Jen Laska, the former president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, said a tall building would swallow Patricia’s Green.

“I think that would affect the draw to Hayes Valley, generally,” Laska, who was GrowSF’s head of operations in 2022 after leaving the neighborhood association, said. During her tenure, GrowSF coalesced with SF YIMBY to sponsor Proposition D, a 2022 ballot measure to streamline the city approvals needed to build housing. The organization said proposals are often denied by an “anti-housing Board of Supervisors.”

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A scary scene during the Fleet Week air show Sunday afternoon at Marina Green in San Francisco.

A woman and a child were taken to the hospital after a parachutist from the Navy’s Leap Frog team missed the landing zone and came down in the crowd.

Video obtained by ABC7 News shows the moments when he collided with the two.

“Everybody was like, ‘Whoa, what just happened?’ It was unexpected,” said Monette Rockymore.

Rockymore and her daughter, Sophia, were standing just feet away and shot this video.

MORE: SF businesses get boost with Fleet Week bringing in thousands of service members and visitors

The pair says they saw the woman being placed onto a stretcher with what appeared to be a neck injury.

Rockymore says, while still scary, she’s happy more people weren’t injured.

“I thought he was about to hit the stoplight all the way to the concrete zone, but I’m glad he made it to the grass area,” she said.

Responding to the incident in a statement to ABC7 News, a Navy spokesperson said: “Safety is our number one priority. We cannot immediately assess what happened; however, we will review this incident to determine the cause.”

This incident aside, this Fleet Week was by and large a massive success for the city of San Francisco.

MORE: Blue Angels roar over San Francisco Bay in dazzling Fleet Week air show

ABC7 News talked to several people along the city’s Embarcadero, all of them saying San Francisco feels very much alive.

Throughout the weekend, thousands of people flooded into the city for the many sights and sounds of Fleet Week.

Everything from ship tours to the always popular Blue Angels.

“The Angels, they rule. The Angels always put on the best show. They always put on their best, and they steal the show,” said Brian Abazan.

That sense of excitement also echoed by people like Steven and Morgan Kramer, who drove in with their five children Sunday.

MORE: Service members honored at SF Fleet Week for acts of heroism across state

“For a long time there just wasn’t much going on. So, it’s just really, really good for us to see our city coming back to life,” Morgan said.

For the Kramer family, Fleet Week holds a special significance, with both Steven and Morgan having relatives who served in the armed forces.

A tradition perhaps set to continue with their 12-year-old son, who tells us his love of planes inspires him to want to be a pilot for the Navy one day.

“It was awesome and very loud, and I loved it a lot. I’ve been looking forward for this for months,” Aaron said.

Fleet Week is set to officially end on Monday.

The San Francisco Giants have a few positions that they need to address during the upcoming offseason to get the team on track. One of the spots that will be under consideration is first base.

Last season, they used LaMonte Wade Jr., Wilmer Flores and Mark Canha for a large chunk of the playing time. But, all three may move on this offseason.

Wade is set for arbitration while Flores and Canha are both free agents.

With Bryce Eldridge moving rapidly through their farm system, things are complicated a little bit at the position. The Giants don’t want to block him from being promoted if he earns it, but he will be turning only 20 years old on October 20th.

Thrusting him into the lineup after only one season of being a full-time hitter would be asking a lot, but the talent is certainly there.

Keeping his potential promotion in mind, here are three first basemen San Francisco should pursue this offseason.

The Giants are a young team that could use some veterans with experience to lead the clubhouse. Not wanting to block their star prospect’s ascension, a player of Turner’s caliber would check all of the boxes.

Turning 40 years old in November, he still remains a productive player. With the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners this season, he produced a 2.2 WAR with a .259/.354/.383 slash line with 11 home runs and 24 doubles.

With 86 playoff games and a World Series ring on his resume, he would be a great addition to the team. Given his age, a short-term deal as a stopgap until Eldridge is ready makes a lot of sense.

If San Francisco wants to take a big swing in free agency, there aren’t many hitters who fit the mold of what they are looking for more than the New York Mets All-Star first basemen. He would bring a ton of power to the lineup, hitting at least 34 home runs in every season of his career.

Turning 30 in December, he will be seeking a long-term deal in free agency. While he plays the same position as Eldridge, he shouldn’t block him from being called up.

Alonso has improved defensively but is still below average with the glove. Moving to designated hitter full-time could be in his future, as production was lacking at that spot in the team’s lineup as well.

Another stop-gap option in a similar vane as Turner would be Santana. He would fill a lot of the same needs as a veteran for a potentially young clubhouse that has produced consistently at the Major League level.

The biggest difference between Santana and the other players on the list is that he is an elite fielder. He is more than capable of holding down the position until Eldridge is ready and even beyond that is the team just wants their young stud to focus on hitting in the early going.

The veteran remains a source of power, as he hit 23 home runs this season and knocked in 71 runs for the Minnesota Twins. He gets on base with regularity as well, taking 65 walks.