Hayes Street will close to cars every weekend to help businesses gutted by the pandemic - San Francisco Chronicle

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Hayes Street will be the latest spot in San Francisco to close to cars during the pandemic, so people have more room to socially distance while still enjoying the bars, restaurants and stores that desperately need the foot traffic.

The popular street near Alamo Square will close between Laguna and Franklin Streets on Friday evenings from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., and then on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. It could be a boon for the Hayes Valley neighborhood, which has permanently lost about 20 businesses since the pandemic forced the city’s once bustling bars, restaurants and retailers to board up their windows.

“Our hope is that by safely opening up Hayes Street on weekends to restaurants and other small businesses, we can help revive the area and get struggling businesses back on their feet,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes Hayes Valley.

This closure is the latest in San Francisco’s Shared Streets program, which is designed to help business districts by allowing merchants and restaurants to use sidewalks, street parking spaces and sometimes entire streets. Droves of people have been flocking to two blocks of Valencia Street, which recently began Thursday-through-Sunday closures.

Other streets closed to cars include Chinatown’s Grant Avenue and a portion of 18th Street in the Castro. Another program, Slow Streets, shutters residential streets to provide space for walking, biking and skating.

Hayes Street — which had about 20 bars and restaurants before shelter-in-place — was a popular shopping district pre-pandemic. But that activity dried up in March, and lead to the eventual demise of several popular spots — including Stacks, a brunch restaurant that often had long waits on the weekend and The Riddler, a fancy champagne bar that usually had every seat full.

Life has slowly trickled back onto the street since outdoor dining and indoor retail began this summer, but the crowds are still no where near the levels they were before the pandemic. Jen Laska, the vice president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, hopes the closure will boost the street even more.

The association originally proposed closing the street seven days a week, but after some neighborhood push back, that plan was dramatically scaled down.

“This is going to be a big learning experience,” said Laska, who spearheaded the effort that has been underway for months. But “we’re hoping to save some of the stores.”

The Hayes Street closure will begin as a soft launch Sunday, which will give the city a few days to work out any kinks before beginning its first full weekend on Sept. 4. Laska said the neighborhood association will have a meeting with the community in four to six weeks to get feedback.