Oct. 9, 2014

a YouTube playlist for your #HayesValley #tbt curiosity

There’s a YouTube channel called New Hayes Valley that has been posting videos of a Hayes Valley past. We love this panoramic shot of the surface-level parking lot that used to be where PROXY sits now. Such inviting barbed wire fence…Their Twitter feed is also packed with “remember when” reminiscing that highlights just how rapidly Hayes Valley has blown up.

Then there are the videos of people answering the question, “What do you think of the new Hayes Valley?”.  Authorship and intention behind the videos are unknown, though it seems likely that they’re being created by a person or people who knew the old Hayes Valley, and are using these mini-interviews as a way of investigating how newcomers to their beloved neighborhood understand Hayes Valley now.

As you might expect, the opinions expressed in the videos fall everywhere on the spectrum from “I only know the new Hayes Valley and I love it!” to “I miss the old Hayes Valley and want things to be the way they used to be!”.

It’s worth a couple minutes of your time to watch a few interviews (they’re bite-sized segments) if only to hear community members give their two cents on the hotly debated transformation of Hayes Valley and San Francisco at large, rather than another sensationalist trend piece that makes the Google Bus argument.

We’re quite obviously a part of the new Hayes Valley, but we respect the history of this place and the people and businesses who paved the way for the moment Hayes Valley is experiencing now. We created the concept for PROXY knowing that it would end in order to make way for affordable housing. We want to positively influence the community in the time that we have (until 2021 for those keeping score at home). There was a time before us, and there will be a time after us. Let’s make the most of it.

Interested in seeing how you can get involved with PROXY? Hit us up.