Just after midnight on July 22, a car plowed into the shared parklet outside two Hayes Street cocktail bars, completely destroying the structure and putting the driver in the hospital. The crash renews a standing debate over whether San Francisco requires enough protection at its parklets.

Just after midnight on July 22, a speeding Honda hit the shared parklet outside cocktail bars Anina and Brass Tacks on Hayes Street in Hayes Valley and kept going — ending up facing the wrong direction in the street, according to the San Francisco Fire Department as cited by the San Francisco Chronicle. The parklet was completely destroyed. Nobody was in it.

The structure had closed for the night. Brass Tacks was still serving inside, but co-owner Matt Conway told the Chronicle that no one was seated outside when the Honda came through. The driver was hospitalized following airbag deployment. Conway confirmed to SFist that the parklet will be rebuilt.

As for what caused the crash — speed, impairment, mechanical failure — SFPD has not released citations or a public determination.

Whether the parklet had concrete barriers or heavier planters in place is not confirmed in the published record. San Francisco's current Shared Spaces standards require reflective tape and 3-foot responder gaps every 20 feet — not concrete. In a February 2025 Streetsblog piece documenting a pattern of vehicle strikes on city parklets, Luke Bornheimer of Streets Forward called for mandatory concrete barriers, arguing they "would protect local business owners' investments and the people in parklets." Christopher White of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition said such crashes are "symptomatic of street design that prioritizes speed and allows people to drive recklessly."

Both quotes predated July 22 by more than a year. The argument, apparently, was already waiting for the next crash.

The Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association holds permits for regular Friday and Saturday street closures on a nearby block of Hayes — an arrangement that a resident coalition called HVSafe has challenged on safety and governance grounds. That dispute is ongoing.

Conway's plan to rebuild means the next visible change on that block of Hayes Street will be construction: new lumber, fresh hardware, a parklet going back in where the Honda left it flat.