Category: Transportation

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NO DAY AT THE ZOO

Via sfstandard email…

There’s nothing better than two controversies crashing into one another. That’s what happened late last month after the San Francisco Zoo director quietly suggested the closure of Upper Great Highway, now called Sunset Dunes, was screwing them over. 

In an April 25 memo, SF Zoo CEO Tanya Peterson said the highway’s closure had caused decreased attendance, impacted staff and volunteer commutes, and confused drivers in the area. The note was meant to be internal, Peterson later said, but it wound up in the hands of the campaign to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio, which blasted it out to supporters.

Asked for comment Friday, Peterson added that other factors may have impacted attendance, such as Sunset Dunes protesters and competing Easter weekend events. Then things got interesting.

By Saturday, the zoo director had issued an entirely new statement calling the April memo “premature” and saying she was “thrilled to witness the beautiful opening of Sunset Dunes and see first-hand how important parks are to our community.”

In the background was PR guru Sam Singer, whose firm represents both the Stand with Joel campaign and the San Francisco Zoo, which has had its share of bad press over the years. In a phone call, Singer said it was a “matter of fact” that protesters had caused traffic disruptions during Sunset Dunes’ opening weekend. Sunset United Neighbors, a neighborhood group that endorsed the recall and shared Peterson’s initial memo with members, issued a clarification Saturday.

Asked whether his relationship with both the zoo and the anti-recall campaign presented a conflict of interest, Singer acknowledged the optics but said the recall camp “politically damaged themselves” by blasting out the memo prematurely. On Sunday, Peterson issued yet another statement: “While we appreciate Mr. Singer’s long-standing relationship with SF Zoo, we amended our analysis independently. We look forward to working with everyone to enhance our Zoo and our community…

Conflicts are growing as the opponents dig in their heels for the next round. The Zoo is finding itself in the place that the SF Museums have already gone, as the anti-car people continue to cut their businesses. Parks are free. Museums and Zoos count on paying customers to survive. Those seeking free fun do not intent to pay for anything. PR professionals should know better than to wear too many hats at one time. It is getting harder for city agencies and departments to keep from stepping on each other’s toes, especially during budget cutting season. PR might be considered a bit of an extravagance.

 

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ABUNDANCE MEETS RESISTANCE: ARE DEMOCRATS FINALLY READY TO GO ALL IN ON BUILDING HOUSING?

By JEANNE KUANG : calmatters – excerpt

Amid a post-2024 wave of Democratic interest in the burgeoning pro-development “abundance” movement, this seemed to be an easy year for California’s yes-in-my-backyard housing development activists.
Democratic leaders in the state Legislature declared their intention to tackle affordability this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom and other politicians have since embraced the “abundance” platform, which argues that Democrats must do more to quickly deliver housing, transportation and other infrastructure projects to their constituents.
Lawmakers have introduced ambitious bills that would, for housing developments in existing neighborhoods, blow a hole through the longstanding thicket of environmental reviews and regulations that often slow down projects and add costs. One of those passed its first committee on Monday.
Still, YIMBY-ism hit a stumbling block Tuesday in the form of the Senate housing committee. The committee, led by Sen. Aisha Wahab, nearly killed a closely watched bill to require cities to allow taller, denser apartments and condo construction near public transit stations.
Wahab said she was acting on a chorus of familiar objections from progressives and others who have long delayed housing construction in California: The legislation didn’t guarantee that projects would be built with union labor. It didn’t require that the new units be affordable for low-income residents. It could infringe on local governments’ ability to block or green-light projects. It opened up the possibility of bypassing certain environmental reviews.
In the end, the committee voted 6-2 against Wahab’s objections to narrowly advance Senate Bill 79, by Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and prominent advocate for housing production. Some Democrats were absent or didn’t vote. The committee also killed a different Wiener bill that would have further loosened restrictions on property owners who want to split single-family homes into duplexes. It was a stark reversal from prior years in the Legislature, when Wiener chaired the housing committee and pushed through several bills to spur housing production…
A progressive who is focused on preserving explicitly affordable units for low-income tenants, Wahab, a Hayward Democrat, was pushing for legislation to help cities that enact rent caps compete with other municipalities for state housing and planning grants. Some studies have found rent control in San Francisco has reduced rental supply, while other economists say capping rents is still needed to help those who are housing insecure.
“The state has prioritized development, development, development,” Wahab said. “The types of development that are going up with zero parking and all these giveaways to developers have also not translated to housing that has dignity that people want to stay in and raise their families in.”
Her bill (SB 262) drew skepticism from some colleagues on the committee, who noted the state funding programs are for development and production, but nevertheless voted to advance it… (more)

SB 262: Housing element: prohousing designations: prohousing local policies. https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb262

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Waymo to operate on car-free Market Street

The robotaxis are coming to the city’s largest car-free roadway, but critics worry about pedestrian safety… (more)

If anyone had any questions about where our new mayor’s alliance lies, we learned it this week. He wants to expand and upend the city in an effort to find more revenue in pushing land values and he favors more Wamos as a mean to transport the wealthy new patrons he envisions coming to drink till 4 AM on his closed downtown streets. We hope they don’t stay too long or they will become his new nightmare.

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Good News out of Sausalito and San Diego

San Diego – Cities Can’t Assume Infill Development Reduces VMT 
By William Fulton – March 30, 2025
CEQA, Infill, San Diego County, SB 743, VMT
In a major opinion that could unravel implementation of SB 743 throughout the state, an  appellate court has ruled that cities and counties can’t assume infill development will  automatically lead to lower vehicle miles traveled.
The case was published and therefore  can be used as precedent around the state…  read more about the case: San-Diego_Infill_VMT_4thAppealsCourt
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Letter to the Editor: Plenty of Questions About the New Ocean Beach Park

via email from richmondsunsetnews – excerpt

Editor:

To Mayor Lurie and the Board of Supervisors:

Don’t you think you had better slow down ramming this park idea down our throats and what artwork should be commissioned? The sand, wind, and graffiti will make quick work of destroying whatever you plan to put up. The graffiti on the art sculptures at the end of the Taraval line have had graffiti on them for months. Who’s in charge of cleaning it up?

Who is in charge around here anyway, giving away taxpayer dollars without the community allowed any input? Have other supervisors of the City had any input? Why don’t you use the money to buy art and school supplies for the children and public schools in the City? Our schools are broke, laying off teachers and cutting programs. Trump is talking about cutting off funds that San Francisco and California badly need. This is not a playground for children, it’s for adults who want to see the ocean from their high rise condos. The people backing this are mostly out-of-town millionaires. Their skin in the game is making money.

We already have over 250 parks and playgrounds in the City. Why don’t you paint murals at our schools and playgrounds and better maintain what we already have? The schools are laying off staff, and contemplating closing schools and you folks want to paint murals on the ground and walls next to the sand? Isn’t the purpose of going to the beach, is to go to the beach, lay in the sand and look out at the ocean and watch the waves? Art is nature itself! How many statues and murals do you see when you go to Yosemite or Yellowstone national parks?

I am including all of the supervisors whose areas suffer from a lack of funds in their own areas. SFMTA and Muni are millions of dollars in debt. They are cutting Muni lines, and want to raise parking fees to raise money. Our large and small businesses are leaving. Is it OK for all of you to approve money for art projects, money that we don’t have? How many of you supervisors have had input in this Ocean Beach playground? How many of you know what the city budget is for this two-mile playground? We have a lack of transparency!

Maybe you should have murals of high rise condos painted to match the view looking east.

Friends of Ocean Beach Park have become the Elon Musk of the west side of the City. Like Elon, Friends of Ocean Beach Park are not part of the city government, yet they are out there making decisions for the City. The same with the San Francisco Bike coalition and Walk SF who are funded with taxpayer dollars yet are not part of the city government. It’s rather embarrassing.

Tony Villa, D4 resident

RELATED:
TRUMP, NEWSOM ATTACK CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION
protestors are out in force today, March 23, 2025 

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‘Political dirty work’: Lawsuit filed over Friday closure of San Francisco road

 By Madilynne Medina : sfgate – excerpt (audio)

 
 
Calmer days on the beach are turning stormy as voters fight back for their Great Highway.

Opponents of Proposition K, the contentious voter-approved ballot measure to permanently ban cars from a portion of San Francisco’s Upper Great Highway, are pushing back with a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleging that the move is illegal.

The lawsuit, which seeks to stop the closure, scheduled for Friday, names the city of San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and five current and former supervisors who backed the November initiative that authorized converting the 2-mile stretch of road between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard into a new oceanfront park. The plaintiffs, who include community members and LivableSF, a transportation advocacy group, argue that Prop. K violates California law, a joint news release from the group states.

n the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that the closure was implemented without environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. First passed in 1970, the act requires developers to “disclose to the public the significant environmental effects of a proposed discretionary project.” They also allege that the measure violates the section of the California Vehicle Code that governs when a local legislative body may close a highway to vehicular traffic.

In their campaign against Prop. K, opponents argued that closing the Great Highway would cost the city too much money, cause chaotic traffic on an already congested corridor and damage the nearby neighborhoods. Plaintiff Albert Chow, a Sunset resident and small business owner in the neighborhood, said in the release that working families will be affected after “thousands of cars” will be pushed into the neighborhood when the road closes….(more)

Neither Lurie nor his supporters supported Prop K. It will be interesting to see what happens next. Looks like nothing at the moment.

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Muni riders walked a mile through a tunnel after their train died. The city blames a can

By Alex Mullaney : sfstandard – excerpt

It wasn’t surprising when a K Ingleside train lurched to a stop moments after leaving Castro Station one Friday last month. Delays are a fact of life. But for Stephen Martin-Pinto, being told to step into the dimly lit subway tunnel and walk a mile down the tracks was new.
The 42-year-old firefighter was returning home in a two-car train with about 50 passengers when, as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency would tell state regulators, “the overhead power feeder was reported open and then closed.” In other words, the train died.

Apparently, an object on top of the train shorted out the system, a city official who was briefed on the matter later told Martin-Pinto. Electricity arced, sparks flew, the tunnel filled with smoke, and the power went out.

Moments later, the train’s batteries kicked in, and the lights came back on. The operator soon announced that a rescue train would pick up the passengers. But after 16 minutes, the operator came on again to announce a change of plans — the system had shorted out, after all — and told the passengers they could exit the train. The majority did. For Martin-Pinto, this is when serious safety questions began cropping up.

Although the smoke began to clear, the tunnel was “poorly lit and full of trip hazards,” Martin-Pinto said…

Initially, the transportation agency said it was a mechanical issue with the overhead power system — a once-common problem that has decreased in the past five years.

But no. It was something much simpler — and handheld. A few days later, Martin-Pinto asked the San Francisco Fire Department’s Transit Committee to take up the incident and learned what had shorted out the train: a regular aluminum can. Someone had thrown a can from the platform. Martin-Pinto wasn’t told exactly what kind it was — “a soda or beer can.” Whatever it was had exploded.…(more

Interesting to note that regardless of what happens it is never SFMTA’s fault. In this case a soda can exploded on the tracks and that must be vandalism. It could not have been that a soda can was accidentally dropped and rolled onto the tracks? SFMTA blames everything on someone else. No apologies and no falling on swords. For those who missed it,  (Video of Stephen Martin-Pinto describing the incident at our Town Hall) 
 
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Opinion: Changing the West Portal entrance is a terrible idea

By George Wooding : 48hills – excerpt

As usual, the SFMTA came up with a bad plan, without any meaningful community input.

The draft plan infuriated local residents and merchants. SFMTA graphic.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar, Mayor London Breed, and SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin have attempted to redirect traffic on the first block of the West Portal Avenue.  The proposed changes would hurt West Portal Avenue businesses, cause traffic congestion, and destroy the character of surrounding neighborhoods.

From the San Francisco Standard, April 18:

“If it were up to me, I would take all of the cars off West Portal,” Melgar said. “I think that this plan takes most of the cars off the intersection, and that is my goal.”

The Melgar and Tumlin plan was so hated by Westside residents and businesses that the SFMTA was forced to allow residents and business leaders three additional months to form a committee to evaluate impacts to parking and traffic congestion, and “come to a consensus that works for all parties,” according to a statement from Melgar’s office.  Prior to the committee formation, the SFMTA had done none of these evaluations…

The SFMTA’s Slow Streets road experiments are causing more accidents and business failures than they are stopping…(more)

The subject of Tumlin’s job will be high on the list of questions asked of the candidates running for Mayor. The tongue twisting, fact shifting Tumlin is nearing the end of his useful shelf life and everyone can see that. The emperors’ clothes are falling off at a fast pace as his mouth gives him away.

Next on the list of disasters is the Third Street Bridge that will put the T-Line out of business south of the stop to the north of it. Traffic and buses will be forced onto the two lane, rather sketchy Illinois bridge, making access to the Bay View more difficult than ever. There are some route around it, but nothing near Third Street. We can only hope that the repair is short and sweet, unlike what is happening with Taraval. and likely to happen on Folsom soon.

RELATED:

Are cars, buses, bikes, small businesses, and safe walking a zero-sum game? By Tim Redmond

Or is there a way to make SF really a transit-first city without making a lot of people miserable?…It sometimes seems as if everyone is mad and there’s no way to make drivers, bikers, merchants, and walkers better off without making someone worse off. Most of these folks are not rich or powerful; they’re just trying to make a living and get around town… So let me offer some perspective… (more)

 

 

 

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Why Lake Merced RV dwellers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon

By Natalia Gurevich : sfexaminer – excerpt

The new parking restrictions aimed to clear the parade of RV dwellers parked along Lake Merced’s Winston Drive are not going into effect next week as originally planned, city officials confirmed Wednesday.

The decision not to enforce new four-hour parking restrictions came after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency decided they “were not ready,” Jennifer Fieber, a legislative aide for Supervisor Myrna Melgar’s office, told The Examiner.

The restrictions were scheduled to start next Dec. 19, with SFMTA poised to tow RVs if they were parked in one area for more than four hours, much to the frustration of the people living in the RVs around the lake…

“We are desperately looking for a safe parking site,” said Fieber. “But there’s nothing even close on the horizon.”… (more)

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San Francisco Merchants Hold Small Business ‘Funeral’ To Protest Geary St. Transit Plan

By George Kelly : sfstandard – excerpt

Photo by zrants

The mourners gathered Monday morning outside the former Thom’s Natural Foods in San Francisco’s Richmond District, watching as four black-clad, white-gloved men chanted and carried a black-draped coffin down Geary Boulevard.

The casket was adorned with notes listing Thom’s and other dearly departed businesses: Mike’s Chinese Restaurant, Silver Cut Hair Salon, Safe Harbor CPA, M.V. Code coding school, La Vie Vietnamese Restaurant, Mr. B.’s Sewing Machines.

The pallbearers chanted, “Geary Boulevard needs some help! Mayor Breed, we need your help! Jeff Tumlin, stop working against us!

“We’re gathered in memory of our beloved small businesses on Geary Boulevard,” former San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer told the group as the procession came to a stop outside Thom’s between two chairs with signs for San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director of Transit Jeffrey Tumlin. Neither official was present

“We know that many of them could not recover after Covid,” Fewer said of the closed shops. “We are also here to honor the existing small businesses that are trying to build up their business to pre-pandemic levels, and they are not there.”…

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said Breed and others need to listen to the business owners.

“The mayor needs to listen. The mayor needs to be present. She needs to step up, and she needs to show leadership. That’s what being mayor means,” said Safai, who is challenging Breed in the 2024 election. “Not hiding behind decisions of five appointed commissioners that she controls, and the director that she controls. The power rests with the mayor in this decision. We need leadership in this city right now.”...(more)

Traffic puts eyes on the street. Removing traffic and parking killed the downtown and makes it feel empty and not safe.