Category: Transportation

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Questions Linger Over Future of San Francisco Neighborhood ‘Slow Streets’

By tyndicated Local – CBS San Francisco : msn – excerpt (includes video)

 

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — Over the course of the pandemic, so-called “slow streets” popped up in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco. They’re designed to limit through traffic on some residential streets to create a common, shared space for those also traveling on foot and by bicycle.

There are nearly 30 corridors throughout the city, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

But at Kirkham St. and 34th Ave., longtime local Elisa Smith thinks the slow street there is more of a nuisance than a benefit.

“The one here on Kirkham, it’s almost never used by anybody other than cars whizzing around the signage,” she said. “A lot of these are just causing more problems than they are a source of enjoyment for people.”…(more)

RELATED:

Residents Fight To Preserve San Diego’s Last Remaining ‘Slow Street’ 
…In January and February, the city quietly removed slow streets in the College Area, North Park and Emerald Hills. Now Diamond Street in Pacific Beach is the last that remains of the program…(more)

Surveys and polls are rigged everywhere. This is a non-partisan issue. Mayor Falconer is  a Republican who follows the Democratic biker path down the road of lost political causes. California politicians have decided to link transportation and housing programs under a program that forces density and removes cars at a pace that most people object to. Sacramento created the war on cars and it is up to the voters to fight back, surrender, or leave.  We shall soon see where the SF voters stand.

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What the de Young Museum needs to recover from the COVID pandemic

By Thomas P. Campbell : via email (ran in the SFChronicle 11/22/2021)

Photo by Zrants

On Oct. 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area with a magnitude of 6.9. At the de Young Museum, the shock waves inflicted grave damage, leaving the building with a “high potential for partial collapse.” As a result, the de Young

needed to be rebuilt, and despite having a history in Golden Gate Park going back as far as 1894, serious consideration was given to moving the museum downtown. San Francisco residents, however, overwhelmingly supported keeping the museum in its original location. And so it was rebuilt inside the park, where it remains.

Before COVID struck, the de Young drew as many as 1 million visitors per year to Golden Gate Park, including 50,000 San Francisco Unified School District students. We welcomed and continue to welcome low-income visitors and people with disabilities at low or no cost. Every Saturday we offer free admission for San Francisco and the entire Bay Area.

Running a museum in the middle of the city’s largest park, however, while ensuring equitable access to residents in the Bay Area and beyond, is not without its challenges…

Continue reading “What the de Young Museum needs to recover from the COVID pandemic”

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Planning Asks Amazon to Repackage Development Proposal

By Bettina Cohen : potreroview – excerpt

The San Francisco Planning Department issued a 55-page response in April that calls for changes to a proposal Amazon submitted to develop a last-mile parcel delivery facility in Showplace Square.

The planned 900 Seventh Street facility would be three stories and 650,000 square feet, according to the Preliminary Project Application (PPA) that Amazon submitted in February.

“The letter we published is kind of a road map,” said Richard Sucre, Planning Department principal planner. “Our processes are layered and challenging for everyone.”

MG2 Corporation, the Seattle-based architectural firm that submitted the PPA for Amazon, describes itself on its website as “expertly navigating jurisdictional complexities” for clients.

Amazon has 18 months to modify its application and satisfy California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements, including transportation, noise, and air quality studies.

“We won’t accept their application until they provide everything we’ve outlined. Until the environmental review is done, we won’t move forward with approval,” Sucre said…(more)

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Town Hall Report on Opening the city streets and action items:

People have asked for more extensive notes on the details that were discussed at the June 2 Town Hall on Opening the Streets.
Most of the issues discussed are explained by reading the petitions linked here: https://www.discoveryink.net/wp/petitions/
The speakers requested that we sign the petitions, write letters, and make public comments at two meetings that were held last week. Chris Prima, introduced the San Francisco Driver’s Union group on nextdoor and invited people to join. https://nextdoor.com/g/dpr1kbsxx/
First meeting was a budget item for an equity study on the effects of closure of JFK, as requested by Shamann Walton. Some of us requested an independent third party be involved in the study with no ties to the departments or the Parks Alliance, that is under great scrutiny regarding various pay to play and other questionable practices the non-profit is pushing. Read the particles about the Park’s Alliance on 48hills and Mission Local if you want details on the allegations. Some people must have gotten that message about an independent study because the matter was raised by one of the Rec and Park Commissioners at the second meeting.
Second meeting was a joint meeting between Rec and Park and SFMTA that addressed the closing of the Great Highway. This was marathon meeting that lasted for 6 hours with hundreds of public comments on the closure. The supervisors will have the last say on the closing.
Link to that meeting: I suggest you cut to the end of the meeting to hear the comments by Rec and Park Commissioners and SFMTA Board members, or read the attached notes.
Recording of the June 10 joint Rec and Park and SFMTA Board Meeting:

Download notes on the meeting: 6-14 updates.

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Parking lots kill. They also just saved lives.

Opinion by Joe Matthews  : bakersfield – excerpt (also ran in SF Chronicle)

Friends, Californians, fellow drivers, stop honking your horns and lend me your ears…

California officials — all honorable — tell us that parking consumes huge amounts of property that might be used more productively for business, housing, or transit. Abundant parking encourages people to drive more. And more driving means more accidents, more injuries and deaths, and more pollution and greenhouse gases…

I know… anti-parking policies are well-intentioned. And yet, I stare into the bleak future of the California parking lot, and feel a strange sadness. Parking lots have been, for all their faults, good and true friends to our communities too…

And have not parking lots provided utility, even life-saving service under COVID? Think how many more people might have died if our state didn’t have so many large parking lots — from Petco Park-adjacent lots in San Diego to the Cal Expo and State Fair lots in Sacramento — to turn into mass testing and vaccination sites. Hospitals used their lots to set up tents for patients during COVID surges. Communities turned parking lots into tent cities to shelter the homeless safely, and temporarily, with the virus spreading…

You could even say parking lots saved democratic politics, as election rallies became drive-ins. Might our fair state still be slurred daily by President Trump, without the dedicated service of so many parking lots to Joe Biden’s campaign?…(more)

The sentiments echo mine when I heard about the plans to build on top of the visitors’ parking lot at General Hospital. My first concern was where are they going to set up emergency triage tents when they need them. This was years ago, before they did. I suppose the next step is to close down streets to set up tent or set them up in parks. There is a real need for open space around the hospitals and there is a need for parking and vehicle access during a major catastrophe.

When you read emergency evacuation plans, the first order of business is to pack your personal vehicle with all the essentials you can, and save room for people and pets. The larger the vehicle is, the higher off the ground, and the more metal it contains, and the stronger the engine is, the better your chances are of making it out under dire circumstances. A 4-wheel drive truck is not a luxury vehicle during an evacuation.

 

 

 

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CDFW Takes Proactive Measures to Increase Salmon Smolt Survival

cdfgnews – excerpt

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is taking the proactive measure of trucking millions of hatchery-raised juvenile Central Valley fall-run chinook salmon this spring to San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay and seaside net pens due to projected poor river conditions in the Central Valley. The massive trucking operation is designed to ensure the highest level of survival for the young salmon on their hazardous journey to the Pacific Ocean…(more)

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Special Public Hearing on Proposed Great Highway Pilot on June 10

Tune in on Thursday June 10 at 1 p.m. at www.sfgovtv.org for a special joint hearing with the SF Recreation and Park Commission and the SFMTA Board to discuss a proposed pilot on the Great Highway.

Members of the public are encouraged to call in during the hearing or provide feedback via email:

For additional meeting information, see the flyer below, or call 311.

And consider signing the petitions here:
https://www.discoveryink.net/wp/petitions/

 

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Proposed San Bruno Avenue Project Criticized for Lack of Parking, Shadows

by : 48hills – excerpt

Most of the roughtly 100 participants at last month’s virtual meeting about a proposed development at 1458 San Bruno Avenue vehemently opposed the project. “For the people in the neighborhood, it seems like an alien spaceship is landing and completely gentrifying the neighborhood,” said one attendee, who didn’t disclose his name.

The Goode family has owned the property, located at the southern tip of San Bruno Avenue, abutting Potrero del Sol Park, since 1927. They want to build a stepped seven-story residential development; the portion closest to the park would be five stories, rising to seven at the furthest point. The design hasn’t significantly changed since the proposal was last floated at a community meeting in 2019. The main difference is the number of units. Two years ago, plans reflected 205 homes: 122 studios, 83 two-bedrooms. The new scheme includes 232 units, with two additional one-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit. The unit mix remains 60 percent one bedroom or smaller, 40 percent two bedroom or larger. However, Chris Goode, the family’s chief spokesperson, said the development could drop to 204 units to add space to allow for the maximum amount of parking, 51 spaces…(more)

I am sorry I did not make it to this meeting but I was out of town. My concerned neighbor, who gardens in Potrero del Sol told me about it. This project appears to have a rare case of a reasonable property owner, who is opon to dialogue. it seems the biggest problem with the area is the height creating shadows on one of the most popular neighborhood parks. And the ever present parking problems for the neighbors. Nevertheless, this one is friendlier than most. We have hopes for an amicable outcome. Larger family-size units might be nice for a change. Too bad they don’t count bedrooms instead of units. That would clear up the problem of micro units and reduce the number bathrooms and kitchens, cutting some of the expense.

 

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Fire commissioner says Safe Streets SF program could put community at risk

By Andre Senior : ktvu – excerpt

Fire Commissioner criticizes continuing Safe Streets SF program

SAN FRANCISCO – There’s been a lot of support for the Safe Streets SF project, which began in April of 2020 to give residents of San Francisco more elbow room to physically distance outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Safe Streets SF led several streets across the city to be closed to cars to emphasize pedestrian activity…

San Francisco’s Fire Commission devoted much of Wednesday’s meeting to the topic where during public comment, a resident commented that he welcomed the continuation after previously being hit twice while on his bicycle. He said he can now safely navigate from one end of the city to the other through the network of Safe Streets converted roads…

Was he perchance one of the cyclists joy-riding through the stop signs or swirling in and out of traffic?

But during the meeting, one issue took center stage following a report from Fire Marshal Dan de Cossio who said that there has been a delay in response times on average of five to 30 seconds over the last year…

The revelation drew a sharp response from Fire Commissioner Francee Covington, who expressed concern that the Safe Streets project could put the community at risk.

“When you talk about a delay of five seconds or 30 seconds, you have to really if your house is on fire, that’s a lifetime to you that is not just a stopwatch period of time,” said Covington…(more)