SEPTEMBER 2004 NEWSLETTER
Issue 291
SFT Picnic in the Park
Along with Golden Gate Park gardeners, representatives of park groups, and
several Board of Supervisors candidates, San Francisco Tomorrow members gathered
in Golden Gate Park to share friendship, food, and information on August 21st.
The event was capped by a Music Concourse area tour with a discussion of its
past, present, and future. Publicity for the new deYoung Museum, which has
now fully emerged north of the Music Concourse, calls the blank bulky mass
“a landmark”, those who attended the SFT picnic agreed that the
new museum certainly is a mark on the land.
Although the area is chain-link-fenced around the entire museum area and the
Concourse, if you visit on foot, you can get a pretty good idea of this raw
architecture. The tunnels, which used to connect pedestrians who cross the
Concourse area and separate them from the traffic on the surface roads, are
gone. To the best of our knowledge, two of the tunnels will be rebuilt, but
not in their historic form, and one of them will be a sham “tunnel”
forcing pedestrians to walk through parked cars and traffic lanes in the underground
parking garage.
Judge’s ruling on second entrance
San Francisco Superior Court has ruled that Prop. J’s requirement that dedicated entrances/exits be from outside the Park is in fact binding. But Judge Warren required that the garage proponents “first explore other options” before allowing a second entrance within the park but it is believed a that a “pro forma” study to demonstrate that it is infeasible to provide a dedicated entrance from outside the park will lead the Judge to allow their current but illegal plan for a second entrance within the Park. This would be an egregious run around Proposition J as Warren himself must realize, but there is no use for the citizen plaintiffs to appeal to the Court of Appeals which has previously shown its disinclination to advance the law in this matter. SFT voted to support this lawsuit which would have required the parking garage to strictly adhere to the law which was voted in 1998 (Proposition J) to create a Pedestrian Oasis to offset the ill effects of the construction of the garage.
Far more in keeping with both the letter and the spirit of Prop. J would be for the Judge to require a revised alternative design without the second entrance. From a planning perspective, the option of a single entrance entering from 10th Avenue offers many advantages, including reducing traffic within the Concourse area, reducing the impacts on 9th and Lincoln (including MUNI), lower construction and maintenance costs, and conformity with Prop. J’s principal requirement of reducing automobile impacts in the park. The single-entrance option is a viable compromise alternative, and should not be ruled out at this point.
In order to fulfill Judge Warren’s requirement that they “first explore other options” before allowing a second entrance within the park, the Concourse Authority will probably do a “pro forma” study to demonstrate that it is infeasible to provide a dedicated entrance from outside the park, allowing them to return to their chosen plan for a second entrance within the Park. This would be an egregious run around Proposition J, as Warren himself must realize. Looking past his decision, the citizen plaintiffs believe there is no use appealing to the Court of Appeals which has previously signaled its support of the garage construction no matter what.
Music Concourse Circulation Patterns
Regarding circulation patterns for the Music Concourse area, many park advocates
hat private automobile drop-off and pick-up at the surface level is inconsistent
with Prop. J’s mandated goal of creating a Pedestrian Oasis. Options
which restrict circulation to transit and persons with disabilities should
be reinstated and given further consideration and study. On the specific issue
of allowing through traffic between the Concourse and JFK Drive (EIR option
#1), or creating a loop road (EIR option #2), there is no question that, from
a traffic-calming perspective, the loop road would be more
consistent with Prop. J’s stated goal of reducing automobile impacts.
To allow unrestricted automobile circulation would most certainly increase
congestion not only at the Music Concourse itself, but on JFK Drive and 9th
and Lincoln. Those determined to go with a garage entrance inside the Park
have ignored one of the main ideas behind Prop. J: to deflect drivers towards
the underground parking facility.
It’s sound ! saving 1644 Diamond .Seeing through a phony report on
the condition of the residential building at 1644 Diamond Street, the Planning
Commission voted 4-2 on September 9 to deny its demolition. Attorney Steve
Williams brought expert witness Peter Culley, licensed structural engineer,
who said that the soundness report prepared by the developer did not justify
the demolition. Commissioners Hughes, Lee, and Bradford-Bell questioned the
credibility of the soundness report and persuaded new Commissioner Olaghie
to join them and many members of the public and vote to save the building.
Calling a building ”unsound” has become a favorite ploy of developers
who want to demolish otherwise functional and attractive structures.
Recreation and Park’s new
Revenue Policies backfire
In an effort to meet City Hall’s demands that our parks “pay their
own way”, fees have substantially increased for many park users. With
increases of as much as four times for fenced events and the doubling athletic
field fees, event sponsors have moved to other venues or just cancelled their
events all together. Labor Day weekend has traditionally seen the Park filled
with local citizenry, but this year it was very different. The gated Ala Carte
Ala Park folded their tents after a dozen years, the free Shakespeare in the
Park chose to move to the Presidio, and the Mission Youth Soccer League canceled
their annual youth soccer tournament at the Polo Field denying upwards of
5,000 youth an activity-packed weekend.
For a concert at the Polo Fields on Sunday, September 13, fully one-quarter of Golden Gate Park was chain-link-fenced for a private event ! The fencing was up for much more than one day since it was erected almost one week before the event and remained in place for many days afterwards.
However one feels about fenced events in the Golden Gate Park (and many of
us believe our parks should be free and open to all), whatever gets people
out in the Park should be the goal of our Recreation and Parks Department.
Chain-link-fencing for private events should not interfere with public access.
Independent of the health benefits of being in the Park, both physical and
mental, public interaction in our parks creates and builds the community that
a healthy urban society demands.
Contrary to the comments of the Golden Gate Park Superintendent, the problem
with Golden Gate Park is NOT that too many people use it, but that current
revenue-driven mandates are driving our citizenry from our Park. Sooner we
put toll booths on our city streets, than fencing and fee gates on our parks.
WATER AND SEWER:
The Urban Essentials
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SF PUC) is changing. They have more money (bonds to rebuild the water system, and an 11% increase in sewer rates as of August 1), a new General Manager (Susan Leal) and a Commissioner (Richard Sklar) who is a former General Manager. So the question remains; is the PUC going to change? Will they become a well-run utility that addresses the environmental justice issues of its sewer system, is open and available to the public, and spends money as carefully as my grandmother? It may be some time before we discover these answers. Meanwhile, there is a lot going on.
First, the Capital Improvement Program. The PUC is planning to spend $3.8 billion in the next 10 years to rebuild our water delivery system. Several local and regional environmental organizations are trying to persuade the PUC and the 29 water agencies to which it supplies water that conservation must be their top priority. Expanding the water delivery system is expensive and unreliable, especially since climate change is predicted to have extreme impacts on the Sierra snowpack in this century. If you’d like to get involved in this effort, contact your favorite environmental organization, or ask SFT to refer you to one.
Second, the Clean Water Master Plan. Thirty years and two billion dollars after the passage of the Clean Water Act, our wastewater system has dramatically reduced the amount of raw sewage spilling into the bay and ocean during rainstorms. The problem is that the majority of the overflows that still happen occur in Bayview Hunters Point where 80% of the sewage generated in San Francisco is now directed. In addition, the 50-year-old Southeast Treatment Plant is old and outdated, and produces a distinctive odor that permeates the neighborhood for months at a time. The PUC is now beginning work on an updated Master Plan to address these problems, and the Alliance for a Clean Waterfront, a coalition of 21 neighborhood and environmental organizations, including SFT, is in the forefront of pushing for diversion of stormwater from the sewage system for beneficial uses, such as greening our city streets.
Third, the PUC Citizens’ Advisory Committee. Proposition E in 2002, the PUC reform measure, required the development of a public advisory body for the PUC. An ordinance creating that CAC was passed in April, and a quorum has finally been appointed. The CAC is tasked with reviewing and commenting on the PUC’s plans and policies – and will also tasked with developing subcommittees for each of the PUC’s 3 enterprises – water, wastewater, and energy. Contact the PUC General Manager’s office for information on how to be added to the mailing list for this body.
Happening at the Presidio
A number of plans are being developed by the Presidio Trust that are of concern
to SFT members and friends and offer an opportunity for public involvement.
Two more workshops are scheduled for the development of the Main Parade ground
– one on Wednesday, Sept. 22, the other Wednesday, Oct. 13, both at
5:30 pm at the Presidio Officers Club, 50 Moraga Ave. In addition to the design
issues, one of the thorny questions is how much parking will be provided.
At least one Trust board member is pushing for underground parking garages,
and the Presidio’s own management plan calls for replacing almost all
the parking Main Parade (the size of five football fields) someplace nearby.
Not exactly encouragement for mass transit use.
In addition, a public hearing on the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
(SEIS) for the Public Health Services Hospital (PHSH) devel-opment project
just issued will be held on Thurs-day, Oct. 7 at 6:30 at the Presidio Officers
Club.
A Word about Instant Runoff Voting:
This November 2, San Francisco voters will have their first taste of Instant
Runoff Voting – now called Ranked Choice Voting. This is an important
event; we know that voter turnout in runoff elections tends to drop off, and
the hope is that this type of ranked preference will reduce negative campaigning
and allow candidates to form alliances with like-minded rivals. We look forward
to the results of this new method.
When all is said and done, however, the object of Ranked Choice Voting is
to select a single candidate. In deciding on endorsements, San Francisco Tomorrow
chose to emphasize the ends – the single best candidate for each district
–and not the means – the ranking of candidates.