Issue 300 ___Will you
want to live in San Francisco - tomorrow ___December
2005
San
Francisco Tomorrow’s 2005 Holiday Party will celebrate our 35th
year
of work in protection of our urban environment -- on Wednesday, December
14, 6 to 9 PM. The party will be held as usual in the beautiful
Bernard Maybeck-designed Forest Hill Clubhouse at 381 Magellan. SFT
members and their friends are invited to enjoy an evening of good fun,
good food and good gossip – and visits with our special guests:
Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, other City officials,
and leaders of environmental organizations.
The Forest Hill Clubhouse is just three blocks from the Forest Hill
Muni station, served by Muni buses 36, 43, 44, 52, and Muni Metro K,
L, M. By bicycle or car, come on Seventh Avenue south from Judah,
or Laguna Honda Boulevard north from Portola, go west one block on Dewey,
turn north one block to Magellan, then west to 381 Magellan. Or
come from the east end of Taraval onto Dewey, turn left to Magellan.
Guests are invited to donate $35 – or be a $60 Sponsor or $100
Patron -- in support of SFT’s work for the urban environment.
Sponsors are invited to bring one guest, Patrons two. Checks
to “SFT” may be mailed to 41 Sutter, #1579, SF 94104. Or
guests may respond
by calling 564-1482.
Public Transit, Housing
& Parks Top List of
Concerns of SFT Members
San Francisco Tomorrow members were invited to name their
major concerns when they sent in their 2006 dues checks.
By far the most-listed concern that members would like SFT
to deal with was transportation: Public transit,
mass transit, and traffic. Transit-oriented development. Green transportation.
Success of Transbay Terminal/Caltrain Downtown. On-time Muni. Pedestrian
safety. Transit-first policy.
Second was housing: Affordable housing.
Homelessness. Control with limits for mega-developers, requiring more
city revenue from them. Protecting rent control. Height & density
zoning.
Third was the city’s parks and open space:
Better maintenance of parks, parkways and public landscaping. Preserving
open space and parks.
Other concerns listed by members:
Climate change and what can be done at the local level to slow it. Keeping
waterfront free of high rises and shopping malls. Proper use of Piers
27-31. Land use. The City's land-use capacity.
Public access to the waterfront. Tax assessment. Recycling. Children's
environmental health in the City. Quality of life. Smart growth. Sustainability.
Disaster preparedness. Giveaways to business interests. More condos.
New stadium at Candlestick Park. Deterrents to violence. Human species
over-population. Open spaces diminishing. Life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
SFT Has Won Many
Victories in 35 Years
A defeat that turned into a major victory inspired Telegraph Hill Dwellers
and their then-president, Jerry Cauthen, to organize citywide urban
environmentalists into a working group that became San Francisco Tomorrow.
In 1969 Telegraph Hill Dwellers fought to keep the high-rise TransAmerica
tower from being built in the low-rise North Beach neighborhood. They
thought it should be close to Market Street for three reasons:
1. The North Beach neighborhood was great the way it was and must not
suffer from an invasion of large high-rise office buildings.
2. San Francisco has a tradition of not building high-rises that obscure
the view of our famous hills.
3. A building full of office workers should be near good public transit
-- the then-new BART and Muni Metro lines on Market.
Political powers made sure the now-landmark TransAmerica tower was built
in North Beach.
But it was still a big victory for the neighborhood. Their fight convinced
city officials that no more high rises should extend northward into
North Beach. Since that time, downtown growth has been to the south
and to the east, where high-rises cluster to fit the pre-existing urban
landscape.
Although Jerry Cauthen and the Telegraph Hill Dwellers celebrated winning
better city planning and zoning policies, they realized that to block
well-connected developers with influence in City Hall, they must ask
citywide neighborhood leaders to join in future fights.
Cauthen invited to lunch three like-minded activists, Jean Kortum of
West Portal, Bob Scrofani of the Castro and Elaine Sundahl of Potrero
Hill and they decided to organize a hard-hitting, citywide, non-partisan
group to protect and improve the physical environment of San Francisco.
Resolving that action was needed immediately to protect the future of
San Francisco, Anne Daley came up with the name “San Francisco
Tomorrow,” while the accompanying slogan: “Will you want
to live in San Francisco Tomorrow?” raised the issues of environmental
standards, downtown zoning, better urban design, public transit, airport
development, neighborhood planning, recycling, air and water quality,
preservation of open
space and parks, protection of the Bay and public access to the waterfront.
At a large meeting of citywide activists including Norman Rolfe, still
on the SFT Board, formal aspects of the organization were completed.
The first SFT newsletter was issued in March 1970.
Along with like-minded neighborhood and civic organizations, victories
followed to:
• stop construction of a 60-story U. S. Steel building proposed
for the waterfront just southeast of the Ferry building;
• block the proposed 85-foot-high Ferry Port Plaza which would
have protruded a quarter mile into the Bay;
• keep the SF Airport from expanding on massive amounts of Bay
fill;
• block construction of a second Bay bridge;
• block the widening of O’Shaughnessy Boulevard;
• save San Francisco Cable Cars and Muni’s J Church line;
• return street cars to Market Street;
• bring about demolition of quake-damaged freeways in favor of
street-level routes;
• win voter approval to bring Caltrain into a brand new Transbay
Transit Terminal in downtown San Francisco, with room for future high
speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles.;
• improve public transit and oppose projects that encourage more
automobile use in the city;
• initiate four successive ballot propositions to gain sensible
planning guidelines for downtown development;
• strengthen neighborhood zoning and land use protection throughout
the City;
• preserve Ferry Park on the Embarcadero from development plans;
• sponsor a winning ballot proposition to protect the Port’s
waterfront with a priority on maritime use and public access to the
waterfront;
• ban hotels and high-rise buildings on the waterfront, while
maintaining the 40-foot waterfront height limit;
• consistently support political candidates whose records indicate
they will vote to protect the City’s physical environment –
and oppose those who show no such promise.
In its 35th year SFT continues, with your help, working to protect and
improve our urban environment.
Planning just for automobiles
leads to traffic-clogged streets
As an invited speaker, Paul Page attended the first Pan-American Intelligent
Transportation System Conference (ITS) in Rio Janeiro October 21-24,
2005, talking about the different types of funding for United States
ITS operations – and how it applies to Brazil. Paul works for
the Federal Transit Administration and wrote this article upon his return.
San Francisco's traffic-clogged streets are getting worse everyday.
Recent bus-route and service cutbacks can only mean one thing: more
cars coming to a neighborhood near you.
But it doesn't have to be this way. San Francisco should take a look
at what "transit-dominant" cities do to make bus transit a
commuter's exclusive choice, instead of perpetuating dangerous high-speed
one-way streets, unsafe crosswalks, overlarge parking allowances, inadequate
public transit financing, minimal road space for buses.
When the United States began exploring Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) concepts
in the late 1990's, the prototype was to be found not here, but in the
city of Curitiba, Brazil. And today in Rio de Janeiro, the bus system
is a cost-conscious “bus-intense” alternative, without the
capital costs of BRT.
In Rio, 200 public and private bus systems carry 900 million passengers
a year (2.6 million rides per day). The Rio Metro subway carries
250,000 riders per day. The adult fare is 75 cents, which is especially
low considering $6 per gallon of gasoline.
Narrow streets: Rio's business district, the Centro, has narrow side
streets about one lane wide. Traffic is dramatically slowed down and
pedestrians are encouraged.
Buses and taxes are dominant and symbiotic. Very fast, very full
"commuter" buses (30 mph) dominate streets to the extent that
five out of ten vehicles on most major streets are buses. Passengers
use buses to traverse the city, then use taxis to reach specific destinations.
In addition to the Metro Subway, Rio's hills are traversed by several
tram systems dating
back to the early 20th century, with control systems by General Electric
(GE).
Rio's waterfront is lined with residential towers, 30 to 50 stories,
fronted by 40 to 60 foot wide sidewalks filled with pedestrians. Sidewalk
vendors are everywhere. Since the primary mode of transportation is
by foot, street vendors catering to pedestrians can be found on nearly
every street, and they offer folding chairs for pedestrians to rest.
Rio's medians are not paved, but covered in gravel dust, planted with
trees and shrubs in wide "garden medians”. In the Gloria
and Botafogo neighborhoods, these "mini-parks" are several
hundred feet wide and long, separating contra-flow traffic
from pedestrians.
Pedestrian underpasses: Major roads, many of which are newly constructed,
have pedestrian tunnels connecting tourist sites with various business
districts.
The lesson from Rio de Janeiro is that bus rapid transit is not an oxymoron
but requires
harnessing city streets for public transit and pedestrians to a greater
extent than exists here in San Francisco.
But it could be true here that if new buildings, roads, and public services
were designed with transit vehicles and pedestrians in mind, pedestrians
would emerge from their cars.
Check it out! Go to Rio for Carnival , February 25-28, 2006!
HOV and HOT Lanes
IN the jargon of transportation professionals and the
activists who joust with them, there are two abbreviations the average
public may see and wonder about: HOV and HOT
High occupancy vehicle lane -- usually referred to as HOV lanes but
more popularly known as carpool lanes -- are lanes that only public
transportation vehicles and car pools are allowed to use (legally, that
is). The definition of a car pool, or high occupancy vehicle,
is either two or three people in the car, depending on the location.
Now, some are proposing high occupancy toll lanes (HOT lanes).
These are lanes that are supposed to be HOV lanes, with the difference
that drivers of cars with only one person in them -- i.e. the driver
-- would be permitted to buy their way into these lanes by paying a
toll. We view this as a bad idea. It is contrary to the
purpose of HOV lanes, which is to encourage use of public transportation
and car pools. HOT could cause congestion in the HOV lane and
defeat its purpose -- to encourage use of public transportation and
car pools by giving them a faster ride. Some proponents of HOT
lanes argue that a scheme whereby the tolls would be increased as usage
increases could be implemented, thereby avoiding congestion. We
remain unconvinced. HOV lanes should be only for high occupancy
vehicles.
If you agree with the above contact the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607-4700 and tell them
"no HOT lanes in the Bay Area".
Music Concourse Landmark
On November 22, the Board of Supervisors approved as an official City
Landmark the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. After Washington Square,
this grand public space becomes the second public space in San Francisco
to receive landmark status. Irony abounds, as Washington Square was
also landmarked to prevent its destruction by an underground garage.
The process began over three years ago when the Landmark Preservation
Advisory Board placed the Music Concourse at the top of its work list
and SPEAK, a neighborhood organization in the Sunset, came forward with
funding to do the historic research and write-up in preparation for
the Landmarks Board’s decision. The intent was to prevent the
destruction of the Concourse which might accompany the construction
of the private underground parking garage being built dangerously close
to this historic space. Sadly, the landmark process was help up by “the
powers that be” until they could have their way with the parking
garage.
Once approved by the Landmarks Board, the matter had to wend its way
through the Planning Commission and finally to the Board of Supervisors.
In the final hours of argument at the Board, the debate came down to
three things that the Recreation and Parks Department did not want imposed
on their management of the space: the public’s demand to have
at least 150 benches retained in the Concourse bowl at all times, for
concerts and public gatherings (approved); Rec and Park’s desire
to use dumpsters for trash collection in the bowl (approved); Rec and
Park’s wish to have as much as a year to get around to replanting
a tree that might die or be damaged and have to be replaced (not approved;
they must replant within six months). On the long route toward approval
of the landmark, it was Supervisor Jake McGoldrick who quailed the most.
He actually said:
“Not to embellish the rhetoric too much, but in order to have
some time to determine what that time limit would be, . . . there are
annual and diurnal trajectories of the solar sphere around which our
planet revolves that have effect on the planting and timing of planting.
In that regard, the gestation period of these species of trees may vary.”
Many thanks to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and his aide Boris Delepine
for their hard work and support, and particularly to Kathy Howard and
her Friends of the Music Concourse for tirelessly dragging this effort
up and down the halls of City Hall for these many years.
This has been a very small victory in a long effort to protect our Public
Space. Quoting Clivus Spreckels speaking at the dedication of the Concourse
in 1900, “This noble pleasure ground will doubtless be the chief
scene of the open air festivities of the people of California and indeed
the Pacific Coast for all time to come.” When reopened sometime
in the spring, we hope the public will be able to experience the wondrous
space that San Franciscans have enjoyed for the last century for all
time to come.
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