Sunday Streets: Working out with Susan King
Susan:
"Group exercise"? What is this, Red China? I'm not likely to venture down to the Embarcadero on Sunday morning for exercise or any other reason and even less likely to go down to Third Street. This is just another anti-car idea---once again, Bogota leads the way!---from you bike people, with Newsom misguidedly walking point. Newsom is establishing an image as a San Francisco Democrat, i.e., a flake, which won't help him in the race for governor. (A prediction: Jerry Brown---former Governor Moonbeam---will bury him in the primary.) The businesses on the wharf are right; it's a dumb idea that won't be helpful in their busiest season of the year. The Third Street merchants seem desperate enough to try anything. The city should close that street off on Sunday mornings, before the Punks with Guns get out of bed.
Regards,
Rob Anderson
Chronicle story on the proposal
Not surprisingly, "doubts have been raised."
Sunday Streets is pilot program that will bring physical activity space to San Francisco neighborhoods on Sunday mornings this summer and fall. These Sunday morning activities will create a route for thousands of local families, kids and adults to walk, jog, and bike, as well as participate in group exercise. The program will offer safe and free activities that will attract people from throughout the city and the entire Bay Area. It represents our city's next innovative step toward a healthier community.
Questions and doubts have been raised about the benefits of the Sunday Streets program to San Francisco, and an ordinance has been introduced that could potentially kill this Sunday Streets program planned for late August and September. To voice your support for Sunday Streets, please contact Supervisors through these emails...
Modeled on a 25-year old program in Bogota, Columbia, Sunday morning street activities have proven to be wildly popular on three continents in cities ranging from Tokyo to Kiev. American cities like Chicago, Portland, and New York are planning to hold similar events. By starting its own Sunday Streets program, San Francisco will join a global movement to create healthier cities. Sunday Streets is an innovative way to connect local residents to San Francisco's neighborhoods, and support local businesses in the process. It literally brings open space to local residents, activating local corridors with healthy activities and demonstrating the benefits of increasing open space and recreational opportunities within our city. The route will run along the city's waterfront, showcasing the Blue Greenway, and connecting the Bayview district to Chinatown.
For more information about Sunday Streets, please visit the website http://www.sundaystreetssf.com/ or contact Susan King at susan@walkSF.org
Labels: Anti-Car, Traffic in SF
posted by Rob Anderson @ 10:01 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
This is fantastic, I never thought SF would even get this far in creating our own version of Bogota's Cyclovia.
I wish they'd planned it for saturday though, because that's when the Farmers' Market happens at the Ferry Building happens.
Yes, that would screw up traffic traffic even more. Fantastic! And of course the stealth and the failure to inform merchants on the wharf doesn't bother you at all.
If decisions were made based on merchant fears about parking and traffic, the Embarcadero Freeway would still be standing.
We can see the horrible effect it's had on the Ferry Building, but perhaps you have some figures on how badly the merchants on the wharf have suffered since the freeway came down and the F-line was extended along the wharves?
Yes, the Embarcadero is doing well and the remodeled Ferry Building is a triump. On the other hand, the political price for not remodeling the Embarcadero freeway is that the city is saddled with what I call the Rose Pak Big Dig, the underground tunnel to Chinatown that's going to cost taxpayers $1 billion a mile.
And we already know the effects of tearing down the Central Freeway ramp in Hayes Valley: 45,000 cars a day coming through the heart of the neighborhood on Octavia Blvd.
The big problem with the Sunday Streets proposal is that there was evidently no outreach to the Pier 39 or Fishermans Wharf merchants before the mayor and the bike people sprung it on us. It was a typically devious project from the bike people, too, since clearly they had been working on it for months with the mayor's bike guy, Wade Crowfoot.
The subway-to-chinatown is probably an even better example why not to just give in to merchant paranoia over parking and traffic. Because chinatown merchants were afraid of loosing the Embarcadero Freeway, which doesn't seem to have hurt them that bad, we citizens are going to have to pay billions building them their subway.
Post a Comment
<< Home