Northeast Embarcadero Community Workshop
Tuesday June 30, 5:30 pm
KGO-TV Community Meeting Room, 900 Front Street (between Green and Vallejo streets)
contact Kate McGee (kate.mcgee@sfgov.org) for further information, or to submit comments

San Francisco's Northeast Waterfront stretches along the Embarcadero from the foot of Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf. The shift to container shipping in the 1960s, which made the Northeast Waterfront's finger piers largely obselete, and the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway in the 1990s, set in motion a tremendous transformation of the waterfront which is still underway.

Livable City is working to transform the Northeast Waterfront into one of the world's great public waterfronts, with more and better-connected public places, historic buildings preserved and restored, new buildings that knit city and waterfront together and enliven the surrounding streets, and investments in walking, cycling, public transit that connect the waterfront to the rest of the city.

The piers and landside seawall lots (triangular lots which were formerly wharves, filled when the Embarcadero was constructed at the turn of the century) were transferred from the State of California to the city in the 1960's, and uses of these piers and seawall lots are still governed by state tidelands law and under the jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission. The Port was set up as an enterprise agency, and expected to pay for its own operations and upkeep of its facilities through commercial leases (because Port lands are public trust lands, they cannot be sold). The Port still maintains some traditional maritme activities – fishing at Pier 45, the Pier 35 Cruise Ship Terminal, the Pier 70 dry dock, and bulk cargo at Piers 90-96 – but increasingly relies on office and retail uses for revenue. The balance between public uses of the waterfront and the private uses which help the Port meet its financial bottom line (and maintain its deteriorating infrastructure) is an uneasy one.

Livable City believes that the Waterfront is one of San Francisco's most important public assets, and that public values like recreation, open space, accessibility, historic preservation, and environmental restoration should be the foundation of waterfront planning. The right commercial uses can complement the watefront's public assets, and help to pay for them. Livable City's action plan for the waterfront includes:

• Improve and expand the public spaces along the waterfront – the promenade, plazas, public piers, and parks – and linking them up.
• Improve walking along the Embarcadero by widening the pedestrian promenade on both sides of the Embarcadero, improving crossings of the Embarcadero, and calming traffic.
• Improve cycing along the Embarcadero by providing a continuous bi-directional bicycle path on the water side of the Embarcadero.
• Improve the speed, reliability, capacity, and accessibility of the Embarcadero's light rail line
• Remove parking from the piers, to free space for public access, and eliminate dangerous conflicts with walkers and cyclists.
• Preserve and restore the historic bulkhead buildings along the waterfront, and finding appropriate public and private uses for the buildings.
• Preserve and improve the Port's "paper streets" – the final blocks of Jackson, Drumm, Davis, Vallejo, Front, and Union – as public open spaces and view corridors.
• Improve walking, cycling, and transit access between the waterfront and the rest of the city, including Washington, Broadway, Sansome, Battery, Green, and Bay streets.
• Ensure that new buildings on the seawall lots (now mostly parking lots) contribute to making the Embarcadero a great street by linking the city and the waterfront, and enlivening the land side of the Embarcadero. Buildings should be lined with active, pedestrian-oriented ground-floor uses along the Embarcadero. Allowable building heights should be raised from 40' to 45' or 55' to allow for taller ground floors which can accommodate more uses. These taller ground floors still allow for the tapering of building heights from the base of Telegraph Hill towards the water to preserve views. Any parking should hidden from view underground, and garage entrances located away from the Embarcadero and Broadway.

The Planning Department's Northeast Embarcadero Study is focusing on appropriate land uses for the Port's seawall lots along the Embarcadero, from Washington Street to North Point Street. The Planning Department's Fisherman's Wharf Public Realm Plan is looking at streets and public spaces in the Fisherman's Wharf area north of Bay Street. The Port has several advisory groups and ongoing planning efforts for specific projects along the waterfront.

Accessory units, also called secondary units or in-law units, provide housing for thousands of San Franciscans. Accessory units fit into existing buildings, and are often found on the ground floors of one-, two-, or three-unit buildings, or above shops on the city's commercial streets. Legislation championed by Livable City, to encourage bringing accessory units up to housing and building code while preserving existing tenant protections, was unanimously approved at the Board of Supervisors this month.

Changes to the city's planning code in the 1950's and 1960's restricted such housing units by imposing limitations on the number of units on a residential or commercial lot, and by requiring an off-street parking space for each unit. Nonetheless, thousands of units were built before these requirements were imposed, and thousands more were built without permits over the last few decades. Units built before 1980 are subject to rent control, even if built without permits.

These units (no one is quite sure how many, although estimates run as high as 40,000) are a significant and affordable housing resource for San Francisco. Other cities, notably Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, and Santa Cruz, have taken steps to legalize new and existing units, and even to encourage them in transit-served neighborhoods. Until recently, however, dealing with accessory units was considered the 'third rail' of San Francisco politics, and previous efforts to legalize them had failed.

Livable City has supported legalization of these units in transit-served areas of the city since our inception. We supported planning code changes to allow greater density in transit-rich residential and commercial districts (while retaining controls on height, building setbacks, and open space requirements), which were approved in Hayes Valley, Duboce Triangle, and parts of the Mission in 2008, after a lengthy neighborhood planning process. These new zoning districts, RTO (Residential Transit-Oriented) and NC-T (Neighborhood Commercial Transit-Oriented) also have no minimum parking requirements. These planning code changes removed the Planning Code barriers to legalization. A provision of the city's building code, however, threatened to negate existing tenant protections when units were brought up to housing and building code.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi sponsored legislation to provide for amending the existing certificate of occupancy for existing buildings when they are brought up to code, preserving the status quo for rent-controlled units. The legislation was supported by both tenants groups and the San Francisco Apartment Association, and praised in a recent Chronicle editorial ("A Truce in the Housing Wars", June 13 2009).

Further Planning Code changes to legalize accessory units are currently prohibited, until the city completes its court-mandated update of the General Plan's Housing Element. We hope to see more progress on legislation that protects and improves accessory units this fall, once the Housing Element is adopted.

MTA is the parent agency of Muni, and manages the city's pedestrian, cycling, parking, and traffic programs. Balancing the MTA budget this year was bound to be difficult, with local tax revenues in decline, and the Governor and California legislature eliminating all operating support for public transit in February.

We were encouraged when MTA staff proposed extending parking meter hours and increasing rates at parking meters and garages to help balance MTA's budget. Livable City worked with a coalition of environmental. transportation, and social justice advocates to support MTA staff's parking proposals, would have raised needed revenue for the agency, and encouraged parking spots to turn over more frequently, which helps local businesses. Setting parking rates at the right price creates some available spots at most times of the day, which in turn reduces traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions from cars cruising for scarce parking spots.

The MTA board, at the behest of the Mayor's office, rejected several of the parking proposals, opting instead for a draconian set of service cuts and fare increases – raising the cash fare from $1.50 to $2, increasing the Fast Pass from the current $45 to $60, instituting a $70 'premium' Fast Pass for BART and Muni, and shortening, consolidating, or eliminating several routes.

Board of Supervisors President David Chiu introduced a resolution to reject the MTA budget, which was heard on May 12. Chiu joined six members of the board in settling for approximately $10 million reduction in fare increases, paid for by reductions in work orders that other city departments charge to MTA. Supervisor Avalos and four of his colleagues challenged the MTA budget again on May 26. Livable City supported Supervisor Avalos put forward an alternative budget which increases parking revenues by approximately $15 million, reduces the fare increases on seniors and the disabled, eliminates the Muni-BART premium fast pass, and restores bus service to transit-dependent residents of Laguna Honda and the Alemany and Potrero Housing Authority projects. Unfortunately, the board of Supervisors upheld the unfair MTA budget by a vote of 6-5.

One of the positive outcomes of challenging the MTA budget was that MTA Director Nat Ford agreed not to raise fares or cut service again this year, and agreed some modest service increases on lines affected by the adopted service cuts. Ford also agreed to take four parking-related revenue measures back to the MTA Board of Directors to address a projected $16 million shortfall from an anticipated next round of state budget cuts – a 50¢/hour increase on downtown parking meter rates, meter enforcement on Sundays, and extending meter hours from 6 to 10 pm in certain commercial areas of the city, and a $5 increase on parking tickets to compensate for increased state court fees. These measures were presented on June 2, and Livable City spoke in favor of them. They will be presented to the MTA board for approval once the state budget is revised.

Livable City is working with Mayor Newsom, San Francisco's MTA, and other partners to bring back the popular Sunday Streets program in 2009. Sunday Streets is coming back to the Mission on Sunday July 19, after a very successful June 7 event.

The June 7 and July 19 events will come to the Mission District, linking Dolores Park via Valencia and 24th Streets to Rolph Playground.

Sunday Streets provides safe, car-free recreational space on selected San Francisco's streets for walking, cycling, jogging, dancing, yoga, and other activities. Last year's two events focused on a 4-mile route along San Francisco Bay, connecting Chinatown to the Bayview.

This year we are expanding Sunday Streets to six events. The April 26 event returned to the Embarcadero, running from Aquatic Park to China Basin. The May 10 event ran from AT&T Park to the Bayview Opera House. The August 9 and September 6 events will connect Golden Gate Park, Great Highway, and the San Francisco Zoo.

Volunteers needed! Come on out and participate in Sunday Streets and show your City pride as a Sunday Streets volunteer. Volunteer shifts are about three hours, so we will have plenty of time to play at Sunday Streets and volunteer! A free lunch and t-shirts are provided to all volunteers. There is also a special treat for all volunteers who help on five dates or more, so let's get our organization to commit to all six! To sign up to volunteer and for more information about dates and routes, go to: sundaystreetssf.com/volunteer.html.

For more information, check out the Sunday Streets website. To donate to Sunday Streets, use Livable City's secure web site, and click the button to let us know your contribution is for Sunday Streets.

The Alliance for Biking and Walking (formerly the Thunderhead Alliance), a national coalition of advocacy groups dedicated to walking and cycling, has given Livable City a winning campaign award for Sunday Streets 2008. Livable City is honored to be in such esteemed company; to read more about the seven awardees, click here.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition awarded Sunday Streets its prestigious Golden Wheel Award at a ceremony in May.

Tuesday April 14, 5:30-7:30pm
The Women's Building, Audre Lorde room
3543 18th Street, between Valencia and Guerrero streets
3+ blocks from 16th Street Mission BART station; Muni 33, 26, 14, and 49 routes

The Planning Department held public workshop on height controls along Mission Street in San Francisco's Mission District. Last year, Planning Department Staff had proposed increasing heights from the current 55-65 feet (5-6 stories) to 85 feet (eight stories) and proposed eliminating rear-yard requirements as part of last year's massive Eastern Neighborhoods rezoning. The Board of Supervisors asked the Planning Department to consider more closely how to balance the desire for more housing in this transit-rich corridor with the existing scale and character of the street and the surrounding residential enclaves.

The Planning Department convened this meeting to brainstorm ideas and solicit community input. While Planning staff have some ideas to present in order to spark discussion they have made no decisions on how to proceed and do not anticipate making those until later in the year. The Planning Department envisions this as a working session with the community to gather as many ideas and as much feedback as possible.

Last week, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted the Balboa Park Station Area Plan. Almost ten years in the making, the plan envisions a mixed-use transit village centered on the Balboa Park BART/Muni station, and new housing over shops on the stretch of Ocean Avenue between Phelan and Plymouth to connect the Ocean Avenue commercial district to the station. The new controls remove minimum parking requirements for new housing and commercial spaces along Ocean, Geneva, and San Jose avenues.

The planning code amendments will help turn this important transit hub – Balboa Park is the fifth busiest station in the BART system – into a true neighborhood center.

Unfortunately, planning for the public realm around the station – making the transit stops and stations safe, attractive, and accessible, and improvements to streets, sidewalks, parks and public open spaces– has lagged behind. Three parallel planning efforts will get underway in 2009 to address pedestrian, bicycle, and transit access; see below for details on the first meeting.

Thursday April 16, 6:00 - 8:30 pm
Lick-Wilmerding High School
755 Ocean Avenue (between I-280 and Howth)
close to Balboa Park BART/Muni station; also Muni K, 26, and 49 lines

San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) is holding the first community meeting for its Balboa Park Area Pedestrian and Bicycle Connection project. This project aims to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and connections along Geneva and Ocean avenues near the Balboa Park Station, including new crosswalks and signals, pedestrian safety improvements, bicycle improvements, and safety improvements to nearby freeway ramps.

For more information, see MTA's project web site.

For decades, BART and Muni riders headed from the Balboa Park Station to Ocean Avenue, City College, and Balboa Park have endured a treacherous path between the BART station and the Muni tracks. Using a variety of funding sources, including Federal Stimulus funds, BART will begin work in the next few weeks on a new Ocean Avenue entrance and accessible pathway.

This entrance and pathway will provide a safe, attractive, and accessible path from the station to Ocean Avenue, and facilitate rides transferring between BART and the three Muni lines proposed for Ocean Avenue in Muni's Transit Effectiveness Project. It will also provide a convenient path for cyclists between the station and proposed Ocean Avenue bicycle lanes, and BART's project includes several new electronic bike lockers.

Tuesday April 21, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Glen Park Elementary School Auditorium
151 Lippard Avenue, between Bosworth & Joost

The Glen Park Community Plan was completed in 2003. The Plan identifies transportation, streetscape, and open space improvements, and guidelines for new development in and near Glen Park’s neighborhood shopping district and the BART station.

After several years' hiatus, the Planning Department is finally preparing to begin environmental review. The Planning Department and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) are holding an Open House to reintroduce the Glen Park Community Plan. The evening will begin with a brief presentation at 6:30pm. Come learn about the Plan elements and hear staff from Planning, SFMTA and BART give updates on work underway. The Planning Department expects environmental review to take 18 months and adoption of the Plan to follow. BART is considering replacing its small parking lot with housing and open space.

Come out and support livable streets, better open spaces, and new housing in this transit-rich neighborhood! For more info and background on this planning effort, please visit the Glen Park Plan website, or contact Jon Swae at jon.swae@sfgov.org or 415 575-9069.

Another fine short film from Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms, focusing on efforts by advocates, including Livable City, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and the Market Street Association, to make Market Street great again.

In February, the Governor and Legislature agreed to a budget which, among other things, eliminated the State Transit Assistance (STA) program, the state's sole program that supports transit operations.

The cuts to STA mean that Muni will receive approximately $50 million less this year, and $65 million less in 2009-2010. MTA, Muni's parent agency, plans no service cuts or fare increases through June, the end of its current fiscal year, and will balance its budget through a hiring freeze and expense reductions. July 1, the start of MTA's 2009-2010 fiscal year, will see an increase in the price of a full fare Fast Pass from $45 to $55 as well as increases to discounted Fast Passes and parking permit fees. On March 17 the MTA board will begin discussing how to address the rest of the agency's projected budget shortfall. Higher rates and fees, fare increases, and service cuts are all being considered.

Also in February, the BART board adopted a revised budget for its 2009-2010 budget year, to address the STA cuts, as well as greater-than-expected reductions in ridership and sales tax revenue. BART didn't cut service or raise fares, balancing its budget through a combination of one-time revenues, cuts to capital programs, and a hiring freeze. BART anticipates that service cuts, increases to parking fees, or fare increases will be necessary to balance its 2009-2010 budget.

The news of late has been dominated by big economic and political stories. Dig a little deeper, however, and many of the big stories in 2008 – the mortgage crisis, gasoline prices, the crisis in the auto industry, and accelerating climate change – have a lot to do with the way we build and live in our cities. Livable City's Investments With a Future initiative is seeking to coordinate investments at the federal, state, regional, and local level that provide green jobs and economic recovery in the near term, while fostering a shift towards more livable and sustainable ways of living and working.

Help make a more livable Bay Area

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), a regional body empowered by the state and federal governments to plan and fund transportation in the Bay Area, is holding a series of workshops to update its Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), whch guides investments over the next 30 years. The RTP must be updated every three years.

MTC's planning got off to a promising start last year, with much talk of addressing climate change and promoting compact, walkable communities to prevent sprawl. The July 2008 draft RTP showed marked improvement over its predecessor; $1 billion towards a regional bicycle network, and big funding increases for the land use program, safe routes to school, and the regional lifeline transit program.

Unfortunately, MTC's plan directs billions towards expanding highways, and neglects the transit needs of urban riders. The plan directs $6.4 billion towards highway expansion, even though vehicle miles travelled (VMT) in the Bay Area has begun to decline. Despite surging transit ridership, the plan puts almost nothing towards adding capacity to existing Muni and BART lines, which have become increasingly overcrowded. The RTP leaves huge shortfalls for capital replacement and maintenance at Muni (approximately $4.2 billion) and BART (7.2 billion) over the next 30 years.

If the RTP is adopted as proposed, transit will become slower, less reliable, and more crowded. This RTP does not support MTC's stated land use goal of preventing sprawl and promoting compact communities; without investment, urban transit will not be able to accommodate the ridership growth resulting from job and housing growth in the urban core.

Livable City proposes shifting funding from suburban highway expansion towards creating an effective regional transit network; see our Bay Area action page for details.

You can speak out at one of MTC's workshops this week, or comment on the draft plan by email (info@mtc.ca.gov), fax (510 817-5848), or mail (Attn: Public Information, MTC, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland CA 94607)

Earlier this month, San Francisco joined the Streetsblog Network with the premier of SF Streetsblog. Editor Bryan Goebel, reporter Matthew Roth, and contributor Chris Carlsson are quickly making SF Streetsblog the City's best source for news about streets and transportation.

Sunday Streets is a collaborative effort by Mayor Gavin Newsom, Shape Up SF, Livable City, Walk San Francisco, and our many partners, that brought 4.5 miles of car-free recreational space to San Francisco streets and created a novel, fun play space for all. San Francisco does Sunday Streets

Sunday Streets, held on August 31 and September 14, was anchored in two communities, Portsmouth Square in Chinatown, and Joe Lee Gym/Bayview Opera House in Bayview Hunters Point. These community centers were connected by nearly five miles of open, car-free streets along Washington Street, The Embarcadero, Terry Francios Boulevard, Illinois Street, and 3rd Street.

The route lined with activities for all to enjoy. Adults and kids came out to skip, skate, run, bike, stroll, and sample different kinds of physical activity along the way. Organized activities included yoga, roller skating and skating lessons, biking and bike repair, dancing, stretching, guided walking tours, Tai Chi, and Boot Camp classes. All activities were free of charge, presented by nearly 100 health, fitness, youth and family oriented organizations. From Portsmouth Square, guided tours explored Chinatown's alleyways, one of San Francisco's most successful street reclaiming initiatives.

Check out the Sunday Streets web site, www.SundayStreetsSF.com, to comment on the event.

Sunday Streets is part of a worldwide movement to reclaim city streets as safe, healthy, and fun places. Streetfilms , which made the short film above, has a series of fine short films on similar events: Ciclovia in Bogota, Summer Streets in New York, Sunday Parkways in Portland, and Paris Respiré (Paris Breathes) and Friday and Sunday skates on the streets of Paris.

The Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP), underway at the SF Municipal Transportation Agency, is the first system-wide service evaluation of Muni routes and operations in over 25 years. If the TEP can be implemented, it promises a faster, more reliable Muni system. The TEP will recommend changes to Muni routes and services that can be implemented over the next five years.

The TEP project released its recommended route plan on August 6. This plan assumes no new revenue sources become available in the near future, and reallocates existing vehicles and drivers. Benefits of the recommended plan include a rapid network of which includes a rapid network (eight bus lines and eight light rail lines) with faster and frequent service, and with express service during the weekday; a local network of crosstown and downtown routes, community connectors that link hilly neighborhoods to transit hubs, and specialized services, chiefly commute-period express routes that connect the city's southern and western neighborhoods to downtown. The sixteen rapid network lines account for roughly three-quarters of Muni trips.

MTA has outlined an enhanced plan, which would go into effect if new funding sources can be found.

Cities around the world, including London, Stockholm, and Singapore, have implemented congestion charges as a strategy for relieving traffic congestion, reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, generating funding for transportation improvements, and reducing the negative effects of automobile traffic on walking, cycling, and transit. Congestion charging schemes generally work by charging a fee to motorists to drive to or within certain routes or areas during the most congested hours of the weekday. Motorists who choose to drive and pay the fee benefit from reduced congestion, while those who choose to ride transit, walk, or cycle should enjoy improved access via sustainable modes. Certain vehicles, including buses, taxis, and cars registered to residents of the zone, may be exempted from the charge, or given a discount.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority is studying various congestion charging options for San Francisco in their Mobility, Access, and Pricing Study (MAPS). MAPS will study several congestion charge alternatives, including a congestion charge in the greater Downtown area (bounded by Embarcadero, Harrison, 11th, Van Ness, and Broadway), in a smaller portion of the downtown, or citywide. The study is also exploring alternatives for the hours during which the charge would be collected (during the entire work day, or just in the morning commute period), what traffic changes might occur, and what the funds should be spent on – should funds go to additional transit service, walking and cycling improvements, better streetscapes and public spaces, or all of the above?

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority hosted several "interactive workshops and community discussions" in July and August, where participants can learn about the study, and provide input on possible congestion pricing scenario designs, potential transportation improvements, and which discounts and exemptions should be considered.

You can reach the MAPS staff at 415.522.4800 or mobility@sfcta.org. To be added to the MAPS email list, send an email request to mobility@sfcta.org. For more information, see the project web site at www.sfmobility.org

Better Streets is a joint effort by several city agencies to improve the design of San Francisco's streets and sidewalks.

Better Streets began about two years ago, and has since produced a pattern book of street types which are a great improvement over the automobile-centered "local street -collector- arterial" street classfication scheme common in most US cities. The Better Streets "typologies" respond to land use (residential, comercial, industrial, and so on), street width, and the street's role in the transportation system.

Although its sponsors call it the "Better Streets Plan", so far it falls well short of being a plan, nor does it deal with the whole street. Important tasks, like identifying which streets are of what type, and creating standards for essential elements of successful streets (street lighting and pedestrian-friendly building fronts, for example) are missing so far. The Better Streets project also shied away from addressing the speed and volume of traffic, two critical elements for creating safe and livable streets. Governance (how city agencies plan and coordinate street projects) and a strategy for funding and implementation also need to be addressed.

The Better Streets final draft is available on the Better Streets web site: www.sfbetterstreets.org. You can comment on the draft plan via the Better Streets web site, or email Better Streets (info@sfbetterstreets.org).