Posts Tagged ‘department of public works’
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Here’s the scene this morning at the official ceremony kicking off all the Divisadero Streetscape Improvements and the Cafe Mojo Parklet at 639 Divisadero betwixt Hayes and Grove.
BIKE NOPA has all the deets for the new parklet in front of popular Mojo Bicycle Cafe, where you are beseeched to “ride in – hang out – get your fix – ride on.”
Of course District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimiwas there* – he was working the crowd and expressing his appreciation for improved bicycle and pedestrian safety on the Divisadero Corridor. He also pointed out the success of the nearby Divisadero Farmer’s Market, which is no longer seasonal. It’s open every Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM year-round these days.
Mayor Gavin Newsom addressing a large crowd on the tiny parklet:
Click to expand
And all the while, the honking yellow Hummer of Main Contractor Synergy Project Management was discretely parked across the street, as discretely as possible given that it’s a honking yellow Hummer:
I’m on the record as not being a big fan of all the changes, but oh well.
SocketSite has more info about Divis and Curbed SF has all the history, as you’d expect.
Brand new median trees and old-school streetlamps for as far as the eye can see:
These days, it’s Mojo a gogo. A fixie bike mounted outdoors as art:
Welcome to the New Divisidero.
*Wearing the same drip-dry suit he was wearing at the recent opening of the Hamilton Recreation Center and Pool.
All the deets, after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 19th avenue, 2009, 2010, 24th street, 639, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, architecture, ARRA, Balboa Street, Berenio Lumber, bicycle, bike, Bison Innovative Products, board of supervisors, bulb out, cafe, cafe mojo, cars, ceremony, Cesar Chavez, cycklists, cyclists, debut, department of public works, director, district 5, district five, divisadero, Divisadero Great Streets Project, Divisadero Streetscape Improvement Project, dpw, Ed Reiskin, Feeney, Flora Grubb Nurseries, gavin newsom, geary, great streets, grove, hayes, hummer, Improvement, inc, kick off, kickoff, lamps, Leland Avenue, lights, Lower Polk Street, management, median, mojo, Mojo Bicycle Cafe, Muni, OEWD, Office of Economic and Workforce, park, parking, parklet, PAVEMENT TO PARKS, paving, program, project, refuge, repaved, repaving, Rg, RG-Architecture, ross mirkarimi, San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, sewer, SFMTA, SFPUC, sidewalks, space, stimulus, street, streetlamps, streetlights, streetscape, Studio Upwell, Supervisor, synergy, Synergy Contractors, synergy project management, TLC, traffic, Transportation for Livable Communities, trees, valencia, van ness, Waller, wide, widen, widening
Posted in streets | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Listen up, taggers. Here’s one of the vehicles they send to censor all your public art. This thing must be loaded up with every color of paint imaginable - it’s huge.
Now, wouldn’t it be a score for you to tag this giant rolling canvas - you know, poetic justice and all?
This thing is your white whale – keep an eye out:
Click to expand
And look what they do with that truck – they paint over your scribblings just as soon as you put them up, leaving only a ”wet paint” sign. Thusly:
Courage.
Tags: 311, department of public works, dept., dpw, graffiti, green, laguna, paint, San Francisco, spray, street, sutter, tag, tagging, truck, vandalism, white
Posted in art | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Well the shovel-ready stimulus project on the Div Co (Divisidero Corridor) is nearing completion. Do you see the trees in the widened median and the old-tyme streetlight tops that go from the NoPA to the EaPA? Those are the bulk of the “improvements” that you’re going to notice.
I guess the perfectly fine old aluminum street lights became obsolete or something. And yes, that thing in the median does look like a tombstone. Chestnut Street, here we come:
Click to expand
Now here’s the beef – what they should have done is just taken out the medians entirely to allow for wider lanes. The problem is that they widened the medians and narrowed the traffic lanes to accommodate trees and shrubbery and nonfunctional whatnot.
Now do you see this cyclist? He’s passing by a truck that’s legally parked on the new Divisidero. Do you think that the slow lane he’s on is wide enough? Of course, arguably, it wasn’t wide enough before but now it’s worse. Why? Aesthetics, that’s why. The drivers in the fast lane need to be near median trees, apparently, they need to commune with nature at 25 per.
Oh, I hear you, “just take the lane,” right? Sometimes I do, effectively. And then sometimes I roll onto the newly-widened sidewalk for half a block or so, late at night when I can see that nobody’s using it. It’s a balance of hacking off the nonexistent peds versus the extant drivers.
(Maybe I’ll get a ticket from the busy SFPD someday, maybe. If I ever do, I’d then consider using Fillmore and McAllister as a substitute.)
Now, if you wanted real stimulus and actual improvements, here’s what you’d do. You’d have the workers take out the medians (the old narrow median was unnecessary as well) and move the light standards to the sidewalks, if that wouldn’t break the bank. Then you’d do a nice repaving, better than the job that’s being done now*, anyway. Then you’d take the rest of the money and give it in cash to the workers – tell them they need to spend $500 per day on whatever they want for themselves and that they need to bring back receipts as proof at the end of each “work” day. That’d be some local stimulus right there. The workers would be happier, and I would as well.
I realize that we’re talking in terms of, on average, just inches of width-surrendered-per-lane, just inches sacrificed on the Altar of Aesthetics. And I realize that Octavia Boulevard is a far bigger public policy failure.
Anyway, enjoy your so-called “improved” Divisadero, San Francisco.
*Are they done with that, by the way? Take a look at the macadam near the bulbouts at Divis and McAllister if you want – is that a job well done? I mean, is that quick fix a permanent fix with all the remaining grade changes? I mean, they’re going to end up being forced to do the job properly, right? [UPDATE: Turns out that they weren't finished just yet, good on you Synergy.]
Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, area, ARRA, bicycles, bikes, cyclists, department of public works, divisadero, divisidero, dpw, EaPA, east of panhandle, great, Kris Opbroek, lanes, lights, Mayor's, median, mta, Municipal Transportation Agency, NOPA, north of panhandle, Office of Economic & Workforce Development, phase ii, project, Project Manager, San Francisco, SFMTA, sidewalks, streets, streetscape, TLC, Transportation for Livable Communities, western addition, widen
Posted in bikes | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Well they’re finally up, some of them anyway – they’re the fruitless trees of the newly-widened medians of Divisidero Street.
Boy, don’t these new leaveless trees and the the widened median make this body shop sooooo much more livable?
Of course the concomitant lane width reductions weren’t discussed at the time decisions were being made and, I would argue, were actually hidden by the powers that be. Oh well.
In this case, greening the median meant widening it. Does this benefit car drivers, bus drivers or cyclists? No, not at all. So why did we do it? The slow lanes now, in particular, are very narrow considering that big buses (from MUNI but also private employers) are supposed to use them.
Do you see where it says Divisidero Street Streetscape Renewal? What’s being renewed here? Well, let’s take a look at back in the day.
How about 1947? What do you see here? Do you see streetcars and wide lanes and plenty of room for cars and bikes to co-exist? Do you think the pedestrians of ‘47 bumped their noggins into each other all the time? I don’t. What don’t you see? A big old median filled with trees and streetlights – that’s what you don’t see. The street lights and trees are off to the side where they belong, not in the middle of the damn street taking up all the space.
How did our fore mothers and fathers survive with reliable steetcars and wide lanes on Divis? How did they get by, how did they live without a giant median and decimated (and soon to get worse) modern bus service?
The World Wonders.
Plenty of room for the median, not enough room for the #24 Divisidero – your stimulus dollars at work:
Oh well.
Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA, department of public works, divisadero, divisidero, dpw, great, Kris Opbroek, Mayor's, median, mta, Municipal Transportation Agency, Office of Economic & Workforce Development, Project Manager, San Francisco, SFMTA, streets, TLC, Transportation for Livable Communities, widen
Posted in streets, transit | 4 Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Our neighbors in the Great Sand Waste* of the Outside Lands are having a little trouble with the partial collapse of the Great Highway near Sloat, so there’ll be a meeting tonight at 7:00 PM:
“A community meeting is being held on Monday, January 25th at 7:00 PM at the Park Chalet (located behind the Beach Chalet at 1000 Great Highway just south of Fulton in San Francisco) to discuss the proposed actions at Sloat Boulevard. The DPW Project Manager, Frank Filice will be there to discuss the emergency declaration, the short-term strategy, and a process for a long-term solution. Everyone who has an interest in the preservation and the future of Ocean Beach is encouraged to attend. The emergency declaration will go before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for ratification the following day, Tuesday, January 26th.”
Will San Francisco “armor the beach“ or something? Stay tuned…
by k. riccitiello
If that doesn’t float your boat, there’s always, this:
“The Park Chalet will be offering $2 pints and extending their $5 happy hour menu of appetizers all night for the event.”
See you there.
*Look at this – snark from 160 years ago: The True Story of How San Francisco Received Its Name:
“San Francisco – this is a derivative word from sand and Francisco. In the early settlement of this country it was the custom of an old monk of the interior, by the name of Jeremiah Francisco, to perform a pilgrimage to this place every month, to visit the tomb of a brother of the order whose remains he had here interred. The wind “blew like mad” here, and upon his return he was usually so covered with the dust and sand, that his neighbors were unable to recognize him; hence they soon began to call him sand Francisco.
On one of his pilgrimages he happened, by mistake, to die here, and the place ever after was called by his name. From the difficulty of enunciating the d, it was usually called SAN FRANCISCO, and has so continued to this day. The present popular notion that the place was named after the St. Francis Hotel is an error!
California Weekly Courier
August 1, 1850″
Tags: beach, beer, board of supervisors, california, California Weekly Courier, chalet, coalition, collapse, declaration, department of public works, district, dpw, emergency, Erosion, fog, Frank Filice, great highway, Great Sand Waste, Great Sand Waste of the Outside Lands, media, meeting, newspaper, ocean, ocean beach, Ocean Beach Task Force, outer, outside lands, park chalet, parkside, Project Manager, rain, restaurant, richmond, san francsico, sand, sand Francisco, save the waves, Sloat, snark, surf, surfers, surfing, susnet, town hall, waves, Weekly Courier, zoo
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Gritty Divisadero Street in the North of Panhandle Area (NoPA) part of the western Western Addition has a bunch of crushed aluminum beer cans strewn about these days.
Is that a sign that the area needs more attention from the Redevelopment Department or, alternatively, is it a sign that things are on the up because the ironic-beer-drinking post-collegiate crowd has decended upon the area?
I’ve drawn my conclusion, but you, take a look and make the call yourself.
The needlessly-widened medians under construction play host to lots of cans of the PBR:
(NB: There’s a big hint in there.) Click to expand.
Tags: albert speer, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA, Ästhetik über alles, blue ribbon, department of public works, divisadero, dpw, great, ironic, Kris Opbroek, litter, Mayor's, median, mta, Municipal Transportation Agency, NOPA, Office of Economic & Workforce Development, pabst, pbr, Project Manager, San Francisco, SFMTA, streets, TLC, Transportation for Livable Communities, western addition, widen
Posted in streets | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 4th, 2009
Have you heard about a lot of problems regarding accidents at problematic intersection of Market and Octavia Boulevard lately? I haven’t.
It’s still no picnic out there of course, but the City has done a reasonable job of fixing the original problem of numerous car vs. bike accidents.
And now, with giantesses Sonia and Rykiel watching over us, well, we’re safer than ever. See?
One of these days, I’ll get out there to see how many cars make the illegal right in an hour of morning drive time.
Imagine it’s much lower than before, so that’s a Good Thing.
Thanks City (and State) workers!
Tags: accidents, Allan, Allan Jacobs, Allan B. Jacobs, architecture, award, Berkeley, boulevard, Boulevard Book, Boulevards, california, central, corset, department of public works, design, Design of Multiway Boulevards, dpw, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Macdonald, evolution, freeway, h&m, History, Jacobs, Macdonald, market, movement, Multiway, octavia, octavia boulevard, offramp, onramp, Rofé, Rykiel, San Francisco, silver, Sonia, street, The Boulevard Book: History, traffic, university, Yodan, Yodan Rofé
Posted in streets | Comments Off
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Tonight’s Richmond District Town Hall meeting hosted by Supervisor Eric Mar starts at 5:30 PM.
(Levi’s “Obey X” Shepard Fairey “Paint and Destroy” garb not allowed.)
It’ll look a little something like this:
See you there!
Dear Neighbors,
Please join us at a Town Hall Meeting on Street Cleanliness and Graffiti
tonight at 5:30 pm
Richmond Recreation Center
251 18th Avenue
For more information, please go to:
http://www.sfbos.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=34870
(NOTE: previous notices may have listed a different time, the meeting
starts at 5:30 pm)
Regards,
Lin-Shao
Legislative Assistant, Supervisor Eric Mar
Tags: 251 18th, avenue, City Hall, cleanliness, department of public works, district, dpw, eric mar, graffit, graffiti advisory board, inner, Legislative Assistant, Lin-Shao, middle, outer, recreation center, richmond, San Francisco, street, Supervisor
Posted in streets | Comments Off
Monday, September 28th, 2009
What’s with DPW’s obsession with medians? I mean is there any median proposal that’s too wide for the Little Eichmanns Speers at the San Francisco Department of Public Works? Perhaps Hitler’s proposed Welthauptstadt Germania had Great! Streets! too wide even for DPW’s taste, but there’s no way to tell.
Valuing Aesthetics over Life, that Hitlerian tendency certainly appears to be alive and well in San Francisco.
The medians are getting wider on Divisidero, so that means less room for cars and bikes and buses and whatnot. Where did all our lane width go?
As seen on Friday.
Why do we have a median at all on Divisidero? Why not have that street go on a “median diet?” Does Masonic have a median? No, so why Divisidero? What’s the obsession with trees? I mean who cares what light posts look like except architects like Albert Speer (yes those are his light poles - that’s all that’s left from him) and the fascist ivory tower academics who took in six figures worth of your money to promote Octavia Boulevard? Who wants a fourteen-freaking foot wide median on Cesar Chavez? I mean, where does the original idea come from? Did somebody write a book about medians or something? And what do mike foxtrotting architects know about transit safety? Absolutely nothing. Say it again.
Medians? What are they good for? Absolutely nothing. Perhaps pedestrians would be better off without the Great Tree’d Median of Divisidero and its concomitant “pedestrian refuge?” Yes.
What’s that? ”The Feds” demand medians since they’re kicking in money? Not sure about that. Are the Bridge-to-Nowhere Feds responsible?
What’s that? “The Community” demands medians and DPW is just powerless to say no? Really? No, not really. Here’s a phony balongna rationale for The “Renewal.”
Do you see “sacrifice safety to widen the median” in there? Do you see “narrow the slow lane so cyclists have less room” in there? And who are these 73 people? Are they from all over the city? Any bus drivers in there? Any commuters?
Signs point to no.
Why not just repave the street and do other non-median-widening activities and then pay the workers as if they did widen the median? That way they workers would get paid and The Community would be better off.
Just asking, DPW.
Yet another DPW improvement on the “World Class” Streets of San Francisco. Do you think this genuine SFDPW light standard was built to last with its hollow fiberglass construction? See how it’s held together with a hose clamp and caulk? Isn’t it beautiful?
And why is every act of DPW automatically labeled an “improvement” even in the design phase? Have any planned “improvements” of the thousands committed by DPW over the years actually turned out not to improve anything? Yes, some. So why call everything you do an “improvement?”
Divisadero Street Pavement Renovation Project
DPW will reconstruct 14 blocks of Divisadero Street between where Castro and Waller intersect to Geary Blvd.
This project is tentatively scheduled to begin during the summer of 2009 and last approximately 6 months. This project will include improvements to the curbs, sidewalks and new ADA curb-ramps.
Please continue to visit our website for project updates as the start date approaches.
For more information please contact:
Ms. Dadisi Najib
Bureau of Construction Management
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Ph: (415) 437-7018
Email: dadisi.najib@sfdpw.org
Yes, it turns out that the “Divisidero Community” are deputised traffic engineers:
Divisadero Streetscape Improvements
Project Background
In 2007, the Divisadero community, in coordination with the Department of Public Works, Municipal Transportation Agency and Mayor’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development, created a visionfor the Divisadero corridor between Waller Street and Geary Boulevard.
Improvements include new bus bulb-outs, median widening with trees, landscaping and irrigation, lighting fixture upgrades, new street trees and site furnishings.
Construction Information
The Divisadero Streetscapes Improvements begin September 2009. For more information about construction, visit Divisadero Construction Information page.
Budget
The streetscape project is funded through a combination of a Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) federal grant with local matching funds to total $3.3 million. Roadway repaving will be funded through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to total $3.2 million.
Schedule
Constructions begins – September 14, 2009
Complete construction – Winter 2011
For more information:
Transit Improvements (pdf)
Streetscape Improvements-Final Community Workshop (ppt)
Divisadero Streetscape Improvements Fact Sheet (pdf)
Contact:
Kris Opbroek
Great Streets Project Manager
Kris.Opbroek@sfdpw.org
Oh well.
Ästhetik über alles
Tags: albert speer, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA, Ästhetik über alles, department of public works, divisidero, dpw, great, Kris Opbroek, Mayor's, median, mta, Municipal Transportation Agency, Office of Economic & Workforce Development, Project Manager, San Francisco, SFMTA, streets, TLC, Transportation for Livable Communities, widen
Posted in streets | 9 Comments »
