Posts Tagged ‘dpw’
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
From District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi comes this newsletter update concerning floats at the upcoming 2010 ING Bay to Breakers footrace. Certainly appears as if last month’s plan to start floats only at Divisidero and then stop them 1.2 miles later in Golden Gate Park is dead.
The new idea is having two staging areas for floats to enter the race – at the beginning in eastern SoMA and at Civic Center. Deets below.
These mariners will need a place to sail their float again in 2010:
Oh, whoops, they abandoned their stripper pole-equipped vessel in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle last year. Oh well.
Bay to Breakers Update
The 99th Bay to Breakers will be run on Sunday, May 16th. Last year’s race saw a significant reduction in problems and impacts on the neighborhood, although there is still more work to do be done. Plans are still being developed for how floats will participate this year. Race organizers initially proposed having all floats start on Divisadero; however, this raised concerns with both neighbors and with float advocates. Supervisor Mirkarimi organized a meeting with the race organizers, the Mayor’s office, float advocates, and neighborhood representatives. We are still waiting to hear the organizers’ revised plan, but they have indicated that they now plan to have two staging areas for floats: at the beginning of the race and at Civic Center.
We are encouraged to hear that the organizers plan to adopt Supervisor Mirkarimi’s suggestion to implement a registration system for floats. This will generate additional revenue to pay for the impacts of the floats, and also create a new level of accountability for floats that are abandoned on the streets. Despite the improvements last year, the impact on the Panhandle area was still unacceptable. Supervisor Mirkarimi remains committed to changing the practice of floats celebrating in the Panhandle for hours after the race has passed. Ross continues to encourage the race organizers to provide an end-point for floats in Golden Gate Park. He believes creating an event in the Park that encourages floats not to stop in the Panhandle will significantly reduce the impact on the neighborhood.
More information:
- www.baytobreakers.com
- Float registration information (to be posted soon)
Tags: 12k, 2, 2008, 2009, 2010, 5 fulton, 7, 97th, 98th, alcohol, alix rosenthal, annual, anschutz, b2b, bad, Bay, bay to breakers, bay2breakers, beer, body, breakers, cars, carts, channel, Chepkurui, chris fox, citizens, Conor Johnston, cops, corrals, CPBB, crawlsf, cups, david scott, David William Scott, department, dept., destroyed, direct, district, divisidero, dj, dpw, dumpsters, edelman, Edward Sharpless, Elite, eventbrite, facebook, fell, floats, footrace, footstock, foto, fundraiser, gabe, garbage, gavilanes, Gavin, glass, golden gate park, good, Greater Body Expo, haight Ashbury, howard, ing, John, John Gray, Jon Dishotsky, kegs, Kelsey Nagie, kgo, KGO-TV, Kipsang, Korir, Lineth, liquor, Liz Brusca, map, Matt Seliga, Men's, Mike Moscuzza, Muni, naked, nat ford, Newsom, nimby, nimbys, nude, paint, panhandle, photographs, photos, plastic, police, police department, pr, preservation, public relations, purple, recycling, red, richmond, roe, ross mirkarimi, sam singer, Sammy Kitwara, San Francisco, SFPD, smoove, store, street, sunset, tickets, towed, trash, TV, ugly, vehicles, Wilson Ling, women's, zaq, zero tolerance
Posted in events, sports | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Via ActionNewsSF, you might search to find a KGO-TV bit covering the traffic-disrupting venting steam pipe at McAllister and Larkin today – it’s more steam than usual, that’s for sure.
But this area of Civic Center right in front of our Asian Art Museum (this year, it’s Shanghai) is basically steaming all the time, right?
HC SVNT DRACONES:
Click to expand.
This intersection is usually steaming, unless it’s flooding. Like this:
via Lulu Vision
Oh well.
As per usual, it all happens on (or near) McAllister Street, Gateway to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and home of the Snickerdoodle bike path (Route 20), your best way of getting over Alamo Heights while avoiding the abysmal, Hayes Valley NIMBY-designed Octavia Boulevard 24-7 traffic scrum.
Tags: 20, 7, alamo heights, art of the city, asian art museum, bicycle, bike, boulevard, broken, channel, civic center, cover, crosswalk, ctiy hall, cyclists, department, dept., disrupt, disruption, dpw, dragons be here, flodding, flood, hayes valley, HC SVNT DRACONES, Here Be Dragons, hic sunt dracones, hill, intersection, kgo, larkin, macallister, manhole, market, nimby, octavia, octavia boulevard, pass, path, pipe, public works, repair, report, restaurant, route, San Francisco, shanghai, snick, snickerdoodle, soluna, Steam, steaming, street, tc, traffic, vent, venting, water
Posted in streets | No 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 »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
[UPDATE: Word on the street is that, for 2010, floats will be confined the 1.2 mile stretch betwixt Divisidero Street and Arguello Boulevard. Is that a fact? No se, hermana/o. And people, use your words - this new rule ruins B2B because....]
Let’s see here, the Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers (Bay to Breakers) are upset about not being consulted with a change to where the floats start at the 2010 ING Bay to Breakers coming up on May 16th?
Today’s Beef of the Week:
“Even with an organization of more than 25,000 members built in just a couple of weeks in 2009 to fight AEG’s bans and preserve the traditions of the race, AEG did not approach CPBB or any of its officers to discuss the new 2010 restrictions prior to their announcement. AEG did not approach Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office or the Board of Supervisors to discuss the new 2010 restrictions. AEG did not approach Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office to discuss the new 2010 restrictions. AEG did not approach the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association to discuss staging floats in their neighborhood instead of at the start of the race.”
All right. Spokesman Sam Singer is saying that the rules will be the same as last year, except for the float starting point. Actually, I thought people were mad in 2009 when they were required to start their floats down in the SoMA starting area. Oh well. Won’t this all get worked out when the permits get issued, and during the ISCOTT hearing ’n stuff? I mean the Third Sunday in May is three months away, right?
Haven’t run this photo in two or three months, or something. Click to expand:
Maybe changing the float starting point is a bad idea, I don’t know. There are pluses and minuseses.
This change wouldn’t seem to be enough to be able to “destroy” the B2B race though…
Tags: 12k, 2, 2008, 2009, 2010, 5 fulton, 7, 97th, 98th, alcohol, alix rosenthal, annual, anschutz, b2b, bad, Bay, bay to breakers, bay2breakers, beer, body, breakers, cars, carts, channel, Chepkurui, chris fox, citizens, Conor Johnston, cops, corrals, CPBB, crawlsf, cups, david scott, David William Scott, department, dept., destroyed, direct, district, divisidero, dj, dpw, dumpsters, edelman, Edward Sharpless, Elite, eventbrite, facebook, fell, floats, footrace, footstock, foto, fundraiser, gabe, garbage, gavilanes, Gavin, glass, golden gate park, good, Greater Body Expo, haight Ashbury, howard, ing, John, John Gray, Jon Dishotsky, kegs, Kelsey Nagie, kgo, KGO-TV, Kipsang, Korir, Lineth, liquor, Liz Brusca, map, Matt Seliga, Men's, Mike Moscuzza, Muni, naked, nat ford, Newsom, nimby, nimbys, nude, paint, panhandle, photographs, photos, plastic, police, police department, pr, preservation, public relations, purple, recycling, red, richmond, roe, ross mirkarimi, sam singer, Sammy Kitwara, San Francisco, SFPD, smoove, store, street, sunset, tickets, towed, trash, TV, ugly, vehicles, Wilson Ling, women's, zaq, zero tolerance
Posted in events | No 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 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” Divisidero, 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?
Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, area, ARRA, bicycles, bikes, cyclists, department of public works, 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 »
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Yesterday’s announcement of a sinkhole affecting N-Judah service in the Sunset District didn’t sound like any big deal at first:
“Feb 5, 2010 to Feb 7, 2010 - SF Muni N-Judah Line Delay: On Saturday, February 6, SF Muni reports delays on the inbound N-Judah Line at Judah and 29th Avenue due to a street closure involving a sinkhole near the inbound tracks. N trains are turning back at Judah and 19th Avenue and bus shuttles are being provided until further notice.”
And, in fact, the actual sinkhole location itself looks unremarkable, excepting for all the signs all around it.
But check it – appears as if work crews might be spending the next two weeks onsite at 29th and Judah:
”WE WILL TOW,” says MUNI. No doubt.
People riding the N Judah buses this AM seemed relatively unaffected* by the loss of the trolleys, but that probably won’t be the case on Monday if the tracks aren’t usable.
Or, maybe, the City’s taciturn work crews will be able to get a quick fix in this weekend and then work on a better job over the next week or so? Perhaps there’s an ongoing issue there anyway and this whole deal is a big nothingburger with a side order of nada?
MUNI probably has a pretty good idea on what will occur but they aren’t officially saying anything yet.
Only Time Will Tell.
Le mise-en-scene ce matin:
An avid radio fan, call-sign Star Scream (srsly, perhaps ironically), hepped me to when the supervisors would show up this AM, and lo, he was spot-on. (Radio – it’s like the Internet but without pictures.)
Note the cracks nearby the purported sinkhole…
…and then compare them with these nearby bits (could we call them railroad ties?) that appear to be waiting to go:
Good luck, MUNI!
[UPDATE: If you believe what Next MUNI is saying, then the trolleys will be rolling across the sinkhole spot by this afternoon, February 7th.]
*So people trying to get to MUNI’s Town Hall Meeting today (maybe it’s still going on) should be able to make it. MUNI likes these kinds of meetings because they disunite riders (because of infighting over the preservation of service on particular lines) and they unite the disparate elements of MUNI. (Is the state of California really “taking away” money from MUNI or just not giving as much money to MUNI?) Regardless, if enough people hammer on the importance of one particular line, that can make a difference…
Tags: 19th, 2010, 29th, ave, avenue, bridge, crews, department, dpw, feb, February, judah, meeting, mta, Muni, n, n judah, public works, SFMTA, shuttle, sink hole, sinkhole, street, town hall
Posted in transit | No 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, 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 »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
I don’t know, are the sidewalks of Powell so shopper-clogged that pedestrains appreciated the option of walking in the street for part of two blocks this past weekend?
Not that I could tell. The trouble with the execution of this New Idea is that peds needed to enter and exit the pedestrian ”passing lane” twice each block. Oh well. At least this program provided room for the cops to cite drunken Santas loitering about the Gold Dust during SantaCon ‘09 on Saturday, so I guess that’s something.
Here’s the concept, from a time when all men wore suits and hats and women wore dresses and skirts every day, and everybody was white, of course. Check out the babe magnet loiterers “walking” or pitching woo or whatever in the road.
Powell Street Is For Lovers and cable cars and police fencing, in this fantasy world:
Click to expand
The reality:
See the potted palms? Did it improve your “pedestrian experience” or whatnot? If so, thank Walgreens.
And don’t forget to call up 311 to tell them how grateful you are:
Anyway, we can tell that at least some peds made use of the extra space by clicking here.
And check out this premature, self-congratulatory video.
Here are the deets. The term “world class” is only used once, non-ironically. (Feel free to substitute “northbound and southbound” for “east and westbound.”)
UPDATE: Or, in the words of local designer Shawn Allen:
“Half-assed temporary projects like this make me embarrassed to live in San Francisco. Seriously, why even bother?
Testify, brother.
UPDATE: The StreetsBlog SF is all over this. Let’s hear from Donna Ficarrotta, Managing Director of the Union Square Association:
“Ficarrotta indicated that she had been to the site on Sunday during the rain and that she hadn’t seen many people using the space. ‘I think people didn’t know quite what to make of it. Between the weather and people being in a hurry, I don’t think people really understood what it was for.’”
“A longer-term trial could happen in the spring, said Ficarrotta, up to four weeks, but the details of that depended on feedback from the city and her membership. She was hopeful a longer trial would also attract more use.”
“I think if people understood it, obviously they would use it.”
(Perhaps we should wait for a winter / Christmas / holiday / Sol Invictus shopping season when it doesn’t rain and the people aren’t in a hurry and maybe then we can try this again?)
But see how you can tell this woman doesn’t work for any of the numerous City agencies that spent time on this program? She gave journalist Matthew Roth an Acknowledgement of Reality. How refreshing!
Are peds really so stoopid? Or maybe they’d prefer to walk on the actual sidewalk instead of stepping down into the street?
Anyway, the deets:
MAYOR NEWSOM ANNOUNCES CITY PILOT PROJECT TO IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCE DURING PEAK SHOPPING SEASON
Parking lane closures to provide extra walking space
San Francisco, CA—Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that San Francisco is expanding the walkway for pedestrians in the Union Square area as part of a pilot project under the Better Market Street Program. The Powell Street Pedestrian Improvement Project is allowing more walking space and access along two blocks of Powell Street, Geary to Ellis Streets, to improve and enhance the public’s experience during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
“This pilot project will create a festive and unique experience for holiday shoppers and tourists visiting the Union Square area,” said Mayor Newsom. “We hope this pilot makes our city more welcoming for shoppers and drives more business to our union square merchants.”
Beginning Friday, December 11 at 2 pm, the east and westboundparking lanes on Powell between Geary and Ellis Streets will close to vehicles. The Powell Street Cable Car line will not be affected by this closure.
Emergency vehicles will have full access and vehicles may continue to use designated white zones. Signs will be posted to direct traffic and pedestrian access. Planters will be temporarily installed and holiday decorations donated by Walgreens will be placed along the walkway to enhance the pedestrian experience. Parking lanes will reopen to vehicles on Monday, December 14 at 9am.
The City will monitor and evaluate this closure over the course of the weekend and provide results of this pilot and future projects in the coming months. Feedback from local partners and merchants will also be collected during this process.
“Union Square is widely known as a world-class destination for its mix of shopping, dining, entertainment and hospitality accommodations. Our hope is that this project will further enhance the visitor experience by providing greater access to pedestrians on what is widely considered one of San Francisco’s most heavily traveled pedestrian corridors,” said Linda Mjellem, Executive Director of the Union Square Association.
This test project is part of the Better Market Street Program; which aims to revitalize Market Street and connect streets by undertaking a series of pilot projects. The results of this pilot and future projects and input from the community and stakeholders will be used to inform the final improvements and long-term design of Market Street.
“Over the next few months, these pilot projects will provide us with the knowledge and the opportunity to collect feedback from people that share this roadway. These coordinated initiatives will help us deliver tangible improvements that are aligned with our vision for a better, a safer, a smarter, and a more modern Market Street,” said Ed Reiskin, Director of the Department of Public Works.
The Better Market Street Program is a collaborative initiative between the City and community partners, businesses, and non-profits including the Department of Public Works (DPW), Planning Department, Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and the Transportation Authority.
For more information and to learn how to get involved, visit the http://marketstreet.sfplanning.org or call 3-1-1.
Tags: Better, Better Market Street Program, department, dept., Director of the Department of Public Works, dpw, Ed Reiskin, ellis, Executive Director, gavin newsom, geary, Linda Mjellem, market, Mayor, Municipal Transportation Agency, o'farrel, o'ffarrell, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, parking, pedestrians, peds, pilot, Planning Department, Powell, Powell Street Pilot Project, program, project, public works, San Francisco, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, SF, SFMTA, SFPublicWorks, sidewalks, street, temporary, traffic, transportation authority, Union Square Association, widened
Posted in streets | No Comments »
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Gritty Divisidero 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, 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 »
