What have we here, a big old Chevron chevron at an SFMTA bus stop?
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Posts Tagged ‘grocery’
San Francisco Wants to Divest From Big Oil But the SFMTA is Addicted to Its Money – Chevron Ad at Bus Stop
Tuesday, May 14th, 2013Encountering Five Trader Joe’s Shoppers Jaywalking Masonic in Five Seconds – WHO WILL BE THE NEXT TO DIE?
Thursday, May 9th, 2013These were the final two I saw after just passing three others ALL walking/jogging west to get to Trader Joe’s. This is my personal best, after all those years.
Oh yeah, I know all about the history of jaywalking and about Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Red Car and so forth. So what. How does that kind of stuff help us here? Answer: It doesn’t.
Moving on….
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Here’s what I said about Trader Joes #100, a half-decade ago, on the old blog:
“Of course, everybody needs to be on the lookout for all the Frogger-like jaywalkers carrying their groceries across six lanes of parked and moving cars. (Somebody is going to get hit one of these days.)”
Now that got a bit of attention from TJ’s Corporate. (I know because I saw the logs indicating such.)
So what the reaction? Nothing, basically.
Stuff like this is what the TJ’s people spent their time on instead, it would appear.
Now this is what occurred last year. Actually, it’s the one-year anniversary of the death of 25-year-old Suzanne Monaco.*
Did the San Francisco Planning Department plan things well? No, obviously.
Is the SFMTA doing anything about this particular block? No. They have plans to put a whole lot of useless trees and a useless median south of Geary but they don’t seem to care about where TJ’s parkers park and where they walk.
Yes these jaywalkers are illegally crossing the street and yes they are 100% responsible for their deaths when they get killed but what can be done to prevent future deaths right here in this one location?
I don’t know, a parking garage, an enforcement action, a ban on parking on the east side of Masonic on that particular block of Masonic, a traffic signal and crosswalk, opening up Emerson Alley to allow shopper parking on the roof, you know, just throwing things out there.
This situation is one giant FAIL for SFGov.
You should all be ashamed, SFGov.
Srsly.
Leaving you with one reaction, from Jessica Levin:
“I saw the flower memorial outside Trader Joe’s, and if that is the spot where she crossed, then she must have had a death wish. That’s a busy high speed corridor in both directions and she crossed near a blind crest. She didn’t deserve to die, but if anyone gets the blame, unfortunately it is the pedestrian. I parked across Masonic exactly once (and I did jaywalk to get back to my car) but I was careful to cross at the crest where I could see traffic coming from quite a distance, and even then I was extremely nervous. That was two years ago, and I have never done it again.”
*Was she really carrying “an armful of groceries” while heading “west” back to the store? Probably not.
Did the SFPD’s Park Station Spend Half a Day Just Taking Shopping Carts Away from Homeless People? Yes – Shift Log
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013Well here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth:
“Our zero tolerance for quality of life violations is continuing. We are recovering many misappropriated shopping carts.”
So that’s why the SFPD’s Park Station spent half a day taking shopping carts away from homeless people
Check it, the log from January 29th, 2013:
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Per commenter bd3517:
“According to the 1/24/13 Park Station Newsletter, in that week they recovered 11 shopping carts, describing it as misappropriation of property. An example entry from the report:‘Officer Diskin recovered a misappropriated shopping cart and admonished the culprit who had misappropriated it.’”
This is what it looks like.
Stage left – officer Diskin nabs yet another shopping cart in the Western Addition / Upper Haight areas, his fourth shopping cart collar of the morning of January 29th:
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And stage right:
Park Station didn’t confiscate shopping carts like this before.
I wonder what led to this policy…
Here’s the Answer: Yes the SFPD _Does_ Have a New Policy of Taking Shopping Carts Away from Homeless People
Thursday, January 31st, 2013Per commenter bd3517:
“According to the 1/24/13 Park Station Newsletter in that week they recovered 11 shopping carts, describing it as misappropriation of property. An example entry from the report:‘Officer Diskin recovered a misappropriated shopping cart and admonished the culprit who had misappropriated it.’”
This is what it looks like.
Stage left:
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And stage right:
Park Station didn’t confiscate shopping carts like this before.
I wonder what led to this policy.
Does the SFPD Have a Policy of Taking Shopping Carts Away from Homeless People? Take a Look
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013Stage left:
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And stage right:
Dude was saying how it was better that he didn’t have some kind of permit, else all of his stuff would gave been taken away instead of just his cart.
That’s how it works in the SFPD’s Park Police District, San Francisco, USA.
Trader Joe’s “Bro” Vs. Moving Traffic on Masonic Avenue – San Francisco Planning at Its Finest
Friday, September 7th, 2012You see, area NIMBY’s didn’t want the Masonic Trader Joes (Store #100) to have a proper parking lot, so this is the result:
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Bad pedestrian behavior on this block has led to the death of one TJ’s shopper this year so far.
The question is why do peds act this way at this particular location.
The other question is what can be done about this.
San Francisco: The City That DOESN’T Know How.
Attention: Walmart is Coming, Walmart is Coming, Walmart is Coming to San Francisco, Sooner or Later – Here’s Why
Thursday, August 16th, 2012They’re still laying the groundwork.
They’ve been working on this for years.
They’re coming.
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Attention Shoppers: Grocery Stores to Start Charging for Bags October 1, 2012 – BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag
Monday, August 13th, 2012
What the Heck is Going On Up On the Roof of the Masonic Trader Joe’s? Discarded News Racks – Dead Cars
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012I’ll tell you, the TJ’s underneath this rooftop parking lot is a beehive of activity.
So much so, that there are attendants to direct people on how and where to park in the tiny parking lot down below. And there’s almost always a line of cars blocking Masonic Street. So much so, the City and County decided to take out the parking / rush hour lane on southbound Masonic. But even so, a ton of shoppers park on northbound Masonic to make a dangerous journey across five lanes.
So that’s down below. But up on top there’s nothing going on. There’s a gate for people with passes. I think that City Car Share or ZipCar or somebody stores cars up there. But there also junked wrecks.
Like this. Camera left shows an old blue pickup what’s not in operating condition and in front of it is a Fred Sanford truck without its engine and in the background is a Miata* that someone’s been working on
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Oh, and then randomly, there’s an SFBG news rack up there blocking the lanes, not that it matters because nobody seems to be using this lot all that much.
I think if TJ’s shoppers knew they could park up here, they’d do so. This rooftop would experience a, in the words of our time, Dramatic Transformation and become a Vibrant Crossroads and maybe TJ’s shoppers would kill themselves less.
But no, it’s just a ghost town up there now, arrested decay and whatnot.
Does San Francisco have too much democracy? What explains this situation?
And after you think about that, think about What Can Be Done Now to fix the results of poor planning from San Francisco’s (Poor) Planning Department.
*Is it missing some lights, like the parking / driving / turn signal lights? I’ll tell you, if you drove that rig on Geary Boulevard a few times, the SFPD of the Richmond District would catch you for sure.
Grocery Store Intervention: Trader Joe’s, You Have a Problem – Jaywalking Customers on Masonic – Who Will Die Next?
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012My latest trip to the TJ’s lasted no longer than two shakes of a lamb’s tail. And yet, I saw a ton of people park on the south side of Masonic only to run or walk across the busy six-lane freeway substitute to get to the store on the north side.
Why do people do this? Well, because the line for parking can be twenty cars long. And also because shoppers can’t head north or east after driving out of the parking lot.
This would be no biggee normally, but the combination of the hill crest and the curves makes this a dangerous practice, as was foretold a while back.
Here’s how it works, it’s just like a game of Frogger excepting that you’re the frog.
The telltale bag:
Here’s another. (The fence is for the MUNI Yard at Masonic and Geary)
It seemed like one person was making this crossing every couple minutes when I was there.
Now, do the people at TJ’s #100 know about this?
Well, how could they not?
Now, do the people at TJ’s do anything about this?
I don’t know. Doesn’t appear that way.
All right, the girls are still shopping so let’s go up to the roof to see Dude (no that’s not his Mercedes, that some other jaywalker’s)…
…but oh no, this gal’s doing the same thing at the same time…
…and now back to Dude, wise choice, man…
…and let’s go back to the gal, she see’s an opening, she could go all the way:
I mean, this is ten seconds worth of action in four shots.
This is a target-rich environment.
So, why doesn’t Trader Joe’s have a proper parking lot, you know, one that has a chance of accommodating all the shoppers?
I don’t know.
Did the City and County expect cars to whither away by now, you know, “Peak Oil is coming in 2005″ so let’s get ready for that?
Did the rich white homeowners in the area go full NIMBY back when plans were originally being drawn up?
Did TJ’s actually have a plan for shoppers to park on the roof or in some underground parking garage?
I don’t know.
Who will be the next to die?
I don’t know.
Now let’s hear from Reader RMS: “I shop, as well as drive by hear almost on a daily basis–and it never ends. Cars hang u-turns, cross the double lines, pedestrians/shoppers run and sometimes slowly walk across to go to TJ’s without a thought. I actually drove by there at the time of the unfortunate death of that women. It’s exactly as you stated, the hill, the speed limit but people choose to take their chances because it’s more convenient than having to go into the parking lot or go the actual cross walk, they can’t be bothered–sad. Has Trader Joe’s made any comments or contributed any ideas on passing the message to their customers?”
