Posts Tagged ‘Planning’
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
These 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….
Click to expand
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.
Tags: 2012, 2013, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 7th, 2012
Hey look, Kaiser Permanente is coming to Potrero Hill.
But some people are highly upset:
Selfish,*
YEP. Pretty much.
Petty-Bourgeois,
YEP
White,
YEP. I’d be surprised if they weren’t.
Property-Owning,
YEP. Obsessed with real estate they are, my precious.
NIMBY
YEP. “Oh yes, Kommandant we totally support your mission of expanding your concentration and extermination camps, but couldn’t you select a more “appropriate” site, perhaps in East Auschwitz, or maybe even Auschwitz Annex? As the saying goes, property values uber alles.”
Millionaires
YEP. “Well, I’M not a millionaire, ” they lie.
Sorry, little nursey, your kind just isn’t welcome on “The Hill.”
Via stepsaheadlearners
And hey, where’s our helipad, you know, that other thing what was supposed to have “destroyed” property values in PH.
Let’s bring the pain, bring the sanctimony, let’s write canned letters to all these people, why not:
The CEO and Board of Directors of Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente (George C. Halvorson)
LNK Partners (Phil Marineau)
Kaiser Permanente (Christine Robisch)
Kaiser Permanente (Robert Pearl)
Kaiser Permanente (Gregory A. Adams)
Kaiser Permanente (Bernard J. Tyson)
Kaiser Permanente (Randy Wittorp)
Kaiser Permanente (Jay Murphy)
Kaiser Permanente (Cameron White)
SF Planning Department (Wade Wietgrefe)
SF Planning Department (Susan Mickelsen)
SF Planning Department (John Rahaim)
Malia Cohen
Megan Hamilton
Andrea Bruss
Kaiser Permanente Board Member (J. Eugene Grigsby)
Kaiser Permanente Board Member (Edward Pei)
SF Planning Department (Sarah Jones)
SF Planning Department (Ben Fu)
*I’m srsly. Do these people sincerely care about “historic” corrugated steel buildings? No, not at all. So how stupid do they think we are?
Tags: 2012, bay area, Ben Fu, Bernard J. Tyson, Board of Directors, board of supervisors, california, Cameron White, CEO, Christine Robisch, doctors, Edward Pei, George C. Halvorson, George Halvorson, Gregory A. Adams, helipad, hill, hospital, J. Eugene Grigsby, Jay Murphy, John Rahaim, LNK Partners, Malia Cohen, medical, Megan Hamilton Andrea Bruss, millionaires, nimby, nurse, Owning, Petty-Bourgeois, Phil Marineau, plann ing commission, Planning, potrero, potrero hill, property, Randy Wittorp, Robert Pearl, San Francisco, Sarah Jones, save, save the hill, Selfish, Supervisor, Susan Mickelsen, Wade Wietgrefe, white
Posted in health | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
This is the scene in the Western Addition at 601 Broderick and Grove, the site of Gethsemane Baptist Church
Click to expand
The graffiti is new, you see it? It’s all, “THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD.”
Let’s take a closer look:
“The proposal is to convert the existing church into a single family residence.”
Well, that’s direct, huh, right there in black and white.
[RACIAL SUBTEXT MODE = ON] Uh, so the Western Addition is losing yet another African-American church so yet another millionaire white family can move in, except realtors* call it the North of Panhandle Area now because it doesn’t have the baggage associated with the Western A? That’s my guess, but tell if I’m way off on this one, Gentle Reader. [RACIAL SUBTEXT MODE = OFF]
Oh, architect James Hill is all over this one at his excellent-looking Talking Buildings blog.
All the deets right here.
Via Redfin.com: “601 Broderick is a charming old church … in the heart of NOPA. Not for the faint of heart or faithless, this property needs a revival. … make them believers. Heaven only knows what the possibilities could be!” Receiving multiple offers on first showing, the sale closed before the For Sale sign was hammered in the ground. Highland Ferndale Partners, a luxury home developer purchased the church for restoration and resale. David Papale, partner and realtor, prefers not to disclose the sale price, but redfin.com notes the price clearly at $1,401,000, 40% over asking, a sizable investment in the future of the community. One might speculate, since this is real estate, that the sale price is more than adequate to cover the losses the bank faced in foreclosure on their faulty loan, a profit unrealized by the church. Mr. Papale claims, while the possibilities for the property include six units, it will be restored as a single family home and to its original Victorian appearance without “that horrible addition.”
And there’s a little bit more here in the comments section of this Socketsite post, Control-F for 601.
So that’s the sitch and the graffiti artist is doing all s/he can to draw attention.
Mission accomplished.
On It Goes…
*Always in lower case
Tags: 2012, 601 Broderick, architect, area, Baptist, bay area, black, blog, blogger, building, california, church, december 5, department, dept., divisadero, foreclosed, foreclosure, Gethsemane, Gethsemane Baptist Church, Gethsemane Missionary Baptist, grove, hearing, house movers, James Hill, Missionary, NOPA, north of panhandle, orange, paint, Planning, planning commission, Planning Department, real estate, realtor, red, San Francisco, single family, solaris, spray, Talking Buildings, THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD, western addition, white
Posted in architecture | 7 Comments »
Friday, September 7th, 2012
You see, area NIMBY’s didn’t want the Masonic Trader Joes (Store #100) to have a proper parking lot, so this is the result:
Click to expand
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.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, bro, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
I’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
Click to expand
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.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, nimbys, nimbys fucking nimbys, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Planning Department, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, rooftop, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in paranormal | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
My 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?”
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars, food and drink | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
And then when you die, your mangled shopping cart or grocery bag (empty or full) will be evidence that you parked on the east side of Masonic in order to shop at the TJ’s* on the west side of Masonic.
Anyway, as you can see, there’s no place to hide.
30 MPH speed limit plus the curves plus the hill = dangerous:
Click to expand
Now, does SFGov care about this situation?
Not really.
Who’ll be the next TJ’s shopper to die?
*You know, Store #100, where former Mayor Gavin Newsom used to shop, wearing a suit(!), back when he was “in” “rehab,” sort of.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in streets | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 12th, 2012
Well, here’s the new SoMA Streatfood Park, betwixt the I-beams of the Central Freeway (near the western terminus of I-80) and Store #144, America’s First Urban Costco.
I guess I passed through the place early – it looked like a ghost town when I was there.
But the Yelpers, well, they love it.
As does Amanda Gold. And the Wall Street Journal reminds us that the SFP is just a short “stroll” from the $3.2 million penthouse at 9 Bernice.
And, oh, KQED’s Jenny Oh offers her photos and impressions here.
Say cheese!
The entrance at 428 11th:
Les mise-en-scene – reminds me of the spare vehicle lot / junkyard of Veterans Cab Co, which is what this place used to be. Instead of busted Plymouth Gran Furies we now have food trucks:
Open-air communal dining, redolent of the Main Pavilion at Jonestown:
Ah, here are the trees on Division shown in the plans. All this new activity has chased away the under-the-freeway stolen bicycle fences all the way to….
…just across Division Street:
Now, speaking of parking, here’s what you’ll see across the street from the main entrance: ”PARKING IS FOR COSTCO SHOPPERS ONLY – Violators Will Be Towed”
So, you’ve been warned.
I don’t know, I’m sure it was a royal PITA to get the SFP up and running. And I know that the gestation period for this new baby was longer than a rhino’s, but of course a lot of that had to do with setting up the handicapped-accessible bathrooms and the pavillion and whatnot.
What I don’t know is how things will shake out for the SFP over the next year or two. This could be a case of a K-selection strategy in an r-selection environment.
We’ll see.
M-F: 11 AM to 3 PM and 5 PM to 10 PM
Weekends: 11 AM to 10 PM
People on the street eating chicken and meat
People eating pork with a knife and a fork
Tags: 11th, 2012, 428, bathroom, bay area, california, Carlos Muela, costco, department, dinner, fire, food, food park, fort mason, freeway, harrison, health, i-80, lot, lunch, Matthew Cohen, off the grid, park, parking, permits, photos, Planning, San Francisco, soma, SoMa Street Food Park, street, StrEeT Food Park, tacos, vendors, VETERAN'S CAB, yelp
Posted in food and drink | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Are the people who planned the parking situation at the Trader Joe’s on Masonic still around? And are they sorry for what they’ve done? I don’t know.
Now one person not still around is Suzanne Monaco, who was killed while dashing across Masonic to get to the store last month.
She was crossing like this guy was doing yesterday:
Click to expand
If this is how pedestrians are going to behave, should there be a crosswalk with a light, you know, so people can get to their cars parked across the street because:
1. the actual parking lot for this particular TJ’s is almost always full during the times most people shop, and
2. the people driving up from areas in the south can’t turn into the parking lot anyway as northbound traffic isn’t allowed to left into the parking lot.
Now realize the current situation is already the second stab at a fix, since the line of idling cars that now queue up in the right lane of Masonic used to line up in the middle lane, leaving just one lane for traffic.
That situation was documented back in aught-eight:
“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.)”
What’s wrong with San Francisco?
Is the problem the NIMBY residents of nearby Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, you know, the people who don’t want their Inner Richmond Way of Life interrupted by food shoppers? I don’t know.
But why can’t TJ’s shoppers park on the roof of the TJ’s? There’s a parking lot up there, of course.
Anyway, I think the people who planned the parking situation are still around and I think that they are to blame.
Are they apologetic for what they’ve created?
I don’t know.
Actually, they’re probably still patting themselves on the back and giving each other awards, as they are wont to do.
Tags: 2012, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic
Posted in cars | 9 Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2012
Or nightmare, take your pick.
Click to expand
Tags: 2012, 8 Washington, 8washington, bay area, california, club, Golden Gateway, Golden Gateway Tennis and Swim Club, Planning, San Francisco, swim, tennis
Posted in paranormal | No Comments »
