INSIDE
p.7
JULY 2013
p. 19
p.9 Nosh p.15
Dance Loft p.8
Community Calendar p.21
Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970
p. 25
FREE
Development in Southside Neighborhoods Driving Need for More Public Services By KErry FLEIshEr
photograph By don nolte
Efforts to Tear-Down 280 Continue By KEITh BurBaNK
The idea of replacing part of Interstate 280 with a surface boulevard continues to capture the attention of local urban planners. Last month San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) hosted a panel to discuss issues surrounding a proposal to end I-280 in the area of Mariposa and 17th Streets, as way to create a new gateway into the City and reconnect the Potrero Hill, Showplace Square, Mission Bay and South-ofMarket neighborhoods. “We don’t want to replicate Octavia,” said Greg Riessen, transportation planner, San Francisco Planning Department, referring to the boulevard that was created after part of Highway 101 was torn-down. That project has been criticized for creating a difficult to access intersection. SPUR is a member-supported organization that focuses on urban and regional issues. Most of the meeting’s 150 attendees consisted of the nonprofit’s members; the room was so packed that people had to sit on the floor. Sarah Karlinsky, deputy director, SPUR, moderated the panel, which included Riessen,; Gillian Gillett, director of transportation policy, City and County of San Francisco; and Jacinta McCann, executive vice president, AECOM, a transportation consulting firm. According to SPUR, by making three “big moves” the City would create green spaces that reconnect Southside neighborhoods. The first big move would be to underground the new high speed rail and Caltrain. With I-280 in place, plans call for Caltrain and high speed rail to run along existing Caltrain tracks, which are at ground level from Mariposa
Street to the Fourth and King streets rail yard. Such an approach would force planners to put Mission Bay Boulevard and the intersection of 16th and Seventh streets underground, walling off the adjacent neighborhoods and undermining “…plans to upgrade 16th Street into a viable transit, pedestrian, bicycle and traffic route,” according to a SPUR article published last month. “We need a different solution,” said Gillett. “Well, what do we want? What can we do?” Riessen believes that the best answer may be to underground the rail. Under this approach, the underground tracks would begin north of Cesar Chavez Street, go under Mission Bay — featuring a Mission Bay station — and travel to the new TransBay Transit Center. This strategy would also enable the City to redevelop the Fourth and King streets rail yard. The second big move, and the project’s essence, would be to replace I-280 with a surface boulevard. According to McCann, that would open up access to Mission Creek and the Bay, creating opportunities for public spaces, such as plazas at Mission Creek and Channel Street. The City could also develop its own version of New York City’s High Line — a public park that was once an elevated railroad — if it leaves a fragment of I-280 standing, offering visitors a view of the surrounding area. The goal, in part, is to prompt travelers to say, “This is where I arrived in San Francisco,” McCann said. Currently, I-280 runs above the Caltrain tracks until Seventh Street. If the interstate stopped near Mariposa, SPUR envisions crossings at 16th, Irwin, Hooper, and Berry streets. Neighborhoods north and west of Mis-
I-280 page 5
It’s the year 2000. A San Francisco Giants fan cycles from the new Pac Bell Stadium, heading south across the Third Street bridge toward Potrero Hill. She attempts to hug the waterfront by taking a sharp left, but is confronted by asphalt pavers and construction tape, so instead snakes her way through rows of parked cars toward Pier 48. Hanging a right, she coasts alongside the Bay; a yawning expanse of landfill and industrial buildings stretches in front of her, with no stop signs or traffic lights to slacken her pace. Her view of the Hill is unobstructed, save for whirlwinds of dust kicked up by passing trucks. The only person she spots is a lone fisherman, who hoists his equipment into the back of his hatchback against a backdrop of barges. Flash forward to today. Where the old Southern Pacific railyard once stood, residential and commercial development has mushroomed. In less than a decade, the strip of land just north of the China Basin inlet has gone from marshy detritus to wallto-wall four story condominiums. The University of California, San Francisco-Mission Bay campus is nearing completion, sprawling over 43
acres, with more to come. The Veterans Administration wants to join the medical mini-city, along with a steady stream of biotechnology companies. As even medium-term Hill residents are acutely aware, in a dozen years Mission
In a dozen years Mission Bay has transformed from yesteryear’s industrial terminus to a regional job nucleus. Bay has transformed from yesteryear’s industrial terminus to a regional job nucleus. San Francisco has four major sites slated for development over the next 20 years, all of which will influence Bayview, Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, and South-of-Market. A snapshot in numbers: Seawall Lot 337—the parking lot south of AT&T stadium—is set to host 3.5 million square feet of mixed-use development, the equivalent of seven Transamerica Pyramids. Next door, Mission Bay developers are expecting to fill 4.4 million square feet of office DEVELOPMENT Southside page 15
residential construction pipeline, 2012
courtesy of the san francisco planning department