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By Lawrence Sylou-Creutz Ojermark
I’d like to put forth an old idea that has been tried and tested the world over: Pedestrian only street closures. It is not a brash or bold idea as far as San Francisco is concerned, being a world-class, transit first, services-based city. It is not an expensive, highly engineered project that would take years to implement. And the benefits are numerous.
There are many narrow streets, plied heavily by foot traffic and not overly used or needed during the daytime hours that could be converted to pedestrian only use. Three such examples could be Powell St. from Market St. to Union Square, Grant Ave. running through Chinatown and the last is Jefferson St. through Fisherman’s Wharf. Imagine covering these streets with appropriate landscaping. Red bricks continuing from the cable car turnaround for Powell St., with benches, trees and sidewalk cafes spilling out onto the flow of people walking freely and without fear of the traffic.
There is little doubt that the U.S. is addicted to the automobile, and that any mention of giving up parking spaces, or walking more than a couple blocks to a particular location is beyond a consumer’s comprehension. To ease the concerns of those about creating traffic problems, I would say that the streets crossing perpendicular at each block allow traffic to flow through as normal, with clear signage for drivers and pedestrians alike to keep any accidents to a minimum. It has been shown with street closures and detours that, given a short period of time, drivers adapt and traffic patterns settle into a normal flow. As for the stores not having access to load and unload goods, have these newly created pedestrian streets open to traffic at early morning hours and later evening or night time hours. To address a daytime loss of parking, increase public transit frequency in those areas. A very low cost, high benefit help is better signage related to public transit to and from those areas. In regards to parking, all three locations are in high density areas, well served by multiple public transit lines and are close to parking garages.
The idea is not a new one and would take a certain amount of political will to be pushed through the doubts and fears of a few well connected groups, but ultimately the plan would provide a public, outdoor venue for thousands of native and non-natives alike. It has been shown in numerous European and Asian cities, as well as in the U.S., that pedestrian only streets increase the number of people in those locations, which means more money being spent locally in shops, restaurants etc. Nanjing Road in Shanghai, Boston’s Downtown Crossing, New York City’s recent nighttime closures in Greenwich Village, not to mention every major city in Europe are a few examples. These public spaces add to the ambiance and feel of a city. San Francisco is an amazing city, one which mustn’t fall behind and allow the automobile to dominate all our streets. The thousands of people who would be attracted to these outdoor spaces would generate money that will eventually trickle down into the hundreds of services that we enjoy and sometimes take for granted in this Great City by the Bay.
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Lawrence Sylou-Creutz Ojermark is a regular ActLocallySF contributor. He submitted this article to ActLocallySF.org. If you have an article that you would like us to consider please send it to ideas@actlocallysf.org. Lawrence was born in South Africa and migrated to the U.S. with his parents at an early age. He has travelled extensively and has a myriad of interests, including martial arts, writing, mountain climbing, scuba diving, along with an ongoing interest with the city of San Francisco. He would like to see San Francisco become the world class city that exists in the imaginations of thousands.
Note: Articles are posted for the purpose of generating ideas and honest debate on how San Francisco can live up to its full promise and potential. Posting of an article does not imply an endorsement by the author of Gavin Newsom for Mayor, nor an endorsement by Gavin Newsom for Mayor of the positions set forth in the article.
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May 31st, 2007 at 7:07 am
Excellent idea towards the greening of San Francisco! I’ve lived in European cities that have these streetscapes and pedestrian only walkways.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:39 am
Yes. And what about Market Street, from Embarcadero to, say, Castro, or at least Van Ness? The downtown stretch is already a street to avoid by motorists. There are much better routes for most any point to point trip anyway. Let’s just make it official, and safer more enjoyable for for pedestrians and bicyclists.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
excellent recommendations : street closures for shoppers tourists and citizens of this great city.
it will enforce civility and respect for one another.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:42 am
It is true that restricting automobile traffic in various places would be a great start to reclaiming our city streets. I live in the most densely populated part of the city, and cars here are simply a noxious, noisy nuisance and a blight upon the landscape. I’d love to see them off the streets. It amazes me how hundreds of pedestrians are quite literally corralled onto narrow sidewalks and forced to wait interminably at traffic lights whilst carrying heavy loads, simply because the streets are reserved primarily for automobiles. There is something very wrong with this picture. I look at Columbus Avenue and all the sidewalk cafés, and wonder why I can barely pass, when there is all this wasted space reserved for automobile parking, and for that matter why anyone would choose to eat with the noise of passing diesel trucks and their stench within yards of the diners? I guess it shows how desperate we really are to live outside and enjoy real public spaces – there’s so little left. I’d go so far as to propose car-free zones. I have a blog dedicated to just such an idea with links to other resources on the web. Please pay me a visit. http://mundodegeoff.blogspot.com
July 12th, 2007 at 11:03 am
…Yet the Mayor and his friends Don (Gap) Fisher and Jim Sutton, and Rob Black are trying to flood the city streets with cars through a ballot measure that will create more traffic, more pollution, slower Muni, and more dangerous streets for pedestrians. Call Gavin on this one, ask him to oppose, but I predict that he’s afraid to bite the hand that feeds him.
Rob B.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Finally, realistically priced parking! I wish this was happening here. More people would think twice about buying a car.
CNNMoney.com
Manhattan parking spot going for $225,000
Thursday July 12, 11:38 am ET
Parking spaces in New York cost as much as $225,000 and could soon be going higher still, putting the cost for the prime spots above the price tag of the typical U.S. home price.
Manhattan real estate agent Tom Postilio said there is a waiting list of seven or eight people hoping to pay $225,000 for one of five private parking spaces that has been approved in the basement of 246 West 17th Street, a 34-unit condo development scheduled for completion next January.
The developer of that building is seeking permission to add another four spots, and Postilio said the addition spots are likely to cost even more than the current price, although he could not give an exact price.
“Supply and demand being what it is, there’s probably going to be an increase,” he told CNNMoney.com.
That latest figures from the National Association of Realtors put the nation’s median existing home price at $223,700 in May, meaning that half of the homes sold in the month sold for less than that and half sold for more. Overall, home prices nationwide have been declining in the face of a slump in home sales this year.
Part of the reason for the pricey spots in New York is city rules controlling new residential buildings in most of Manhattan that limit spots to about 20 percent of the units, according to The New York Times, which first reported the $225,000 price tag in an article Thursday.
That limit has resulted in some condo buyers paying roughly as much per square foot for their car’s home as for their own, according to the paper.
The paper says that property appraiser Miller Samuel estimates that the average parking space in the expensive neighborhoods of Manhattan now costs $165,019, or $1,100 per square foot. That compares to an average apartment price of $1,107 per square foot.
Sometimes the parking spot costs more than the finished space in the same building. The building at 246 West 17th Street with the $225,000 parking spots has two-bedroom, 2-1/2 bath 1,717-square-foot units listed for $2.2 million. That works out to $1,281 a square foot, while parking spot costs about $1,500 a square foot.
That building isn’t the only one which is seeing prices rise before tenants even move in. The paper reports that another 52-unit condo under development in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood had its first two spots go for $165,000, the third for $175,000 and the last two for $195,000.
One of the buyers of a condo in that building told the paper she regrets passing up the chance to buy one of those spots.
“At first, I was getting overwhelmed and didn’t want to spend the money,” Cynthia Habberstad told the paper. “I’m kicking myself now, believe me.”
Some people are buying parking spots even if they don’t own cars, but instead buy the spaces as investments, renting them out to cover their costs.
Parking has long been a costly endeavor in New York, but expensive spots are not limited to those Manhattan neighborhoods. The paper reports that open lots and garages in Brooklyn, Queens, the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx and Harlem are close to $50,000, although at least one new Brooklyn development is asking $125,000.
And some other major cities are also seeing eye-popping prices for parking spots. The paper reports that in Boston, spots can sell for as much as $175,000, and as much as $75,000 in Chicago. But in other cities, like Los Angeles and Dallas, most condos include parking in their prices.