Seriously, if they did that and announced it as “Phase One of the Geary Subway”, huge numbers of transit advocates would be cheering!

This line means nothing unless it includes a North Beach station and spur for a surface or tunnel route to the wharf or west to van ness/marina. At an absolute minimum how about creating a dual Chinatown/NB station between Pacific and Broadway.

As for gentrification…dunno about that. Remember, the CS is a direct link from th Bayview which, to be politically-correct, is not the safest area in town.

So how does the SFMTA and Mayor’s office respond? Instead of addressing these problems head-on, they frantically chase federal dollars. Dollars that they want to use to inflict a virtually-useless, money losing piece of a subway on Francisco’s already beleaguered transit system.

The Central Subway Project should be deferred and the funds used to eliminate Muni’s real problems.

And I can’t help but feel there’s a humanistic side of a need to avoid going underground as much as possible – while visiting New York, I’ve felt like a mole. Must we abandon our streets?

Like Alaska’s shifting of funds from the “Bridge to No Where”, we need to shift Central Subway funds to immediate transit needs, quickly creating tens of thousands of jobs.

Tragically, the Central Subway’s own EIR cites a large reduction of surface buses to offset higher operating costs. The Subway would drain funds from the Muni system city-wide. Tens of thousands of riders, north of the Washington Street Subway Station, will have reduced service. Few riders will benefit from the one-half mile subway ride from Washington St. to Union Square. Far worse, from Stockton & Pacific Ave., the Total Travel Time by Bus to Market St. is faster than the Total Travel Time by Subway.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) sees the Central Subway as “a high risk project” and states that pre-approval does not guarantee future Federal funds. Local officials are gambling with taxpayers dollars, while the Muni system spirals downward.

The FTA has set extremely high requirements that place the City at risk:
1. Securing non-federal funds of $164 million—which are much more needed to salvage existing public transit.
2. A financial plan for operating/ maintaining the Central Subway without depleting funding from current transit operations. But the Central Subway EIR itself cites large cuts in surface transit.
3. Develop a plan to assure local funding in case the project’s costs escalate. Based on almost all large infrastructure projects, this could well bankrupt San Francisco.

There is no money to pay for it.

The neighbors and the Church will not allow a tunnel or any tracks to be put down.

This is not going to happen.

And yet, all coverage indicates it “might” happen. It isn’t.

The whole thing is just a boondoggle. At the very least they could have restored the old streetcar line the Stockton tunnel was built for, at significantly less cost.

And all of this is because we tore down the Embarcadero Freeway, and a few Chinatown leaders were upset claiming “no one would drive to Chinatown” and demanded the concession as part of supporting Willie Brown’s re-election. Now billions will go down this subway to nowhere, and “Chinatown” won’t be served very well at all.

And thank you Michael for asking Nat about that clause in the FTA letter, but he gave the answer I thought he would. Maybe their reasoning behind dismantling MUNI piece-by-piece is to make sure the operating costs for running the CS don’t impact service because there won’t be much service left.

And yes we are a dense city, but we are also a walkable city. Which means that Stockton can easily be turned into a transit only street with wide sidewalks. Why are we spending $1.6B for no other reason then to continue to let cars use the Stockton Tunnel?

So now it is known how North Beach will lose it’s service down 4th, but it’ll get what it lost from the 20. THe SFMTA giveth and the SFMTA TAKETH away.