Pavement to Parks | Streetsblog San Francisco

Posts from the "Pavement to Parks" Category

Thursday, February 25, 2010 8 Comments

Mayor Newsom Announces 12 New Pavement to Parks Projects for 2010

Photo of Showplace Triangle Plaza, formerly a street and parking lot. Photo: Captin Nod

San Francisco’s two newest Pavement to Parks plazas got an official launch ceremony this afternoon after several months of public use, along with a promise from the Mayor to build twelve more public spaces like them before the end of the year. The twelve new locations will include a new plaza at the intersection of 24th Street and Noe Street in Noe Valley and Parklets, or wooden sidewalk extensions, on Divisadero Street in Nopa, 22nd Street in the Mission, Columbus Avenue in North Beach, and Clement Street in the Richmond.

Speaking before a crowd of about 100 people at Showplace Triangle Plaza, which was officially opened today, along with Guerrero Park, Mayor Newsom praised the Pavement to Parks plazas as examples of the kind of reclamation of space that could dramatically improve San Francisco’s livability.

"It’s an idea that really comes from all of you, from the community, because you’ve been demanding that we begin to democratize our streets in a little different way," he said, prompting loud cheers from the crowd. "Who said that every single street that’s paved has to be a street that has a priority exclusively for automobiles? I mean, who decided that? And when was that decided? And why not take a look at that and reconsider those decisions?"

Showplace Triangle, located at 8th Street between 16th and Irwin Streets, and Guerrero Park, at San Jose and Guerrero Streets, are the city’s second and third Pavement to Parks projects, following the Castro Commons park at 17th and Market Streets, which has quickly become a popular addition to the neighborhood. Each project was designed by different landscape architects with input by the communities where they are situated.

Since their opening, the trial street reclamations have proven very popular among the public. In Showplace Triangle, data collected by the Great Streets Project show a 29 percent increase in pedestrians walking through the plaza, a 40 percent increase in the number of survey respondents who had a positive perception of the neighborhood,  and a 61 percent increase among people who considered Showplace Triangle a good place to stop, relax and socialize. The number of users who felt a sense of community character in the area rose 39 percent.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 49 Comments

San Francisco Takes Parking Spaces for Trial Sidewalk Extensions

by Matthew Roth

A photo simulation of the new Pavement to Parks public space in what was once two parking spaces in front of the Mojo Bicycle Cafe in NOPA. Image: RG Architecture.

With the success of San Francisco's Pavement to Parks trial plazas, the city is about to unveil its newest plan to use its streets for something other than cars when it converts parking spaces to public space by extending sidewalks into the street with durable wood platforms.

City planners acknowledge that the inspiration for these new pedestrian spaces came from the success of Park(ing) Day, an international sensation developed by Rebar, where people in cities around the globe occupy parking spaces for one day a year and build pocket parks and other innovative facilities.

The first iteration of the loosely dubbed Pavement to Parks 2.0 projects, which could happen in the next few weeks, will be the transformation of two parking spaces in front of Mojo Bicycle Café on Divisadero Street, in coordination with the massive construction project that is remaking the Divisadero corridor.

"The idea is essentially to build a cheaper bulbout, to get the same effect as a $100,000 [concrete] bulbout at a fraction of the funds," said the San Francisco Planning Department's Andres Power, project manager for Pavement to Parks. "We will take the occupation of a sidewalk off the sidewalk and move it into the parking lane."

District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said he was an early champion of the project and, after seeing the impact of Park(ing) Day, he began talking with merchants along Divisadero about trying something like the temporary parking space interventions, but making them more permanent.

Monday, January 25, 2010 3 Comments

StreetUtopia North Beach

by Chris Carlsson

view_se_from_russian_hill_towards_tel_hill_and_downtown_5090.jpg

View southeast across North Beach from Russian Hill.

StreetUtopia is a new community organizing effort centered in North Beach. Launched by Hank Hyena and Phil Millenbah at an inaugural event in early January, they drew upwards of 150 people to an empty historic storefront at 1 Columbus Avenue, where they showed Streetfilms, had a small art exhibit, and conducted a survey of the folks who turned out. Hank Hyena explained his motivation in terms of European cities which are often greener, more bike-friendly, and with more pedestrian-centers than US cities. Along with several other parents of children at Yick Wo Public School, including co-instigator Phil Millenbah, a San Leandro city planner, they staged an inspiring evening of art, film, and conversation.

The questionnaire they handed out at the event started with a brief paragraph, assuming that we are on the cusp of a carbon-constrained transition to a future with far less cars:

The “modern” era brought television, automobiles and other technological changes. As part of this cultural transformation to the modern era and to support automobile use, society built millions of miles of paved roadway as both streets in urban areas and as highways connecting urban areas. The “postmodern” world is carbon constrained and the focus of transport is bus or rail and the old the roadway infrastructure is not needed in the same capacity. What should be done with the old infrastructure?

Then it asked a series of questions about whether or not Columbus Avenue should be closed to cars, if there should be “flex-streets,” if Washington Square should have a fountain, and what kinds of mixed-uses North Beach streets should have if cars weren’t the only priority?

Subsequently, I interviewed both Phil and Hank about StreetUtopia and their organizing, which you can read after the jump:

Friday, November 6, 2009 19 Comments

Planning Chiefs: Urban Planning Still Hindered by Politics, Past Mistakes

by Michael Rhodes

Over 200 people showed up to hear planning directors speak. Photo: Michael Rhodes

City planners have been on the hook for some of the last century's greatest metropolitan mishaps: urban freeways and "slum clearance," arbitrary minimum parking requirements, and land use laws that have left little room for the mingling of uses. Understandably, today's planners are a bit humbled. But when planning directors from some of North America's most progressive cities spoke at City Hall this week about the political challenges that face urban planners, several of them said the field needs to move beyond worrying about past mistakes.

"Because of the failure of the planning profession in the past, we've gotten quiet, we've gotten a little too meek," said Brent Toderian, Vancouver's planning director. "We serve at the will of politicians, and are often unwilling to speak truth to power loudly and persuasively and in public. I think that's really been an absolving of our leadership responsibilities in the profession."

SPUR and the San Francisco Planning Department hosted the discussion with planning heads from SF, New York, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Minneapolis and San Diego, who were all in town for the Urban Land Institute's annual expo.

While the directors didn't lack for bold visions, some lamented the planning field's fixation on avoiding undesirable consequences. "I'd have to say, especially in California, unfortunately, the field has evolved into focusing on preventing bad things from happening instead of making good things happen," said Bill Anderson, San Diego's planning head.

Minneapolis planning chief Barbara Sporlein echoed that concern. "So much of planning is making up for past mistakes," she said. "It just feels like every time something happens, [we say,] 'That can't happen again.'"

Thursday, September 24, 2009 7 Comments

A Vision For Transforming San Francisco’s “Unaccepted Streets”

by Matthew Roth

A proposed design for an unaccepted street, from Local Code, courtesy Nicholas de Monchaux

Throughout San Francisco's history, from the early street grid to the more recent expansion of freeways, slivers of land that don't fit into the master plans of architects and designers have been cast aside, lumped into a category the Department of Public Works (DPW) refers to as "unaccepted streets." These "paper streets" are mapped but not maintained by any agency. As Chris Carlsson so beautifully chronicled in his Ghost Streets tour, many of these alleys and street stubs are cared for by neighbors and transformed into small gardens or pocket parks. Many more, however, are forgotten urban scars and latent public space.

Berkeley Professor of Architecture Nicholas de Monchaux estimates that there are 529 acres of unaccepted streets, just over half the land area of Golden Gate Park. In Local Code [PDF], one of six finalists in UCLA's WPA 2.0 design competition ("Whoever rules the sewers, rules the city"), de Monchaux details his vision for replenishing 1514 of these unaccepted streets by linking contemporary geospatial planning tools with existing public processes through the DPW to implement "a range of local infrastructural gestures, from soil remediation, to victory gardening, to playgrounds and pastures."

Local Code borrows from the work of "anarchitect" Gordon Matta-Clark, who in the early 1970s discovered that New York City auctioned off pieces of unusable land that resulted from surveying anomalies and public-works expansion, so called "gutterspaces," fifteen of which he purchased and developed for Fake Estates, an architectural intervention meant to dissect notions of materiality, property ownership, and prestige.

With Local Code, de Monchaux hopes to accelerate the pace of converting streets into green spaces, particularly in the underserved neighborhoods in the shadows of freeways, where unaccepted streets are abundant. "If you look at the unaccepted streets, it is like heat map of all the areas with health problems, pollution issues, and neglected spaces," he said.

Friday, September 18, 2009 5 Comments

The Sun Shines Down on a Glorious PARK(ing) Day

by Michael Rhodes

A temporary park in front of Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia. Flickr photo: Tristan C

When the first Park(ing) Day was launched by Rebar in 2005, right here in San Francisco, it was on the vanguard of street space reclamation. Four years later, it's undoubtedly part of a larger trend that includes such fine company as Sunday Streets, Pavement to Parks plazas, and the first steps towards a car-less Market Street. Park(ing) Day is now officially an international phenomenon, but its rapid growth could be seen just as easily by touring sites across the city today.

From bike parking to outdoor café seating to volunteer recruitment, Park(ing) Day spots were used for an impressive array of purposes today, some planned well in advance, others conceived of just this morning.

Fabrizio Laudati, who owns Pantarei Restaurant in North Beach, saw neighboring Caffe Greco setting up al fresco seating in the parking spot out front, and quickly claimed several parking spaces of his own for customer seating. The result was impressively elegant, all things considered, but Laudati said it would be even better if it were permanent.

"If it wasn't temporary, we could make it even prettier," said Laudati, who didn't flinch at the loss of a few parking spots. "Losing three spots is worth it since you have space for so many more customers to sit."

Friday, September 11, 2009 4 Comments

Layoffs Hit Street Cleaning, Gardening Crews at DPW

by Bryan Goebel

DPW landscaping crews who've been working on the Pavement to Parks plazas are among those being cut. Flickr photo: Jamison

San Franciscans are likely to see slower response times to street cleaning requests and a reduction in landscaping and tree maintenance in their neighborhoods following a number of layoffs announced this week at the Department of Public Works. Twenty four street cleaning positions are being cut along with 15 gardening and arborist positions.

"This was our share and it's unpleasant," said DPW Director Ed Reiskin. As a result of the city budget crisis, the department was forced to slash its street cleaning budget by $2.7 million and trim its landscaping budget by $800,000. A reduction in street sweeping services was announced last month.

The cuts come right as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's office embarks on a number of new projects to green space and improve the public realm. The landscaping positions being eliminated include crews who've been heavily involved in the Pavement to Parks projects. Reiskin predicted the cuts wouldn't have a direct impact on those efforts, but rather, would affect the agency's ability to maintain landscaped medians, trim trees and respond to service requests.

"Nobody was spared and this just challenges us more to figure out how to be more efficient and use more in the way of low-maintenance planting, which we're trying to move more towards, so we need less gardening."

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 No Comments

SF Great Streets Project to Host ‘Art-Streets-Life’ Event Tomorrow

by Michael Rhodes

Preview of the mural courtesy of David Baker.

The San Francisco Great Streets Project is hosting an evening of music, drinks, food, and livable streets discussion tomorrow evening at the Mission District home of architect David Baker. The Art - Streets - Life event will include the grand opening of an Andrew Schoultz mural, and the unveiling of a new Great Streets Project presentation.

Kit Hodge, the project's director, said the presentation and discussion will include both livable streets accomplishments so far and illustrations of what can happen next. "If we can keep the movement going and grow it, I think we can cross into a whole new level of improvements," said Hodge. "Getting together to talk in one place and mingle and have fun is always a good way of doing this."

With two new Pavement to Parks plazas scheduled to open tomorrow as well, it should be a great evening to eat, drink and chat with fellow enthusiasts about the livable streets ahead.

The benefit will run from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at David Baker's home at 337 Shotwell Street in San Francisco. Tickets, which range from $20 to $500, can be purchased at the event, but Hodge encouraged people to buy them online ahead of time since space is limited. Transit and biking are encouraged, and valet bike parking will be provided.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11 Comments

San Francisco’s Two Newest Trial Plazas Nearly Complete

by Michael Rhodes

San Jose/Guerrero plaza. Photo: Michael Rhodes

San Francisco's two newest Pavement to Parks trial plazas are both on track to open by Thursday, with only the finishing touches remaining. Jane Martin, who helped about 40 neighbors plant trees and shrubs in the planter beds at the San Jose/Guerrero plaza this Sunday, said the space has already begun to come to life.

"It's socially already working really well," said Martin. Judging from the reaction of neighbors who passed by today, the plaza is already being embraced. From Martin's experience as well, there's been a very positive response from the community.

Both plazas are nearly complete, except for their taller planters, which also function as oversized traffic bollards. At the San Jose/Guerrero plaza, these planters are made of stainless steel. Over at the Lower Potrero plaza, surplus sewer pipes are being used for the same purpose. At both locations, the planters will have soil and plants added to them in the next couple days.

The San Jose/Guerrero plaza, or Guerrero Park, still has a few trees that need to be planted in the ground as well. Once that's finished, the surface will be coated with a special paint, in time for a Thursday launch if all goes well.

Read more...

Monday, August 31, 2009 12 Comments

Eyes on the Street: Timber! San Jose/Guerrero Plaza Gets Tree Stumps

by Michael Rhodes

The construction of Guerrero Park. Flickr photo: throgers

It may be the most dramatic Pavement to Parks implementation yet: at the intersection of San Jose Avenue and Guerrero Street, enormous logs have arrived that will form the backbones of planter beds. The Planning Department's Andres Power provides an update:

Logs that form the backbones of planter beds have all been installed and cut to size. Boards that will connect the logs are being fabricated on site. Dirt and gravel will be brought in over the next few days, and the trees and landscaping will be delivered Thursday morning. Plants will be planted on Thursday and Friday, and possibly, into early next week. A bunch of neighbors will be turning out at 10AM on Sunday to help with planting and painting of the log ends. The roadway surface will be treated the beginning of next week.

By Wednesday of next week, the plaza should be complete. The transformation of the space is already striking. More pictures of the construction after the break.