Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
SF’s Mint Plaza Takes Home EPA Smart Growth Award for “Civic Spaces”
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In its annual Smart Growth awards ceremony, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded San Francisco’s Mint Plaza with its “Civic Spaces” prize, honoring the City and County of San Francisco, as well as developers and architects that transformed the former Jesse Street alley into a busy public realm. The award was announced yesterday in Washington DC, […]
BART to Hand Out 120,000 Free Tickets on Thursday for Holiday Promotion
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In the spirit of the holidays, BART will be handing out 120,000 free tickets to commuters tomorrow morning from 6 am to 9 am, what BART calls “an early holiday gift.” Each ticket will be valid for one ride anywhere in the system during the next three weekends, December 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 18th and […]
Car-Free Households in San Francisco Above 30 Percent
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According to the new San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency 2010 Transportation Fact Sheet, the number of car-free households increased. Last year [pdf], data show that 29.8 percent of households had no car, a number than climbed to 30.3 percent this year [pdf]. Oddly, it seems the shift came mostly from households with one car, as […]
Chinatown Group Analyzes Pedestrian Safety, Offers Plan for Improvements
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Chinatown’s crowded sidewalks, unsafe crosswalks and poor pedestrian signage are not likely to be among the endearing physical characteristic featured in any tourist brochure. Yet in a recent study — the San Francisco Chinatown Pedestrian Safety Needs Assessment [pdf] and Safety Plan [pdf] conducted by the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) — those issues were […]
Commentary: Despite Mandate to Improve Pedestrian Safety, SF Doesn’t Act
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I often write stories for Streetsblog as objectively as I can, but after talking with the SFMTA about their pedestrian safety report, I got a little too upset to write dispassionately. Therefore, I’ll call this a “commentary” and you can take it for what it’s worth. If the footage of 65-year-old Nu Ha Dam getting […]
BART Board Members Criticize Clipper Transition at Meeting
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The BART Board of Directors had a heated discussion today about most things Clipper, from the large number of EZ Rider customers who have yet to transition to the universal smart card, to the ease with which customers can scam Clipper cards on BART and other operators. Despite a more visible outreach and marketing campaign […]
As Central Subway Funding Deadline Looms, Chinatown Rallies Support
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Much has been made over the past two days about the funding gap the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) needs to make up by spring of 2011 to complete the Central Subway, the result of an article in the Chronicle and a small dust up between the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) Executive […]
California to DC: Send Us Unwanted High-Speed Rail Money
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In states where building high-speed rail is not politically toxic, elected leaders are scrambling to get a piece of the federal (essentially free) money Tea Party and Republican pols are unwilling to accept for rail projects. As soon as New Jersey governor Chris Christie killed the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel under the Hudson […]
Eyes on the Street: Noe Valley Parklet Installation Begins
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Construction of the two newest parklets in San Francisco began today with the installation of a sidewalk extension on 24th Street between Sanchez Street and Vicksburg Street, with another to follow shortly on 24th near Noe Street. The new spaces were designed by Riyad Ghannam, who designed and built the first parklet in the city […]
Forget High Speed Rail, Let’s Have High Speed Buses
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Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan I would put this up there with China’s proposal for huge buses that allow cars to drive under them, but it’s still worth a good laugh. Who needs shoulders on highways anyway?!
In the Door Zone: If You See Something, Should You Say Something?
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I ride my bike along Valencia Street nearly every day from my home to City Hall or some other assignment and I love the relatively slower pace of traffic that resulted from the bicycle green wave signal retiming last year (way to go Janel!). Without fail, however, my heart rate rises when I come upon […]
Planners Expect Public-Private Partnership to Lower Doyle Drive Costs
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The Presidio Parkway/Doyle Drive project will move into the second phase of construction early next year, but planners are already touting a unique public-private partnership, or P3 in their shorthand, which they say forges a new model for delivering massive infrastructure projects for less money and greater financial oversight. Assuming all the necessary approvals are […]