Matthew Roth

When Tim Tompkins took over as President of the Times Square Alliance, one of New York City's largest Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), the primary concerns were the security and cleanliness of the most iconic, if chaotic, public space in the world. Despite incessant traffic and pedestrian gridlock ("pedlock" to borrow Tompkin's phrase), his Board of Directors and city officials on the whole weren't initially interested in Tompkins' vision for transforming Times Square into a world-class public space, with less traffic and higher design concepts.

California administrative rulemakers recently moved a step closer to reforming the section of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that has compelled cities to focus undue attention on the age-old Automobile Level of Service (LOS) threshold for impacts of new projects and has led to the construction of excess off-street parking.

Building off Jane Jacob's maxim that more eyes on a street make the street feel safer, the San Francisco Arts Commission has commissioned numerous artists to display their projects in abandoned storefronts as part of the Art in Storefronts program, and as the photo above illustrates, some of those eyes are literally watching you.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and the Department of Public Health (DPH) recently announced a pedestrian safety program funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS, tag: "Toward Zero Deaths, Every 1 Counts"), a joint initiative that aims to increase enforcement of dangerous and illegal driver behavior, coupled with education campaigns to seniors and other vulnerable pedestrians.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to those of you who didn't watch the San Francisco MTA Board meeting yesterday on your live-feed or on SFGTV that the meeting devolved into a referendum on the merits of free, or nearly free, parking. With half a dozen television cameras lined up along the far side of City Hall's Room 400, approximately 60 people took the microphone to testify, some with the opprobrium of a pastor admonishing the unrepentant, all with a fervor that few other issues in urban life can stimulate.

It shouldn't be too surprising to those who have followed the debate on extending parking meter hours that Supervisor Carmen Chu is not a big fan. A tipster forwarded us an email from Chu's office sent out last night to constituents encouraging them to show up at today's MTA Board meeting and give their opinion about the MTA extended meter hours study.

Although the MTA is facing a growing budget deficit that some estimate at $25-30 million or higher, the agency has not publicly talked about how it intends to close the gap, nor has it embraced revenue generators like expanded parking meter hours in commercial districts. An update of the FY 2010 budget was agendized last Friday for today's MTA board meeting, but the item was subsequently removed, MTA spokesperson Judson True confirmed.

More headlines over at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Here's your weekly round-up of photos from our Flickr pool. Thank you as always and please do send more our way. A selection of others after the jump.

C.W. Nevius's column in the Chronicle today ("S.F. a dangerous city for careless pedestrians") is a great example of blaming the victim, ignoring data, and misrepresenting the experts you quote. But it wouldn't be Nevius otherwise, would it?