San Francisco Neighborhoods

Updated 11/14, 2:34 p.m. with response from Supervisor David Campos below.

A deadly stretch of Sixth Street received the city's first painted sidewalk extensions last week, created using low-cost, temporary materials to help make pedestrians more visible. The SFMTA implemented the pilot project between Market and Harrison Streets -- four blocks dense with residential hotels and shops -- to help curb injuries while the agency develops plans for a road diet.

Tonight's open house meeting at SF General Hospital is your chance to show support for wider sidewalks and safer walking on Potrero Avenue. City planners, swayed by parking-obsessed extremists who are fighting wider sidewalks and disseminating misinformation about the project, will present new, heavily-watered down options that cut out sidewalk expansions to preserve car storage.

The proposed parking-free, 12-unit condo and retail development at 1050 Valencia Street narrowly cleared a hurdle Tuesday after a 6-5 vote by the Board of Supervisors, which rejected an appeal that contended the project should be required to have a full environmental impact report.

The Eastern Neighborhoods United Front, a group publicly represented by resident Mari Eliza, apparently turned out enough speakers and letters to postpone the approval of parking meters requested by merchants in the Mission at a hearing Friday.

Update: A petition in support of wider sidewalks on Potrero has been created.

Despite the cloudy weather, Clement and Arguello Streets were bustling yesterday during the first Sunday Streets in the Inner Richmond -- the first Sunday Streets to come to the west side's neighborhood streets. (The other events have all been in Golden Gate Park and on the Great Highway.)

Han Cheng Li, 62, was struck and killed by a driver on 16th Street at Potrero Avenue in the Mission at about 11:38 p.m. Saturday night, according to reports. Police have not released details about how the crash occurred or the name of the driver, but he has been identified as a 54-year-old man. Li is the 12th pedestrian to be killed in traffic in San Francisco this year.

Construction of a red contra-flow bus-only lane and pedestrian safety upgrades at the hairy intersection of Market, Haight, and Gough Streets is on track to begin in January and be completed next summer, according to the SFMTA. The plan to create a more direct route for riders on Muni's 71-Haight/Noriega and 6-Parnassus lines, approved by the SFMTA Board of Directors two years ago, is expected to come along with sidewalk bulb-outs, pedestrian refuges, and new greenery.