City of whine aficionados perturbed about progress
San Francisco, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m a little worried about you.
Honestly, you’re acting kind of schizo. One second you’re telling us we have to preserve the city exactly as it is and the next you’re calling for sweeping, dramatic change. Just lay it out for me — is this a historical diorama or a modern, innovative city?
Let’s take a problem everyone can agree on: housing. The cost is going up and up, and people are being forced out of their homes. The Ellis Act evictions are particularly onerous. Granted, Ellis is a state law and there’s not a lot the city can do about it, but it is important to have the conversation.
Here’s the problem
And a little righteous anger is not misplaced. We can all understand that some residents are upset and want to take action. Perfectly understandable. People have taken to the streets, painted signs and picked a target for their ire … Shuttle buses. Really? Because shuttle buses have been all over town for years. How many Academy of Art buses do you see in a day? Until now I haven’t heard much about them. Buses — any buses — get cars off the streets, cut down on pollution and encourage sustainable values.
The complaint — ostensibly — is that those darn Google buses are using the Muni bus stops for free. So this week the city ruled that the techie buses will be charged for using public bus stops. So, problem solved. Not really. Because the real problem isn’t the buses, it’s the people inside them. Those damn techies are coming to the city and renting apartments and buying property at market rate. The nerve of them.
Honestly, San Francisco, what are they supposed to do? Quit their jobs to avoid the shame of making too much money? Stay out of our city?
Because that sounds perilously close to saying, “We don’t want your kind around here.” And that doesn’t sound very San Francisco-like.
You know what sounds like San Francisco? Innovative solutions. Take the proposed building for 1050 Valencia, which has been undergoing debate and review for more than three years. It’s environmentally green, it’s a transit-first structure (not a single parking place) and two of the 12 units are on-site affordable housing. (Developers can opt to pay for affordable housing somewhere else, but in this case the developers stipulated that it be in the new building, preserving a Mission District place for lower-income earners.)
It is, in other words, exactly the kind of low-impact, smart development that would be a good model as we move forward.
Oh no — not that
And what happened? Although approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, the project was gutted by the Board of Appeals. The board objected — one forehead-slapping complaint was lack of parking, which was supposed to be a virtue — and took it down to nine units, which had the effect of getting rid of the affordable units.
Supervisor Scott Wiener was so exercised that he raised his voice above a monotone during a phone call. Then he crafted an e-mail to back it up.
“We talk a lot in San Francisco about expanding transit and creating more housing,” he said. “But when good projects that fulfill these needs come forward, time and again they … are watered down or killed.”
You’ve got that right, Scott. But let’s make it clear this isn’t just happening in the progressive stronghold of the Mission.
Let’s cruise over to North Beach, where the city has finally torn down the Pagoda Theater, a long-abandoned graffiti magnet, as part of the Central Subway project.
Sounds like a great idea. Drilling machines are boring their way north and will eventually finish a 1.6-mile tunnel to the Pagoda site. A subway will take traffic off some of the busiest streets in the city — try riding Muni on Stockton Street in the morning — and provide quick north-south access across the city, and it’s mostly paid for with federal funds.
Neighbors bothered
Who wouldn’t like something like that? The hidebound traditionalists in North Beach, of course. Some of them have recently complained that the project is causing dust.
Seriously? They are boring a mile and a half under city streets, have torn down a large, abandoned theater and are using construction equipment the size of New Jersey — and the neighbors are surprised by some dust? That’s the nature of a construction project. When it is done, you’ll love it. Until then, buy a feather duster.
In theory, all of these issues would result in moving forward. Those getting forced out of housing would get some help (without scapegoating the techies); smart, affordable buildings would be constructed; and an innovative, state-ofthe-art transport system would be ready to carry passengers in 2019.
But, San Francisco, as much as you talk about addressing all these things, I only see you trying to do the one thing you do best — nothing.