Concepts in the Paradox

Sometimes the battles come to me, some times I come to the battles.

The first is the case of the battle coming to me is the new jet-sounding air exhaust system that the Parc 55 Renaissance Hotel installed just outside my apartment’s window a couple weeks ago. It is huge, loud, and runs full blast because of the latest heat wave to hit California. I’m not the only one who has to be annoyed by these buzzing fans, since the entire south side of the building faces them and I can hear it from the street level too.

The first stage of this battle is to look up noise ordinances, contact the San Francisco Tenants Union, and send the Parc 55 a letter. If that fails, I may have to resort to getting a lawyer as stage 2.

The second is the case of me coming to the battle is the GoGeary movement to implement a BRT system along the Geary corridor. While this is a good idea, it isn’t the best idea. Do we need more diesel powered vehicles on the road? They are noisy, uncomfortable to ride, and have short useful life times. Why they don’t expand the light rail to Geary is beyond me. Well, actually, it isn’t. Local business are meddling in the deployment of light rail, fearing that it will cost them business due to parking spots being lost.

I don’t know about you, but if I can take a non-crush capacity vehicle to your business, I’ll likely spend money. Why a another vehicle in Muni’s fleet? Why not the devil we know, the Breda cars?

I’ve been doing some research, of which I’ve made some very interesting finds on both San Francisco’s internal workings as well as just how a BRT will not help the dire situation the 38-Geary line is in. I’m going to prepare a 2-minute statement and let Muni and the GoGeary folks know during the project meeting on July 29th.

Heck, I don’t even take the Geary line anymore. I moved because it was just so bad — the downtown area transit is so much better. And guess what, it is mostly electric rail!

We have to set the president.

I keep hearing about this third street light rail project, so I thought that I’d take a drive and see what was down that “up and coming” line, as all the realtors put it. Starting from the ball park, I headed south along the rail. I must say, the downtown area is pretty impressive near the ball park. Clean buildings, good transit, plenty of shops and places to eat. Past the bridge is another story though; it is parking lots, empty fields and rotting warehouses for miles.

The light rail stops look modern and clean, something that I was very happy to see compared to the decay that surrounds the street. I’m not entirely sure why there is a light rail track down to Bayview; the whole area consists of closed businesses, cheap and uninspired looking houses, and shady characters passed out on the sidewalk. At one point in my journey I actually came by some shacks that were lined up along the road where obviously people had been living.

My understanding is that on the other side of the 280 near Hunter’s Point there is some nice housing in areas called “Dog Patch”, which I hoped to take a look at it. I was too taken aback by how depressed the area was to go exploring any further. One can only hope that the re-introduction of light rail into the area will be an economic boom to the area. I don’t know how many decades have passed since the rail along third street to Hunter’s Point was removed, but it had to be a crushing blow to an area that also lost it’s now-toxic naval yard.