After the class, we went to a sushi place near Duponte Circle and ordered about $187 in sushi between the 4 of us. I must say, all of the sushi was very good, even though I had no idea what any of it was. My stomach was a little unhappy, but my tongue was overjoyed.

Being the pro-transit person I was, I asked how people got to the conference. The gal from San Jose of course flew, but one guy from Pittsburg took the train and another guy from North Carolina also took Amtrak, both first time train riders.  It would seem that they weren’t alone, at least two other people I talked to took Amtrak rides that were under 10 hours, $84 round trip.

Maybe Union Station was a big temptation, maybe parking and traffic were intimidating, or maybe people are just tired of dealing with the whole car and gas ordeal.   I will say that there is a change in the air.

Tomorrow are the technical sessions, where I get to learn random techie things in hour and a half spurts. Yay information!

It’s worth taking a look at a the Chron’s take on VG, as well as their photos. I’ll summarize their article with my own comments.

On Valencia/Gurrerro and 14th/15th street there used to be a block of projects built in 1943. They were torn down for many good reasons, namely poor design (central squares with no purpose), outdated plumbing, electrical, as well as rodent and gang infestation.

In 2005 the project was flattened, as all good government housing should be, and replaced with something only slightly better: suburban housing. $66m later, we have 230 units, complete with modern electrical, backyards, parking, and one way streets. The last two items making this a suburban sprawl in a 5-acre block of the Mission.

Suburb sprawl in the city?

Now this is a mixed blessing for the Mission. Having 230 new units available to lower middle and lower class families is certainly helpful, and you should go take a peek on Craigslist to see if perhaps you qualify for such housing (I don’t). Problem number one: condensing all the city’s poor into one area. At least leaving a quarter of the units available to middle class families, those making around or above the median income of SF, which is about $80,000, would help mix up the culture of the neighborhood.

Second, parking and streets. I don’t have any numbers on this, but walking around the Valencia Gardens revealed an awful lot of concrete for people to store their cars. Now if they are lower middle and lower class families, why are they wasting money on cars? The Mission is a very transit rich area, and if we are short on low cost family housing, why waste it on one way streets and parking pads? At least fill in space for a garage if you must have parking; no doubt part of that $66m could have built a garage.

In short, Valencia Gardens is a good idea in a good part of the city to live, but horribly executed. Inward facing front doors and blank walls attract crime. A well worn sidewalk and access to the action of day to day humanity prevents crime. Motor cars and parking only leave more space for vagrancy to occur.

A plastic fence is slide open and closed to allow resident traffic in, street traffic out.

Valencia and 15th. Note the older, blighted buildings on the opposite side of the street. Which caused what to become blighted? Which will?

Note that beyond the corner of the block, there are no residential doors facing 15th. It’s a graf and tagging magnet!

The Chronicle calls for the plaza to be filled in, citing it as another mistake of ’70s urban renewal. Years ago, the plaza was occupied by far more useful theaters, lost to the building of Bart and Muni Metro in the ’70s.

Coming out of Powell station was different today, however. The Emporium is set for their grand opening tomorrow, which really an very large extension of the Westfield Shopping Centre. With it comes swanky high-end shops such as Bloomingdales and a new Centure Theatre. When I came out of the train station and into Hallidie Plaza, I was greeted by people dancing, a live band, and not a single person urinating on the wall. For once, in probably my lifetime, the plaza was alive with people.

Will this change be only temporary? Time will tell for sure. Other stores have started to open up on the once heavily blighted block of 5th to 6th, and even the largest blighted structure between 5th and 6th, the long since abandoned St. Francis Theather, is due to become 156 condos. The boarded up Strand theater may or may not become condos, but with the growing commerce and excellent transit in that area, there may still be hope for it.

According to Randy Shaw, author of Theaters of San Francisco, Mid-Market, the area between 5th and 8th streets, used to be known as “The Great White Way of San Francisco”. It was called so because of the “non-stop stream of lights” and constant theather activity: almost 25,000 theatre seats. I see the opening of these new high end stores, and all the commerce and condos opening just steps away, as a renewal of mid-market in a new form. What that may take form as can hardly be as bad as what it is like now.

If you’re tired of bitching about Muni, now here’s your chance to do something about it. I’ll be there, but I won’t be buying anyone drinks at Trad’r Sam. :) Well, maybe the mayor.

Spread the link.

(What is a BRT?)

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.

(reported to sfpd via rescuemuni)

I was wondering why my DMV fees were so high — so enjoy a ride on one of the 25 transit agencies on my dime. No really, go ahead, and don’t forget to exit using the rear doors (STEP DOWN!!!).

(ridership goes up 10%, or 155,000 people, on STA days)

In the past year, the price of gas has gone way up, and at some stations flirts with the $4/gal price tag. So what are Americans to do? We consume 40% of the world gasoline, and we are starting to pay near what other developed countries pay. The solution?

Americans consumed 1.7% more gas now than they did last year.

Source: CNNMoney

I have theories on why Americans have failed to conserve fuel, beyond “Americans love their cars”:

1. There is no viable mass transit infrastructure in most cities
2. Municipalities are slow to build new transit
3. New transit is usually diesel consuming buses, since they are easy and rapid to deploy
4. Americans, especially those with families, aren’t sure how to use the system properly (assuming it did work)
5. Most cities aren’t used to car pool / car share programs (these save a lot of gas)
6. “Gas guzzling” cars get more advertising time on TV, Americans incorrectly think “fuel consumption == performance”

At 6:30, I walked over to the Flood Building around the corner to sit in on a Market Street Railway meeting. I wanted to see what kind of people attended, how the meetings were conducted, and find out the who’s who.

As with any meeting, minutes were called, and the budget was discussed. Various tidbits were discussed, the meat of the gathering being about the new museum and store opening near the Ferry Building. It was your standard meeting stuff, finding out what they can sell, profit margins on their calendar, and the like.

A few MSR members brought some old photos they had dug out of their closets, mainly photos of old rail cars in Hayes Valley, as well as they stories attached to them.

“The 21 line, seen here at 700 Hayes St on it’s last day of service, had to have it’s rail replaced on the last day of service. Muni had little choice, other street cars needed to cross that line, so the 21 got to run over some freshly laid track on it’s last day of service. All these buildings you see here in the background are still there to this day. Circa 1941.”

One of the local landmarks presidents said a few words by proxy for a very old gentleman who wanted to preserve the old LRV shelters. There are about 6 in San Francisco still, the two I can remember are the Fort Mason one, and the other is the Dolores Park shelter. When taking the J-Church through Dolores Park, note the old street car passenger shelter as you come out of the right away into the park. Back behind that is an old Muni LRV shelter, part of the original line, fenced over and covered in litter and graffiti. There is an effort to restore that brewing, so if anyone wants to help clean that up, I’m sure Dolores Park would look even more beautiful after.

I wouldn’t say an MSR meeting is the most exciting thing in the world, though I may show up to the September meeting. If you like trains, and you like to see all the people in their 50’s discuss train politics, that’s the place to be.

Also, Muni is all powerful. Bow to Muni. Nothing happens without Muni’s grace.

Also, I watched some SFGovTV tonight. Yes, pretty dry stuff, but I found the meetings on the Third Street Light Rail, Transbay Terminal Project, and Financing for the Caltrain Electrification Project rather fascinating.

Points of interest:
* The Board of supervisors insists on a Jan 1, 2007 revenue date for the third street light rail

* CalTrain is willing to do what ever accommodations are required to integrate into the new Transbay Terminal, even arrogantly implying they’ll be done first anyhow (no doubt they will, talk about having your shit together)

* The Electrified Caltrain trains and tracks will have an estimated operating life time of 100 years!