— By Jack Morse (@jmorse_) |
Muni is moving forward with plans to launch a new bus line in the Mission at the end of January. This is the first of many planned changes along the 16th Street corridor that share the end goal of reducing commute time for those traveling to and from the UCSF Mission Bay Campus.
According to Streetsblog, the new line (the 55) is being “presented to the SFMTA Board of Directors for approval on Tuesday” and would run east from 16th Street BART all the way to Mission Bay. Other proposed changes to 16th include “transit-only lanes and bus bulb-outs” (pictured above).
Curiously, the above rendering of the post-renovation 16th Street assumes the controversial 10-story condo development planned for the 16th Street BART plaza is a done deal. The image is from the viewpoint of an individual on 16th Street (at Mission) looking west—as such, the Burger King should be on the right. Instead, we see what appears to be a representation of the 10-story condo. We can all be glad that that issue is settled.
[Rendering: Streetsblog]
Comments (8)
Excellent! Not only will the new residents have easy access to BART, but also a direct connection to the growing job market in Mission Bay. Love it.
Tech kids don’t ride MUNI.
Wrong. Completely wrong.
Totally wrong
California was smart to keep most of the beaches undeveloped, San Francisco would be smart to turn down the development of the Monster at 16th Street plaza, and the other same same buildings. Some development is just wrong.
According to State Data (and as reported in other media outlets) San Francisco’s population grew by 10,600 people in 2013. Meanwhile, the number of housing units only grew by 2,377.
Without putting a wall around the city, where exactly would you propose to put these folks? 16th and Mission is located within the boundaries of the Market Octavia plan. This plan provides for significantly increased housing density specifically because the area has the transit and pedestrian infrastructure to support it. Lord knows, there is room for improvement (uh, Muni?) but its a hell of a lot farther along than places like Park Merced, Candlestick Point, etc.
Few other parts of the city - or in the Bay Area, for that matter - offer similar potential to accommodate significant new housing construction without correspondingly massive increases in automobile traffic. We need LOTS of new construction - including a MAJOR near-term increase in affordable/below-market rate housing starts (perhaps achievable via an increase in the BMR “in-lieu” fees paid by developers who chose to not include affordable units on-site) - where it makes the most sense. And what makes more sense than a location directly on top of a BART station that displaces ZERO current residents? If anything, this project should be bigger - with affordable units built on-site - and not stopped in its entirety.
Not my problem. San Francisco and the Mission was an great place before Boom 2.0, and it we’d like it to be a great place afterwards. We don’t have to provide a home to every new homeless and tech asshole who wants to come here. Let them go to silicon valley of the prairie.
Fine with me, but the problem (taking off the emotional hat and putting on the rational one) is those “assholes” don’t want to live in Silicon Valley of the Prairie. They are flocking to SF and the resulting supply-demand imbalance creates enormous financial incentives for landlords (greedy or otherwise) to Ellis Act/otherwise force normal folks out of formerly existing housing so they can chase ever-increasing rents, TIC prices, etc.
Every person coming to SF with money that doesn’t move into a newly constructed building has to move into a place that already exists (and presumably is rented by somebody who can’t pay as much as they can). Econ 101: increased demand w/the same supply = higher prices. We gotta pull our collective heads out of the sand, hold our noses, and build TONS more low, market-rate, and (ugh) even some luxury housing in San Francisco. And it should happen in locations that won’t completely grenade our already over-burdened transportation infrastructure.
Doing nothing is a choice. A choice to continue forcing those of us “who lived here when San Francisco was a great place” to leave town…