February 28, 2006
Your Commute: Time For New Shock Absorbers
It's not just that you're bad drivers, folks! DPW says that over half of SF needs to be repaved and it's going to need $340 million to do it. DPW says per year, it needs $34 million just to keep up, $340 million to take care of the backlog, and that it has never gotten more than $18 million.
You may remember in the last election, the city tried to get a bond passed to repair the streets, but it didn't get the 2/3rds majority it needed to pass. So now Supervisor Sean Elsbernd has proposed that the city give $28 million of the budget surplus to fix the roads and sidewalks. DPW has put together a list of streets it would like to pave immediately if it gets the extra cash: Valencia between Market and Cesar Chavez, Mission between 11th and 16th, Page between Franklin and Div, Monterey and San Jose, Quintara and 28th, Lincoln between 3rd and 28th, and Portola between Junipero Serra and Twin Peaks.
Man, we were driving down Folsom today and hit a pothole so deep it made our teeth rattle. It's gotta be awful on Quintara and 28th. You got any favorite pockmarked streets to complain about?
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thank god someone noticed driving up portola is like driving through the grand canyon (in, like, a giant car or something.) It's awful! And they just put in a giant row of trees too, glad they have their priorities in order.
I ride to work down Valencia nearly everyday. I had to switch from my road bike to my mountain bike. Trails in Marin are smoother than Valencia.
Anyone else notice that 20th and Valencia is sinking? Also, DPW is doing work all up and down Folsom, digging and filling. Oddly, they fill the holes THEY make, leaving potholes right NEXT to the road work unfilled. God forbid they think outside the box.
Portola between Serra and Woodside is easily the worst street to drive on in SF, especially northbound/uphill portion (although that stretch of Mission ranks up there too). Where can we send our alignment bills?
I'm not certain, but I see a Schwarzenegger connection in this. He's the one that eliminated the car registration fee, and despite claims to the contrary, I think much of that revenue covers road building one way or another.
The battle right now is to find a way to pillage the general fund. SF has a (good) policy of not using general fund monies for road maintenance; I believe the revenue has to come from gas tax, Ahnold's cah tax, or transportation sales tax.
The pro-motorist pols have repeatedly tried to get the public to screw themselves with a general fund grab or bond, but so far they've been voted down, and we should continue to reject their attempts.
Where did you get a picture of a SF pothole getting fixed? Is this some kind of Photoshop wizardry? Or is this the new punishment now that the death penalty is endangered?
Oh man, 11th Street. The block between Market and Mission is the worst, but the whole street is pretty bad. Of course, it's the bike route for my commute, and it's particularly bad on a road bike. I take Valencia on the way back home, and that's not much better (dodging potholes *and* crazy parkers).
I've actually started naming different types of cracks after various city officials. A "Newsom" is a long linear crack, sometimes filled with water or Market Street Milk Shake. A Schwarzenegger is a raised pressure ridge, usually on the edge of the roadway. Not sure what to call those completely rubble-ized streets like 5th, or the giant potholes.
Ever wonder why the Tour de Cal only rode 1.9 miles in the city?