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You've got one week left to drive your car up and down Jessie Street. On May 11th, the street closes between Mint and 5th Street, to be turned into a pedestrian thoroughfare with trees and cafes and planters and niceness. This conversion is a process known as "hey, let's make that place suck less." Judging by some of the concept art, it'll look very pleasant; even the clouds in the beautiful blue sky will become magically fluffier.
Opening the street to pedestrians (aka "humans") has some opponents; some folks claim that it'll make it harder to valet their cars when frequenting the nearby hotels and malls. And to be fair, they've got a point -- it's not easy finding a place to stash your limousine in a crowded metropolis. Poor, sadly, lonely, neglected limousine; why does everyone hate you?
The new hangout-space will cause some disruption to the buses as well. Muni reports: "The Municipal Railway 26-Valencia motor coach terminal, which was formerly located on Jessie Street west of 5th Street, has been relocated to the south side of Mission Street west of 5th Street." We have read that sentence eight or nine times now and we still have no idea what it means. Hey, Muni, you oughta try this awesome new technology they're calling "maps."
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That's not a very large stretch of Jessie St., but still, anything that shrinks the neglected area between Market, 5th, and 7th even a little bit is progress. It'll also be adjacent to the new Westfield mall and the proposed SF History Museum at the Old Mint.
It's the new UN Plaza! Or the new Hallidie Plaza! Will they provide a convenient fountain for homeless guys to piss in?
Gentrification! YayayYAYAYAYAYyayaY! Gentrification! YayayYAYAYAYAYyayaY!
Oh, how wonderful. I can't wait to have a beautiful new place in which to sit and share my lunch with homeless people. The crackheads are going to love it. Thank you, San Francisco.
In case you did not know, the Coalition on Homelessness seeds these places with homeless to prevent what they see as gentrification. They actually send some out to take over park space, like they did at Octavia. Someone should knock the shit out of the first few to send a message.
Oh, yes, knocking the shit out of people -- what an excellent way to reclaim a place's civil tenor.
I have no reference, but I remember reading that this park will be patrolled by a private security firm paid for by the homeowners and businesses in the Jessie St buildings. The HOA fees in those buildings are about as high as the selling price.
There will also be high end shops and restaurants in that park, which will curtail quality of life issues that dominate that area.
With the wealth that is moving into those buildings, I wouldn't expect vagrancy to be as large of an issue compared to the mostly dead and warzone-like Hallidie Plaza and UN Plaza.
To the people blindly yelling "Gentrification!", remember that this block used to be a high end department store a few decades ago, so it is simply returning to it's former glory.
Cool. One fewer block with cars on it. We are taking this city back, one block at a time.
Though it is pretty much the only place you can legally make a left turn when you are going up Mission. Not that a little thing like traffic laws ever seems to stop any of the left turners.
This looks pretty nice. Also, has anybody else noticed a gradual but pronounced improvement in UN Plaza over the last couple years? It's actually a pretty pleasant place during the daytime now, and it's at least not quite as post-apocalyptic at night. Hallidie Plaza still bites the big one, though.
The Coalition on Homelessness (as well as general common sense) assures us that fears of "seeding" such as Yogo's are not based in fact.