Carless Sunday to be Carless Market Street?

Inspired by Gavin's plan to close the Embarcadero to traffic two weekends later this summer, Chris Daly decided to see Gavin's plan and raise him a street or two by proposing that Market Street should be closed to cars from Octavia to the Embarcadero. The only sort of traffic allowed will be buses, taxis, delivery trucks and a few other very important vehicular thingies. The reasons for it include helping MUNI buses move freely, getting more people out of cars and on public trans or bikes, helping save the environment, and because it’s kinda a cool idea.

Also, as you all know, driving down Market Street is kinda impossible, so why not?

Lining up against the idea, natch, are merchants along Market Street who fear that the closure's will hurt business. They point out that a similar thing happened in Chicago, killing the area until they reopened it. Elsewhere, the results have been spotty at best. Also lining up against the idea are Gavin's people who think it’s a non-starter, especially because it's been proposed by Mr. Daly, a person with whom Gavin spokesman Nathan Ballard referred to as "not exactly the president of Mensa." Gosh, isn't the level of political discourse in this city so illuminating?

The idea has actually been kicking around for awhile and was even once proposed by Willie Brown. Also quickly killed by Willie Brown.