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Construction on the 17th Street Pedestrian Plaza is wrapping up. So far, the newly tagged temporary public plaza includes plants, concrete benches, and (God willing) loads of sunlight. Here are some images of the plaza, which will remain open for enjoyment until July 11.
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Yikes those concrete "benches" are ugly.
Those concrete benches are recycled, they're BEAUTIFUL!
/snark
I understand this new "plaza" already smells like pee...
It does. But did you hear the good news? They are going to ban all open spaces, in hopes of deterring all homeless. Apparently, news got to headquarters about all of the concerned comments, like "yeah, this is stupid, it will be full of pee and vagrants". They at first thought it was your basic armchair cynicism, but there was just one too many comments for them to not take it seriously.
So, as of now, all open public space will be shut down. If you are outside, be prepared to have your ID, passport, and at least 3 pieces of mail addressed to you. Curfew at 7pm. We can all work together to make sure there is no more "pee smell" in the city. I guess headquarters wanted to let everyone know they were sorry about all of the parks and plazas and things, and for not arresting people for putting their legs up on subway seats or sleeping in a park, they were just trying to be cool and run a fairly nice city.
That's...AWESOME!
What moron thought it was a wise idea to plant 5' "natural-looking" concrete plants to hide pedestrians from cars turning right onto Market!?
THANK YOU – that's exactly how I see it! And as a biker, it's now more difficult and dangerous to get on Market from Castro St.
Say what? The City turns what was once a confusing 5-way intersection with cars speeding through at every angle - often nearly colliding with the F-line - into a fairly standard 4-way intersection... and you say it's MORE dangerous for bicyclists? Hmmm. No.
If you're biking up Castro - just make your way through the plaza along the former crosswalk to the Market Street bike lane and you'll be a helluva lot more safe than you were when it was an automobile free-for-all.
You're right that it makes the whole intersection a lot less of an automobile free-for-all, and that is certainly a great thing. But you're suggesting that I should bike through the pedestrian crosswalk, which we all know is despised by walkers.
not to mention illegal unless you dismount.
That and biking through the plaza equates to doing so on the sidewalk, which is equally illegal--not to mention, idiotic.
Which means it will happen every 5 minutes.
Ride your bike all the way to the corner of Castro and Market, look left and then turn right on Market when there are no cars and/or your light is green. Just like the cars do it.
Not sure how zipping across 17th street from Castro while cars barrel down Market onto 17th was safer then the scenario I just described. And yes riding in the crosswalk or public space would be rude and dangerous.
Geez! So much negativity about the aesthetics of a temporary structure that is meant to test the feasibility of having these types of areas in the city. If this idea works out well, I'm sure the less attractive features will be replaced with better looking permanent structures.
I think people are just jaded and skeptical about everything SF puts in place, based on real world experience. Maybe this time it will be better. (let's hope.)
Good point, it IS meant to be temporary. If it works out maybe we can get the city to put some more attractive planters there.
so what about the bus stop?
should i just go there and see for myself? i guess.
BTW, since this is test and only temporary for now, the idea was to spend less now and more later on more attractive amenities if the open space idea works out.
And so just toss the current cheaper stuff out and replace it with nicer stuff? Spend money on stuff that will be thrown out and then spend more money to replace it? Yep, just what I'd expect from Mr. Green Gavin Newsom.
No, blue Blue Canary, the salvaged Granite curbs will go back to the city salvage yard from whence they came, the plant material will be transplanted into new permanent planters, the cardboard sonotubes out there now, that cost all of about 50 cents will be recycled. As reported in about twenty different blogs and 4,000 community meetings, the idea was to test the plaza before making it permanent. It is a very green idea that New York City has been doing for several years now.
Oh, come on. Do we have to be so depressingly trigger-happy with the criticism? The only objects disposable out there are those planters. The donated street furniture and the salvaged granite blocks from the City yard could already be considered "recycled" and can easily be reused again once this temporary phase wraps up.
San Francisco often chokes on an excessively long public process - there's so much talk, PR, and planning in this City - and not much to show for it. This is a quick and low-cost test of an idea that's been tossed around for over a decade. I think it's a relief to see something on the ground for once! Even if it's temporary, it's a big step toward figuring out of it's worth the permanent investment.
Meanwhile, when I was there today, I already saw locals sitting at the tables chatting and tourists hopping off the F and discovering a suddenly very nice spot to pose for photos with Castro Street or the Pride flag in the background. So far, so good, but we'll see.
I actually agree with this, cranky comments notwithstanding. Anything to avoid the years of public process to do anything at all in SF. (And I bet the consulting fees are much reduced.)
what
Bluecanary, why are you being followed around by shills from the Mayor's office?
It's heartwarming to see the cranky seniors on this board sticking up for one another.
Cranky senior?! I'm only 32. Shut it!
let me rephrase that:
what, bluecanary? no mention of the "bored of stupidvisors?"