Mayor Ed Lee today announced the arrival of a "letter of non-prejudice" (whatever that is) from the Department of Transportation which he says is a "strong sign" that the $1 billion+ in federal grant money is on its way for San Francisco's Central Subway. So, yes, by the time today's toddlers are tweens, they may be able to get from CalTrain to Chinatown in just a couple stops. more ›

The Central Subway has plenty of opponents as it is, but the animal rights contingent is not one we expected to hear from in this fight. As the Examiner points out today, Tom Otterness, the sculptor commissioned by the SFMTA install 59 bronze sculptures throughout the proposed Moscone Station has a recorded history of canicide. more ›

Call it a subway to nowhere, or call it the greatest thing ever to happen to riders of the Dirty 30, the Central Subway is going to be a fact of life for many of us for years to come. While Stockton Street gets dug up for years, and while various pundits and politicos debate the cost and merits of the thing until they're blue in the face, we're guessing you've been as curious as we were about how the entrances were going to work in what's already a crowded part of town. Now architecture critic John King shares a couple of renderings of the most visible above-ground piece that will come of this new line: the Union Square/Market Street Station entrance at Union Square. more ›

In a 55-page report released yesterday, a Civil Grand Jury tasked with keeping an eye on SFMTA's Central Subway Project called out the project for being too expensive and poorly laid out. While it offered 26 total recommendations on how to improve the project, they more or less amount to a complete redesign for the SFMTA. And then there's the big elephant on the train: how much burden will the new line place on a system that can barely keep itself working straight as it is? more ›

Obama's proposed budget has some numbers in it that local transit-o-philes will either love or lambast, depending on how quickly they want to get from Chinatown to the Ballpark and how they feel about the 30-Stockton: The President's budget sets aside an easy $200 million to fund the city's central subway, which would put it on track for full funding according to CBS5. more ›

Workers excavating parts of Fourth Street between Howard and Folsom to relocate utility lines for the Central Subway's forthcoming Moscone Station recently came across what could be evidence of the the area's early inhabitants. more ›

Director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Luis R. Cancel announced the winners of the Central Subway art installation contest today. Six local and national artists were chosen to create "original site-specific works" for the Central Subway's Union Square/Market Street, Moscone, and Chinatown stations. Here are the winning works in sorta exciting computer-rendered form. more ›

Muni received $4.8 million and BART $2 million in state funding for capital projects this week. BART is said to be using the money to fund the Warm Springs extension in Fremont, while Muni will be using their chunk to put toward new light rail vehicles and the Central Subway line. Wait, don't those metro cars cost like $3 million apiece? [CC Times] more ›

With a heavy dose of coffee, free muffins and hat tips to Nancy Pelosi, the Central Subway officially broke ground today. Happening just outside SFist headquarters, we couldn't resist throwing on an overcoat, heading over and hitting the refreshment table, hitting it hard. more ›

The Central Subway plan got a boost yesterday care of a $9.9 grant via an unknown donor. (Though, according to Curbed, the Federal Transit Administration might be the culprit.) MTA spokesperson Judson True tells Streetsblog that "the funds would mostly go towards preliminary design work, since preliminary engineering on the project is essentially complete." The total cost for the SOMA-to-Chinatown underground fun will cost a total of $1.57 billion. more ›

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced yesterday that the feds have given the much-needed Central Subway its final environmental clearance. Praise God. more ›

Good news! The FTA says that building a Central Subway would be a great idea. The FTA, whose local website hasn't been updated in about a year, evaluated project justification, mobilitiy improvements, and land use; and they gave the project a "medium-high" to "high" rating in those categories. They're also supposed to rate alternatives analysis and local financial commitment, but those criteria aren't mentioned in Muni's chipper press release. more ›

Well, whaddya know. No sooner did we lavish praise upon the SF County Transportation Authority than Nat Ford, head of Muni, decided that he might be interested in committing a hostile takeover of the SFCTA... thereby making the TA as flawless as Muni. Good idea! If agency was melting down, and there was another one making us look bad, we might want to buy it and run it into the ground, too! (That's why we're always wishing we could seize control of SF Metblogs.) more ›

Attention conspiracy buffs: There's a secret project underway to seize control all of San Francisco's traffic lights, just like how the terrorists did in . Well, okay, the civic initiative (called "SFgo") isn't TECHNICALLY a secret; while it's true that nobody talks about it and current information is hard to come by, that's just because the project is really really boring. But here's something to spice it up: President Bush just gave it a half million bucks in the FY2008 Omnibus Appropriations. (Along with $12 million for the next phase of the Third Street line, and the impending Central Subway disaster.) more ›

-- And then Nancy was all, "Like, what the hell, you guys?" [SF Examiner] -- The Central Subway Project. [Transbay Blog] -- Now you don't have to leave your bedroom to travel. Ever again. Yay! [The Tech Chronicles] -- The seven rules for talking (and not screaming self-righteously) about gentrification. [Neighbors Project] -- Behold: SF Weekly's new food blog. [SFoodie] -- A censure-free DiFi. [SFBG] -- After it was revealed that he was, and... more ›

While the Powers that Be continue to dicker around with the idea of a very expensive Central Subway that will go from Market through Chinatown, one man has an idea to save us all the trouble and expense. That man is Howard Strassner of Rescue Muni. more ›

Here's a wrapup of today's news more ›

Yes, the Official Worst MUNI Line contest is over, and we have a wiener. It's the 22 Fillmore with almost 1/3rd of the vote. We have to consider that a bit of an upset as most of the comments we got bemoaned the hells of the 38 Geary more than the 22. On the other hand, we've all experienced the joys of the 22. We once had a job interview near California and Fillmore and after taking the bus from the Mission to the California stop, we realized we could commute to Oakland by BART in half the time. more ›

Someday, we'll all sit around and be able to tell each other just where we were when Anna Nicole Smith died. -Board of Supes Rules Committee votes for grace period for paid sick leave. more ›

-Nancy just won an all-expenses paid trip to Sandals Baghdad. -Study on proposed Central Subway that would connect the T-Third line to Chinatown says that it is a really stupid idea. more ›

Part the fourth in our multi-part conversation with Nathaniel Ford, the Executive director of Muni. See part one here, part two here, and part three here. more ›

No, not the sewers -- the subway. Passions were set aflame among transit enthusiasts when a memo by the SF County Transit Authority [PDF] suggested that the Central Subway (an as-yet-unbuilt system, intended to connect the existing lines with Chinatown, SOMA, and elsewhere) might get built without any actual means of transferring between subway lines. For those of you playing along, yes, that would make the entire $1.2 billion project pretty much useless. more ›