As the debate over tour buses in Alamo Square rages on, the neighbors around the Western Addition's enclave of privileged real estate have a new proposal to deal with the droves of tourists on their open-top photo-op flybys: dump them out on the nearest business corridor.

According to Alamo Square Neighborhood Association president Lisa Zahner, her group wants to work with tour bus companies to find a drop off spot that is mutually beneficial for the tourism industry and neighborhood businesses. As Zahner explains to the Examiner: "We're not a bunch of NIMBYs, but we want something that makes sense for visitors to get more out of the neighborhood than photo-op. In a perfect world, they'd get off at Divisadero and go shopping."

First of all: Whoops, it sounds like we need a refresher on the definition of "NIMBY" here. Saying, "I do not want this thing near my house" is a textbook NIMBY move. Advocating change is perfectly acceptable, of course, but let's not be NIMBY deniers here, is what we're saying.

Second: increased foot traffic is never a bad thing for neighborhood businesses, but the idea of pushing off scores of tourists from the estimated 100 buses a day on to Divisadero's strip of cafés, bars and auto repair shops gives us pause over here at the SFist Western Branch Office. No one wants to see the new Mission suddenly become the new Union Square after the neighborhood character is assassinated by waves of trinket shops selling $5 Painted Lady keychains. Especially on a corridor that's already feeling strained by fleets of corporate shuttles flooding in from the peninsula and clogging Muni stops.

Anyhow, the SFMTA is already looking in to the practicality of rerouting tour buses on to Divis. In the past week or so, the loading zone in front of The Independent at Divisadero and Hayes has served as an ad hoc bus depot for camera-toting folks in sensible walking shoes, most of whom seem slightly confused about what they're supposed to be looking at. According to the newly formed Tour Bus Association, however, the real nuisances are the bus companies from out of town who have so far refused to play along with the TBA's guidelines for appropriate traffic behavior. Either way, it's nice to know that neighbors can still blame the lastest annoyances of city life on out-of-towners.

Previously: NoPa Is The New Mission, Say New York Publication, Alamo Square Traffic Vigilantes Get Idly Document Tour Buses Behaving Badly
[SFEx]