Posted Jan 16, 2020, 7:05 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
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More on Tom Radulovich and the Parcel F garage issue:
Quote:
. . . Radulovich’s pitch has so far gotten a chilly reception from officials. Haney, who has loudly championed bike lanes and walkable streets, would not commit to supporting Radulovich’s request.
“I’m still exploring if there are ways to move the parking garage entrance or reduce the parking overall,” he wrote in a text message. “I’m very supportive of more spaces for pedestrians, and would like to maintain and grow those spaces, while still moving forward with this important housing development.”
Cars currently can enter the Transbay section of Natoma at either end, except they can only travel a short distance before reaching a line of bollards that gird the plaza. Beyond those bollards is a small urban nirvana: food trucks sell global cuisine, people eat at patio tables or drift along the pavement, talking on their cell phones. Transbay buses glide along a bridge overhead, which resembles a futuristic movie prop.
The planned development — which still needs approvals from the Board of Supervisors — is known as Parcel F, a large construction site flanking the south edge of the plaza. That area is already so packed that the only place to put the parking garage was beneath the street — cars would enter on a lift and be parked by valet attendants.
In a city that discourages driving but embraces density near transit hubs, this seemed like the best compromise, officials with knowledge of the project said. Parcel F would add a complex mix of offices, high-end condos and the hotel, and you couldn’t serve all those people with just a white-curb loading zone. In addition to the parking garage, the plans would cut part of the curb on Howard Street so trucks or forklifts could pull into a loading dock — another feature that Radulovich opposes.
People who were lingering outside the Transbay Center on their lunch breaks Wednesday generally seemed ambivalent. Most didn’t object to the parking garage, so long as it stays underground and out of sight.
“I like that part,” said Seth Weidman, who works in a nearby startup on Second Street. “Definitely the worst thing about garages is that they take up space that could be reserved for (other) buildings.”
Heidi Duran also shrugged. “If the cars are just leaving in the morning and coming back to park in the evening, it shouldn’t affect us,” she said.
The one thing that did raise eyebrows was the concept of pushing all the freight and drop-offs over to Howard Street. What’s good for one artery could conceivably add misery to another: imagine a situation in which, say, two 55-foot articulated trucks are double-parked in the middle of a busy road.
Weidman was more concerned about what would happen to the bike lane if cars were constantly pulling up alongside it to disgorge passengers. He rides his bike to work every day.
“If I had to catch an Uber from here,” he said, pointing to the construction site, “I’d rather have it pick me up in the garage.”
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https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...g-14978618.php
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