Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
Drivers Are Running the Red Light at Fell/Masonic, Imperiling Cyclists
| | 30 Comments
Bicycle hit by a car at Fell and Masonic on December 13th, 2008 Last September, San Francisco’s city attorney asked Judge Peter Busch to allow an exemption to the long-standing bicycle injunction so the MTA could improve the city’s second most dangerous intersection for cyclists, where Fell Street meets Masonic Street. Even after the MTA […]
Unlocking San Francisco’s Privately Owned Public Open Spaces
| | 11 Comments
The shortage of public spaces in San Francisco’s downtown has long been compounded by the fact that the urban geography of privately owned public open spaces (POPOS) makes them hard to find and even harder to enjoy. The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) last week released a report that details all of downtown’s POPOS, […]
Volunteers Clean Up the Streets for National Day of Service
| | 2 Comments
A family scours Valencia Street for trash as part of the National Day of Service In honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday, groups around the country are heeding President-elect Obama’s call for a National Day of Service. In San Francisco, A Good Idea volunteers combed the Mission, Civic Center, and Downtown with garbage bags and […]
Disabilities Advocates Launch Campaign to End Sidewalk Parking
| | 7 Comments
Supervisor Carmen Chu and representatives from Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired demonstrate the hazards of sidewalk parking and broken paving stones. The Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Independent Living Resource Center and the Senior Action Network launched a new campaign with Supervisor Carmen Chu today to draw attention to illegal […]
Today’s Headlines
| | No Comments
Transportation Gets Less Than Expected in Federal Stimulus Bill (WSJ) Details of the Transportation Segment Reviewed (Transport Politic via Streetsblog.net) Governors Unhappy Bill Doesn’t Give More to Road Projects (Politico) Former BART Officer Pleads "Not-Guilty" in Shooting of Oscar Grant (SF Chronicle) Caltrans to Pay $7 Million to Transit for Right to Add Carpool Lanes […]
Media Too Often Blame the Victim in Pedestrian Crashes
| | 2 Comments
At-grade pedestrian crossing on Geary Blvd The SF Examiner published an excellent editorial from Walk San Francisco Director Manish Champsee today that calls on the city and the media to improve conditions for pedestrians and not immediately blame the victim in crashes. When a vehicle killed 87-year-old Victor Cinti in mid-December, the Examiner ran a […]
Supervisor Dufty Argues 299 Valencia Vote Sets No Precedent
| | 5 Comments
Supervisor Bevan Dufty The San Francisco Bay Guardian has suggested that Supervisor Bevan Dufty swung to the right with his votes not to override the Mayor’s veto on legislation that would have required conditional use (CU) permits and hearings when housing units are being eliminated and his refusal to support an appeal of the 299 […]
Obama Nominee Ray LaHood Appropriated Big Money to Road Lobby
| | No Comments
Obama’s Transportation Secretary nominee Ray LaHood Streetsblog Network blogger Hugh Bartling has a great post on the brewing turmoil surrounding President-elect Obama’s choice for Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood. LaHood’s confirmation hearing was delayed today after the Washington Post reported that in his position on the House Appropriations Committee he steered at least $9 million […]
299 Valencia Appeal Fails As Swing Vote Dufty Sides with Developer
| | 6 Comments
The future home of 299 Valencia will have more parking than the neighborhood plan allows of right The Board of Supervisors, in one the first tests of the new progressive bloc, failed to muster a supermajority vote to support an appeal that would have overturned the Planning Commission’s approval of a conditional use (CU) permit, […]
Eyes on the Street: History of Oakland Chinatown’s Barnes Dance
| | 10 Comments
Perhaps the nicest pedestrian scramble in the Bay Area Unlike numerous pedestrian tragedies that go unnoticed and unmitigated, when a man was killed at the corner of 8th Street and Webster Street in Oakland’s Chinatown in 2002, the community banded together to get a large federal grant to transform not only the dangerous intersection, but […]
Will the Board of Supervisors Betray the Market/Octavia Plan on Tuesday?
| | 6 Comments
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will hear an appeal against more parking in Market/Octavia area. After nearly ten years of community planning and a rigorous review process that resulted in a model community plan encouraging transit-oriented development, density, and strategic parking limits, a developer in the Market and Octavia Neighborhood Plan (PDF) area has […]