Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Planning Department

Plan for Ped-Friendly Castro Takes Shape: Will Parking Trump Muni Riders?

By Aaron Bialick | | 15 Comments
City planners presented detailed options for pedestrian upgrades on Castro Street at a community meeting last night. The improvements, set for construction next year, will include sidewalks as wide as 22 feet, new trees, and pedestrian-scaled lighting. By reclaiming space from Castro’s excessively-wide traffic lanes, the plan is expected to provide more room for people on […]

Planning Commission OKs Car-Free Housing at Fulton and Gough

By Aaron Bialick | | 18 Comments
A massive Hayes Valley parking lot, formerly occupied by the Central Freeway, will be developed into a car-free apartment building and Boys and Girls Club after the project was approved unanimously by the Planning Commission last week. The six-story apartment building at Fulton and Gough will include 69 rental units, eight of them available at subsidized […]

The Case for Removing the 280 Freeway

By Aaron Bialick | | 115 Comments
Talk of San Francisco’s next freeway removal has heated up since a proposal from the Mayor’s Office to take down the northern spur of I-280 went public. The highway teardown would open up land for housing, connect neighborhoods, and help bring high-speed rail and Caltrain downtown. “The good news is this would be the third […]

Cleaning Up SF’s Car-Littered Sidewalks Will Take More Than Parking Tickets

By Aaron Bialick | | 41 Comments
Cars littered on San Francisco’s sidewalks are a painfully common sight. The problem is perhaps most prevalent in outer neighborhoods like the Sunset and Bayview, where, for decades, homeowners with residential garages have paved over their front yards. The pedestrian environment on these streets is left degraded, with swaths of dead space where families and people […]
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