Down-and-dirty Folsom Street has never been a pedestrian friendly place— in fact, at times it can be downright hostile to pedestrians. Some local residents are unwilling to accept that fact, and have hatched a new zoning plan they think will transform Folsom into the new Valencia Street (and here we though Divisadero was the new Valencia). Unfortunately, this grassroots effort has hit a roadblock in the form of MUNI. And we all know what that means . . .
The transit organization wants to remove 2 routes on or near Folsom Street and their argument actually seems pretty sound: ridership is low on Folsom, and the locally devised plan doesn't add enough new housing to require additional bus lines. MUNI wants to convert part of Folsom into a 2-way street and add a bus line between 2nd and 8th streets while removing other local lines, which residents say will cut off SoMA from the Mission and other western nabes. If this sounds at all familiar, it's because San Francisco's Public Architecture firm proposed converting folsom to a 2-way street in their plan to gear the area more towards pedestrians. The Western SoMa Task Force has until July to submit their plan for approval by the Supes and the City Planning Commission. Viva community planning!
· Proposed Muni route changes threaten SoMa plan [SF Gate]
· Public Space From Public Architecture [Curbed SF]
[Image via Public Architecture]
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