Yerba Buena District wants to know: How can we do better?

Photo courtesy of YBCBD

San Francisco’s Yerba Buena District, home to such destinations as the world-renowned San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an ever-expanding Moscone Center, the Michelin four-star sparkler Benu, and a convenient yet problematic Target. Now the city’s neighborhood within a neighborhood wants to know how it could do even better.

This is where you come in.

The Yerba Buena Community Benefit District is looking for new ideas to improve the neighborhood’s pedestrian experience, alleys, streets, and open spaces. Your ideas, if picked, would join the Yerba Buena Street Plan.

One idea? Something could be done to abate electric-scooter occupation in the neighborhood. The unregulated urban-mobility devices are scattered along Third Street, among other places. Users ride on sidewalks and interfere with pedestrian traffic on the regular. Further, the use of public spaces (tax dollars pay for bike racks and sidewalks) by private enterprises for stabs at multimillion-dollar payouts seems to be the norm as of late, which, in turn, serves only to make a handful of wealthy investors even richer.

Photo by Apostolis Giontzis/Shutterstock

Or a neon mural would be nice, too.

From April 16-19, the YBCBD will ask for community input to provide ideas for public realm improvements. Here’s how:

• Drop-In: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Annex, April 16, 18, 19, from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. and on April 17, from 11 a.m.–6 p.m., 701 Mission. No appointment needed.
• Walking Tours with the YBCBD and WRT, April 17. Both tours meet at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission. RSVP to Peter Winch. The Day Walk is 9:30 a.m.–11 a.m. The Night Walk is 7 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
• Public Open House at SFMOMA’s Atrium. Drop in April 19, 5 p.m.–8 p.m., 151 Third Street. The YBCBD and WRT will share ideas and seek input. Light refreshments will be provided.

Yerba Buena is a fantastic neighborhood. Any and all neighbors with bright ideas are encouraged to speak up.