Comment by thatswrong0 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thatswrong0 | Hacker News Reader

San Francisco had one street block near Union Square closed off for a looong time because of construction, and they put some fake turf on it. Occasionally there would be pop-up events, like a little Christmas fair. I would deliberately walk slightly out of my way to go up that block because it meant no cars and wayyy more room to walk. I loved it and was so disappointed to see it turned into a normal street again.

Sidewalks are stupidly narrow here. Two people walking side by side can make it hard for people going the other way to walk around them. There are poles and trash cans and store front tables that take up even more room. Walking is a pretty dreary experience as a result - you feel like a second-class citizen.

I would love it if the city just took even like.. one street going east-west, and one street going north-south, and convert them to walkable promenades for a sizable portion. I'm curious why this hasn't happened yet - is there significant local opposition? For storefronts or restaurants, the direct in-front parking would be lost yes, but there would definitely be more foot traffic, and there would still be parking on adjacent streets. I suppose the main loser would be homeowners that use street parking.

That was Stockton street, which stretches from Market Street (heart of downtown) to Pier 39 (heart of tourist district).

Three blocks north of Union Square is a tunnel that burrows under China Town/Nob Hill and emerges in North Beach. It's a pretty critical artery for locals as it flattens the route between market st and the northern coastline of the city.

There was a push to permanently close Stockton St in favor of making it pedestrian only, but as Stockton St (and the tunnel) is the (real) gateway to the heart of China Town, that movement was squashed pretty quickly.

That said, I would love to see maybe 10% of the streets north of Market street turned into pedestrian-only, or reduced to one lane, converting the parking on both sides of the street into wider sidewalks and more trees. As dense as Nob/Russian Hill is, only one lane is really needed to service most of these neighborhoods. Retailers claim they need the parking but only once in five years have I driven to a market in Nob Hill.

As a Bay Area resident was amazed to find many streets in Barcelona that had room for eight to ten lanes of cars instead reserve half the width or more for pedestrian walking space/open space outside the touristy areas. Forgot the name but there was one street like this I could see about a mile downhill to the ocean front. The only downside was how many pedestrians smoked.

> I'm curious why this hasn't happened yet

There's significant support for drastically changing Market street to be car-free(er). The Better Market Street SF project was unanimous approved this past October! Starting January they will be closing Market street to private vehicles - no Uber/Lyft, only buses, taxis, and commercial vehicles (for eg, the farmer's market). This $600 million dollar project will add proper bike lanes, separate from the sidewalk, widen the sidewalk, and turn the boarded up storefronts into a flourishing urban environment.

http://www.bettermarketstreetsf.org/

I used to (stopped within the last year) walk, ride a kick scooter, and bike down market all the time. The biggest problem with that street isn’t the cars, but the vagrants. Seeing obviously stolen property for sale on the sidewalk, across the street from a cop who appears to be there only so you don’t get mugged, is extremely disconcerting. There’s barely any traffic on it right now anyway, as someone who also had a car in the city during this period I can tell you I /never/ turned down market, you can’t turn off of it. That sounds like a huge waste of $600M if you ask me.

Valencia St is closed to cars one Sunday a month (I forget which one). It’s always a pleasure to walk through.

Then there are also the streets that get blocked off for markets (eg 22nd between Mission and Valencia every Thursday afternoon/evening), also very pleasant.

The more of these the better for our cities.

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