Hail Market Street

San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly has reached a new benchmark in his battle against merchants and the city’s political brass over his proposal to ban private vehicles on a lengthy stretch of Market Street.

"We're going to look at the possibility of banning cars or making auto restrictions on Market for a long term," Tilly Chang, Deputy Director for Planning at the SFCTA (San Francisco County Transportation Authority), said. "We're just at the very beginning stage."

"I have introduced a request," Daly said of his proposal, which he submitted last July to the city's district attorney.

The request asked for a closure of Market Street to private vehicles between Octavia Blvd. in Hayes Valley to Embarcadero – roughly a 2-mile section.

Two weeks ago, city Supervisor Chris Daly asked Chang to initiate a SAR (Strategic Analysis Report) to make findings on the impact of a partial Market Street closure to private vehicles according to Daly.

Chang said the findings from the SAR will help the Transit Authority examine the rationale and feasibility for restricting private auto traffic on a section San Francisco’s main thoroughfare.

Chang says she is already meeting with various city agencies including the Municipal Transportation Authority, the Advocacy and Merchant Group in an effort create a bilateral partisanship between city leaders and Supervisor Daly over his initiative.

The SAR will take 6 to 8 months to complete and once it's submitted to Supervisor Daly and processed by him and other city officials, it will take another 6 to 8 months for the report to become public according to Chang.

Chang says the earliest that major physical changes on the street could happen if approved would not be until late next year.

The cost of the project is unknown at the moment due to its elementary stage but the SAR itself cost $15,000 to produce according to Chang.

The current proposal to ban private traffic along the San Francisco street is not an original idea according to Carolyn Diamond, executive director of the Market Street Association.

"It's come around the corner six times in the last 20 years," Diamond said of the reoccurring city legislation. "It used to be a proposition that raised huge red flags for businesses on Market Street."

However, past car ban proposals for the street have all been denied by the Board of Supervisors due to weak arguments for making a stretch of Market Street free of private cars according to Diamond.

"Everyone wants to see Market Street work better," Diamond said of her commitment to the street. "We're looking for alternatives."

"It's time to take a look again, it's 2008," an eager Supervisor Daly said of his initiative to secure a 2-mile stretch of Market Street to only pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit vehicles.

Nathan Ballard, spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom, says the mayor is not going to be supporting Supervisor Daly's proposal to close Market Street to private traffic.

"Chris Daly doesn't have a fully formed plan to accommodate the negative impact," Ballard said. However, Ballard was quick to call Daly's proposal "intriguing."

"Supervisor Daly has failed to address the economic impact," Ballard said, speaking on behalf of Mayor Newsom. "There is currently an economic meltdown and now is not the time to be discouraging the businesses along Market Street.”

“I don’t like people telling me what to do,” Ray Andersen, owner of Grooves Records, a music retailer said of being prohibited to drive on the San Francisco street.

Andersen says he must transport things in bulk with a car for his business and a closure of Market Street would inhibit his ability to run his business.

“We’re a nitch business,” Andersen said. “People go funny places to get what we have.”

The threat of revenue from businesses declining along Market Street as a result of a closure to private traffic is already having some other city leaders poised to decline Daly's latest proposal. The plan's pending submission is leaving some proponents and opponents in a state of confusion about its success.

"The full closure of Market Street would be prohibitive to drivers and retailers," Diamond said. She went on to say she believes small merchants will be affected the most. "They rely on people in cars just passing their stores."

"My business would suffer greatly," Ron Ansley, General Manager of Flax, an art supply store on Market and Gough Streets in Hayes Valley, said.

Ansley says he is a proponent of public transit, but most of his customers come to his store by way of their own cars. Flax has both a front and back parking lot, but because the store is just inside the closure boundary, the lots would not be accessible to private cars.

"Who really drives on Market Street," James Sine, owner of Isotope, a comic book lounge a few blocks North of Market Street in Hayes Valley said of Daly's proposal.

However, Sine says a closure of Market Street to private traffic would be good for businesses on Market considering an increase in the flow of pedestrians with an absence of autos.

"It is premature for [opponents] to oppose," Daly briskly said of city leaders who have been skeptical of his private vehicle ban on Market Street. "It's a good policy," he said, “which will create a safer Market Street.”

Daly says that he hopes a closure of Market Street to private traffic will increase pedestrian safety, improve transit times, and could generate pedestrian economic development.

"Look at 16th Street in Denver," Daly said defending his position that pedestrian growth throughout a major section of Market Street could help stimulate economic expansion.

Daly says that the 16th Street Mall plan in Denver contributed as a positive economic impact on the city.

Diamond raises many questions as to how successful the private car ban could be. However, she says she understands the importance of the SAR to answer her questions.

"I want to see what happens if there's a full prohibition of automobiles. What's the ripple effect of it going to be on the city," Diamond said questioning the validity in Daly's plan.

"If it's a convincing argument that [Daly's proposal] works better without a private automobile, let's try it," Diamond said of her possible actions given findings that show positive effects on the city with a private car ban. "It may be an idea whose time has come to investigate it."

"There's not that many automobiles on Market to begin with," Diamond said. She says her rationality is not undermined by her curiosity in Daly's plan. "It has to be laid out carefully and has to have some sort of goal."












Sources

Chris Daly
415-554-7970
chris.daly@sfgov.org

Nathan Ballard
415-235-6283
mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

Carolyn Diamond
415-362-2500
Carolyn@marketstreetassociation.org

Tilly Chang
415-522-4832
tilly.chang@sfcta.org

James Sine
415–621-6543
james@isotopecomics.com

Ron Ansley
415-552-2355
www.flaxart.com

Ray Andersen
415-436-9933
realgrooves@gmail.com