BTinSF
05-07-2007, 12:22 AM
New residential neighborhood on the rise
San Francisco Business Times - May 4, 2007
by James Haas
During the past 100 years, Civic Center has been a destination for people, not a neighborhood, with fewer than 1,500 renters living in its immediate environs. That has given it the grand, but dead feel. However, with its superb transportation connections and arts and cultural amenities, it has had the potential to be great residential area.
After years of deliberation the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently approved the massive Trinity Plaza residential development on Eighth Street and the Planning Commission the Market-Octavia Neighborhood Plan. As a result there are now under construction in the greater Civic Center area some 1,600 units of housing with another 2,300 units approved. An additional 1,500 to 2,000 units are in planning. One third of the units built will be below market for homeless, seniors and moderate income workers.
To create a lively new neighborhood, there needs to be more than new housing and cultural institutions. In June, 2005, Mayor Gavin Newsom invited all of the stakeholders in the Civic Center to a conference to discuss conditions and make recommendations for improvements. A long list was prepared that the mayor and the city government have been working to fulfill, including:
Improved security: With the support of Police Chief Heather Fong, meetings have been held to better coordinate the dozen or so security services operating in the Civic Center area. Capt. Gary Jimenez of the Tenderloin Police Station has undertaken an aggressive anti-crime program at UN Plaza.
Promotion of the Civic Center: The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau has produced a first-time-ever Civic Center visitors brochure.
Transit stations: The Civic Center and Van Ness transit stations are drab and unwelcoming. Plans to upgrade them are being developed.
Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza: This is the formal name of Civic Center Plaza, the current condition of which bears little relation to its name. Efforts where undertaken in 1998 to replan the plaza but lapsed. The mayor has asked that those plans be revived and used to develop a new welcoming plan for this important civic space.
Short-term parking: With the new development in the area removing more than 2,000 surface parking spaces, attention needs to be given to accommodate visitor parking during the day and evenings. The San Francisco Parking authority has been working with the major performing arts organizations on a plan to redesign and expand the Performing Arts Garage on Grove Street to satisfy some of this demand.
Many more steps will need to be taken to make Civic Center a great and lively neighborhood. But San Francisco is now on the threshold of doing so.
James Haas, a San Francisco lawyer, is the coordinator of the Civic Center Stakeholders group.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2007/05/07/editorial4.html
I am almost giddy over these developments. I've lived in Civic Center through the dark "Camp Agnos" days and the better times since. I enjoy living here because of the proximity to great transportation, The Performing Arts Center, the Main Library and even City Hall. But there just haven't been enough neighbors to make it feel like a residential neighborhood. That's finally going the change.
San Francisco Business Times - May 4, 2007
by James Haas
During the past 100 years, Civic Center has been a destination for people, not a neighborhood, with fewer than 1,500 renters living in its immediate environs. That has given it the grand, but dead feel. However, with its superb transportation connections and arts and cultural amenities, it has had the potential to be great residential area.
After years of deliberation the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently approved the massive Trinity Plaza residential development on Eighth Street and the Planning Commission the Market-Octavia Neighborhood Plan. As a result there are now under construction in the greater Civic Center area some 1,600 units of housing with another 2,300 units approved. An additional 1,500 to 2,000 units are in planning. One third of the units built will be below market for homeless, seniors and moderate income workers.
To create a lively new neighborhood, there needs to be more than new housing and cultural institutions. In June, 2005, Mayor Gavin Newsom invited all of the stakeholders in the Civic Center to a conference to discuss conditions and make recommendations for improvements. A long list was prepared that the mayor and the city government have been working to fulfill, including:
Improved security: With the support of Police Chief Heather Fong, meetings have been held to better coordinate the dozen or so security services operating in the Civic Center area. Capt. Gary Jimenez of the Tenderloin Police Station has undertaken an aggressive anti-crime program at UN Plaza.
Promotion of the Civic Center: The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau has produced a first-time-ever Civic Center visitors brochure.
Transit stations: The Civic Center and Van Ness transit stations are drab and unwelcoming. Plans to upgrade them are being developed.
Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza: This is the formal name of Civic Center Plaza, the current condition of which bears little relation to its name. Efforts where undertaken in 1998 to replan the plaza but lapsed. The mayor has asked that those plans be revived and used to develop a new welcoming plan for this important civic space.
Short-term parking: With the new development in the area removing more than 2,000 surface parking spaces, attention needs to be given to accommodate visitor parking during the day and evenings. The San Francisco Parking authority has been working with the major performing arts organizations on a plan to redesign and expand the Performing Arts Garage on Grove Street to satisfy some of this demand.
Many more steps will need to be taken to make Civic Center a great and lively neighborhood. But San Francisco is now on the threshold of doing so.
James Haas, a San Francisco lawyer, is the coordinator of the Civic Center Stakeholders group.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2007/05/07/editorial4.html
I am almost giddy over these developments. I've lived in Civic Center through the dark "Camp Agnos" days and the better times since. I enjoy living here because of the proximity to great transportation, The Performing Arts Center, the Main Library and even City Hall. But there just haven't been enough neighbors to make it feel like a residential neighborhood. That's finally going the change.
