The weeks and months of pandemic have been scary, tough, and grim. But sometimes a crisis presents an opportunity. On April 27, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency started rolling out its Slow Streets program, closing residential roads across the city to cars and providing more outdoor space for pedestrians and cyclists.
Because many sidewalks across our city make it impossible to keep six feet away from one another, Slow Streets let people follow social distancing guidelines while making essential trips, such as going to and from grocery stores. The program has plenty of other benefits too, including space for exercise and recreation, and fleeing the stuffy indoors for fresh air.
Over the past two months, the Slow Streets have quickly filled with families on bike rides, kids learning how to skateboard, and impromptu meetings with neighbors. Residents are strolling, jogging, and relaxing in their streets without having to look over their shoulders for cars.
The Slow Streets are effective through the end of the shelter-in-place order, when the SFMTA will remove some or all of the signage, and private vehicles will be allowed to hoard the streets once more.
In the meantime, many San Franciscans may wonder how they can reclaim their streets, temporarily or permanently, in the future. The Frisc is here to help: We’ve put together a guide for street closures on both the short and longer terms — from closing off a street for a few hours to organizing for spaces that stay slow forever.
Car-free block party
The process to reserve public pavement for a street fair or some other major event can be complex and costly. Nevertheless, obtaining a permit to close a street for, say, an afternoon block party is fairly straightforward. Here’s a broad outline of the process:
1. Apply as early as possible. Special street events are canceled through the end of the shelter-in-place order (here’s the latest schedule of the reopening this summer), but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about the next neighborhood get-together. In fact, the farther out you plan, the better. According to the SFMTA’s Special Event Street Closures page, applying for a block party permit four or more months ahead of the event costs $350 less than applying just 30 days in advance. The application form can be found here, and the SFMTA accepts applications up to a year before the closure date. (Those without access to computers can also submit paperwork by mail.)
Do these fees seem steep? Good news on that front: They may be decreasing soon. The SFMTA’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year would halve the fee for applications received 120 days or more before the event, bringing it down to $50, according to agency spokesperson Erica Kato. She said that the SFMTA has worked “aggressively” to reduce the application cost in its upcoming budget.
“Making it as simple and cheap as possible has been one of the primary goals in administering the program over the past three years,” Kato wrote in an email.
2. Attend a hearing. Permit applicants should hear back from the SFMTA within five business days. After receiving feedback from the agency, applicants can attend the next meeting of the Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, or ISCOTT for short. This committee is made up of representatives from seven city departments, the SFMTA and Public Works among them, and holds hearings on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. (The schedule varies for November and December.)
At these public hearings, applicants briefly describe their proposed event and field questions from the committee. The committee then votes to approve or to deny the application. If approved, the applicant can expect to receive the permit via email within five business days. The permit may include a list of other permits that the applicant must then apply for. These other applications should also be submitted as early as possible, and no less than two weeks before the event.
3. Watch for extra costs. The X factors that aren’t listed on the SFMTA site and could thwart your potential closure are the additional fees most applicants must pay. Safety barricades, which can be rented either through Public Works or a private vendor, are required for any block party. (Kato recommended that anyone planning an annual event just buy a set of barricades, which cost about as much to purchase as to rent.)
Organizers who don’t want cars parking on their block during the block party have to rent “No Parking” signage. Kato said such signs are not required for block parties, and that the SFMTA actually discourages it. She added that this was “the most significant additional cost for neighborhood block parties.”
For events other than block parties, there are various other fees to cover. “These include things like permitting and inspection of open flames and large generators, cleaning the street or fulfilling the city’s zero-waste requirements, or obtaining a permit for outdoor performances from the Entertainment Commission,” Kato continued. “Ultimately it comes down to what the applicant wants.”
Luckily, a simple block party only requires the rental of barricades; all other rentals can be made at the applicant’s discretion.
None shall pass
Block parties are great fun, but they’re over all too soon. The folks who have been walking, running, cycling, and cartwheeling on Slow Streets for almost two months may wish things could stay as they are. Jodie Medeiros, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Walk San Francisco, thinks they can.
It’s happened before: In January, the city closed two miles of Market Street to private cars, making it safer for cyclists and pedestrians and speeding up Muni bus service. In April, days before implementing Slow Streets, the SFMTA voted unanimously to permanently keep cars off Twin Peaks’ eastern side.
Now organizations advocating for pedestrian and cyclist safety are looking to keep cars off certain Slow Streets for good. One of the most high-profile efforts is the fight for a car-free JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park. The street has been car-free between Kezar and Transverse Drives since April 27, following a Walk SF petition that Medeiros said garnered 1,400 signatures in 72 hours. While its slow status is slated to last only for the duration of the shelter-in-place order, an alliance of advocacy groups including Walk SF and the SF Bicycle Coalition is pushing to make that permanent.
“I’m hopeful this period of car-free space 24/7 on JFK has demonstrated to everyone, but especially to our elected officials and city leaders, that there’s enormous community benefit from this space remaining car-free,” said Brian Weidenmeier, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition.
Richmond district resident Olivia Gamboa, who is zealous about a car-free JFK, argues that one of the biggest obstacles to permanently restricting auto access comes from “a lack of imagination,” where it’s somehow beyond the pale to build the city around anything except the convenience of drivers.
“Cities all across the world are making car-free spaces, more bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and San Francisco is consistently lagging,” she said in an interview. “We’re not creating enough spaces for people, we’re not making it safe enough to walk and bike, and we’ve been a city that’s mired in our byzantine decision-making processes to the detriment of people’s safety.”
Across town, residents of the Tenderloin are banding together to demand car-free space in their community. One person running point on the organizing efforts is Curtis Bradford, co-chair of the Tenderloin People’s Congress, who said the SFMTA has implemented barely any Slow Streets in the area. Residents protested in the intersection of Taylor and Eddy Streets in late May, and had planned to protest again last week. Bradford noted the group decided to hold off after the SFMTA promised to create a car-free pedestrian corridor on Jones Street between Market and Geary. Wary of the pledge, The People’s Congress and other local organizations will be writing a letter to the MTA, vowing to put together a larger public demonstration if the slow corridor is not implemented by July 3.
With activists and nonprofits pushing for car-free spaces in San Francisco, what can ordinary residents do to join in? The folks building these movements tell The Frisc that people who are enjoying Slow Streets but may not have direct experience in organizing or dealing with the city can still effect lasting change. Here’s how:
1. Get to know your neighbors. A resident acting alone might not be able to get the attention of local government, but a neighborhood association with support in the community likely will. Organizing begins with understanding people’s needs, Weidenmeier said, and the best way to do that is to talk and listen, whether on the street or via social media. Neighbors can also share information about public meetings to attend, actions to participate in and support, and elected officials to contact.
Bradford echoed the sentiment, saying that officials are more likely to hear out a sizable, unified group. “If you have strong community support on the ground, and you’ve actually got a large organization that’s willing to play the role of administering it or maintaining it, then it makes it a lot easier,” he said. “[The city is] more likely to work with you and get it done, and it’ll move along faster.”
Medeiros and Gamboa both emphasized the importance of advocating for a given neighborhood’s most vulnerable populations, as well as for those most harmed by unsafe streets and government neglect. “Correcting for the many injustices of our urban planning processes, which historically have placed disproportionate burdens of pollution and traffic violence in communities of color, must be a central goal of creating new safe streets,” Gamboa wrote in an email.
Basically a movement for neighborhood streets has to start in the neighborhood, and be as representative of the community as possible.
2. Help those doing the work. Not everyone who wants to preserve Slow Streets has to start from scratch. A host of community groups already have a staff, relationships with City Hall, and an understanding of local processes governing car-free street space. Weidenmeier said the Bicycle Coalition is devoted to exactly these issues: “This is why we exist,” he pointed out. “People are concerned about their streets and neighborhoods and want to be part of a more organized movement to improve them.”
For Gamboa, the first step was simply joining Walk SF’s mailing list earlier this year. “I started getting on the emails, and they were like ‘Come to this SFMTA hearing,’ and I was off. Then I started doing more,” she recalled. “Showing up to those things is highly underrated.” Gamboa is now a member of Walk SF’s board.
For hyperlocalists looking for street-specific campaigns, People Protected, which organizes around safety for bicyclists, has pages dedicated to Page Street and to Lake Street.
3. Make some noise. Medeiros said the future of car-free streets and Slow Streets will be heavily shaped by the public response. “Call your supervisor, send an email to SFMTA, take the SFMTA survey, and ask your neighbors to do the same,” she recommended. “If you really love this, write a letter to the editor or speak out in support on Nextdoor. Don’t shy away from telling people why it’s so great.”
In addition, Gamboa mentioned the importance of calling city leadership and attending public hearings. “I think in a lot of these situations our government officials hear the complaints but they don’t hear the support,” she added. “The people who show up are the ones who have a voice.”
Speaking up is easier than ever these days, since SFMTA meetings are currently all virtual, so people can join and comment from home.
Carpe diem
Whether it’s Market Street and Twin Peaks, the petitions for a car-free JFK, or the grassroots efforts budding in residential neighborhoods, the momentum is building for reclaiming our streets. At the SFMTA board meeting on June 2, agency director Jeffrey Tumlin commented that some transportation projects are being implemented faster than ever before.
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Walk SF’s Medeiros said there will soon be meetings about the feasibility of making Slow Streets or a similar program permanent, and that residents can have a say in crucial decisions: What’s the best way for the SFMTA to do outreach? How should SFMTA decide which streets to make car-free? What materials should be used to block streets off?
“I think everything is on the table for what this could look like,” noted Medeiros. “But making it permanent is also still on the table. So don’t sit this out.”
City Hall is making decisions about the future of San Francisco’s streets, and activists and residents can have influence. Talk to people, speak out, organize, engage with existing campaigns, and most importantly, seize this moment.
Max Harrison-Caldwell covers skateboarding and local news in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter: @low_impact