Slow streets, altered by the city to reduce cars and their speeds, have allowed San Franciscans more room to walk, bike, and play during the coronavirus pandemic. Many neighborhoods, including ones with plenty of access to parks and open space, have been enjoying these streets since April. But the densely packed Tenderloin, with barely any green space, is still waiting.
Residents are fed up — once again. On Friday, a group of Tenderloin residents and activists sent a letter to the San Francisco Fire Department and Mayor London Breed to protest further delays. This time, they say, the fire department is holding up the process.
The current plan is only for a modest sidewalk extension along four blocks of Jones Street between Golden Gate Avenue and O’Farrell Street, in the heart of the Tenderloin. It’s not a street closure as in other neighborhoods, but a leading activist told The Frisc that he’s grateful.
“We have to fight tooth and nail for any little thing. It feels like a big victory, and we haven’t even gotten it yet,” said Curtis Bradford, co-chair of the Tenderloin People’s Congress. Bradford has been working for ten years for changes in the Tenderloin, well before the pandemic added a new layer of urgency.
Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes the Tenderloin, agreed that the pedestrian corridor is overdue.
“The street changes on Jones Street can’t come soon enough,” Haney said. “Tenderloin residents and workers deserve to be able to social distance as much as any other neighborhood.”
The SF Municipal Transportation Agency, which is in charge of the Slow Streets program, has been ready for at least a week to make the change, which would block off the parking spots on the eastern side of the street for pedestrian use. But the fire department has not signed off, according to residents, and confirmed by SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato.
“It’s frustrating that the SFFD doesn’t get the urgency of moving forward,” said Bradford.
Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter, the Fire Department’s public information officer, did not comment on the assertion that the Fire Department is the bottleneck. “The fire department is reviewing this site collaboratively with MTA to ensure the safety of all parties are addressed and reviewed,” Baxter said via email. The department has veto power, but it’s unclear if or how it will use it.
Street changes in the Tenderloin have been in the works, but as part of a larger emergency plan to address homeless camps, drug dealing, and more that exploded in recent months — tents on sidewalks tripled from January to April — triggering residents’ outcry, legislation, and a lawsuit. The city has begun removing tents and moving people into empty hotels, but the street closures have yet to materialize.
A ‘de facto freeway’
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the Tenderloin needed more car-free spaces. In September 2019, Bradford and other residents occupied a local intersection to demand raised crosswalks and other safety measures.
“We need the space now, obviously, for social distancing and safe travel, but we needed the space to begin with,” Bradford said, charging that, despite the Tenderloin’s residential density, the city has designed its streets as a “de facto freeway” to move traffic and buses between western neighborhoods and downtown.
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The Tenderloin has some of the city’s most dangerous streets and the second highest rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases of any SF neighborhood. (Only Bayview-Hunters Point has more.)
Despite this, and with barely any space nearby to stretch out, the Tenderloin only has two blocks closed to cars — one in front of St. Anthony’s Dining Room and one in front of Glide — and only during certain hours to allow social distancing in those organizations’ food lines.
The SFMTA has not released a map or diagram of the proposed changes to Jones Street, which has three lanes of one-way traffic running through the Tenderloin between Market Street and Nob Hill.
But an aide to Supervisor Matt Haney revealed that concrete barriers would protect pedestrians in the extended sidewalk zone, and that the easternmost of the three lanes of traffic would become an emergency vehicle lane. The other two lanes would remain open to cars.
The design was enough for Bradford and others in the community to call off a protest that was planned for early July. “We have seen the SFMTA working vigorously and sincerely to make it happen,” Bradford said, but overall he’s still frustrated. “I’ve been disappointed from the beginning about the way the city has handled this whole crisis, and that hasn’t changed.”
The delays in the Tenderloin add to the feeling in San Francisco that its slow-street approach has been unevenly applied. The city began closing streets in late April after locals saw other big cities like Oakland and Denver move faster to give residents in quarantine extra space to move around.
The city’s western neighborhoods have been enjoying car-free street space for more than two months. The sidewalk extension on Jones would provide Tenderloin residents needed breathing room, but it’s obviously much less open space than a full ‘slow street’ would provide. The city’s comprehensive plan to address the Tenderloin’s street crises, last amended in May, offers several other suggestions for road closures and sidewalk extensions. So far, none has come to pass.
Max Harrison-Caldwell covers skateboarding and local news in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter: @low___impact
