their place is dark. i hope this program is shining a bit of light in their histories and minds to wanting to stay alive and free. . >> all right. good afternoon everyone. >> good afternoon all welcome to the historic preservation commission hearing for wednesday, february 5th, 2025. when we reach the item you're interested in speaking please line up on the screen side of the room or to the right.

>> each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes. when you have 30s remaining you will hear a chime indicating your time is almost up. when you are a lot of time is reached i will announce that your time is up and take the next person. q to speak. there is a very convenient timer on the podium where you can see how much time you have left and your time tick down. >> please speak clearly and slowly and if you care. state your name for the record. i ask we silence any mobile devices that may sound off during these proceedings. finally i remind members of the public that the commission does not tolerate any disruption or outbursts of any kind. at this time i will take role. >> commissioner baroni expected to be absent. commissioner baldauf, your commissioner vergara you're commissioner right here. >> commissioner foley vice president no sworn is expected to be absent and commission president matsuda here. great. we have five members of the commission here. >> we will move on to our general public comment at this time. members of the public may address the commission on items

of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission except for agenda items with respect to agenda items your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached. >> each member of the public may address the commission for up to three minutes. okay. any members of the public please come to the desk. you may 2nd. yeah i'm just trying to figure out how. >> there we go. gotcha. commissioners, can you hear me? >> here we go. good afternoon. i'm catherine petrone and i'm here to talk for just a couple of minutes about what the implications of historic district designation really are in this rather charged moment when we are dealing with so much misinformation. >> i want to take the opportunity to push back a bit on the especially on this idea that historic district designation freezes a city in

amber. it's an odd phrase. it's inaccurate because amber is actually fossilized tree resin. >> it doesn't freeze but it's often used phrase and it was most recently repeated by scott wiener in this morning's chronicle article about the north beach national register historic district nomination. my belief is that historic preservation is information. it informs positive change and is not an obstacle to it. >> in san francisco we have 32 designated national register historic districts and i'm going to talk today about just one that has seen significant change in the form of new construction and significant investment and that's the port of san francisco embarcadero national register historic district. it was designated in 2006. it runs from pier 48 at the south to pier 45 at the north. >> and it now includes a new cruise ship terminal at pier 27

that was constructed post designation. there's a proposed multi-use project at piers 30 to 3032 which includes a new swimming pool, various other thing components. >> it's not the first project that's been proposed there but the ones that haven't panned out have not been due to historic preservation. >> the oracle arena giants ballpark the giants vest mission rock residential development are adjacent to the district boundary line. but in my opinion this project what projects would have happened regardless of the historic designation? and you might remember that a couple of years ago red's java house was nearly demolished but it wasn't saved by any kind of historic designation. it was public advocacy and outcry. >> so i just want to reiterate that preservation is good public policy. >> it informs change. i still believe in

preservation. >> i hope that you do too. thank you so much. thank you. >> any other members of the public please come up to the podium. not seeing any. we'll move to our next agenda item. >> department matters. >> i think we have one item for 1687 market street informational discussion but we have no other department matters. >> thanks. good afternoon. >> good afternoon commissioners rebecca salgado planning staff. i'm the design planner for a mixed use arts and affordable housing project at 1687 market street that proposes the demolition of an article ten landmark building at the subject property. today i wanted to give you an overview of the project as well as answer any questions you may have about it. >> 1687 market street the project site is a contributor to the just contiguous article ten market street masonry landmark district which was

designated in 2012. >> this district consists of eight architecturally significant buildings along market street. >> 1687 market street also known as the mccloskey building after the mattress company that constructed and occupied it was built in 1925. in may of 2024 a project was submitted to the planning department under assembly bill 2011 and the individually requested state density bonus program that proposed demolition of the existing building at 1687 market street and construction of a new building on this lot and the neighboring surface parking lot. the new building would contain approximately 100 new units of 100% affordable housing atop four floors of art space to include a blackbox theater rehearsal and practice rooms and additional services supporting the arts assembly building. 2011 or ab 2011 the affordable housing and high roads job act of 2022 requires the ministerial approval of eligible 100% affordable and

mixed income housing developments located on sites where office retail or parking are principally permitted at the time that the project was submitted in 2024. ab 2011 also allowed for the demolition of a historic structure that was placed on a national, state or local historic register. if the project consisted of 100% affordable housing the version of hb 2011 that was in place at the time this project was initially submitted also noted that a project would not be eligible for hb 2011 if any of the proposed housing were located within 500ft of a freeway as defined in section 332 of the vehicle code. >> after the project was submitted in may of 2020 for a review of the ab 2011 eligibility criteria determined that the project was within 500ft of the on ramps and off ramps of u.s. route 101 at market street and octavia boulevard. >> as such, the project was determined to be ineligible for use of ab 2011. the project team requested the withdrawal of their project

application in august of 2020 for in september of 2020 for governor newsome approved assembly bill 2243 which amended ab 2011. effective january 1st, 2025 ab 22 43 modified the definition of a freeway under ab 2011 to not include the portion of a freeway that is an on ramp or off ramp that serves as a connector between the freeway and other roadways that are not freeways. ab 2243 also authorized a housing development located within 500ft of a freeway to be subject to the streamlined ministerial approval process of ab 2011 provided that the building meets specified criteria including that it will have a centralized heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. the bill also modified hb 2011 to prohibit an affordable housing development subject to the act from demolishing a historic structure that was placed on a national state or local register. lastly, this bill allowed for

the provisions of the affordable housing and high roads job act of 22 as applicable on december 31st 2024 to apply to a housing development project application that was submitted on or before december 31st 2024 unless the development proponent chose to be subject to any of the provisions of the act as applicable on january 1st, 2025. in november of 2020 for the project team who had previously submitted a project in may of 2024 submitted a new project under assembly bill 2011 and the individually requested state density bonus program that is largely the same as the originally submitted project. under the modifications to ab 2011 created by ab 2243 the planning department determined that the project is eligible for approval under ab 2011. >> the department sent out an initial plan check letter for that project last week and is awaiting further information from the project team in response to that letter. >> this concludes my overview

of this project and i'm available to answer any questions. great commissioners keep in mind this is an informational discussion at your request to add this item to the agenda for discussion. >> commissioners i apologize. >> we probably should take public comment on this item before we are sure. at this time we'll take public comment on department announcements for the 1687 market street informational discussion. any members of the public please feel free to come up to the podium seeing none. commissioners commissioner baldauf yes. i wanted to understand how the black box theater works into this approval because i thought the project had to be 100% residential or not. >> and having a black box

theater is certainly not it's a mixed use project at that point . >> the requirement is for the housing to be 100% affordable but not for the project to be 100% housing. >> is there language that you can share from the legislation that makes that clear? >> i could i can look up the legislation on the on the website if you like and we don't need to do that now i just yeah, i guess i would like to see the legislation because i had understood that it was had to be a residential project that was 100% residential and if it has a black box and i don't know what other facilities are in it i'm happy to chime in really quickly over here. liz wati, director of current planning we can provide you the exact specifics but typically with the ministerial housing programs, the various housing programs they're not 100% residential. they typically allow for a small percentage of commercial

for example, a lot of times we see buildings that have ground floor residential or ground floor retail with residential above for other i understand but what i'm this is getting down to very specific legislation that's changing distances by feet. i just want to understand that the law says that they get this right to tear a building down for a mixed use project. that's all i'm trying to understand. >> we'll follow up we'll follow up with you with a specific law detail. they have gone through an extensive prescreening with our housing experts who would have screened for that exact question. so i have confidence with the application being in. >> we've screened that question but we'll follow up with you. thank you. any other questions or comments from the commission? so if you could just summarize what we're dealing with now is that the property through this

amended piece of legislation will be demolished and a new affordable housing complex will be built in its place. yes, that's correct. >> and there is no because it's a ministerial action there is no recourse. >> yes, that's correct. available for a historic building. >> that is correct. this this is i would say this project is quite distinct because it happens to fall perfectly within all of these amendments to the assembly bill. the the hb 2243 was amended to be more restrictive for our

listed historic properties but it did give the caveat that a project submitted by a certain date could choose to use the earlier version of the bill a.b. 2011 and then only use aspects of the modified bill that they wanted to use. >> that window has passed for projects. could you use that at this point? and so any projects that come in now would have would not be allowed to demolish a listed historic property that is until further modifications to state law occur but as it exists right now. so it's just unfortunate. are you telling me just in terms of timing. yes. and is there any will there be any memory of this building are available to new residents in that area? >> we since the project is not subject to sequel, we can't enforce any mitigation

measures, anything that the project does would be at the you know, at the decision of the property owner. >> it's possible to request but we have no we have no recourse to require anything any i think i don't know what we can do but i think this commission would at least like to request that something be considered to remember the site of a national historic building. >> yeah that's i think that's that's definitely something that can be passed along to the project team. >> commissioner vergara it sounds like this legislation was passed just for this one project. i'm not sure if or planning department i'm not i'm not aware of what exactly went into it but it does fit exactly for

this project. is there any time to try to persuade the developers to modify their plans to integrate the existing building into the new one as the sullivan funeral home was integrated into that project farther down market street? i know we can't order but can we try to do we have time to try to persuade? >> i believe there were earlier discussions around this project prior to formal submittal that i was not a part of but i, i have not made that request since it was formally submitted to the planning department. >> is there time to to try at least to go on record? >> i'm not sure we're happy to put it on the record and i'm not confident it'll be taken. >> yeah. lisa at least we've done our due diligence that the department did work with the

developer under the previous iterations when they were coming in at a very high level schematic and there were conversations about are there ways to integrate, retain, do an alteration etc. ultimately i think given various constraints that we're competing constraints. the project that rebecca described as the project that they ended up submitting and per state law we have to respond to the application they filed and so we have very tight constraints timelines again step one is eligibility are they eligible to utilize a ministerial program? there's very strict eligibility criteria that we that first and step one once they've passed the eligibility criteria we have a very strict time frame to do our full plan check and there's not the downside of ministerial is there's not a dialog it's checkboxes. do they comply yes or no? >> if yes, we have to issue the approval. all right. thanks. >> thank you. a commissioner, right? yeah. thank you. >> yes. i am not sure you know as the

other commissioners are stating what what if anything could be done or it sounds like there's really no potential for persuasion. i do like the suggestion that that we try to focus maybe on documentation and a memory of the building if you know at the very least and i don't know who would be responsible for that you know i think it sounds like it couldn't be required of the owner but i don't know if city staff could potentially further any documentation prior to demolition. >> it's just too bad that it seems like a missed opportunity to retain a wonderful facade at

the very least and incorporate it into this new housing project. commissioner foley yeah. so my recommendation would be is we ask staff to ask the project sponsor very nicely, very nicely. would you consider taking a picture of the building and framing it in the lobby or potentially put in the outside and we don't we don't try to force anything. we just ask them nicely because they you know, would i like this building saved? of course i'd like this building saved but the reality is it's not going to be saved. so how can we try to get some memory of the building at the project site for a long time? and i think the way to do that is you know, i carried as much better than a stick would be my recommendation. commissioner baldauf, i agree

with commissioner foley that at this point we need to ask nicely assuming that they have met all of the details of the law and i await reading that myself. >> but but if we asked nicely i think it would be appropriate for us to note that because of this very specific loophole in the law, an article ten building is going to be lost and that we would suggest just as the hpc that if there was some way they could at least preserve the facade because i have a hard time believing that you can't take a facade and put that a very short facade relative to the building that sounds like is going to be described and save it. they can choose to not follow that but we could say and if

you are not we would love you to and find some way to memorialize the presence of the building on market street. it's just a suggestion we're all citizens of san francisco. this is supposedly a nonprofit doing something for the arts on behalf of san francisco. i don't know if we would do this as a motion. i'm prepared to make a motion if that's appropriate and the chair is mine but i think it would be nice to be able to at least go on record that this is an unusual situation. >> i believe this is an informational presentation, is that correct? right. but i do believe that the commission is is very concerned, very sad that this is happening and would definitely encourage if we can the planning department staff to really have a good conversation about our concerns with the developer and what we would like to respectfully

request. >> and i just want to acknowledge that we have a member of the public that bought this particular building to our attention. thank you for doing that. i know you worked very hard to make sure that we could save the building and i appreciate all your efforts. i know the commission appreciate all your efforts and please continue to be a very vocal and informed citizen and continue to let us know when situations like this and we hope there are no more situations like this come around. thank you. but commissioner foley, did you have another yeah, i again i would love to see this building saved i think planning staff in the first and second and third iteration really worked with the project sponsor to try to have them save the facade. i think they made the decision not to change the side and i and i think we really have one shot at the project sponsor and i think we go to the project sponsor and say we want you to

save the facade and then if you don't do that can you actually take a picture of the building? you can keep the building with little history i think i think it's not going to go over well. >> so i think if we really want to if if we really want something for the building, i think we have one shot at it is my recommendation and we go to them and we said could you could you have a picture of the building with little history of the building i'm in your lobby and i think i think they might my guess is that's the easy thing to say yes to if we asked them to maintain the facade and we asked for something inside the building that's really easy to say no to them. so that's just my my $0.02. >> okay. thank you, commissioners. if there's no further discussion we'll move on to our next agenda item. agenda item four commission matters consideration of adoption of your draft minutes from january 15th 2025 motion to approve was there a second

second no motion we should take public comment on this item public comment on the item for adoption of your draft minutes from january 15th 2025 seeing none we will move on a motion made by commissioner foley seconded by commissioner vaccaro. commissioner baldauf i commissioner vergara yes. commissioner right. yes. >> commissioner foley and commissioner president matsuda yes. >> this item passes 5 to 0. >> we move on to commission comments and questions any commission comments, questions, disclosures. >> all right. commissioner vergara just a question for mr. speaker. i see that on our next calendar is going to be a discussion of the ferry building, the plans for the ferry building i thought it was on i just wanted to make sure it was i can i

might have to coordinate with a port because we have not reached out to them on this even if they're able to to join us. so if it's not at the next hearing then i will confirm it for basically future hearing. so it is important that we have the port yes. in attendance our advance calendar says february 19th ferry building informational so hopefully yeah i will i will confirm that and if it's not there i'll make sure we communicate back accordingly. >> thanks. okay commissioners, if there's no additional comments or questions we can move on to our next item consideration of items proposed for continuance the only item on this is are up on your agenda is election of officers proposed for continuance to february 19th 2020 five motion to continue

second motion made by commissioner foley seconded by commissioner wright. we should take public comment on this item any members of the public that would like to provide public comment on the continuance of the election of officers seeing none we move on to the vote. >> commissioner baldauf i mr. vergara yes. mr. right yes. commissioner foley and commission president masuda yes. >> this item passes 5 to 0 moving on to our only item on the calendar and our regular calendar which is the proposed department budget and work program. >> good afternoon commissioners. deborah landers deputy director of administration here to go over our proposed budget and ask for your recommendation that the planning commission recommend to the mayor's office

what we are proposing this year. so it's going to sound very familiar to anybody who's been through this more than once in the last few years. >> so let's just jump into it and i'm happy to answer any questions at the end of the presentation we're going to do the mayor's office overview some background and highlights volume trends, revenue expenditure, the historic preservation work program and then the overall calendar. >> so as you've heard for the last few years and as you've probably read in the papers and heard on the news as well, the city is looking at a deficit overall and it's basically the the expenditure is outpacing revenue for the entire city. >> so we are being asked to reduce our general fund in the department by approximately

$1.4 million to play our part in helping to reduce that anticipated shortfall. a lot of this is because salary and benefits have been negotiated for various contracts and every year every employee gets more expensive. >> we also have the business tax, property tax, hospitality sector you know those are very ,very large factors in the city overall that are contributing to this deficit. so in general the background is that coming out of the 2008 recession we had a few years of very, very big growth. we saw a softening of that starting around 2018 and that has continued and we have been

asked to as i mentioned, reduce our general fund by 1.4 million and so that's the equivalent of a reduction that we're going to take out of or sorry in addition we're going to reduce our fee revenue as well. so you can see here that we had those years where we had a lot more coming into the department and then the flattening which has really been fairly consistent for the last five years or so and we anticipate that this year will continue to look like the last few years. so what we do is we take a look at our volume and then we project revenue based on that. >> okay. so like i mentioned just a moment ago, we're looking at taking our fees down by about 2

million so from 36 million to 34 million. one bright spot is that we anticipate getting a few very large grants so you can see that our grants line is going up by many millions of dollars which is exciting news the expenditure recovery it's pretty much about the same. that's where we perform work for other departments in the city and then we get paid for the work that we do for them it's a little bit lower we're projecting but not any large order of magnitude and the general fund supports we are reducing it. >> it doesn't show in this table because every year we start with a base budget that is different from the current year budget. so the base budget includes those salary and benefit increases. so the base budget dollar amount is around eight point

nine. >> thank you. and so we're reducing the 1.4 to get back to where we are in the current year. so i think that might be a little confusing just looking at this table but we are following the instructions and we are making that reduction so we are taking down salaries and fringe as you can see here mostly by reducing vacant positions and in the budget we have an overhead number that the comptroller's office provides to us. >> we don't have any say in that number. it almost changes every single year by whatever amount they decide is our allocation that will go in after we submit our budget to the mayor's office the non personal services we're not really proposing to change materials and suppliers very very slight decrease there. >> the projects number is where

you're going to see the the grants number. so with grants because until we get the award letter we don't know exactly what they're going to be spent on. it could be personnel. it could be contracts. so we get to budget that in the projects line and then allocate it once we get our award letter based on what the grand tour has approved, we have one piece of equipment which is i.t. which has been out of maintenance since 2018. so we are proposing to replace that so that we can keep keep things turned on and then the inter-departmental services is what we pay for other departments. >> so rent out city attorney, department of technology those are pretty much the big ones

overall. >> so you can see that we're not yet fully identified where we might cut the vacant positions from. so these numbers are pretty stable year to year but we will be cutting vacant positions at that will be identified shortly and then the preservation work program here i think in your memo it's i don't remember if it's the first or second attachment at the end but you can see the detail there and we just pulled it out here so you can take a look if you have questions. i believe that we have other staff that can speak more to the program and project level. i can i can definitely speak to numbers but maybe not which buildings are being landmarked and those kinds of things and then so we have been asked to

take a look at how much of our budget goes to equity projects and this year it looks like we have about 22% of overall staff time that can be attributed to equity and the criteria that we use are the priority issue areas, the geographies or equity populations. >> and then finally we were at the planning commission on the 23rd. we're here today we're going back to them next week and then on the 21st of february we submit our proposed budget to the mayor's office and then 1st of june the mayor's office publishes their entire citywide budgets and then through june we're working with the board of

supervisors and then they pass the budget finally in july. so with that if you have any questions i'm happy to answer or to defer to people with more of the program expertise. thank you. >> i guess we asked for public comment first, correct? >> correct. at this time we'll take public comment on item number five the proposed department budget work program seeing none commissioner commissioners commissioner baldauf i'm curious about the grant money and how much if any of that affects the budget of hpc kind of hpc specific programs. >> so the larger grants are not specifically related to hpc. there could be components put in there as part of the

application process if our staff works together to see if there are pieces that might fit . >> we definitely always have the office of historic preservation and national park service that we put into our budget every year. so those are definitely and again this year if there are other grants that you know about, please let us know and we can include them and apply for them. well i guess the thing that i'm concerned about given what's been in the news is how confident you are about this money ever showing up and do you have a game plan if it doesn't? >> well, i would say i don't believe that i have an answer to whether or not it's going to show up. i think there's a lot of uncertainty right now and what i do know is that we have been awarded at least one of the bigger ones and so moving

forward i have to i have to i have to go with the assumption that the award that we've been given will happen if it doesn't happen then we we pivot in some way whether it's changing projects that we're working on or pulling back scaling back on different options i think until we know exactly what's going to happen there's not really an answer. >> and maybe if i can just follow up though no aspect of the bbc's current work program is predicated on receiving those grants and it's listed here right on page four of the potential all grants that and the level of grant moneys that are hopefully going to come in and i would say for most of those grants particularly the hud grants that's the biggest one. the component of that not all of that is going to the planning department. the component that does go to the planning department as it relates to development review

or historic preservation it was mostly earmarked for permit reform efforts, process improvement, streamlining things of that nature to help move particularly housing projects faster so again, not a direct corollary to the bbc's work program and how i've developed the bbc's work program for the coming year and the out year none of it was relying on that. it was if you look at it as compared to the current budget year that we're in of 2425, it's actually we're proposing an increase in fte count for preservation specifically focused on landmarks and national register nominations by about a point nine fte so almost a for additional staff person to focus on that especially given the pressures that are being put on our gems that we want to make sure get put on to local listings. so we've really shifted resources from non historic preservation work program in current planning to specifically staff that up. but i think the short answer is i wouldn't worry about not

getting the grants as it relates to hpc work program. thank you. any other questions or comments from the commission? >> i had a question about the enforcement fee line or the graph that shows does it help in any way with the increase of of enforcement fees that are now being imposed? >> will it help at all with okay, well so enforcement is a specific fund so it's not related to the general fund in terms of what's collected. you know, that really depends on the the complaints that come to us. >> right? so it's kind of hard to predict if you are looking you know, a few years back before short term rentals was fully established and that the airbnb be agreements that were put into place enforcement cases

were a lot higher in volume. i think that is really more of an outlier. but in terms of revenue overall anything that comes into the enforcement fund needs to be spend spent on enforcement. >> okay. >> commissioner foley, i just want to say thanks to the planning staff for trying to get us another full time employee to work on all this. >> i really we all we all really appreciate it. i appreciate this report. i don't know if it was liz or who put this report together because i've been here long enough to know what we initially received in terms of a budget and and its findings and to where it is today. >> i think for the current commissioners you're very fortunate in that it really lays out who is in charge of what particular department and what they do. >> we did not know that before

and it wasn't documented for any member of the public to just be able to pick up a report like this and understand okay, i know the various departments. i know what's happening, i know the budget and get a really good feel right away about what's happening. >> so thank you for doing that. it it really, really makes a difference and i could really tell you that this is a big, big in change and improvement from years past. >> and the second thing is that i appreciate the whole analysis and the whole description about racial and social equity particularly where we are with what's happening in the nation and about federal policy. and i really think that our commission as well as the planning commission really has to make sure that we use our best efforts to make this a priority. we we passed a resolution some years ago to make it a priority and i think despite what's happening at the federal level

,we just really, really make need to continue to make sure that that is something that we continue to focus on. so i thank you for doing that. >> those areas really stood out to me those areas i didn't see before. i think in reports like this particularly regarding the budget. >> so i'm very appreciative of that. thank you. >> and mr. speaker, do you agree? i more than agree recommendation for approval so second okay, we have the maker of the motion to adopt adopt recommend adoption of the budget as proposed maker from commissioner foley second by commissioner right and we will move on to the vote. commissioner baldauf i mr. vergara yes commissioner right . >> yes. commissioner foley i mean commission president matsuda yes, right. >> and the item passes five to zero. >> thank you everyone.

we're adjourned. great

>> you're watching san francisco rising with chris manors. today's special guest is mary chu. >> hi. i'm chris manors, and you're rising on san francisco rising. the show that's focused on rebuilding, reimagining, and restarting our city. our guest today is mary chu, and she's here to talk with us about art and the san francisco art commission. well come, miss chu. >> thanks for having me. >> it's great to have you. let's talk about art in the city and how art installations are funded. >> the arts committee was

funded in 1932 and support civic review, design investments and art galleries. projects we have are funded by the city's art enrichment ordinance which provides 2% of construction costs for public art. >> so art is tied to construction. there's been a great deal in the southwest of the city. can you talk about some of the projects there? >> sure. our city has some exciting projected in the bayview-hunters point coming up. one artist created a photo collage.

in the picture pavilion, one artist formed a collage of her one-year residency coming together with residents, and anchoring the new center is a landmark bronze sculpture, inspired by traditional ivory coast currency which the artists significantly enlarges to mark that it's a predominantly african american community in bayview hunters point. >> are there any art installations around town that uses light as a medium? >> yes. the first is on van ness between o'farrell and geary.

it's funded with the m.t.a.s van ness geary street project. another project is for the central subway. it is one of ten artworks commissioned for the new line. it's over 650 feet long, consists of 550 l.e.d. panels between the powell street station and the union street station. it's called lucy in the sky, and the lights are patterned with unique sequences so that commuters can experience a unique pattern each time they pass through. >> perfect. what about the early day sculpture that was removed from the civic center? >> this is a question that cities have been grappling with

nationwide. following the removal of early days in 2018, there was a toppling of statues in golden gate park as well as the removal of the christopher columbus statue. we are partnering with the parks department as well as the community to engage with the public to develop guidelines to evaluate the existing monuments and memorials in the civic arts collection and evaluate the removal of a monument or statue but also installing new ones. >> finally, it seems like the weather might be nice this weekend. if i fancy taking a walk and

seeing some outdoor art, where would you suggest i go? >> well, i would suggest the embarcadero. this work was commissioned with funds from the fire station 35. this suggests the bow of a boat and the glass panel surrounding the structure depict the history of fireboats in the bay area. >> and where can i go from there? >> then, i would walk up to the justin herman plaza to check out the work of the art vendors. then check out the monuments like the mechanics monument. also, be sure to check out the poster series, installed in bus kiosks along market street, which features four artists

each year. >> well, thank you. i appreciate you coming on the show, miss chu. thank you for your time today. >> thank you, chris. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back with another show welcome to san francisco's new revitalized qatar valline this is not just an upgrade is a community transformation. taraval street under a complete make over from 10 feet below the street to 30 feet above. >> it is part of the taraval improve am project to impprove transit performance and make the streets safer for all who use

them. completed on time and on budget, this multiagency construction project is a once in a generation investment to bring safer, more reliable train service, increased accessibility. beautiful corridor, refresh roadway and reliable water and sewer systems for decades to come. >> safety is at the forefront of this transformation. new train boarding platforms are a game changer for safety am before the project 5 people per year were hit by vehicles gettinga or off trains we add 22 new or extended boarding plat forms on the route. riders no long are exit on the street along side traffic. when my kids were young it was heard they want to plunge off the train straight in the street. up on the h stop now we have the

platform that is broader when they are excited get off the trin and get home i feel better about them jumping off the train. >> having island where hay step on to is a giant improvement. >> these disability crosswalks look good and improve safety by making it noticeable to drivers. >> sidewalk extensions at intersection corners shorten the distance needed to cross the street and slow downturning vehicles. these and other safety treatments are proven tools to reduce the risk of collisions make the taraval corridor safer and inviting for people walking and driving. another key part was replace being two miles of train track for thes first time in almost 50 years. the old tie and balist track was built for muni oldt cc streetcars and old are light

trail trains not today's modern vehicles and it was noise and he prone to vibration. >> these new rails will make for a smoother, quieter ride and require less maintenance. it is much quieter with the new impresumes i livid here the entire time and plays earthquake or municipal when he it came by now we don't have to play anymore >> before when the streetcar went by i would stop talk the street cars would rumble past now i share that confirmation. i like the fact well is not a 3.4 quake every time they go by now. it is quiet temperature feels like sliding on glass. >> this project is more than rails and concrete it is people earngaging with their community. >> local residents and merchants have told us when their

community need and had than i want in their neighborhood. a quieter reliable train roadway and safer streets for people walk. gi think it is essential. i'm excited and wonderful to have a safe way it get to work i work on embarcadero i take it to the end of the line every day >> through open house, public meetings and surveys members helped shape where the stops should go to the curb plan and selecting trees and art work for the corridor. >> we relied on community feedback during construction of the project. with voting held to choose where to stow construction materials and how to sekwenls the construction. >> as a result the project was split in two segments to reduce impacts to the community. access ability is at the forefront of the design. new features ensure people all abilities enjoy seamless travel on the taraval.

these platforms and key locations have a raised boarding area level with the train to help people with walking aids or strollers board more easily. >> warning lights are flashing. >> pedestrian signal announcements assist with visual impairment its cross the street. new curb ramps are essential in providing accessible path of travel on to and off of sidewalks. the sunset district has long been shaped by transand i the qatar valcontinues linking past to present. on the heels of a new tunnelful muni tear van line opened as a shuttle from westportal to 33rd avenue in 1919. it was not until a few years later the trains used the tunnel sparking a population boom.

previously, riders transfer to the circumstance line to go east of what is today known the westportal neighborhood. by 1923, passengers could catch a one seat read on the taraval between downtown and 48th avenue. for the first time, san franciscans had a connection from the bay to the ocean tide. the taraval street cars brought development people could access the south western neighborhoods. homes and buildings sprung up from the once empty dunes. this vielth east/west corridor is the spine the neighborhood carrying over 30,000 daily riders when service last ran the route in 2019. today, it is a bustling local

business that give this area its flavor fr. cafes to quirky but teaks the taraval connects tout best of san francisco's small business scene. >> i lost fact it is not a money on cultural it is multicult rar. korean, chinese. vietnamese. french. italian. we got irish. we got a lot of good mix on this street of restaurants and businesses in those cultural veins and good ole american. helping local line help our small businesses because this is again a small community. and the traffic here is not if you have to generate big revenue. with the l train from other parts of the city to this area has help us the small merchants as well to generate more business. >> taraval street is a

reflection of the outer sunset's unique character. >> this two mile stretch of transit is not just getting from a to b it is reimagining how we move through our city to shop, dine and experience more in the places we live. >> i live in the suburbs i have to take a car or a bus that was an experience i never did again as a teen. now my kids can visit their friends cross the establishment it is a huge increase in their freedom and independent. one of the reasons we chose to raise a family in san francisco. >> it is wonderful to have a safe, clean reliable way to get to work for the neighborhood i'm excite body what it means to bring others back to our neighborhood. we have, let of interesting shops and restaurants and i'm excited to see how things become when it is easier to get here. >> a lot know each actively it is a close knit community.

in my shop i know customers by name i know what they'll order and i have it ready for them. >> what i'm most excite body the street is now unified, we have new paved roads and new rails. and new lighting. new boarding island. >> today, your new street features newrism upgrade water and sewer pipes. 5 new priority signals that hold green lights when trains approach. sidewalk extensions to make pedestrian crossing safer. high visibility crosswalks and ramps. safe boarding islands and platforms. new trees, landscaping and art. is it time you responsiblesed this corridor to the end of the line? with great food, walks on the beach and san francisco's new add upon ventures a ride away now the sunset district is more

accessible than ever. [♪music♪] ♪♪ ♪♪