Everyone Loves Repaved Streets: Broderick in NOPA Going Smooth

Broderick: Hayes to Grove streets, northbound

Broderick: Grove to Hayes streets southbound

Broderick: Golden Gate to Turk to over the hill

It's hard to get much quarrel with clearing a street for re-paving, especially if done one to two blocks at a time. Today three blocks of Broderick street were car-free -- cleared of traffic and on-street parking. But this was no Sunday Streets-style celebration with pedestrians, strollers, skaters, and cyclists enjoying unrestricted use of public spaces. The road crews for the Department of Public Works (DPW) took to the streets and got down to business: scraping and grinding the roadway to get it ready for re-paving.

This week's work on Broderick is ahead of schedule according to the city's Five Year Plan: re-surfacing from Haight to O'Farrell had been slated to begin in early January 2011. The crews are hop-scotching some of the blocks now so a continuous new smooth ribbon of asphalt may still be weeks away.

Why re-pave Broderick street? With the city's woefully limited funds for upgrading its streets, preference usually goes to transit or bicycle routes or to main arterials. But DPW also tries to take care of the "local" streets, like Broderick, that are less-used but worn down nevertheless. When the blocks don't require sewer restoration -- the source of NOPA's re-appearing sinkholes -- a "mill and fill" paving operation is fairly easy to coordinate for the road workers.

In the next few days, take a walk or ride on Broderick and enjoy the difference. And then imagine if Masonic, Market, Polk, Folsom, and Mission were just as smooth.

Fatality on Fell at Broderick

This morning NOPA and Alamo Square residents wondered why a helicopter was circling the area. Gradually the grim news spread: a 24 year old woman was struck and killed by a motorist at about 6:30 a.m. while crossing Fell Street on foot at Broderick. SFPD believes the woman was crossing in front of one driver who had stopped for her, but the motorist behind swerved around the stopped vehicle and struck the woman.

Various news outlets have filed reports, including these:

http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/09/15/woman-killed-while-walking-near-san-franciscos-residential-highway/#more-43741

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Pedestrian-killed-in-fatal-Hayes-Valley-accident-59332707.html

The article on sfgate.com registered 178 comments by mid-evening, reflecting respect and sadness, outrage over traffic speeds on Fell, questioning what might have happened and how it could have been prevented, as well as the usual knee-jerk reactions. The fourteen comments on sf.streetsblog.org offered a more measured analysis as well as anger that another pedestrian was killed on San Francisco streets.

This afternoon I visited the Fell and Broderick intersection, knowing someone died there just a few hours earlier. A tragic event in our midst.

I noticed how fast motorists were driving, how most increased their speed once they cleared Divisadero and raced through Broderick to get yet another green signalling them through Baker and beyond. Do drivers ever see these streets as thoroughfares through residential neighborhoods? NOPA and Alamo Square neighbors have lobbied the city for years to slow the traffic on Fell and Oak and to stop ignoring the many dangerous conditions along both streets.

Just beyond Divisadero on Fell is located the new SFgo sign meant to manage traffic; it's not operational yet. Will the message board and the accompanying technology address the most pressing problem on these thoroughfares? It's not the congestion, it's the speed.

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the young woman.

Seen While Biking: Crane In to Get Crane Out

Cranes have to help each other out, with a little assitance from human operators. On Saturday the largest crane seen in NOPA for years anchored itself down with massive blocks to pluck the working crane from the innards of the 3 story construction site at Golden Gate and Broderick streets. Traffic slowed for several hours while the one crane positioned itself and then dramatically lifted the folded, no-longer-needed-on-the-job crane to a waiting base. Visions of preying mantis and folded chryssalis came to mind.

The new development is the Zygmunt Arendt House, a 47 unit building designed to accomodate formerly homeless seniors. The Community Housing Partnership: Solutions to Homelessness teamed up with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to complete the project. Begun in late 2008, the Arendt House is expected to begin operations in early 2010.

A February 16, 2009 article in the Business Times by writer J.K. Dineen, described the affordable housing project further:

"The project is called Zygmunt Arendt House and is being named after a World War II refugee who left $6 million to the City and County of San Francisco. His will specified that 60 percent of his estate be used for the poor and needy and 40 percent for the neediest seniors. Some of that money paid for the land at 850 Broderick.

"When completed Zygmunt Arendt House will provide 47 studio apartments, each with a full bathroom and kitchenette. Five of the apartments will be fully accessible to persons with disabilities. The building will include a welcoming lobby; an outdoor courtyard garden and landscaped roof deck; a community room with a kitchen and dining areas; onsite laundry facilities; as well as offices for property management and social services."

This site was formerly home to Florence Crittenton Services, one of San Francisco's oldest social service agencies, that specialized in services for struggling families and unwed teen mothers.

In advance, welcome to NOPA, Arendt House!