It’s strange how we can find our passions.

In 2004, in a meeting at my Coldwell Banker office an agent brings up the 2004 Housing Element of the City’s General Plan. He spoke against the increase in density along transit corridors in the plan. I reminded the office that as Realtors we take an oath to support home ownership opportunities and if we don’t support higher density then we are not supporting housing opportunities.

Naive and simplistic, but it did provoke discussion. For the next few years I worked on the Housing Opportunities Committee of the Association of Realtors and basically dip the tip of my little toe into the issue.

After I joined the Board of Directors of my neighborhood and was asked to be the delegate to the Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods (CSFN), I learned that the depths of the housing issue is full of rocky shoals waiting to sink the ill informed. I tried to enter a discussion about the Market Octavia plan which had just been passed by the Board of Supervisors. I found that I really knew very little and not at all qualified to discuss the issue.

Here, I’m a native son and a Realtor and I can’t discuss the City’s Housing Element of the General Plan. This plan is required by law and outlines the direction the City is taking on the issue of housing. The General Plan contains other elements but I’d like to believe that local Realtors know the housing element and are active in the vision. Guess what, not so much.

Since then I’ve studied, discussed and returned to SF State to study Urban Plannning. Last week I was invited to a gathering of local housing and neighborhood activists for the annual party. We discussed housing, planning, politics and other quality of life issues in San Francisco. Opinions ranged from smart growth advocates to no growth advocates, the discussion was lively, ideas and experiences were exchanged and discussed. Local personalities were parsed and history was revisited. If anything was resoplved it could only have been the opening of eyes and ears to different opinions and allowing growth.

San Francisco is at a very significant junction. The City has grown in population for the fist time in decades. the housing shortage is getting worse within the City limits event though condos are being created at a fast rate. San Francisco is building more “permenantly affordable housing” and calling for much much more in the 2009 Housing Element. We are finishing the rezoning of large areas of the City to meet future visions while looking at a future of non-oil dependant transportation.

My neighbors west of Twin Peaks are banding together to keep the life style and density of thier neighborhoods. Among the people that are concerned about the issues that swirl around housing issues and future development passions run very strong. When I sit and listen to developers, non-profit and profit, talk about where can they create more housing the western neighborhoods are clearly lusted after.

Two minutes. For two minutes thay are going to risk the safety of the families whose kids play on the sidewalk, who cross Bella Vista to get to the ball field and the little ones crossing with parents going to school. Not to mention all the drivers that use Bella Vista to get from Teresita to Yerba Buena and the rest of the south slope of Mt. Davidson.

You want to know why they won’t save anytime by driving on Bella Vista instead of Myra. The homeowners on Myra bought houses on a street that a bus is on. The bus has been on that route as far back as I can remember and that would be the early sixties. They know to park thier cars in the garage or on the sidewalk to avoid being sideswiped. The owners on Bella Vista park on the street and we walk on our sidewalks. The drivers that use Myra know there are buses on the street and they move to the side. The many, many more drivers on Bella Vista will not have that opportunity because of the number of cars parked on both sides of the residential street. It will entail multiple cars backing up for long distances to let a bus go by. When two busses meet on Bella Vista or even worse the hill of Molimo. the drivers had better be some ot the better MUNI drivers. I do believe that there are still some, even though they can’t seem to obey speed limits or stop on time. I can’t imagine backing a 20 person van up the hill of Molimo around the turn. Better not try to back down that would be a disaster.

I can’t decide which is worse. The fact that they think this is OK or that we were given no notice. No one from the community was involved in discussion with the TEP staff before this “recomendation” was included.

The only opportunity to comment is in writting to the full board of the SFMTA and at the next meeting of the board.

Please get involved by signing the petition and,

1. E-mail MTABoard@SFMTA.com  and Sean.Elsbernd@sfgov.org  to say why it’s a bad idea. Speak about on the traffic already on Bella Vista, the steepness of the block of Molimo, the difficulty of the turn, the width of the streets, blind spots on Bella Vista, speed, safety, long time problem etc. and anythinig else you can think of.  Please BCC me at jed@BVNIA.org I will compile all the messages and bring them in as added proof of our strong opposition.
2. Call 311and speak in opposition to the issue. They will give you a case number, please pass that along to me also.

I can’t figure where this fits in that goal, but this came out today. We, by that I mean people in the neighborhood were able to stop the cancellation of the bus. The old new proposal was to not go to Forest Hill station. This would have effectively cut off public transit to Tower Market and West Portal.

The new propsed route in Miraloma Park  will take the 36 on it’s usual route up Forester and Teresita till it gets to the intersection of Marrietta, Bella Vista and Teresita where it will turn left onto Bella Vista and squeeze through to Molimo. On Molimo it will try to make a very hard right turn and climb the steep hill to Myra where it will head down hill to Reposa. After Reposa it will turn left onto Teresita and be on it’s way to Forest Hill Station. On the reverse route it will run the same route in the opposite direction. God forbid they meet each other.

Obvioulsy no one has ever actually driven the streets because if they had they would know that they would not be able to make the turn from Bella Vista to Molimo with anything larger than a mini-van. They also could not have done any kind of traffic analysis or they would know the amount of traffic that already uses Bella Vista as the cut around Mt. Davidson. The street feeds all the traffic on the south side of the mountain from Yerba Buena along Hazelwood and Burlwood to Bella Vista. Those of us that live along it know how often we have to dive into an open spot to avoid head on collissions.

I’ve posted only a section of the route change. Here is a link to the entire map;

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mtep/documents/proposals/rte_036.pdf

As of this eventing I’ve made a motion to the MPIC board to oppose the change on the grounds that the stree can’t bear the traffic and it cuts off all the homes on the top of the hill and the access to Mt. Davidson. When the motion passes I will get petitions out to my neighbors along the affected route and together I feel we can stop this.

Robert Gee, Bella Vista neighbor and board member came for the first time and joined Sean Elsbernd, Hilary Reichart and myself. Peter Zepponi was there but he waited till he saw us stop working before he came over. Daniel Homsey came by but his back is out of whack so he could only offer moral support.

I had a conversation with Marianne Bertolucci, of Rec & Park. The citizens of the City and County will not pay what it takes to maintain our parks. We don’t like to pay taxes and I know that we don’t really trust the bureaucrats to handle the money, but a park as large as Miraloma Park needs money and she is only given 30% of the needed funds by a national measure.

It is important for me to understand that when I ask for a gardener to supervise a work day it is taking away from other duties that they would be doing. The upshot of this is I will be forming a “Friends of Miraloma Park” group. We will organize volunteers to keep this jewel of a playground in good shape.

When I started this project it was to clean up and plant the hillside that runs along Bella Vista. It is clear that we need to work on the whole park not just a part of it. If we can provide additional work hours to Rec and Park we will get more beautification. The hillside on Bella Vista had been last prioity for years and it still is. If we can help them on the top, front, sides etc. they will have the time and resources to help us make that stretch of hill really wonderful. I hope to work with the administration of Miraloma School. Please join with me in this effort.

“We have to do something that is a rare thing – saying that people will have to sacrifice for the greater good,” he said. “That’s never easy.”

All too often I see situations where people or interest groups refuse to look at the “greater good”. I just spent the morning pulling weeds on the hillside at Miraloma Park with Supervisor Elsbernd. We want the parks maintained but we don’t want to pay the taxes. We want good emergency services and to be taken care of but it isn’t going to happen. Wake up and get yourself trained by the SFFD. Be prepared. 

I know that Supervisor Elsbernd will do everything possible for Miraloma Park. If the 36 is to be changed in the fashion of the original proposal, to run to Glen Park and the J Church instead of to Forest Hill and Midtown Terrace, we are going to have to work hard to convince MTA to do something different.

When you read the article the suggestion of smaller vehicles is given. We will need to offer solutions if it comes to pass. So let’s start thinking of ways to solve the problem.

In a perfect world the bus would arrive every 10 to 15 minutes, on schedule, be small at times of the day when ridership is down and larger at commute times, not pull away when you get off a connector bus, or come out of the door at Forest Hill, be quiet, run clean, not run empty but be there when you want it. What have we got but a bus that is noisy, smelly, often late, runs every thirty minutes sometimes, is never there when you want it, leaves right as you come out the door or when the 48 or 44 show up. The current situation is so bad that very few people ride it. Maybe we need to guarantee ridership. Maybe it needs to be on call for elders during the day or have some communication system that it’s needed on Myra. Efficiencies can be found in many ways and new technologies can help.

What we can’t do, in my opinion, is stand up and say “no change” without a solution. There are huge issues looming on the world, national, regional and local horizons and it will really behoove us all to be knowledgeable and able to work towards solutions with all those issues factored in.

In this case it’s limited and increasingly expensive resources, air pollution and population migration pressures.

The citizens won’t pay the cost of running the system and if any of us were in charge of the MTA we would all put the resources we have to serve the greatest number possible.

I’m reminded of NERT emergency medicine training. Do the most good for the greatest number. If you spend 3 minutes on someone 4 others could die. You have to move fast and only determine if they are breathing, bleeding or coherent.

Our world is changing. San Francisco is going to change in the next 20 years more than it changed in the 20 years after the war. My belief is that the best we can do is steer the change, we can’t stop it.

We had good food from Noah’s and everyone worked and had some fun too. But the pile shows we got some ground cleared too.