The move to make major changes at the Castro's Jane Warner Plaza inched forward July 23 with the San Francisco Transportation Authority approving a key report.
The Neighborhood Transportation Improvement Program Planning Final Report was adopted at an abbreviated meeting two weeks after the matter was discussed before the commissioners, who are the 11 members of the Board of Supervisors. The commission is chaired by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the city's LGBTQ neighborhood.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, San Francisco Public Works presented a potential future design for the parklet at a meeting for Castro community stakeholders March 22. (There still has not been a community-wide meeting where city staff have presented the proposal directly to residents of the Castro.)
Anthony Esterbrooks with Public Works told the commissioners July 9 that $100,000 has been spent so far — $25,000 by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to look into how transit operations would change and $75,000 by Public Works to look into how the plaza's design would change. The southern terminus for the F-line Muni streetcar is at the plaza, and the historic vehicles turn from 17th Street to head east back down Market Street en route to Embarcadero and Fisherman's Wharf. The train tracks and loading platform for the trolleys are in the center of the plaza and can't be moved. Mandelman had secured the $100,000 in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 from the authority.
Ever since it opened 15 years ago, the plaza has been criticized for its lackluster appearance. An update to it that saw an aqua-green paint applied to its ground surface was met with derision.
Mandelman said that, thus far, community stakeholders have informed the city they want to see the plaza be "a better space for people to be in general and a better place to be a place for protest, gathering, and grieving."
"Jane Warner Plaza is a focal point, an iconic intersection," he said. "It's come time to start thinking about what it could be in the future ... [to] turn the space into something that is a plaza, not just tables with foldable chairs."
The plaza is named after Warner, a lesbian San Francisco patrol special police officer whose beat included the Castro. She died in 2010 after a yearlong battle with ovarian cancer. Warner also penned the B.A.R.'s Crime and Punishment column for many years, and a plaque in her honor can be found at the entrance to the plaza accessed from Castro Street.
Esterbrooks said the most-accepted design among the limited group that has been consulted, dubbed the "Green Embrace," would increase sidewalk space by 4,000 square feet. It also imagines the space without the Chevron gas station at 2399 Market Street.
"It is possible part of the plaza could be built out as a PoPo," referring to privately-owned public open spaces, of which there are dozens downtown, he said.
The first phase of the project proposal would cost $4-$5 million, Esterbrooks said, with a total cost of $6-$8 million.
Mandelman told the commissioners and Esterbrooks that he started thinking about what might happen at Jane Warner Plaza considering the planned Harvey Milk Plaza renovation across the street.
"I think it made good sense to give a relatively small amount of money to start that conversation," he said.
Esterbrooks said that the next step would be identifying where to find up to $8 million for the project. Mandelman said that based on his experience with Milk plaza, it wouldn't come in the form of a single allocation.
"We kept finding money to get this part and that part," Mandelman said regarding Milk plaza. "Identifying $8 million is hard."
Mandelman asked Esterbrooks when Jane Warner Plaza is slated to be paved next, asking "I know your department has done some patch-up work but where are we?"
Esterbrooks said that "in mid-May they do some spot repair of potholes" and Public Works is trying to identify funding to pave again.
Michael Petrelis, a longtime gay activist, has been outspoken on Jane Warner Plaza and gave public comment when the county transit board took up the matter July 9. Petrelis lambasted the lack of community meetings open to the public on the plaza redesign.
He also characterized the $100,000 expenditure on it as wasted.
"One hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to waste on a fantasy plan," he said in his phoned-in comments. "Shame on this body that wasted $100,000 that did nothing to improve pedestrian safety at this plaza. The potholes are a danger to thousands of people who pass through that plaza every week. It took screaming at the mayor through a bullhorn in May to get the city to patch up just half of the plaza's potholes."
Indeed, Petrelis showed up to a merchant walk on Castro Street featuring Mayor London Breed in May with a bullhorn demanding the potholes be filled. He was later involved in the painting of a "yellow brick road" at the plaza.
The plaza was not addressed in public comment July 23.
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