SF: Bye-bye to Mom-and-Pop

Black boxes are parking spaces lost (Chronicle)

San Francisco's vision of the future does not include cars: [bold added]

The San Bruno Avenue Multimodal Improvement Project will turn a scruffy neighborhood in San Francisco’s Portola district into a vision of the city’s future: wide sidewalks, short crosswalks, big “bulb-out” curbs and bus zones long enough to fit two coaches.

Such street designs are proliferating throughout the city, pointing to a distinct political shift: Cars no longer reign supreme in San Francisco. Instead, the mayor and transportation agency are making swift transit and pedestrian safety the priority.

In the Portola, these ideals have met stout resistance — particularly from merchants who say they will lose business when customers can’t find a place to park.

Giannini's Barber Shop lost a quarter of its business after
37 parking spaces were removed. (Chron photo)

San Francisco fancies itself to be a European country village friendly to pedestrian shoppers and the occasional bicyclist. Its unceasing quest to be green also favors buses and light rail, ergo streets uncluttered by cars.

The issue that the central planners haven't addressed is what will happen to the storefront small businesses--the restaurants, shops, hair salons, etc.--that give San Francisco its charm.

Because enough customers do not live within walking distance, the empty storefront problem will become much worse. Certainly suburban patrons like ourselves will stop going to the City--it will be more of a hassle to park or worse, park then take a bus--to drink in the village-like ambience which is disappearing anyway.

San Francisco ought to embrace the consequences of its master plan by allowing property owners to salvage some value by re-zoning small commercial spaces to residential. The City needs more housing anyway.