Developments in Growth: “Bike lanes to Bernal,” transferring in to Mission reasonably priced housing, and inexperienced areas

let us continue

If there were a Mission District history book, those years could go down as the “Golden Age of Affordable Housing”. There has recently been a rapid fire from affordable units like La Fénix, Avanza 490, and 2060 Folsom (to name a few) that are now launching all dozen of San Franciscan families.

Dairo Romero said his organization, the Mission Economic Development Agency, has so far helped around 54 families move into these new homes since October 2020. Navigating the DAHLIA process can be difficult, he told me – for example, a missing document can imperil the whole thing. But the pandemic year created a unique harmony between the city organizations that used to lead to a lot of controversy between authorities, he said. This means that much more progress has been made at a time coinciding with a flurry of developments.

“This crisis taught us that we could face it,” said Romero. “I think we achieved more.”

The wheels turn

For Rick Girling, a Bernal Heights resident and longtime cyclist, increasing bicycle safety is an issue that is literally close at hand. His son, who was riding his bike to work in a nearby bike shop, had a “serious accident” on Cortland Avenue last year. Now, having noticed more kids on the hill, Girling is signaling the need to change.

“I just decided I wanted to do something about it,” Girling told me. “I can see some children are being killed.”

Girling launched an online petition asking the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority to add three bike lanes in its neighborhood: one from Bayshore along Cortland Avenue towards Good Life Grocery; one from Mission Street up Cortland Avenue to the New Wheel Electric Bikes Store; and one from Cesar Chavez Street to the top of the hill.

Girling argued that the steepness of the hill can affect cyclists’ ability to go straight, increasing the likelihood of collisions with cars passing by and buses taking up space on the narrow road. “Accidents wait without cycle paths to Bernal,” he wrote on the petition.

So far, the petition “Cycle paths to Bernal” has targeted 30 out of 100 signatures. He is aware that people are against it; even his own son (no, not the one who was hit; who “likes the cars”) complains about the possible loss of parking spaces. But Girling, who was on his bike 16 years ago when he was hit by a Muni bus, said he believed it was a safety issue.

“I was in the hospital for three months. I was unable to work for a year and I still have pain every day, ”said Girling. “But I’m only one of hundreds of thousands who [got hit by a car on their bike]. “

An evergreen room

Sounds like a walk in the park. The groundbreaking for the India Basin Shoreline Park in Bayview begins on June 17th. The ambitious project promises to be “the biggest project of a generation,” a spokesman for the Recreation and Parks Department told me via email. It will be equipped with riverside paths, recreation rooms and a restored tidal landscape. The addition is intended to close the gap between parking capital and access, the spokesman continued in an email. “Everyone deserves safe, beautiful parks, regardless of neighborhood.”

And it’s part of a larger project called the India Basin Mixed-Use Project. The planned plan includes around 1,250 residential units as well as commercial and parking spaces.

Increase the performance

This week the city was full of talk about the Potrero power plant project, which promised to convert the former coal plant into thousands of residential units, a hotel, a life science laboratory, commercial space, parking, entertainment and open space.

Now it turns out that the first phase, which is in progress, should be more ambitious than originally planned. Originally, the construction of 660 residential units was planned in the first phase of the project, 76 of which are 100 percent affordable. But The Chronicle reported that the construction company has now increased it to 735 units, 100 of which are completely affordable. This is thanks to the project’s partner, Associate Capital, who also agreed to increase spending on infrastructure development for parks, plazas and sidewalks by $ 200 million. An additional commercial building was also thrown into the mix.

All in all, there will be 2,601 residential units there, around 30 percent of which are reserved as affordable. But don’t hold your breath, because city planners expect up to six construction phases over 30 years.

Housekeeping: What you missed and what I’m reading

I think about parks a lot right now. A new report I covered found that San Francisco’s parking system is one of the best in the country when it comes to factors like accessibility, spending, and equity. But there are still big differences in who has access to these urban oases; And while this doesn’t seem like a big deal, studies argue that living near greenery has been shown to offer numerous mental and physical benefits. The pandemic also emphasized the important roles. There, people could safely picnic and / or take a Covid-19 swab in their noses.

In keeping with infrastructure and green issues, Bloomberg’s City Lab wrote how environmentalists urge President Biden to cut $ 10 billion on the “greenway stimulus” to repair American “greenways”. These are cycling and hiking trails that ideally – but not always – combine green spaces. One such trail that could increase funding if this goes through is the 500-mile Bay Trail that runs through San Francisco and all nine Bay Counties.

I also reread Berkeleyside’s article, “Berkeley has a ‘tree equity’ gap between richer and poorer neighborhoods,” which was originally published in March, which examined where more trees are growing and highlighting a city program aimed at planting 1,000 trees . It explains how a lack of trees can lead to “aesthetically missing roads, increased air pollution and an unpleasant heat island effect”, which can be seen as contributing to health inequalities.