Excess right of way is San Francisco’s legacy from past projects. Each successive layer of development has created bigger, taller and wider paths through San Francisco. The natural landscape, and the man made, has been distorted to suit the immediate needs of the past. Hilltop development, waterways divergence, railroad construction and highway development have all shaped the physical environment. Now we struggle to correct those mistakes, but also to realize the benefits afforded to us from these processes. The legacy of the past has since become many different things, differentiating wildly from their original purposes. The leftovers become parks, paths, boulevards, buildings, or vacancies. Each space is of course unique, and has generally been treated as such. What follows is a listing of a few unexpected and sometimes profound usage of the disassembled past.
Ferry Building With and Without, via vision63 at flikr
The most commonly cited highway removal project is the Embarcadero Freeway. Originally built in the 1950s, this was also the last straw. While the Bayshore (101) and Southern (280) Freeways were built without much argument, the homeowners in San Francisco’s more exclusive neighborhoods decided to fight back. Those in Russian and Telegraph Hills were among the most vocal in opposing the completion of the partially built skyway. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequent damage, the freeway was finally removed, and a scar healed. One of the most important things to remember from this struggle is that the land along the Embarcadero had been completely industrial usage before. The construction only slowed when it approached neighborhoods. That outcry wasn’t heard from the people of the Bayview when 280 ran roughshod through their homes. And now we have a vibrant boulevard and park system, which almost everyone would agree is a resounding success. It may have taken the destruction of our waterfront before we realized what we had lost, and clamored to have it back. For more images, this movie does a great job of explaining.
Remains of the Central Freeway
Another example of a destruction making things better, the Central Freeway finally came down in 2003. Much of the same struggles happened similarly to the Embarcadero Freeway, and only a portion of the planned construction was ever completed. The problem was the large numbers of commuters in the western neighborhoods who relied on easy access to Fell and Oak to reach their homes. Even though it was rebuilt after Loma Prieta, it too would eventually come down. The current design retains the 133′ right of way, which allows for local and express traffic to travel on the surface level, and for some sunlight in the yards. The problem is that much still needs to be done. It’s easy to spot the scars of past onramps through the Hayes Valley. In the image at left, the blue shows the approximate location of the ramps, and the other colors indicate other lots that were demolished. Green shows the areas that are now parking lots, while red shows the land that’s not being used at all. This region along Market is part of a study from the Planning Department to create more of a ‘neighborhood’ feel, but little has been done to address the lots that are now vacant, or worse – parking lots. We can also dream of one day when the entire structure will be removed. Until then, we have more parking lots, and a new skatepark!
Juri Commons, from egoodman on flikr
Part of the legacy from the railroad through the mission are the akward lot shapes. Instead of wedging in an akward building, Juri Commons has since become a quaint neighborhood park. Other examples abound of past railroad right of way becoming a corner park, a parking lot, or even a street, reverting back to public use is one of the best options. Last time I visited, it was very well populated, even though it’s not more than 20′ wide. Part of Octavia has become parkland, perhaps it’s time to make the rest officially open to the public.
Lastly, I wanted to briefly touch on a piece of infrastructure that we seldom think about. While not transit related, our water supply greatly affects how we plan and build cities. As San Francisco continues to grow, we have to think about better ways of using our resources. We continually praise efforts to remove divisive freeways, but the removal of the O’Shaughnessy Dam deserves our advocacy as well. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is only a small part of the water system, but has destroyed a section of Yosemite National Park. As with highways, after the dam is gone, we’ll continually ask why it was ever there. If even the Bush and Schwarzeneggar administrations decided to do a study about removal, the onus is on San Franciscans to get our act together.
This concludes my short mini-series on scars from our past. Hopefully you will now begin to think about the many ways in which the past has shaped our city. But more importantly, think about ways in which San Francisco can continue to alter and improve herself. Many things are taken for granted now, but we need dreams before we can take action. One thought can summarize this type of advocacy: if it wouldn’t be allowed to be built now, shouldn’t it be removed?
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Chris on 06.30.2009
I’m not so sure that we can use the “if it wouldn’t be allowed now it should be removed” theory. SFO would not be allowed to be built now, OAK would not be allowed to be built now. Huge sections of San Francisco that were built filling in portions of marsh and wetlands and the Bay would not be allowed now.
Sometimes past destruction can’t really be fixed – OR – fixing the past destruction would require huge amounts of new destruction or have other negative consequences.
Admin on 06.30.2009
I actually think that SFO and OAK might get through the approvals process now. Both are looking to expand, and the EIRs don´t present too many obstacles. My rule of thumb is more to do with destorying neighborhoods than ecosystems though. Feel free to disagree…
Chris on 06.30.2009
Oh, completely agree on the neighborhoods.
I’ll be pretty shocked if SFO actually ever does build a new runway in the Bay, as has been proposed off and on for decades now. If it gets put off until HSR is built, I don’t expect that it ever will be built.
Have fun in South America! I spent six months backpacking down there about five years ago (Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile). Lots of fascinating stuff to see, though for modern-day TOD stuff you can’t beat Curitiba (and if you want to see how NOT to do things – Brasilia).