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San Francisco Chronicle
13-07-2025
- Automotive
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. residents had parked in their driveways for years. Then someone started snitching
For decades, Larry Reed and his neighbors had squeezed their cars into tight, sloping driveways in San Francisco's Dolores Heights neighborhood. Often the tail ends of the vehicles would extend to the sidewalk. Nobody ever protested, Reed said. Until about six months ago, when the first complaint rolled in. 'This has never happened in years past,' Reed said, recalling how a somewhat apologetic parking control officer rolled up one day, to assess a report that someone on the unit block of Chattanooga Street had parked a car over the property line. After leaving a warning notice for the culprit, the officer swept the block for other violators, including Reed's gray electric BMW. 'I really try to keep my car so that the space is pretty accessible,' Reed said, noting that he always has parked the same way, flush with the garage door. Inevitably, the back wheels and bumper stick out. California law forbids parked vehicles from blocking even small portions of public sidewalks, ensuring safe passage for wheelchairs, strollers, seniors with canes and people on crutches, among others. On Chattanooga Street, anyone who flouted the rule got a warning, at minimum. But as driveway parking enforcement ramped up throughout the city, frustrated residents pushed back. Some believed the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency was unfairly cracking down on infractions that didn't really create a safety hazard. Others suspected that a persnickety neighbor might be snitching on them — and in some cases, manipulating the photos attached to the reports. Sharon Gillenwater has avoided war metaphors when discussing the three citations her family has received for parking in the driveway of their Noe Valley home, worth a total of $324. Technically, the tickets were just, Gillenwater said, conceding that her Volkswagen SUV and her son's Subaru wagon exceed the length of her front stairwell. Still, Gillenwater can't hide her exasperation over what she describes as overzealous punishment. 'We're not fighting the law, we all agree that strollers and disabled people need to pass,' she said. 'But can we just be in the spirit of the law? In our case, there is plenty of room for two wheelchairs to go in tandem down the street.' At the same time, she and other Noe Valley residents wonder whether someone is trolling them, filing complaint after complaint about driveway parking to demand a response from the SFMTA. Gillenwater has observed that many complaints have text captions with identical font, and some use old photos as evidence. In one case, a resident drew two reports when she and her car were hundreds of miles away in the Sierra. In another example, someone filed a complaint against Gillenwater's son when his Subaru hadn't been in the driveway for two days. 'It's kind of our neighborhood murder mystery,' said Gillenwater's husband, Andrew Keeler, relaying what has become a tense joke. Searching for clues, some neighbors discovered an app called Solve SF, which uses artificial intelligence to ease the process of filing reports through the city's 311 complaint system. This concept incited suspicion in Noe Valley, where residents typed up five pages of oppositional research on Solve SF, mainly to uncover why the volume of illegal parking complaints in Noe Valley suddenly spiked in June. They blamed the app for wasting 'valuable city resources' (because some complaints don't result in tickets) and said it promotes 'questionable use of gamification of reporting.' 'So someone wrote this whole thing about my app, huh?' said Patrick McCabe, developer of Solve SF, who is proud of his innovation and its impact. However, he shot down a popular theory in Noe Valley that his app is, in effect, a troll enabler. According to McCabe's own analysis, a small portion of 311 complaints in Noe Valley last month used Solve SF, and the app wasn't responsible for the 'doctored' 311 reports that keep recycling old photos. McCabe is familiar with those reports, and has his own idea of who generates them: someone who snaps photos of illegally parked cars in driveways, stores them in a cellphone and keeps a text overlay for each one with the violator's address and license plate number. In all likelihood, McCabe said, the mystery snitch uses these stored photos to refile the same complaints, predicting that people will continue parking in driveways in which their cars don't fit. 'I see this (type of report) daily,' McCabe said. 'And they should use my app. It would be easier.' Meanwhile officials at the SFMTA said they will continue responding to complaints about illegal parking, and issue tickets when warranted. Last April, the SFMTA began a ' focused parking enforcement plan ' to enhance safety on sidewalks, targeting each of the city's 11 supervisor districts on a rotating basis. Officials said they would prioritize specific violations, including parking on the sidewalk. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has fielded several emails from constituents in Noe Valley and the Castro who feel they've been unfairly cited 'for something they've been doing forever.' He can sense their agony, while also viewing the citations as artifacts of good governance. 'To the defense of the SFMTA, it's not like this law doesn't make any sense,' Mandelman said, explaining that public sidewalks should not be overtaken by private parking. Furthermore, he said, it's only fair that parking control officers treat everyone equally. They can't make exceptions for people who feel they're only obstructing a small portion of the sidewalk. And if they respond to one complaint, it behooves them to ticket everyone on the block who is committing the same infraction. 'It's really hard to ask these officers to be platonic guardians, and decide whether they should enforce in each individual case,' Mandelman said. 'They're not really supposed to be exercising discretion.' Cristina Rubke, a former SFMTA board director who uses a wheelchair, adopted a similarly diplomatic perspective. She expressed empathy for drivers struggling to cram their vehicles in snug spaces of San Francisco, including their own driveways. But, on balance, she's happy that the agency is enforcing the law. 'Honestly, most people are good actors,' Rubke said, 'they're not trying to force a person in a wheelchair out into the street. And yet as a general matter, these citations exist as a reminder that (other) people need to use that space.' Rubke remembers many instances when she has had to cross a street to avoid a car jutting onto the sidewalk. A couple of times she has tried to maneuver around the overhang, only to hit a crack in the pavement, and then backtrack. Reed said he's happy to rush out and move his car for any passerby, though he would prefer they call or ring his doorbell, rather than filing a complaint. To encourage civility, he posted a sign at his front steps. 'If you ever have a concern about our vehicle, please reach out,' the sign says, providing his phone number. 'We're happy to move it.' Since posting the sign, Reed said he hasn't received any more warnings. Which hasn't exactly solved the problem: His BMW still doesn't quite fit in the driveway.
San Francisco Chronicle
12-07-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. wants to extend Embarcadero bike lane — and remove parking and trees
San Francisco officials want to extend the protected bikeway along the Embarcadero by removing up to 30 metered parking spaces in an effort to improve safety. Officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the public works department and the Port of San Francisco proposed the changes during a Port Commission meeting on Tuesday. The proposal, called the Central Embarcadero Safety Project, aims to improve transportation and pedestrian safety between the half-mile stretch between Broadway and Brannan streets, a busy corridor with a mix of commercial buildings, parks and landmarks, including the Ferry Building and Rincon Park. The proposed project would be an extension of the protected pike bath that was implemented from Broadway to Folsom Street in 2022, officials said. If approved, the project is estimated to cost $8 million to $12 million, depending on the final design plan, officials said. The city has already secured $8.3 million in grants and local bond funding for the project, officials said. Casey Hildreth, a planner with SFMTA, said during the Tuesday meeting that construction could start next year. The project still needs approvals from Caltrans, the city's fire department, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. The project proposes removing up to 30 metered parking spaces on the north side of the Embarcadero, from Folsom Street to Brannan Street, to make way for the bikeway extension, according to city documents. Officials also want to narrow the center median from 15 feet wide to about 5 feet, which means removing 15 palm trees and planting new ones on a divider between the bike and car lanes because they 'cannot be relocated due to their susceptibility to disease,' officials said. Approximately one-third of the parking spaces would be used for new passenger and commercial loading zones near Piers 26 and 28, and 12 motorcycle parking spots would be replaced with a commercial loading zone in front of the Waterbar and Epic Steak restaurants, city officials said. According to officials, the vehicle and motorcycle parking spaces were rarely used. Northbound left turns and U-turns would be restricted, including converting the Folsom Street left-turn lane into a through lane 'to maintain loading access' for the restaurants and improve Muni light rail service. Port Commissioner Steven Lee expressed concern during the meeting about the potential impacts to the two restaurants, where he said many tourists and locals are dropped off in vehicles or taxis. Hildreth said officials plan to shift the existing passenger loading zone to double the amount of commercial loading in front of the restaurants. Hildreth said he expects there not to be much of an impact because the restaurants stopped providing valet service since many customers were arriving via Uber or other modes of transportation. 'The amount of loading will be plentiful for those that want to drop off,' he said. Officials said the project has been met by support from advocates for cyclist and pedestrian safety in particular, while some businesses and residents expressed concern about the removal of parking spaces and trees, as well as customer access. Alice Rogers, president of the South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Association and the only person to speak during the meeting's public comment, applauded SFMTA's public outreach efforts but said some residents were concerned about the potential removal of the Brannan Street left-turn lane, especially during the baseball season, and urged officials to monitor heavy-traffic days. 'It gets to be a very complicated driving situation,' she said.
San Francisco Chronicle
07-07-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mystery benches are appearing on S.F. sidewalks. The city isn't happy about it
Eight benches recently appeared on curbs in San Francisco, all bearing the DIY-craftsman style of something hammered together in a backyard, from plans pulled off the Internet. Which, in all likelihood, is how the benches were made. No individual has publicly taken credit for this unofficial seating, installed near bus stops in the Mission and throughout the East Bay. Yet each bench has a stencil for the ' San Francisco Bay Area Bench Collective ' website, referring to a loose group of urbanists and do-gooders who believe their furniture provides a 'much-needed' space to rest. To city officials who have to monitor, clean and possibly remove the benches, they are a source of headaches. Ultimately, it's unclear who would be held liable if someone trips over a bench and sues, or who is responsible to fix them if they break, staff at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency told the Chronicle. There is also confusion over which city department should handle the rogue benches. Public works manages infrastructure on city sidewalks, and has received at least one complaint about a rogue bench. If a bench is placed in a public park, however, it becomes the burden of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. And if one of these structures pops up at a bus stop, it's within the domain of SFMTA, the agency in charge of building and managing bus stop transit shelters. 'While we appreciate the sentiment behind these (guerrilla) bench installations, there are a lot of complex issues that would need to be addressed,' agency spokespeople wrote in a statement, in which they cited the question of 'upkeep' if a bench is tagged with graffiti, and the more serious concern if someone is injured while using a bench. Moreover, SFMTA spokespeople wrote, any piece of sidewalk furniture needs to leave enough space for wheelchair users. Carter Lavin, co-founder of the transportation advocacy group Transbay Coalition, believes cities 'need to find a way' for people to invest their love and their values into the urban environment. A bench, he said, is an expression of civic engagement. 'Why are benches important?' Lavin asked. 'Fundamentally, it's about human dignity, comfort and love for our fellow residents. The world can be a hostile place, and a bench is a way of saying, 'You're welcome here. You're invited here.'' The message came through to Rita Rincon, who stopped to rest on one of the guerrilla benches near 18th and Mission Streets. Rincon, who is 90, marveled at the structure's sturdiness. Constructed of wooden planks bolted together, the bench was plain, and in its own way, 'beautiful.' 'This is an adequate bench,' Rincon's caretaker, Maria Mira, said in Spanish, taking a seat by her client's side. But the bench at 18th and Mission could also be viewed as a blight. Set in front of a liquor store, and feet away from a bus stop, it already showed signs of wear. Vandals had scribbled graffiti on its buffed wood, and bits of trash were stuffed between the boards. Grassroots carpenters in the bench collective trace their movement to a Sunset District engineer named Chris Duderstadt, who spent years building and placing public benches around the city, and even posted the architectural plans online for others to emulate. Transit activists in the East Bay independently latched onto the bench concept two years ago, after observing, with dismay, the number of people who have to stand at bus stops. In November 2023, Berkeley resident Darrell Owens snapped a photo of his neighbor sitting on the ground while waiting for a bus. The neighbor was recovering from surgery and couldn't bend his legs, Owen wrote in a photo caption, when he posted the image on social media. It instantly went viral. Owens and Mingwei Samuel, a fellow transit enthusiast with a woodworking background, built benches in Berkeley and Oakland, inspiring Lavin and others from the Transbay Coalition to install them in El Cerrito and Richmond. People gathered for 'weekend builds' in garages, yards and driveways, sharing power tools and teaching each other how to drill holes or sand wood. Politicians in some cities welcomed the benches. Richmond City Council passed a policy in May instructing city staff to create a permitting program that would legalize the community-made benches at bus stops. 'I think this is innovative, it's needed and it's helped restore pride in our transit system,' said Richmond City Council Member Jamelia Brown, who co-sponsored the policy measure. 'It's great that someone thought of all the riders who had to stand for 30 minutes and wait for the next bus.' Whether San Francisco will follow Richmond's example is an open question. Already, the bench collective has seen two of its installations torn out of the Noe Valley area. 'Unclear who removed,' the group writes on its website. Days ago, Public Works logged a complaint through the city's 311 system about a bench at 26th and Mission streets. 'We'll go out and assess it and ask the bench folks to remove it,' said Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon. Noting that many of the guerrilla benches are bolted to the sidewalk, she said that city officials would probably ask the bench collective members to fix any holes. Lavin points out that the city has created processes for other imaginative ideas — like converting a parking space into a parklet. Such arguments prompt a beat of contemplative silence from Gordon. 'Look,' she said. 'We don't want to be overly cumbersome. But there are real reasons why we don't just say, 'OK, put whatever you want on a public sidewalk.' There are real things a government needs to take into consideration.' Gordon and other officials say they grasp the sentiment behind the benches. They understand the functionality and the symbolism of convenience, comfort and dignity. Nonetheless, Gordon said, 'We just want folks to do this properly.'
San Francisco Chronicle
25-06-2025
- Automotive
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. to end program that allows residents to request ‘traffic calming' tactics on city streets
When San Francisco transportation officials began taking requests for 'traffic calming' designs on residential streets, the projects piled up quickly. That was in 2013, and city leaders were just starting to elevate road safety as a priority — it would take another year to adopt Vision Zero, the initiative to end traffic fatalities within a decade. But people already grasped the idea that subtle changes to a street could reduce the risk of crashes, while making the environment quieter and more liveable. Applications poured in for speed bumps and raised crosswalks, concrete islands and rubber road cushions, durable posts and new markings to make lanes wider or narrower. Now, with a looming budget crisis and a backlog of about 300 resident proposals, leaders of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency decided it's time to suspend the program. Many factors played into that decision, said Viktoriya Wise, the agency's director of streets. Chief among them was trust. SFMTA staff want to assure the public that they're committed to safety and can deliver on any application the agency has approved, even if the demand is overwhelming. 'If I told you I'm going to do something, I'm actually going to do it,' Wise said. At the same time, she noted, construction costs are rising, and SFMTA is confronting a $322 million deficit expected for next year. The Residential Traffic Calming Program is among the first services to evaporate as officials try to align their ambitions with their resources. Wise acknowledged the financial strain. But she largely characterized the traffic calming program as a victim of its own popularity, especially after SFMTA lowered the entry barrier. What had been a steady flow of roughly a hundred projects a year suddenly spiked during the pandemic, when officials dropped a requirement for applicants to gather signatures from the majority of residents on their block. Thus, in fiscal year 2021, the agency accepted 110 applications. That number rose to 215 the following fiscal year. 'We saw an explosion,' Wise said, conceding that the number of requests exceeded her team's capacity. Separately, SFMTA was pursuing dozens of car-slowing interventions that staff had planned and engineered without any prompting from constituents. Among them: the controversial 'neck-down' to narrow two lanes of traffic on Kirkham Street, and speed bumps along Eighth Avenue in the Inner Richmond. While Wise mostly attributes the increase to a streamlined process, she also wonders whether people became more conscientious about driving speeds when they were forced to work from home. Perhaps, Wise suggested, residents looked out their windows all day, and witnessed a lot more reckless driving. Currently SFMTA is working with the County Transportation Authority to rally funding for all the new infrastructure, and Wise has left open the possibility of one day reviving the residential traffic calming program. For now, the agency will stop taking applications on July 1.
San Francisco Chronicle
12-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Recall of S.F. Supervisor Joel Engardio qualifies for ballot
The recall election against San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio has qualified for the ballot, with a special vote set for Sept. 16, the San Francisco Department of Elections said. Election officials said Thursday that the petition, submitted May 22, contains 10,523 valid signatures, above the required threshold of 9,911 signatures, or 20% of registered voters in Engardio's District 4. Only voters registered and residing in District 4 will be eligible to participate in the recall election. Sunset District residents launched the recall over anger that Engardio championed a ballot measure last year to permanently close a 2-mile stretch of the city's westernmost coastal boulevard, the Upper Great Highway, to cars to create a park. During November's election, the measure, called Proposition K, was opposed by a majority of voters in the Sunset and Richmond districts, the neighborhoods closest to the Great Highway, although it passed with more than 54% of the vote citywide. The measure spurred a lawsuit even before the park opened on April 12. 'This verifies that the voters of District 4 want better,' said Jamie Hughes, lead organizer of the recall campaign. 'They want a supervisor who represents them.' Hughes said the campaign is 'confident' Engardio will be recalled in September. Engardio said in a statement in response to the recall election qualifying that he will 'continue to fight for District 4.' 'From day one, I've been District 4's champion in City Hall, working to solve real problems in our neighborhood from increasing public safety and supporting small businesses, to improving traffic flow and filling potholes,' he said. Engardio said he understands the concerns of west side residents about the highway closure and is working with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to further improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety. 'Attempting to recall me in response will do nothing to reopen the Great Highway,' he said. Recall proponents have described the effort, which received about $144,000 in donations, as 'grassroots.' The 'Stand With Joel' campaign received more than $407,000 in donations so far, including $125,000 from high-profile donors such as Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. 'The successful recall petition against Joel Engardio is a clear reflection of the Sunset community's unity, resilience and demand for accountability,' recall organizer and Sunset resident Selena Chu said in a statement. 'Residents from all walks of life came together — gathering signatures, knocking on doors and standing up for our voices — because we refuse to be bypassed or silenced.' The issue highlights the divisive debate over public space in San Francisco, with urbanists such as Engardio arguing for the creation of safer pedestrian routes, more bike paths and less dependence on cars, while opponents to Proposition K said many west side families, especially multigenerational ones, rely on efficient car commutes for getting their kids to school, ferrying elderly parents to appointments and commuting to work. West side residents said the closure has hurt their quality of life, lengthened commute times and increased stress as they navigate congested alternative routes around their neighborhoods. Some of Engardio's constituents were also outraged by what they considered his failure to consult them before putting the issue on the ballot last summer. Five other supervisors and then Mayor London Breed also backed the ballot measure, though current Mayor Daniel Lurie opposed it. Opponents said it was unfair to let the entire city vote on an issue that disproportionately impacted west side residents. 'Some people felt left out of the process that led to putting the park on the ballot,' Engardio said Thursday. 'I'm committed to doing more outreach, having more conversations and making sure everyone's voice is part of the work moving forward.' Engardio has consistently argued that all voters, not just his constituents, deserved to decide how San Francisco's coastline should be used. He also said that if the issue was not put on the ballot, the 11 supervisors would have been forced to decide on the fate of the Great Highway anyway at the end of 2025. That's when a pilot program to close the Upper Great Highway to cars on weekends was slated to end. 'The coast belongs to all San Franciscans,' Engardio told the Chronicle last week. 'The cost to our convenience, does it outweigh the benefits of a park?' Supporters of Engardio said a recall is a waste of taxpayer money, especially given that the supervisor is up for reelection in 2026, that he has done a good job otherwise representing west side interests, and that all San Franciscans have benefited from the Sunset Dunes park. Bill Maher, who served as a San Francisco supervisor in the 1980s and '90s, was at a rally outside City Hall to support Engardio on May 22, when the recall organizers submitted petition signatures. He said he voted against Prop K but still opposed the recall. 'To recall a politician every time they make a bad vote, we'd have monthly recalls,' Maher had said. Lifelong Sunset resident and business owner Lareina Chu previously told the Chronicle that she thought Engardio had done a good job, such as organizing the Sunset Night Market, and that he didn't deserve to be recalled. She added that she had not heard of a viable candidate to replace Engardio. Lurie will get to appoint Engardio's replacement if he is recalled. 'The city's got bigger problems, and if we're focusing tax dollars on recalling Engardio, I think it's a dumb effort,' Lareina Chu said, pointing out that San Francisco is already having an election in November 2026 when voters could make their voices heard and oust Engardio.
