Glen Park boom clogging streets
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
July 16, 2009
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| Center of town: New attractions in the Glen Park neighborhood have made it a hub. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The village in the heart of San Francisco’s secluded Glen Park neighborhood has begun to blossom, and city officials now hope to make it safer and calmer.
In recent years, a grocery store, new library building and several restaurants and businesses have opened in the quiet neighborhood, which is tucked between the Diamond Heights, Bernal Heights and Mission Terrace areas.
The new attractions have solidified the BART station-anchored area’s role as a gathering place for the surrounding community, according to Glen Park Association board member D. Valentine.
“We call it a village — it’s kind of isolated from the rest of The City because of Glen Canyon and the hills that surround it,” Valentine said. “It’s a wonderful little neighborhood on the hillside.”
But as the community hub has grown, some of its road-related problems have become more pronounced.
Freeway-style traffic tears through the area, particularly at Bosworth and Diamond streets, and a proliferation of shuttle buses for companies such as Genentech and Yahoo adds to the harried state of affairs, according to Valentine.
Pedestrians frequently dart across busy streets during peak hours to switch between transit services that often do not completely connect. Some Muni buses drop commuters two blocks away from the BART station.
As traffic in the area has increased, village merchants have seen parking spaces outside their businesses fill with noncustomers, making it harder to woo patrons.
“Over time,” Glen Park Cleaners Manager Tommy Baik said, “there have been more people and more cars, but no more parking.”
City officials have scheduled a meeting tonight at the Glen Park Recreation Center to discuss plans to calm traffic, change parking rules, reorganize bus routes and allow for the redevelopment of some land, including the BART parking lot.
The Glen Park Community Plan is not new; it was first released in 2003, and it helped Supervisor Bevan Dufty secure a $3.4 million federal grant to fund some of the needed transportation improvements in the neighborhood, he said.
The project is finally moving forward, Dufty said.
“There has been a renaissance in Glen Park,” he said. “With new restaurants and businesses, the village is flourishing and it’s going to take it to an even better level once these projects move forward.”
An environmental impact report, which must be completed next, is expected to be finished in 2010, according to City Planner Jon Swae.
New face of Glen Park
Planned changes around the San Francisco neighborhood:
- Traffic-calming devices, including roundabouts, to be installed throughout area
- Improved access between BART Station and J-Church Muni stop
- New connections between Muni bus services and BART station
- Enhanced pedestrian environment
- New street-parking rules
- Construction of up to 65 new homes at BART station parking lot
- Construction of up to 55 new homes at northwest corner of Diamond and Bosworth streets
Source: Planning Department
jupton@sfexaminer.com
Examiner correspondent Andrew Samuels contributed to this report.
