Quality of Life

By Peter Albert, DTNA President

About one year ago, we met to review some ideas that could make a real difference in the quality of life here in the Duboce Triangle. Three projects came out of the mix: undergrounding all the overhead wires in the neighborhood, calming traffic and improving safety at the intersection of 14th/Market/Church, and working with a coalition of people on the problems surrounding the Safeway site (including the recycling center, Duboce bike path, public toilet, etc.)

So far, I can report that the undergrounding project may take several years, but we are putting our name on the list of neighborhoods waiting for their turn. Some sections of Duboce along the park are now slated for undergrounding in the next few years. My experience with this kind of work is that regular participation with the city's staff at DPW helps keep our project fresh in mind, and (by extension) on schedule. Several neighbors have offered to help this project move along. I invite them to join me in meeting periodically with the City, and maybe switching off as a team so that no committee member has to be at all the meetings. I truly believe we'll see the wires come down faster that way, and maybe get some other perks, like nicer streetlights and more tree planting and maintenance.

Progress on traffic calming really rests with the city, but the key departments are DPT, DPW and Planning. The Planning Department's "Better Neighborhoods" plan for this intersection, which we rated as the worst in the Triangle in a recent neighborhood survey, has some great looking solutions to making this intersection safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, more functional for transit, and saner for cars. Already, count-down signals have been installed, which make a huge difference in giving pedestrians information they need to crossing the street more safely. I intend to work with Castro Area Planning and Action (CAPA) to see what other improvements we can leverage along the lines of the City's Plan.

Finally, many conversations and meetings have been held with the City (Planning, the Police, DPW, Supervisor Dufty's office), neighboring groups (Hayes Valley, CAPA), the recycling center and Safeway on fixing the numerous problems surrounding the Safeway property. Triangle resident Peter Cohen undertook an ambitious gathering of all these people - all volunteer - in drafting a work program for interested organizations to grapple with the problems and come up with creative solutions.

As of this writing we are awaiting the outcome of a Board of Supervisor's resolution to support and sustain this partnership. This is perhaps the most complex of the three projects, but the opportunities are great: to promote community recycling in our neighborhood without the negative aspects of the current operation, to make the Duboce bikeway function more safely, to integrate the Safeway site better into the neighborhood fabric. We are happy to have Supervisor Dufty's assistance and while we know the work ahead is tough, we believe the outcome will justify the effort.

In any of these projects, we welcome and invite more participation from our neighbors. The response we get from the City is so much better when we show up in force. Please call me if you wish to check in on a project or if you'd like to join in (some have already volunteered).

Here's another reason to participate: I am inviting Mayor Gavin Newsom to our meeting on March 8. He had to miss our candidate's night last September due to a conflict and has asked if he can make it up to us, so with this invitation I am happy to take him up on his offer. Assuming he can come, let's use the January meeting to plan our conversation with him and to enlist his help in making these projects move along!