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Originally Posted by Yuri
Yeah, Phoenix one is very big and therefore doesn't intrude with Downtown. And it also seems to connect important highways.
Yeah, looking at the map, it serves no purpose as the 101 runs just few blocks away. I just think the replacement could be done better. No need for such large boulevards. Maybe they could go wild and make an artificial ravine out of it. San Francisco is not very green and it could be a nice addition.
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The purpose it serves is that the Embarcadero Boulevard, the grand replacement for the Embaracdero Freeway, feeds directly into it and that's especially important now that there is no Embarcadero Freeway to feed traffic onto 101.
Properly designed, I think removing the portion under consideration could work but at some point the movement of traffic does have to get some consideration. As things are, traffic from the northeast quadrant headed south must flow onto and along the Embarcadero Boulevard and ultimately onto I-280. The alternative is to navigate the densest parts of downtown onto 101, a rush hour nightmare.
As to San Francisco's lack of green: In the state of nature, the city was a treeless sand dune. Golden Gate Park was made verdant with soil enrichment by the dung of thousands of horses that populated the city until the internal combustion engine replaced them. But the ceaseless wind still makes the life of most tree species precarious, especially the London Plane Tree (sycamore) that city planners for some reason favor. They plant them all over town and most look unhealthy if not frankly dead. Palms seem to do OK but are expensive and aren't exactly shade trees.