San Francisco: Chinatown and the Central Subway

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by TWAK

How long is the walkway from Powell to Union Square?

It's actually not that long. 690 ft according to this diagram.



So in my picture, I'm standing at the Concourse level, after going down a short escalator ride from the street level entrance at Union Square at the corner of Stockton and Geary. From there, you can go through the fare gates and down a much longer set of escalators down to the North side of the platform. Or as seen in my picture, there's a short corridor about 690 ft long that will take you to Stockton and Ellis, where there's another set of escalators that you could take down to the South side of the Union Square station platform. Or you can keep going and it'll lead directly to the Powell Street station, where you can enter the Bart fare gates or the Muni Metro fare gates a little bit further. So technically you could walk underground from Union Square all the way to Powell Station if you wanted to. Probably a 2 minute walk.

Now let's say if you wanted to transfer from Union Square to Powell, you simply get off and make sure you take the southern facing escalators (there's signage to help guide you) which will bring you up under the corner of Stockton and Ellis, where you can simply walk into the Powell Street Station. It's a very efficient transfer considering the depth of the station and it not being directly underneath Powell Street station. I usually walk up escalators too which helps speed up the process. I'll attach a video below that might illustrate it better. The guy actually walks kinda slow, but if you walk at a normal urban commuter pace then it's actually pretty quick.



Now that I think about it, I think that sign should be updated to say Stockton/Ellis St (transfer to Powell St Station) to be even more clear.

[homebucket]

And the videos

From Powell to Union Square
• Video Link

From Union Square to Powell
• Video Link

[geomorph]

I love how the Union Square street entrance is integrated into the existing park design!

[BigDipper 80]

Is there a reason they didn't reserve the space above the Chinatown station for residential? The park looks nice, but in a city known currently for its housing crunch above all else, you'd think there would have been consideration to squeeze some units on that corner.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by BigDipper 80

Is there a reason they didn't reserve the space above the Chinatown station for residential? The park looks nice, but in a city known currently for its housing crunch above all else, you'd think there would have been consideration to squeeze some units on that corner.

As noted before, Chinatown is already the second densest neighborhood in SF (behind the Tenderloin) at 62,500 per sq mi. While I agree more residential is always nice and SF and the surrounding cities face a housing shortage, Chinatown is clearly pulling its weight.

So while I agree that more residential is needed, even in Chinatown, right now, what the neighborhood and its community needs is more open space. There's Portsmouth Square (1833), Willie "Woo Woo" Wong Playground (1927), Saint Mary's Square (1957), and Woh Hei Yuen (1993). There have been quite a few parks (Salesforce, Presidio Tunnel Tops, Francisco Park, Crane Cove Park) that have opened up in SF over the past few years, but none in Chinatown.

I think the residents deserve this one little corner.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by JManc

I have yet to take Muni since I've been here...need to remedy that. Great tour.

Thanks!

I guess it's not too surprising you haven't ridden Muni yet since it doesn't really serve any touristy/outside visitor areas (except now Chinatown) aside from Oracle Park and Chase Center. It's more of a local service that branches out to the residential neighborhoods. It's also historically been pretty slow especially in the outer Western neighborhoods where it's all on the surface and the stops are a bit too close together.

It works great if you wanted to get from Embarcadero to Castro or vice versa quickly though as the lines converge and frequencies are pretty close together.

[homebucket]

A good article explaining the value of open space. I think urbanists, despite good intentions, can sometimes fall into a silo of housing, housing, housing, build, build, build. But there's always more than meets the eye.

A redone Chinatown park shows why public space matters in times like these
John King
Feb. 23, 2021

Some public parks want you to feel like you’re in a place apart from your surroundings. The joyously intricate transformation of Chinatown’s Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground, by contrast, plunges you right in.

Laundry hangs from a window above the tot lot at the back of the snug mid-block space. Financial District towers form a backdrop to the tall play structure that seems to be wrapped in a colorful dragon’s tail. Two basketball courts share a narrow alley with Hang Ah Tea Room, a dim sum house dating back to 1920.

The remake of this half-acre playground in the middle of Chinatown began more than a year before the coronavirus upended daily life. Even so, the incarnation that opened earlier this month is a showcase for how cities can be bolstered by continual reinvention — and how public spaces can serve the needs of the moment, not only the purpose for which they were conceived.

...

All this would be welcome anytime. But in this constrained year where community hubs like libraries and cafes are closed, the enhanced playground serves as a relief valve — especially for a tightly packed neighborhood where hundreds of families live in single-room-occupancy hotels.

“Open space, and quality open space, is an urban justice issue,” said Malcolm Yeung of the Chinatown Community Development Center, a nonprofit group that owns more than a dozen residential buildings in the neighborhood. “The overwhelming feedback that I’ve heard about the playground is incredibly positive, both functionally and aesthetically.”

Yeung’s point strikes to a deeper truth about parks and playgrounds.

The fact is, these public spaces aren’t simply decoration. They’re part of the civic infrastructure that makes a place more or less livable — not as obviously essential as roads or power lines, but critical all the same.

They also signal how decision makers value ordinary people. A welcoming park or playground says that your presence and well-being are valued. One that is dilapidated or poorly maintained suggests that if you can’t pay for your pleasures, tough luck.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...e-15974209.php

[homebucket]

And some more background:

Modest projects to expand Chinatown’s meager open space in works
J.K. Dineen
Dec. 27, 2015

In most neighborhoods, the roof of a new office building would hardly be seen as an opportunity for recreation space, nor would the top of a new subway station or a grim concrete bridge connecting a hotel to an often-overcrowded public square.

But Chinatown is a place where only 5 percent of the land is open space, compared with the citywide average of 23 percent.

“Open space is precious everywhere in San Francisco, but 10 times more precious in Chinatown because of the density,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the neighborhood. “Even a small piece of land in the sky is a big deal in Chinatown.”

Along with saving the neighborhood’s stock of affordable residential hotels, preserving open space has been at the heart of the neighborhood’s land-use battles, said Gordon Chin, who founded Chinatown Neighborhood Development Center and wrote the book “Building Community, Chinatown Style.” In the book, Chin recounts how residents successfully beat back a 1968 plan to build a nine-story parking garage on the site of what was then known as Chinese Playground.

The garage was meant to serve residents of the Mandarin Tower, a 16-story apartment building on Stockton Street. The fight culminated with a 1969 Board of Supervisors meeting at which attorney Gordon Lau argued that “business has rights, yes, but so do the people.”

“For a kid growing up in Chinatown, there is hardly a place to sleep, never mind room to play,” Chin said.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...er-6722956.php

[homebucket]

Interestingly, I checked and there's actually a few proposals just in the last couple years for new housing in Chinatown. They typically fly under the radar though with this being a skyscraper forum and all.

827-829 Kearny Street


809 Sacramento Street


1324-1326 Powell Street


828 Stockton Street


749 Grant Avenue

[JManc]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Thanks!

I guess it's not too surprising you haven't ridden Muni yet since it doesn't really serve any touristy/outside visitor areas (except now Chinatown) aside from Oracle Park and Chase Center. It's more of a local service that branches out to the residential neighborhoods. It's also historically been pretty slow especially in the outer Western neighborhoods where it's all on the surface and the stops are a bit too close together.

It works great if you wanted to get from Embarcadero to Castro or vice versa quickly though as the lines converge and frequencies are pretty close together.

I rarely venture into the touristy areas these days (apart from a drink near Market) and am always on the lookout for interesting areas to explore and photograph off the beaten path.

[dktshb]

Thanks so much for posting these photos with your descriptions. Will have to start taking Muni 3 days a week as opposed to 2 now with an extra day in office. I usually get off at Montgomery but I need to check out Powell and where and how it connects via the walkway. So we lost the T line option to get to Mission Bay area from Castro and now only have the N or transfer option at Powell.

A little off topic but are they ever going to open the L line again?

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by dktshb

Thanks so much for posting these photos with your descriptions. Will have to start taking Muni 3 days a week as opposed to 2 now with an extra day in office. I usually get off at Montgomery but I need to check out Powell and where and how it connects via the walkway. So we lost the T line option to get to Mission Bay area from Castro and now only have the N or transfer option at Powell.

You're welcome! Glad that even locals are finding the thread informative and useful.

But yeah, that's what it's looking like. I think if you want to get to say, Mission Rock from Castro, you can take K Ingleside or M Ocean View to Powell, then transfer to T Third. It's about a 30 min ride and more direct. But I think probably comes out to about the same time as the previous K/T route because of the added transfer, and obviously as a result it's no longer a one seat ride. The other option would be taking 22 Fillmore and cutting directly across town, which is most direct but is also a 30 min ride.

A little off topic but are they ever going to open the L line again?

I think they're still working on the L Taraval Improvement Project, which isn't slated to be completed until Fall 2024 at the earliest. Fingers crossed there won't be any delays. At least Segment A is already complete and apparently it was completed on time and on budget.

https://goo.gl/maps/jc4CJfHJkpPeM5xs6

Project Benefits
- Transit priority traffic signals for more efficient and time saving Muni trips
- Sidewalk bulbouts for safer pedestrian crossing and higher visibility
- Enhanced sidewalks to draw visibility to pedestrian crossing at Taraval intersections
- Safety boarding islands for safer boarding and alighting of Muni L Taraval customers
- Infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement of worn rails, overhead wires, water and sewer lines, and repavement of the entire Taraval street due to heavy usage from both cars and light rail vehicles (LRV)
- Infrastructure upgrades will result in less rocking for riders on board the train and rails are less noisy for other vehicles when driven over
- Sewer and water line replacement will allow for longevity of the utility pipes as well as easier access and less disruptive utility work in the future
- The streetscape style elements include tree selection, decorative crosswalks, trackway accent colors and public art

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by geomorph

I love how the Union Square street entrance is integrated into the existing park design!

Yeah, that's a good point! It's not flashy or ultra modern/luxurious looking but it feels like it'd been there this whole time. And the exterior cladding matches the rest of the existing Union Square stone steps perfectly. I'll need to get another shot of the station in full context of Union Square next time.





https://farrowpartnership.wordpress....-social-steps/

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by JManc

I rarely venture into the touristy areas these days (apart from a drink near Market) and am always on the lookout for interesting areas to explore and photograph off the beaten path.

I'm not an EtOH person so I don't know if this place is actually any good or not, but it might be worth checking out.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/sunset-rese...-san-francisco

It's a quick 4 block walk South of the N Judah line. Noriega is a nice little casual commercial strip embedded into a neighborhood. It's also close to Grandview Park and the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, a popular local attraction. Fingers crossed it's not a foggy day and the views are quite spectacular. Sweeping views of the NE and NW quadrants of SF.

N Judah also passes through the Inner Sunset and Outer Sunset commercial districts. Both are really nice and casual to walk through. Not as many tourists in these parts so you get more of the local vibe. San Tung is well known for its chicken wings and black bean sauce noodles.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/san-tung-san-francisco-2

Next time you visit SF, maybe ride the N Judah and check out these sights along the way. Cole Valley is also very quaint and nice to walk through. And the route ends at Ocean Beach if you want to catch the neighborhood's namesake.