March 29, 2010

Noe Valley Pavement to Parks - Community Meeting April 8

For those interested in the ongoing parklet/plaza debate, here's your chance to ask questions and air concerns with the coordinators:
Dear Noe Valley Residents,

Attached, please find a formal invitation to a community meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 8 to discuss trial public space improvements at the intersection of 24th and Noe Streets in Noe Valley.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday April 8, 6:30pm, at St. Philips (665 Elizabeth Street). Please feel free to distribute this email to any local groups or organizations you are part of. And, as always, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Best,

Andres Power
Pavement to Parks Project Manager
Andres.Power@sfgov.org
sfpavementtoparks.sfplanning.org
Click the image for a bigger view of the flyer.

19 comments:

yizzung said...

I'd also like to encourage folks to reach out to Bevan Dufty directly regarding this issue. He is apparently involved behind the scenes and has gotten quite the earful from a small group of people who want to kill this thing... As always, it's the opposition who raises their voices the loudest but that doesn't mean that they get the only say in the matter. (bevan.dufty@sfgov.org)

Anonymous said...

"Parklets" are lame. Who wants to relax in a small strip of grass with cars passing a few feet away.
If it's going to be done please do it right. Make it a real plaza. People will complain bitterly for a few weeks. Then they will enjoy the plaza.

rocky's dad said...

It's not even a strip of grass, as you say. Go check out the silly parklet on Divisadero, in front of Mojo Cafe...basically a prefab section of wood panels, some flimsy planters and tables, all laid in two parking spaces, with cars and busses flying by within an inch of your life, not to mention all the gas fumes you suck up while enjoying your latte.

Awesome parklet! fail

kitchen bitch said...

Please people the parklet is no different than sitting on a bench outside of Starbucks. The same fumes and same dangers of a car coming into the sidewalk. Quite honestly I would think NV would welcome a park. Most weekends you can't even cross Noe at 24th because the pedestrians never allow a car that has been sitting at the intersection go through. To me the only people who have the right to bitch about this park are the people who live in the homes along that stretch.

murphstahoe said...

Rocky, in the last thread you said it was a great idea for here. You're like Sarah Palin!

murphstahoe said...

"I think that what our goal is here, is to really create new, exciting, public spaces in San Francisco and I'm thrilled that they are starting here in the Castro District, because I think that we have needed more places to have a commons, more places to be together and enjoy each other in these busy days and I think that more people and less traffic is a recipe for a great city and I think that we can always encourage that."

- Bevan Dufty

Anonymous said...

My only comment at this point after reading all of the comments at this blog on this issue is: Will the community room at St.Philips be be big enough for the crowd that will show up to make their comments in public? We might need the Lick Middle School auditorium (with some bailiffs) for this.

Of course, if we stick at St. Philips, at least we will have God on our side.

See you all at the meeting. I'll be the one wearing the name tag "anonymous"

Anonymous said...

good point. I'm not sure God is gonna support the parklets. She tends to like more permanent landscaping into the ground.

just saying.

Anonymous said...

No matter what plan they go forward with will just be a plot of land for all the dog owners to walk their dog to for their morning/evening dump. I would never want to walk or sit on any lawn in the Noe area.

cr said...

Fact check: This will be a community plaza. There is no lawn and nothing for dog owners to dump on.

Anonymous said...

fact check: trouble with that logic is that dogs dump wherever they want, and the owners let them..not always cleaning up. doesn't take a lawn.

cr said...

The commenter said "I would never want to walk or sit on any lawn in the Noe area." I was just correcting the false assumption that the park/plaza will be a "lawn."

It will be a community space maintained by the Noe Valley Association, same as the sidewalks in the central business district. Unless you're opposed to sidewalks too?

Anonymous said...

@cr: so you don't seem to see the dog shit that is left on 24th st. sidewalks in front of many businesses, on a daily basis?

It's a constant problem, and would be a problem in the plaza as well.

Anonymous said...

Or, we could simply enforce the existing health code section that requires owners to clean up after their dogs, wherever they dump. If dog waste is driving urban planning, we've got serious problems.

Anonymous said...

How would you suggest the health code for cleaning up after your dog is enforced? Try calling 311 for this problem. The dog owner is long gone and the dog shit is still there.

Try asking a dog owner face to face to clean up and many of them will become verbally abusive, and some very antagonistic and mean. They they walk away.

whir said...

Sure, but if a dog owner isn't going to clean up after his or her dog in a plaza, he or she wouldn't do so on the sidewalks of Noe Street either, so this issue seems totally irrelevant to the question of whether to build a plaza or not.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, but then what is relevant is this: Say if a trial plaza or even a permanent plaza was to happen, then make it completely OFF LIMITS to all dogs, leased or unleashed.

Anonymous said...

@Anon 2:44

If the majority of residents want the trial plaza to be off limits to dogs, then so be it. Makes sense to follow the wishes of the majority of residents in Noe Valley.

Anonymous said...

You might want to rethink that one.

So, let's say the majority of a neighborhood wants to ignore stop signs from now on. too much of hassle. The "majority" by your logic gets to decide...

seriously?

We have dog leash laws and health code laws for cleaning up your dogs shit for a reason. So that everyone is expected to follow those simple laws, not just a majority.