Jake McGoldrick: Central Freeway Redux

Last November, Supervisor Bevan Dufty surprised his colleagues on the Transportation Authority (TA) by suggesting that the City revisit the question of bringing down the Central Freeway off-ramp at Market Street. As many of you know, the issue of the Central Freeway rebuild has a long and contentious history in our City and was finally resolved only after a long battle between opposing forces roughly aligned with the east and west sides of San Francisco. That resolution came in the form of 1999's Proposition I, which enacted a plan to take down the Central Freeway back from Fell and Oak streets to a Market Street touchdown.

Having resolved the Central Freeway issue, the City has engaged in substantial planning efforts to revitalize the Hayes Valley neighborhood, including neighborhood infrastructure improvements, rebuilding Octavia Boulevard and developing large amounts of affordable housing.

Many District 1 residents engaged in the planning efforts leading up to the Proposition I resolution, including Ron Miguel, president of the Planning Association for the Richmond. A citizens' advisory committee considered numerous options for reconfiguring the Central Freeway and finally settled on the solution embodied in Proposition I as one that would efficiently distribute traffic along several routes to the north and west sides of the City. The measure was placed on the ballot and passed, finally resolving a public and polarizing controversy that divided our City through several elections. Or so we thought.

Last winter, Dufty requested that the Transportation Authority study the issues involved in moving the Central Freeway off-ramp back to a touchdown east of Mission Street, possibly at Bryant Street. The TA produced a Strategic Analysis Report (SAR) that concluded that moving the freeway off-ramp would involve significant risks to the City.

My office was instrumental in ensuring that the SAR consider and identify all of the potential risks involved in such a move, which I considered unwise and untimely. Among the potential effects found by TA staff were significant traffic impacts, delays in project delivery of more than six years, and a more than doubling of the costs of the project. In addition, the study concluded that changing the ramp touchdown also would jeopardize funding crucial for both completion of the freeway project, as well as funding for the Octavia Boulevard revitalization. The 11 members of the TA (which has the same membership as the supervisors) voted unanimously to accept the findings of the study. Given these potential consequences, I believed the issue would be dropped.

Unfortunately, Dufty then chose in January to move forward with a strongly-worded resolution that called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to freeze $90 million in funding for completion of the Central Freeway off-ramp until other options for a touch-down ramp had been fully studied by the City and CalTrans. In the current state budget context, losing earmarked funding would leave the project with no identified funding to complete the off-ramp, regardless of whether it touched down at Market Street or some other location. It also would have the potential to jeopardize funding for the entire Octavia Boulevard revitalization project.

In addition, Dufty's proposal would directly contravene the will of the voters in passing Proposition I in 1999. Proposition I clearly and specifically called for a touch-down ramp at Market Street, a fact that was trumpeted in literature and advertising both in support and opposition to that measure.

At the full board, I secured the support of a majority of my colleagues to oppose this 11th hour effort to change the course of so many years of planning. While my heart goes out to the North Mission neighbors who wanted to revitalize their neighborhood by eliminating the touch-down ramp at Market Street, I believe it is possible for their desire to study other ramp options to be fulfilled while we complete the touch-down ramp as long planned. In about 10 years, the cement roadbed of the Central Freeway off-ramp will need to be replaced by CalTrans. Over the next 10 years, CalTrans and the City can study other touchdown ramp alternatives to Market Street and analyze what effects that would have on both traffic patterns and the various neighborhoods of the City. That will allow the City to reconsider its choice at that time in a manner that allows for deliberation and maximum input from all neighborhoods.

Upcoming District 1 Town Hall Meeting
I want to invite the public to our next District 1 Town Hall Meeting to be held on Thursday, April 22, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Golden Gate Senior Center, 47th Avenue and Fulton Street. The meeting will be an open forum for questions concerning District 1 issues. Also, mark your calendars for May 22, when I will host a District 1 Town Hall Meeting on the city's budget. (It may be a joint meeting with District 5 and Supervisor Matt Gonzalez.) The May 22 meeting will be from 10 a.m. to noon at the Richmond Recreation Center, 451 18th Ave. I hope you will join us at both meetings and bring your questions and concerns.

Supervisor Jake McGoldrick represents District 1.