S.F. looking to widen sidewalks in jam-packed Chinatown

With the sidewalks of Chinatown’s Stockton Street jammed to overflowing with shoppers preparing for this week’s Lunar New Year’s celebration, city officials and local merchants alike agree that more pedestrian elbow room is desperately needed.

But when it comes to widening San Francisco’s sidewalks, it takes more than a recognized need and a few loads of concrete to get the job done.

“The challenge is that when you change one thing, there’s a ripple effect,” said newly appointed Supervisor Julie Christensen, who’s working with Chinatown merchants to make the narrow walkways both safer and more inviting. “Even if you can’t afford to implement a whole plan, it’s important to have that whole plan.”

There’s no question that something has to be done on Stockton Street, which has become the de facto shopping hub for residents of Chinatown, the most densely populated urban area west of Manhattan.

“There’s definitely a need that’s more and more on the city’s radar,” said Mohammed Nuru, director of the city’s Department of Public Works. “Chinatown was just built for a different era.”

Stockton Street’s 10-foot-wide sidewalks already are challenged by the many small shops, groceries and produce markets that push their tables and bins out front, claiming precious space supposedly reserved for walkers.

The limitations are even more noticeable in the days before the New Year’s celebration, when parking is banned on much of the street and shopkeepers are allowed to sell from temporary stalls that replace the usual line of parked cars for the two weeks before the holiday.

Shoppers, many towing wheeled carts for their purchases, make their way along the street, stopping often to check out the curbside offerings of fruits and vegetables or bargain in Cantonese with the sellers. Mothers with small children try to move through the crowds as teenagers jostle elderly residents of the nearby Ping Yuen housing project in what is often a blocks-long gridlock of foot traffic.

“The sidewalks are so narrow, people get forced into the street,” said Pius Lee, chairman of the Chinatown Neighborhood Association and an early backer of Stockton Street improvements. “They simply need to be wider so people can walk safely.”

Lee and other Chinatown residents can point to a nearby example of the difference wider sidewalks can make. Once Stockton Street crosses Broadway on its way into North Beach, the sidewalks expand to 15 feet, opening the way for less congestion and a more relaxed stroll past shops and restaurants.

It’s not just Chinatown looking for streetscape improvements, said Nuru, whose department oversees the work.

“Wider sidewalks make a difference in quality of life and safety,” he said. “And everyone wants them.”

Castro Street between Market and 19th streets, for example, was just given an $8.3 million upgrade that not only included wider sidewalks, but street trees, improved lighting, new benches and bike racks, and four rainbow-colored crosswalks.

Similar improvements were made along Cesar Chavez Street in the Mission District. Other pedestrian improvement projects are planned or under way on Polk Street, Taraval and Irving streets in the Sunset District, Palou Street in the Bayview District and other busy commercial corridors across the city.

Traffic solution

For Lee, the answer to the Chinatown pedestrian problem is a simple one. Eliminate one of the three lanes of traffic entering and exiting the Stockton Street Tunnel and the sidewalks could be widened without eliminating any of the street parking the local merchants don’t want to see disappear.

“We’re trying to deliver the message to the mayor and others that this needs to get done,” he said, noting that local merchants and residents already are in agreement.

But nothing is easy in a growing city as crowded as San Francisco, something Christensen learned in her years as a community activist in and around North Beach. Eliminating a traffic lane, for example, would provoke instant outrage from motorists trapped every day behind a slow-moving 30-Stockton bus.

“We’re not just talking about wider sidewalks, but about Muni routes, traffic patterns, parking and a lot of other things,” said Christensen, who was appointed by the mayor last month to replace newly elected Assemblyman David Chiu. “We need to talk about the Stockton Street that runs past Union Square, the Stockton Street that runs through Chinatown and the Stockton Street that goes through North Beach.”

She believes the community first needs to work on a master plan that not only identifies what needs to be done, but also looks at how it can be coordinated with other planned projects, such as the subway station under construction at Stockton and Washington streets, and what money is available to pay for the work.

Eager for progress

That doesn’t mean the sidewalk effort needs to be put on hold, though.

“I’m excited that the district is excited about ways to improve the public realm, which helps everyone,” Christensen said. “But I don’t want this to be a discussion where you talk about something for 10 years and never do anything.”

The new supervisor has reasons for wanting to move the discussion ahead quickly. Christensen will be facing voters for the first time in November, and Chinatown was the center of opposition to her appointment. An effort to show that she’s pushing the community’s interests — and possible help along those lines from Mayor Ed Lee — would be a boost for her election effort.

But a fast start for the sidewalk project is about more than politics.

With plenty of competition for street improvement funds, “it’s important to get into the queue,” she said. “If you have a clear position on the benefits the project brings,” it’s easier to lobby for support.

And lobbying for the district and the projects important to it are in every supervisor’s job description.

“The Castro improvements never would have happened without (Supervisor) Scott Wiener’s efforts,” Christensen said.