It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been enjoying time spent in the 17th Street Plaza that the trial period has been extended another 4 months. The plaza sits at the corner where Market Street (San Francisco’s main boulevard) and the thriving Castro Street shopping district both come together with 17th Street, where the F-Market & Wharves line turns around.
The plaza has quickly become the heart of the neighborhood, where residents and visitors gather to enjoy their coffee, the sun, and people watch. It’s even become a concert venue.
At a more basic level, the plaza is just a much more enjoyable place if you’re waiting for the next F-line streetcar.
I like it!! Sounds like people in the Castro like it as well to have it extended for another four months. Wish I could get up there, for a visit, to see it and enjoy just another spot to watch the F line cars roll by. Hope it’s made permanent. Enjoy it while it’s there!!
Whoever had the idea for that plaza should be given an award. What a great place for it! Makes the area more
pleasant, and cuts down on all the traffic noise. The
trolleybus wires overhead add to the charm.
Yeh, nothing is better than practically sitting out in the middle of Market Street and breathing in all the gas fumes. A pleasant plaza? I think not.
I take it then that you haven’t been there yet Tony? The plaza is separated from the street with 3 foot tall bollards and even just a few yards from the street is enough to put the car noise in the background.
Well, I have been to the “plaza” (and TonyG clearly has too, so the tone of MSR’s reply to him troubles me) … it really is like sitting in the parking lot of a gas station.
Don’t listen to the nay-sayers. They gave every imaginable reason to not build it in the first place and since it hasn’t driven away shoppers and become a homeless camp, they have to find something new to complain about.
Yes, the plaza is next to a street… just like every sidewalk and building in the city, OMG!
@ Paul Richard, don’t quite get your comment about the “tone” of MSR’s response to TonyG. His original comment is obviously sarcastic and clearly implies danger with the comment about “practically sitting out in the middle of Market Street.” So Jamison’s response questioning whether he had actually been there seems fair, at least to me. As KC says, the plaza is no closer to cars than virtually any sidewalk cafe in the city. Yes, it’s next to a gas station (which has been there more than 60 years), but what is being missed here is that this design is temporary, done on the cheap. I join Jamison and other posters in thinking it was and is a worthwhile test. If few people liked it, game over. But that’s obviously not the case. Not every park, square, open space, or plaza is attractive to everyone. The good news is they can choose not to stop there.
Great comment, Rick, and I agree with you 100 percent!! Someone must like it because it test peroid had been extended. Things are busy, for me, here in San Diego with the Vintage Trolley Project. So I haven’t had the time to get up there for my yearly visit and I hate to fight the crowds there in the sunnertime. It’s try to get up there in October and I hope it’s still there to see. I like it from the photos I’ve seen here on the blog. That little video was nice, too. As someone said, “It’s a great place to see the F line PCCs go by. That can’t be all bad!!
Check out this Photo:
http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?102802
It was taken on 6/13/09, by Peter Ehrlich, and it shows a Woodwind Quintet from the Rainbow Symphony playing in the new European Style Piazza at 17th and Castro, with F line car #1053, Phili green, in the background. This is GREAT!!Lets make it permanent!! Where else can you take a walk, have lunch, or go shopping and get a free concert to boot?
check this out:
Happened yesterday at the 17th Street plaza. Any more questions about whether it should be there?
Bruce, that is GREAT! Give people some pleasant space in a community with pride, and watch the creativity flow.