>The fact is, this area is where San Francisco's
>future growth will be, and there is a lot to be said for getting the
>infrastructure to support that growth in place now
This is a good point. I'm a BIG Third Street skeptic - $500 mil (and
growing) is a lot of cash - but we are definitely going to see more
development in that area, and good transit has the potential to help.
There is significant unmet demand for housing in SF today. The
continuing debates over "live-work" are a symptom of this fact. The area
around Third Street (south of Mariposa as well as in Mission Bay)
provides excellent land for such development, frankly. This is the kind
of "infill" that enviros have been pushing for years. One benefit of the
light rail system, *IF* it runs well, should be that more developers will
take some of this underused land and build apartments and such.
Preferably without additional subsidies (as in Mission Bay).
Already lots of people are moving into that area (and Potrero Hill in
particular) due to its excellent access to the freeway for commutes
south. Good access to downtown and SOMA would mean that more of these
people would be available to work in the city - which in turn would
attract more employers, particularly of the high tech variety.
The question, of course, is whether the Third Street line will be good
transit, and whether it will make service in the rest of the city worse
(as MMX has done). One hopes that a *reformed* Muni that can actually
deliver service would actually be able to grow to meet this new demand.
Yet another reason we need serious Muni reform.
An alternative, highly contrarian thought: as an experiment, why not
make the Third Street line a new, independent railway? Hire a contractor
to build *and run* the thing, with a requirement that employees be on the
same pay scale as Muni. We might be pleasantly surprised at the results,
particularly if the contractor had strong incentives to make money by
adding ridership.
Andrew
Andrew Sullivan
s u l l i . o r g andrew@sulli.org - www.sulli.org
1668 Grove, SF CA 94117 - 415 673 0626