Let Them Hear It

According to SFist, 311 is now on Teh Twitter. Those of you with that abomination on your telephone machines are encouraged to "report potholes in SF by tweeting @sf311."

I say let them hear about all the broken sidewalks and sidewalk parking, etc. These 'tweets' are publicly visible, so it will be hard for them to justify ignoring cars on the sidewalk if anyone can see how bad the problem is.

Make Up Your Mind

At $1.96 per call, should Muni really be encouraging folks to call 311? What's more, the message refers riders to 311 for questions about the MTA budget and its impacts on service...

Mud Flow on 16th Street

Excuse the crappy cell phone pic. This mud flow on 16th St. below Franklin Square Park has left the sidewalk barely passable for even able-bodied people for months now.

This slick, smelly mud pile has been blocking the South sidewalk of 16th St (across from the Potrero Center Safeway) for months now. I just reported it to the city using the new online version of the popular 311 service. The section of hill here, on the edge of Franklin Square Park, is un-retained, and the mud has been spreading for years. Note the tire track right through the middle of it. I would hate to have been walking down the sidewalk when whoever did that skidded across.

While trying to find an address to use to alert the city to its approximate location, I made an interesting discovery. This section of sidewalk is an intersection!

This screenshot of the SF City Assessor's map shows Hampshire St continuing to 16th

Here's a Google map of the area for comparison:


View Larger Map

How would it improve this unnecessarily blighted block to open Hampshire up to through traffic, even perhaps with a set of public stairs (leaving it a dead-end to cars)? Any public space here would have to be well-planned, because Franklin square is notorious for homeless encampments. But a streetscape that encourages the flow of pedestrian traffic (instead of mud) could bring life back to a block that's been neglected for too long.