As a plugged-in tipster notes, it’s T-minus two weeks until the parking lots bordered by Folsom, Main, Beale and Howard streets will be closed and construction on the Transbay Temporary Bus Terminal will begin.
And while we’ll keep you plugged-in with regard to its construction over the next year, it’s the TJPA that will keep you in the loop with regard to related closures and detours.
∙ Transbay Temporary Bus Terminal [temporaryterminal.org]
∙ The Temporary Transbay Terminal Site, Design, And Meeting [SocketSite]
It’s going to take a YEAR to build this???
[Editor’s Note: We should have been a bit clearer. The temporary terminal is slated to open August 2009 with all construction complete in October.]
This is going to be a huge traffic fiasco until the new Transbay Terminal opens in 2014, earliest!
Infinity’s sales team is going to have to work a lot harder once this temporary terminal is open. Living kitty-corner from a major US city’s open-air bus terminal is not high on anyone’s list of amenities.
what is the impact of these terminals with respect to crime (muggings, drug dealings, thugs hanging out in general) in a neighborhood? say for example, if u lived in the infinity, would the presence of this terminal at your door step be a plus or minus overall?
I’ll take the terminals over the parking lots and run down buildings that are there now.
Is it true that the vacant lot at 45 Lansing st. will be turned into a paved parking lot to assuage militant drivers who are losing precious surface parking lot space in the second densest neighborhood in America?
What a ridiculous, inexcusable waste of money. Asphalt the block, paint some lines, slap up some cinderblock shelters and, voilà!, a temporary bus shelter complex.
Well if you take Buenos Aires as an example I don’t think things look good for Infinity:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/2627354892_2e0008d048.jpg?v=0
But seriously.. it’s a downtown location and with that you get people and crime. Check out crime maps for Nob Hill. But these towers would look funny in Pac Heights.
What a ridiculous, inexcusable waste of money. Asphalt the block, paint some lines, slap up some cinderblock shelters and, voilà!, a temporary bus shelter complex.
Huh? what else would you have them do for a TEMPORARY bus shelter complex? (BTW–it’s TEMPORARY until, you know, the PERMANENT one is built).
Actually, I think this temporary terminal will decrease crime/vagrants, etc. Right now, a lot of homeless hang out on the underpass on Beale, as well as in that halfway house (or whatever this building is), on the corner of Main/Spear. At least this terminal will be out in the open and homeless will have to complete for space with travelers. It won’t be good for traffic though.
Did anybody go to the Transbay meeting last night? I’ve been to all of the other ones. Was anything new discussed? Was the tower cut down another 200′ or more?
Only time will tell, but I am hoping this temporary bus station improves that area, particularly on the corner of Howard and Beale. There was a fatal stabbing there this week, and all sorts of homeless and mentally ill characters wander through there currently. A little lighting at night and more people around can’t hurt.
HALLELUJAH!!! Can’t wait to get this project rolling … and as a side benefit, to get U.S. Parking the hell out of there since they can’t seem to take care of the sidewalk trash that collects around their lots. I’ll be uncorking some champagne on Halloween to celebrate the progress.
“Right now, a lot of homeless hang out on the underpass on Beale, as well as in that halfway house (or whatever this building is), on the corner of Main/Spear.”
I know the Infinity [on the corner of Main/Spear] has its issues, and will need to slash prices dramatically, but calling it a ‘halfway house’ is really a bit harsh. Prices won’t fall that severely … or will they?
🙂
I expect the surrounding blocks will be safer because the Temporary Terminal will have add more a lot more foot traffic and 24 hour security … this is in addition to the Federal Security Officers who patrol the nearby Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the SFPD rolling through on occasion, and some night staff security at nearly every new office and residential building in the area. The sidewalks will be screaming for more capacity during rush hours, but hopefully they can reconfigure a bit in time for the temporary terminal’s opening.
The elimination of about 600 parking spaces between those two U.S. Parking lots is welcome … 600 less knuckleheads driving into Rincon Hill with their heads up their asses and eyes on their Blackberries/iPhones to endanger pedestrians like me just trying to cross the street.
I’d like them to cut off folks from turning right onto Main Street from Folsom, and that would help mitigate traffic headaches during rush hour for Infinity residents … I’m not sure that the temporary terminal will be that big of an impediment to sales at the Infinity – small potatoes in the scheme of things.
ON homeless … with the exception of a couple of docile folks sometimes meandering around the building that’s going to be demolished on the Temporary Terminal lot at Folsom and Main, my daily walks along Main Street do not encounter homeless folks … not sure what folks are imagining … lay off the recreational drugs folks, or at least get your homeless encampment maps updated to 2008 vs. 1998.
The homeless tend to gather at the gas station on 1st and Harrison. But at least they work for their money by offering to wash your windows, which I don’t object to as much.
“my daily walks along Main Street do not encounter homeless folks”
Do me a favor – tomorrow walk down Beale instead of Main… you’ll quickly find out what they are talking about. I live on Beale, and my office is 3 blocks from home, on Beale as well. I usually double my commute time by taking a detour to Main Street for 2.5 blocks, and then cutting back to Beale to avoid all the homeless around those overpasses. Main doesn’t have the overpasses, thus much less of a problem. Can’t wait for them to be torn down….
Regarding the stabbing at Howard & Beale, the Chronicle reported an arrest of a man that “has no local address”. Is that code for homeless or illegal alien (or both) – or just a tourist from out of state or country? I wasn’t aware that you could actually get arrested for murder in this town. Maybe Kamala can make this charge stick before she moves on the Obama administration.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/17/BA6D13JL9U.DTL&tsp=1
Looks like the answer is homeless, FSBO. And they refer to the area as a ‘homeless encampment’.
All of this stuff about encampments, drugs and murders must be a mistake, because I keep hearing about how the Infinity has this AMAZING location.
Upon first glance, the rendering looks amazing. Upon some further thought, I started to wonder if maybe this is too good to be true. And then I remembered…. YES, the rendering doesn’t include the elevated road looping through the corner of Howard and Beale. These will all be gone as part of the new transbay terminal right??
Homeless encampments, drugs, murders…geez, why do you guys *always* have to focus on the negatives???
The elevated loop will be torn down in phase 2 of the temporary build out. Phase one will build out 3/4 of the lot and then when this area is able to accomodate buses, the loop will be taken down.
Let’s see if I can hijack the comment box to embed an iframe (probably not):
View Larger Map
So if that looks like a bunch of garbage, here is a link to a streetview look at what the site is now.
“Huh? what else would you have them do for a TEMPORARY bus shelter complex?”
I’d have them NOT spend $23 million dollars on a temporary setup.
https://socketsite.com/archives/2008/10/tminus_two_weeks_until_transbay_temporary_bus_terminal.html#comments
Ooops.
I meant:
http://apps.mtc.ca.gov/meeting_packet_documents/agenda_1141/4c_RM2-cap_tmp-3651.pdf
Some comments indicated homeless encampments near Infinity … That would be Main, not Beale. I’m calling out the bullshit talk. People who lie like dogs need to be called to the carpet or they keep lying.
What happened to all of the palm trees the original design images were showing? I am usually against the choice of palms in San Francisco, since they were not native to this region, but the use of them to help create some shade and texture would have helped this project.
“I know the Infinity [on the corner of Main/Spear] has its issues, and will need to slash prices dramatically, but calling it a ‘halfway house’ is really a bit harsh.”
Who said I was talking about The Infinity? I was referring to the old building, kitty corner from The Infinity, which will be demolished as part of the temporary terminal development.
“to endanger pedestrians like me just trying to cross the street”
I was looking at the Infinity, but I didn’t realize the area around it was so pedestrian unfriendly. Thanks Jaime for highlighting this serious problem in that area. I guess I should look at the more established neighborhoods rather than a traffic choked, pedestrian-unfriendly area full of homeless people and, now, a bunch more buses on the street level instead of on the bus loop.
I mean, my gosh, LOOK at all those buses parked on the side of the streets! They’ll be driving on those streets all day and night, spewing pollution and noise.
Bums are a San Francisco problem. I frequently walk around this entire city and am amazed at how every place looks seedy with all the bums. If you want to avoid walking near potentially dangerous crazy people, human excrement or homeless encampments, than this city is not a place for you to be a pedestrian. The truth is, for most people, this city is not pedestrian friendly when compared with cities that know how to hide human suffering.
As for the Infinity, it is on the border of a higher bum per square block area. It is also on the border of a lower bum per square block area. Luckily, there is a great deal of pending development that one would expect to clean up the area. This is amplified by having more pedestrian foot traffic. I, for one, call the SF PD non-emergency line almost every on my walk to work to report homeless issues. Get hundreds of residents in the area and maybe, just maybe, the police will start enforcing the laws on the books.
Does anyone know what will this temporary terminal be used after the Transbay completed in 2004 ?
I take the bus frequently, and the area around there always smells like bum (i.e. urine, feces, unwashed bodies).
Not sure how you guys miss the aroma, maybe been living in SF too long? It lingers too; I can smell it without seeing the bums who produced it.