Are high costs for a small stretch of the city really worth it?
SAN FRANCISCO - Plans for building the Central Subway connecting parts of Fourth and Stockton Streets sound great to those who ride the overcrowded and slow Muni bus lines 30 and 45 to get to Chinatown. However, with costs as high as $1.4 billion for a 1.7-mile stretch, not all community members are smiling at this proposal.
With construction scheduled to start in 2010 for operations beginning in 2016, the Central Subway would likely be the second most expensive subway project in the world. Honolulu’s planned rail transit, if approved by the city and county and taxpayers, would cost 3.7 billion with initial service covering 25 miles.
According to SF Municipal Transportation Agency, the Central Subway would connect the city’s civic, business and cultural centers, linking Visitacion Valley to Union Square and Chinatown. A 20-minute ride from Fourth and King Streets to Chinatown would become a mere seven-minute trip.
Residents in the southern parts of the city would also be able to commute in less crowded vehicles and have more access to jobs in other parts of the Bay Area, as the Central Subway would connect to BART.
The Subway has strong support from the Chinatown community, which sees it as an economic lifeline that could possibly undo the damage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that destroyed the Embarcadero Freeway, said David Chiu, a Small Business Commissioner and candidate for District 3 Supervisor.
North Beach and Russian and Telegraph Hills contain a mixed bag of supporters and critics of the plans.
Wilma Pang, a Chinatown community activist and a candidate for District 3 Board of Supervisor, said the high cost of the project demands to be soberly considered.
“The community needs to really think about it because it will haunt us if something goes wrong,” Pang said, adding that maintenance costs are yet another aspect to calculate.
Yet Chiu downplayed the issue of high cost and noted that the city is leveraging federal and state funds.
“Many outside of Chinatown are not aware that the city of San Francisco will only have to pay part of the costs,” Chiu said.
Joe Alioto Jr., another District 3 candidate, explained that funding has already been specifically allocated to building Central Subway.
“The cost is high, but we have federal funding, and this money cannot be allocated to other uses,” Alioto said. “It will be money well-spent, and it will create a more cohesive public transportation network.”
Pang still worries about the other areas in the city that will not have access to the Central Subway. “(The) money is already there, but they … need to figure how Chinatown will make other neighborhoods see that it is beneficial for them as well,” she said, addressing a sentiment voiced by many that the immediate project may only see its fruits in and around Chinatown.
Alioto, however, sees the potential of the subway to connect the northern and southern parts of the city.
“Central Subway will allow a large population from the south to get access to Chinatown,” he explained, asserting that the public transportation system will work more quickly and efficiently with the addition of Central Subway.
City transit officials, such as Steve Taber, Chairman of the Central Subway Task Force of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association and supporter of the Subway, emphasize the importance of the subway as a major component of a larger citywide rapid transit network.
“It can’t simply be a subway to Chinatown - it needs to connect to a citywide network,” Taber said.
He insisted that for the Central Subway to fulfill this ultimate goal, a station must be concurrently built at Washington Square, serving Northern Chinatown, North Beach and Telegraph and Russian Hills; platforms have to be large enough to accommodate 3-car trains; and transfers between transit systems need to be easy and efficient. In the long run, he also hopes the system will extend farther underground through Fisherman’s Wharf and above ground onto the Presidio.
Claudine Cheng, another supervisor candidate, explained that it will be possible to arrange an extension of Central Subway in the future because the trains will go all the way to Washington Square, where they will turn around.
“If community members want an extension, we will do environmental and engineering studies for the next phase,” Cheng promises.
The high cost and limited impact aren’t the only issues worrying community members. There is also fear among Stockton Street merchants that construction might disrupt their businesses.
“They remember the mess that was when BART was being constructed on Market Street and are worried about it,” says Gerald Cauthen, former President of Train Riders Association of California and Transportation Chairman for American Society of Civil Engineers.
These fears, though understandable, are also being addressed. Taber said that the impact of building the Central Subway would be considerably less than that of BART’s construction on Market Street in 1964 because, rather than using the “Cut and Cover” technology, the Central Subway would be built using tunneling technology that keeps almost all the work underground.
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Additional reporting by Michelle-Linh Thuy Nguyen