San Francisco Chinatown merchants and city leaders are sending a message to the public that Chinatown is open for business and more street parking spaces are available for visitors.
Small business leaders, joined by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter, celebrated the completion of transit and parking changes along Clay Street that keep buses moving, like the 1-California, but also provide additional parking spaces.
“We are not getting more room in San Francisco, so we need to make our existing room, our existing streets, our existing curbs, make them work better for everyone, and that’s what we did here by coming together, looking at what was working and what was possible,” Sauter said.
Last month, the SFMTA Board of Directors approved the transit and parking changes that included removing the part-time tow-away zones on Clay Street between Kearny and Leidesdorff streets and converting the lane to all-day parking and loading spaces.
The former part-time tow-away zone was part of a transit-only lane for the 1-California bus route, but has since been moved into the middle lane, becoming an all-day transit lane.
Additionally, the SFMTA removed a 4 to 6 p.m. tow-away zone on Sacramento Street between Stockton and Powell streets and converted it to all-day parking spaces.
SFMTA’s Streets Director Viktoriya Wise said the project addresses two goals: ensuring that additional parking spaces are available for those who need to drive to Chinatown, and ensuring transit is reliable on the 1-California, which carries approximately 20,000 daily riders.
“Combining both of those goals together, SFMTA came up with a solution here to create 22 new parking spaces here on Clay Street and on Sacramento,” Wise said.
Edward Siu, the chairman and founder of the Chinatown Merchants United Association, welcomed the additional parking spaces, given all of the construction taking place in Chinatown, including renovations to Portsmouth Square Park, the Chinatown library branch, and public health center.
“Please come back to Chinatown. We have more parking for you,” Siu said. He is also asking the SFMTA to see if more parking could be added elsewhere, as construction vehicles have taken up some parking spaces.
Wise said this was the first of many steps to work with Chinatown merchants and review the management of curb space in the area to possibly create more parking and loading spaces while improving transit.
This story has been updated.
