A line of people waits to ride the cable car in 2024 at the Powell Street turnaround in downtown San Francisco.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
The cable car turnaround at Powell Street is ground zero for many tourists wanting to have an only-in-San-Francisco experience.
While waiting for their cable car ride, however, tourists also get a close look at the “poster child” for San Francisco’s downtown post-COVID doom loop. Thankfully, as my colleague Allison Arieff writes in her column on Thursday, the city plans to reinvent three blocks of Powell Street near Union Square.
If you’ve been to the cable car turnaround lately, you’ve seen the empty storefronts. While tourism is up, the sidewalks are still not as bustling as they used to be.
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So, a reimagining is in order.
The section of Powell from Market Street to Geary Boulevard will be transformed “into a world-class gateway,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said Wednesday at the cable car turnaround during the announcement of the acceptance of a $14.5 million private grant to fund the project.
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Arieff was there to hear the mayor speak, and told me the announcement made her feel that “we can finally say RIP to the doom loop.”
“Not that all of the city’s problems have been fixed — not at all,” she said. “But the city is demonstrating both enthusiasm and capability, which has translated into a broad-based confidence that we can actually get things done here.”
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Downtown San Francisco is the city’s economic lifeline. About 40% of the city’s general fund tax base is generated from downtown. Revitalizing Powell Street to draw foot traffic from tourists and returning office workers will go a long way toward helping the city recover from the effects of the pandemic.
The team tasked with redoing Powell Street is also behind designs for the Highline in New York, along with Tunnel Tops park and the renovation of Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco.
Find out what Arieff likes about the planned designs and why she looks forward to their implementation.
This week in Open Forum
Should UC bring back the SAT?
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Hundreds of University of California faculty members recently signed an open letter that called for the restoration of standardized testing requirements in math and science for applicants, citing the lack of math skills exhibited by students.
UC Berkeley law Professor Jonathan D. Glater pushed back against his colleagues in an Open Forum on Wednesday and said ditching standardized tests in 2020 achieved its goal: UC has accepted some of the most diverse classes of students in its history.
“Revisiting the decision to abandon the SAT is not the right response,” Glater wrote. “The reasons for that decision have not changed. Bringing the SAT back would elevate one variable — that test’s scores — above other variables that matter, in the name of reducing the number of students whose math preparation is too weak.”
Has the elimination of testing for applications lowered standards or made the process fairer? Read the Open Forum to find out what Glater believes.
Looks like it’ll be Gov. Becerra
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California’s haphazard race for governor is coming to a predictable end.
In a column on Wednesday, Jack Ohman looked back on how we ended up with Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton in the November general election.
Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.
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In blue California, unless there is an “unforeseen tectonic event,” Becerra will be the next governor, and for Democrats, would that be so bad?
Read what Ohman says about billionaires, progressives and moderates in his column.
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You’re reading the Opinion Central newsletter written by Harry Mok, an assistant editor and columnist for the Opinion section.