Some local businesses and residents opposed the plan, saying safety improvements would restrict car traffic. Melgar, SFMTA staff and members of the West Portal Merchants Association all addressed the controversy over the changes at the event, which speakers said was — somewhat — resolved through compromise.
“When you go to mediation, you come out a little unhappy, a little happy,” said Kerry Riordan Sykes, a West Portal business owner and neighbor who served on a committee approving the changes. “And that’s kind of how we came out with this. But overall … if the goal was … holistically, to make West Portal safer and the traffic calmer out here, has that goal been reached? Yes.”
The project drew to a close just days after the city’s 13th pedestrian fatality this year. On Oct. 4, 30-year-old Binod Budhathoki, a Nepalese immigrant, was crossing Cortland Avenue at Anderson Street when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver, according to San Francisco police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Budhathoki was walking home from a celebration of Dashain, one of Nepal’s most important festivals, at the time of the crash, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched by the Non-Resident Nepali Association of California.
Perla Rosario Henriquez Ulloa, 21, of San Francisco, was arrested and charged with felony hit-and-run, hit-and-run incident that results in death, vehicular manslaughter, destroying or concealing evidence and basic speed law, according to the SFPD.
Last year, 24 pedestrians were killed in vehicle crashes, the highest number in nearly two decades.
KQED’s Sarah Hotchkiss contributed to this report.