The Doyle Drive reconstruction project

November marked the beginning of the four-year long reconstruction of Doyle Drive. At a price tag of over $1 billion, residents of the Presidio, Richmond and Marina districts are worried about the traffic situation the project may cause.

Built in 1936, Doyle Drive, or Route 101, has become seismically unsafe with 80 percent of the structure needing to be rebuilt, according to the San Francisco County’s final environmental impact statement/report for the Doyle Drive project. As the main thoroughfare for commuters coming to and from Marin County to San Francisco off the Golden Gate Bridge, the project has raised concerns about redirection of traffic flow by some residents and businesses.

“The project concerns all the business owners in the Presidio as well as people in San Francisco,” Megan Driscoll, owner of Presidio Fitness, said.

Driscoll opened her business in the Presidio three years ago and noticed traffic was a large concern for the area.

Prior to the start of construction on Doyle Drive the Presidio Trust, an operational body created by Congress in 1996 to manage and maintain the Presidio, commissioned a traffic study to determine the traffic flow into the park and the possible effects of the Doyle Drive Project.

The Fall 2009 Presidio Traffic Calming Study, which took place from Sept. 29 to Oct. 27, determined that daily traffic in the Presidio dropped by about 25 percent because of the closure of several roads throughout the park.

The study lasted three weeks, one week shorter than initially slated, according to the Presidio Trust, citing that the body had collected enough data by that point, but the temporary closures were met with resistance from nearby residents.

“The closures forced more traffic through our neighborhood,” Suzie Spiwak, a resident next to the Presidio for 12 years, said.

An average of 72,124 vehicles per weekday traveled through one of the Presidio’s gates before the study began, according to the Presidio traffic study. During the study period, the average dropped to 54,561 vehicles.

Before the study, approximately 50 percent of daily traffic through the gates was cut-through traffic, meaning the vehicles entered one of the gates and left through another within 15 minutes, according to the study, and during the three-week period only 24 percent of the traffic was cut-through.

Prior to the study, an average of 36,062 vehicles that entered the Presidio were cut-through, and during the study only an average of 14,186 vehicles were cut-through, meaning 21,876 vehicles that normally cut-through the Presidio were finding alternate routes.

Presently, traffic conditions in the Presidio have been returned to the same state they were in before the survey. But with the reconstruction of Doyle Drive started, residents of the area are concerned that the traffic will once again be redirected out of the park.

“The Richmond District is a family-based community,” Richmond District

resident Sarah Bacon said.

There are lots of kids, schools and parks scattered throughout the Richmond District, she said, and redirecting traffic through the area is a definite concern for families.

Despite the concerns of residents in surrounding areas, the Doyle Drive project is necessary, head of media and government relations for the Presidio Trust Clay Harrell said.

“The Doyle Drive project is really going to change things,” he said.

Initial plans for the construction of the project were started in 1991, Harrell said. In 2006, the Presidio Parkway plan was officially selected as the preferred approach to the reconstruction project. With the planning and development phases finished, the actual construction started in November and will not be done until 2013, assuming no fiscal problems arise.

Federal, state and local agencies have pulled together to cover the $1.045 billion price. The federal government is expected to pay a total of $202 million, though only $72 million is currently committed, according to Doyle Drive project Fact Sheet. The state has committed $420 million in funding to the project, leaving the remainder of $333 million being covered by various local agencies.

“It’s a massive project that needs to be done,” 22-year resident of the Marina George Merijohn said. “It may be inconvenient for the neighborhood for a while, but in the end it will be a great benefit for San Francisco as a whole.”

The wealth of Richmond

Walking south along Arguello Boulevard in the Presidio eventually brings travelers along side the Presidio Golf Course. One of the most beautiful golf courses in San Francisco, with well maintained greens and fully grown cypress tress lining the holes. The course became public when the federal government handed over the former military base to the California Park service.

Though it is not expensive itself to play at the Presidio golf course, costing only $12 per golfer, the amount of money that people have around the course is apparent. Taking a quick look at the two Bentleys that are parked in the course lot establishes that there is considerable wealth playing out on the Presidio’s greens.

It is no surprise either if you keep going down Arguello Boulevard appears Presidio Terrace. A small gated community of homes that rest along side the golf course. The homes are over a hundred years old and date their construction back to the 1906 earthquake.

The size and scale of the homes makes them stand out compared to those of the immediate surrounding area. Though the homes in this northern part of the Richmond district are not as large as those in Presidio Terrace they are not small and are not cheep either. The average sale price of a home in Richmond is over $800,000 and the average household income is over $90,000. Compared to a citywide average home cost of just under $400,000 and a average household income of approximately $55,000 it becomes obvious of the wealth that resides in the Richmond district.

Added to the fact that the Richmond district is mostly family based it adds up to a fairly quiet community. There is relatively low crime statistically compared to the rest of the city and it becomes apparent in the fact that there is very little police presence.

Discoverign John Freeman

Early in my adventures around the Richmond district while looking for sources and background information for Street1 and Hood1 I began looking into the history of the District.

What I found was that there was not a wealth of information available on the direct history of the area except for various articles about the area at scattered times over the past 100 years.

In my hunt I found a website, outsidelands.org, that specialized in finding and preserving the history of the Richmond district and other western regions of San Francisco. Upon contacting them for information on the Richmond district I was directed to John Freeman, whom they considered the preeminent historian on the district.

John Freeman turns out not only knew a wealth of information about the Richmond district, but also the history of San Francisco as a whole. He had spent his entire life in the city and had watched it evolved over his 68 years.

He had written articles about how the naming of the streets in the area had changed over the course of the districts history. He gad collected a wealth of historical photos of the area and San Francisco as a whole and taken a great about of time to research the history of the district through old news slides in the library and talking first hand to sources that had seen the district change and evolve over the years. He had also advised on an book published about the history of the Richmond district.

Freeman really helped me understand the history of the area as well as how Richmond played into a larger context for San Francisco as a whole. He described to me how the 1906 earthquake dramatically altered the landscape of the city. Not only because of the massive amounts of damage the earthquake and subsequent fire caused, but how it caused a shift in the desires and intentions of San Francisco’s citizens.

His insight prompted me to want to further investigate the person that he is and with such a deep rooted history in the one of the two districts that I am covering he added up to a likely candidate for the midterm feature story.

As the semester rolled on and I worked on the various other assignments nothing else sparked my interest for a feature topic as Freeman did. Over the course of time he gradually rose to the top of the pile and became my choice candidate to do the feature on.

Hiking through the Presidio

Traveling through the Presidio it becomes appart at how underutilized the park really is. Crissy Field is always packed, but much of the rest of the park seems mostly empty.
This leads to the question of who actually uses the park. Crissy field is covered with dogs and their owners, residents going for strolls and there always seems to be a party or barbecue. Fort point is a popular area for tourists as it sits beneath the largest tourist attraction in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. Surrounded by water on three sides Fort Point offers an interesting sight just off its rocky shore.
As the water flows out of San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean beneath the Golden Gate Bridge waves form. Those waves run along the rocky shore just east of Fort Point and on a good day there are surfers out in the water. Surfing just below the Golden Gate Bridge seems completely out of place for the location not to mention dangerous. The waves run south parallel to Fort Point and crash into the roadway connecting the fort to Crissy Field. With a dicent swell the waves will soak any cars or bystanders situated too close the the bay. With no beach around the surfers have to be careful, because if they ride a wave a little too far in they just might end up smashed against those rocks.
Moving away from the coast and up higher into the Presidio the flow of traffic begins to drop off sharply. The parade grounds are usually lively as the main office for people visiting the Presidio is located there along with other shops and the soon to be Disney store.
Deeper into the Presido traffic continues to dwindle until the only people around or in cars or biking along the various trails.
Going south to the Richmond-Presidio border lies the Presidio golf course, which certainly looks out of my price range with a few Bentley in the parking lot.

First impressions

Richmond and the Presidio sit in the relatively quiet northern end of San Francisco. Away from the congested downtown and tourist filled marina areas.

Richmond nestled between two beautiful parks, Golden Gate Park to the south and the Presidio to the north, is a mostly residential area with commerce in the form of small local business.

The Presidio, the only national park to reside within a major metropolitan city, is a calming oasis in America’s 14th largest city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Presidio is a remarkable place. As a former military base turned national park the change is amazing. Aside from Crissy Field, which is packed on the weekends, the park seems underutilized. Commerce has been slowly introduced to the park with the rehabilitation of the buildings, but with some resistance from neighbors regarding the commercialization the progress has been slow.

The lack of people in such a beautiful place is startling, considering two major highways, 101 and 1, cut though the park. The Presidio’s northern point connects the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco. There is significant traffic at Crissy Field and north to Fort Point, which rests under the Golden Gate Bridge, but those appear to be the only high traffic areas. Perhaps my visits have just been at ill-timed moments, but the greater area of the park appears to be overlooked.

Coming south out of the Presidio, Richmond is a large area, but due to its residential nature is quiet most of the day. People are often moving from the homes to work or out for a bite to eat at one of the many local restaurants. The area lacks any true gathering areas for the community, Executive Director of the Richmond District Neighborhood Center Michelle Cusano said. Though two parks flank Richmond there are not many within the borders of the district itself. Resulting in a lack of areas for the community to come together. This is the goal of the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, to offer an area for the community to come together. By offering outreach programs to students and elderly in the area they are working hard to bring the community together.