City Now Finalizing Plan To Upgrade Tenderloin Street Lighting

City Now Finalizing Plan To Upgrade Tenderloin Street Lighting

Photo: Ken Lund / Flickr

Brittany Hopkins
Published on May 09, 2015

The Public Utilities Commission has ended a series of community meetings to collect feedback on the Tenderloin Pedestrian Lighting Project introduced last month, and aims to deliver its final recommendation on the plan to the Planning Department and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development for final approval within the next month.

The $4.25 million dollar budget for this project came from the Community Benefits Agreement attached to the California Pacific Medical Center hospital that’s now rising on Van Ness Ave. As we reported last month, the PUC devised two alternative options for the budget, with the goal of improving safety and pedestrians’ experience in the neighborhood. Option 1, the more ambitious plan, would remove the existing “cobra-head” street lights from 15 blocks and replace them with decorative lighting systems.

During the eighth and final community meeting held at the Boeddeker Clubhouse yesterday afternoon, representatives from PUC and OEWD met with a handful of Tenderloin business owners and residents to gather last bits of feedback. At the meeting, Mary Tienken — the PUC project manager leading the initiative — said that while they originally estimated that the $4.25 million dollars would cover 15 blocks, they now believe they could likely implement decorative lighting systems on 18 blocks. She also noted that city officials have discussed the possibility of finding funds to add decorative lighting to the rest of the blocks in a second phase, which PUC estimates would require an additional $4.25 million, but there is no guarantee the city will move ahead with this solution.

Image: S.F. Public Utilities Commission

Option 2 would leave the existing cobra-head street lights in place but add pedestrian-scale cobra-head lights, aimed at the sidewalk, between them on 31 blocks of the Tenderloin.

Image: S.F. Public Utilities Commission

Regardless of which solution the city chooses, PUC’s city-wide LED Conversion Project this fall will ensure that all cobra-head light fixtures that aren’t replaced will receive new LED bulbs, which Tienken said will disperse warmer light more evenly. Additionally, while the initial plan outlined specific streets to receive new street lights in each alternative, Tienken said the city has yet to determine the final list of streets—but urged the group to consider what they want for the entire community, not whether their houses or businesses will receive new lighting.

With that in mind, attendees said that adding more street light poles to sidewalks would not help the neighborhood. Hilga Africa, vice president of the Northern California Concierge Association and a Tenderloin resident, pointed out that people tend to congregate around street light poles and warned that more poles would encourage more loitering.

“Adding extra poles is like putting extra furniture out,” added Jay Foster, owner of Farmer Brown.

Instead, the group suggested adding an additional cobra-head fixture, aimed at sidewalks, to each existing pole. Tienken said this idea has been considered but would still require replacing existing poles.

While the group liked the idea of decorative lighting to beautify the environment — especially if a phase two would later cover the rest of the Tenderloin’s blocks — some were concerned that brightening some streets would negatively impact others that didn’t receive the new lights and asked whether the project could focus on specific blocks that are notorious for harboring illegal activity. Sohrab Haroohi, owner of the vinyl record shop RS94109 at 835 Larkin Street, also warned that rather than strengthening the neighborhood, upgrading the lighting on only some blocks could cause tension within the community.

While Tienken and Juan Carlos Cancino, the project manager from OEWD, were eager to collect feedback on which blocks were of most concern to the businesses and residents, Cancino also said that choosing upgrading disparate blocks throughout the neighborhood would likely make it more difficult to fund a phase two of Option 1 in the future. However, both Tienken and Cancino told Hoodline following the meeting that the key takeaway from the community meetings they’ve attended is that when positive improvements are implemented on one block, the effects on surrounding blocks that are left untouched are not neutral.

Tienken aims to submit a recommendation for final approval as soon as possible to ensure the new lighting is implementing by the end of the year, but feedback on the plan is still welcome. The best way to get in touch, Cancino said, is by sending a letter to PUC or OEWD or giving him a call directly at (415) 554-5185.

We'll keep you informed of which lighting plan is chosen, and which streets will receive the new lighting, once the official decision is made.