Pop-Up Bicycle at Haight and Stanyan

Pop-Up Bicycle at Haight and Stanyan
Camden Avery
Published on July 23, 2012
The latest attempt to clean up the end of Haight Street at Golden Gate Park is the installation of an occasional, temporary pop-up bicycle rental at the entrance to the park.

The plan, which was incubating for some months, was approved by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department last week, as communicated in an email to local merchants from SF Rec and Park property manager Cassandra Costello. The email said that the bike stand would be "small and temporary," and that it would be run by the Department's own bicycle rental service, ParkWide rentals, which already has five locations in the city and three in Golden Gate Park. Most interesting, the email said that the purpose of the bike stand would be "to activate the east end of the park." In other words, it sounds as if the bike stand is an alternative measure for dispersing the homeless camps that congregate at the upper end of Haight Street and around Alvord Lake, which have been becoming more permanent there as Sit/Lie continues to drive them off the sidewalks. The possibility of a new tactic in handling semi-permanent homeless camps isn't mentioned explicitly by Rec and Park, but it does promise the possibility of an alternative, more creative way to handle traveling camps in the immediate neighborhood. The pop-up stand will be open at the east entrance to the park on Saturdays and Sundays for the eight weeks beginning this coming weekend. Ms. Costello noted that the Department is looking for feedback during the trial period. Her email address is [email protected].