Neighbors Call on City College to Support Safe Streets in Sunnyside
Neighbors for Slow Hearst sent the following letter to the Trustees of City College in response to a City College Board of Trustees resolution opposing the Frida Kahlo Way Quick Build Safety project. We urge the board of trustees to work with us on a path forward for this crucial safety project.
To support the project, please send a letter to SFMTA now.
Dear Trustees of City College,
Neighbors for Slow Hearst is extremely disappointed in the City College Board of Trustees resolution opposing the Frida Kahlo Way Quick Build Safety project.
Our group of over 140 Sunnyside residents recognizes the proposed project as a common sense safety improvement for people who walk and bike in our neighborhood. The Frida Kahlo Way Quick Build project will connect the Glen Park Bart and Slow Hearst to Ocean Avenue, improve safety for all road users, and provide a critical safe connection for people biking to the campus and through our neighborhood.
What’s more, the project aligns with City College’s own policies to shift trips to active transportation and out of cars, as well as your recently passed Green New Deal, a bold sustainability plan which promises to bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2035. To meet its climate goals, City College will need to invest heavily in shifting more commuter trips to non-car modes.
As neighbors, we are eager to support the institution in its goal of shifting trips. We recognize that reducing car trips through our neighborhood is one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since transportation from private vehicles is San Francisco’s number one source of emissions. This is why it’s so important to invest in safe infrastructure on our streets like SFMTA has proposed in the Frida Kahlo Project. When streets are safe, more people choose to bike and walk, fewer people drive, and less parking is required to serve commuters.
These investments in safety and sustainable transportation will only become even more critical as development begins on the Balboa Reservoir project, which promises to bring new neighbors to our neighborhood. To welcome new neighbors while minimizing traffic and parking impacts, City College will need to accelerate its efforts to reduce the number of people who drive to campus alone.
The Frida Kahlo quick build project has been hearing public feedback since July 2023, and many adjustments have been made to add parking back to the route and accommodate City College’s concerns. In total, the current project replaces approximately 30 parking spaces with safety improvements like bus stops and a protected bike lane, out of the just over 3,000 available to the City College community. This is less than 1% of the total parking available for City College.
City College’s continued opposition to this project undermines the safety and well-being of our community. We urge you to work together with neighbors in good faith to find a compromise that preserves the protected bike lane and safety improvements the project will bring to our neighborhood, and to move the project forward quickly.
We call upon city officials to heed the voices of the community and quickly move forward with the implementation of the Frida Kahlo Quick Build. Together we can build a safer, greener, and more accessible future for all residents of our vibrant neighborhood.