Local Survival Guide to the PGA Charles Schwab Golf Tournament at Harding Park (October 31st to November 6th)

It's that time again folks, the PGA tour is coming back to San Francisco's Harding Park golf course for another round of televised golf, and that means for us locals, time for us to prepare for war.

Event basics:

• The PGA's Charles Schwab Championship Cup tournament will be going on from October 31st to November 6th.
• While the event organizers mentions it is from November 3rd to 6th, Harding Park will be occupied by the PGA as early as the 31st for practice rounds. The public can access the golf course to watch the Pro-Am and professionals play starting November 2nd. See schedule by clicking here.
  

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What Spectators Should Know
The PGA's event website has some information. Unfortunately, the SFMTA's website has ZERO information about planned road closures, traffic problems, or transit re-routes.

Public entrance:
The only public entrance to the golf tournament is via Sunset Circle (the huge parking lot) at the north end of Lake Merced where Lake Merced Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. meets. See golf course map by clicking here.

View Larger Map

Parking:
The only event sponsored parking is at Stonestown Galleria/Mall. They charge $15 a day and will provide free bus shuttles to and from the gate. Click here for parking/transit map (PDF document).

Unofficially, spectators can take a punch at street parking, but please be kind to the residents and SF State students who normally utilize street parking. If you dare to use the SF State parking lot, you are going to piss off a lot of SF State students and employees.

Public transit:
The PGA is encouraging the public to take either Muni Metro's L-Taraval line to the end of the line (SF Zoo) and walk to Sunset Circle, or take BART to Daly City station and catch a free shuttle bus. Click here for parking/transit map (PDF document).

The public can also take the following Muni lines: 29-Sunset stops a short distance from Sunset Circle. 23-Monterey stops at the Sunset Boulevard overpass and is a short walk south on Sunset.

WARNINGS:
Do not park your car at Daly City BART and catch the free shuttle to the golf tournament. Parking at the station is restricted to BART passengers because they register their parking stall number at the machines in the paid area of the station. Those abusing the parking system will get caught, fined, and/or towed.

Watch out for parking restrictions in the area. While the SFMTA's ISCOTT board hasn't approved any tow away zones at this time, look in the area for temporary tow away signage, one or two hour neighborhood parking zones, and don't block driveways and hydrants.

Don't dare to park within the SF State area. The area has very heavy parking time limits and are strictly enforced by parking cops.

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What SF Citizens and Commuters Should Know
Unfortunately, the SFMTA's ISCOTT department has not published any information about road closures and parking restrictions, nor has Muni published any planned re-routes for the 18-46th Avenue bus line which drives along three sides of the event area: Skyline (including Herbst Road), John Muir, and Lake Merced Boulevard.

To view the ISCOTT agendas, click here, you'll find nothing in their next meeting coming up on October 27th.

I also asked SF State's Parking & Transportation department and they were not sure of any parking or traffic difficulties.

What we can assume will happen...
It's likely there will be heavy traffic around the following roads: Skyline Boulevard, Lake Merced Boulevard, Brotherhood Way, and Sunset Boulevard southbound towards Sunset Circle. If you need an alternate route, don't take Brotherhood Way/Lake Merced and stick with the 19th Avenue freeway entrance/exit. See map of an alternate route:

View Larger Map

There may be delays on the 29-Sunset and 18-46th Avenue Muni lines.

Parking might be difficult if you live or work within a half mile of the Sunset Circle entrance.

Road closures may happen along Skyline Boulevard and Herbst Road adjecent to the golf course. The south end at John Muir may be restricted and has been in the past used as a sanctioned VIP parking lot.

I'll update this page when the SFMTA ever takes their time to update theirs.

A Local's Survival Guide to PGA Charles Schwab Golf Tournament at SF's Harding Park

The PGA Champions Tour is returning to San Francisco at Lake Merced's Harding Park golf course. I've read over the material and found out this event won't be as bad as other times where streets have been closed-off, certain areas turned into defacto parking lots for the rich and wealthy, and Muni lines were seriously re-routed. With much less traffic and transit restrictions, it looks like this might be a much lower profile event than the other two that snarled the area and made a lot of SF State students, faculty, and staff upset; one huge reason, a one day ticket is only $25, while the last two events charged at least double or triple.

Here's an easy guide to a smooth experience during this golf tourney (whether you are a local trying to get around or just wanting to see golfers wash their balls):

Event dates:

• Held from Monday, November 1st, to Sunday, November 7th.
• Monday and Tuesday is not for the general public.
• Wednesday through Sunday is for the general public to access. Practice round is Wednesday, and tournament play is the remaining days.

Traffic Closures:

• The SFMTA's ISCOTT meeting agenda states in item "R," Herbst road that services the Janet Pomeroy center, National Guard, and the delivery entrance for the SF Zoo will be closed from 6:30AM to 5:30PM each day.
• This is the only noted road closure from the ISCOTT notes, thereby any other closures could be deemed illegal because only ISCOTT can approve city road closures (that is, unless there's an emergency).

Transit Changes:

• Muni's 18-46th Avenue line going to Stonestown will not provide service along Herbst road. Instead, it will continue straight down Skyline and pick-up/drop-off passengers on Skyline after Herbst. Service going towards Legion of Honor will not be altered.
• Original route map:
  View Larger Map
• Temporary reroute (stop is at "B"):
  View Larger Map
• This is a vast improvement over the last event where the 18-46th Avenue going towards Legion of Honor slashed service by not providing service to the eastern, southern, and west areas of Lake Merced (the actual lake, not boulevard) due to road closures. It disenfranchised access for residents living on John Muir Drive and the Parkmerced residence community, the disabled at Janet Pomeroy, and SF State students.

Parking:

• Sanctioned parking lots are located at the Stonestown Mall from Wednesday to Sunday, and SF State from Saturday to Sunday (see map).
  
• Parking in the street might get tricky, especially with the heavy restrictions and time limits in the SF State area.
• Don't park in the SF State garage until the weekend. Campus cops are watching, and you don't want to mess with thousands of students, staff, and faculty who uses the lot on a daily basis.
• Do not park in Daly City BART to take advantage of the free shuttle. The BART lot is for passengers only and registering the car in the paid area of the station is REQUIRED. Abusing the system will result in a large fine and/or towing.

Transit options to event:

• BART: Daly City station will have shuttles.
• Muni: 29 Sunset provides service to the main gates near "Sunset Circle" (a.k.a. where Lake Merced Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. meets). L-Taraval is a walk to the main gates from the terminus stop at the Zoo. 18-46th Avenue passengers should exit at Sloat and Skyline and walk to main gates. 23-Monterey passengers should exit at Sunset Blvd and walk.
• Bike: Free bike racks at "Sunset Circle" main gates.
• Taxi: Drop-off on Lake Merced between Sunset and Skyline.
• See complete map.

Here's some local resident tips if you are just trying to avoid this train wreck:

• Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline is now fully opened in both directions. This will ease the traffic that will happen due to the golf tourney along Skyline.
• If you are commuting along the 18-46th Avenue and 29-Sunset, expect some delays due to traffic.
• If you work for the SF Zoo or need access to the Janet Pomeroy center, hopefully they informed you about the road closure.
• You might want to avoid the Sunset Circle area and the adjacent roads.
• If you work or go to SF State, arrive a little earlier. If you depend on street parking, you should definitely get to campus much earlier if those golf spectator cheapskates steal all the parking.

Let's hope for a smooth golf tournament and minimal road or transit hassles.

PGA Presidents Cup - Needs Improvements in Public Relations

The 2009 Presidents Cup golf tournament at San Francisco's Harding Park has just came to an end... oh, and some more fun news... THE PGA TOUR IS COMING BACK IN OCTOBER 2010 (Schwab Cup) AND 2011 (Champion's tour). I'm cursing out loud right now.

But out of this huge event there's a few details that our city officials and the Presidents Cup organizers didn't do or tell the public about.

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One in particular is the information provided by the PGA Tour about the free shuttle service. The Presidents Cup website released two different maps with different information.

The first map was posted on their website before the tournament started and mentioned that the end of Muni's N-Judah line was to provide free shuttle service to the event, but the second map that was posted no more than one week before the tournament shows the shuttle service from the N-Judah terminal does not exist. Why did this happen?

You may also notice that the Westlake parking lot is not mentioned on the second map, but sure is on the first one. But I know that the lot was used for the event.

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There were also areas designated as parking areas for the event, but was not mentioned on the event's website:

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the City and County of San Francisco owns the Ocean Beach parking lot (although, U.S. Government police shoos cars away in the late evening), and has failed, once again, to notify the public that part of the lot is to be used for the exclusive use of the PGA Presidents Cup for nearly a week. Great idea... piss-off the surfers.

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As for road closures, I don't see it amusing when after the event is over each day, the city does not remove any of the signage telling people that an upcoming road is closed. One in particular is going northbound on Skyline and there's this big electronic arrow telling people to merge left, but it's 8PM and Skyline is completely open and can be driven through between Great Highway and Sloat.

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Here's a strange parking problem... street parking was banned on Lake Merced between Winston and Font, but I didn't see any shuttle buses or anything else taking advantage of those parking spaces. So why ban parking within that area?

Since it was not utilized, SF State students and the rest of the public should have been given the privilege to park there.

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Did the PGA and the city take my advice in 2005 to notify the people of San Francisco State University by advertising in the Golden Gate [X]Press newspaper? The answer is no.

The campus population reads the weekly newspaper, so a few thousand bucks to advertise and tell the 36,000+ student, staff, and faculty population about this major event would have helped ease some of the frustration.

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Lastly, SFMTA/Muni did not post sufficient information about the re-routes for the 18-46th Avenue bus line in a timely manner. They posted the information online on Monday, ONE DAY BEFORE THE EVENT STARTED.

To make things even worse, 311 did not have any information available until Sunday (two days before the event started on that Tuesday) and the information about the re-routes and skipped stops are only known as "Muni Notice #09-268" in which would be difficult to get in writing, unless if you got it via a Sunshine Request.

PGA President's Cup Days 3, 4, 5, & 6: Parking and Muni Updates

Good day to everyone; I'm listing down the next four days of updates for the President's Cup at San Francisco's Harding Park because I'm taking the day off on Friday and I won't go near the area during the weekend.

So basically, here's some reminder notices for everybody:

Parking:

• If you can, please take public transit. Free shuttles available after riding the N-Judah and L-Taraval. Free shuttles also pick-up at Daly City BART.
• Warning: Do not park at Daly City BART and catch a golf shuttle. Your car will get towed because passengers are required to register their parking space in the "paid" area of the station.
• Reminders: Watch out for parking restrictions within the SFSU and Parkmerced areas. Many have time limits and DPT watches those spaces frequently.

Traffic:

• Watch out for a heavy police presence around the area. Speeding and running red lights will likely get you caught.
• Speed limit on Lake Merced Blvd. in San Francisco between Winston and the Daly City border is 40 MPH. It drops to 30 once entering Daly City, and the police is watching out for speeders.
• If you need an alternate route to SFSU without messing with Sunset Blvd., try this route: At Sloat, take Middlefield going south, turn left onto Sunset, and turn left onto State Drive or Font. This shortcut saves you from the traffic mess happening at "Sunset Circle" (the big parking lot known for trainee Muni drivers practicing their parking techniques).

Muni:

• As usual, re-routes are in force for the 18-46th Avenue and 88-BART shuttle. This is in effect from 6AM to 7PM daily.

Traffic and Muni Alert: PGA Presidents Cup at Harding Park

It's back... the PGA tour is back at the Harding Park golf course that is located on Lake Merced and next door to SF State University. What does this mean to you if you are within the region? Let's take a look:

The "region" I am describing is as followed and covers the likely areas where problems and issues may arise:

• North border: Sloat Blvd.
• South border: John Muir Drive (southern rim of Lake Merced and straddles between SF and DC border).
• East border: 19th Avenue
• West border: Great Highway and Skyline Blvd.

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**MAJOR PROBLEMS: MUNI RE-ROUTES AND SKIPPED STOPS FOR THE 18-46TH AVENUE AND 88-BART SHUTTLE**

I called 311 to find out about the re-routes for the 18-46th Avenue and BART shuttle, and the news is not very good.

MUNI RE-ROUTES/CHANGES EFFECTIVE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 5TH to SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11TH

The 18-46th Avenue bus line is going to hell:

• Going towards Stonestown (SF State area): At 47th and Sloat, re-route turns right on Sloat, left on Great Highway, right on Skyline, and continues normal route. Route will skip: SF Zoo, Skyline & Sloat, Herbst road (Disabled center, SF Zoo staff entrance), Harding park entrance/sewage plant entrance.
• It's "normal" route (map points "A" to "B") would turn left on Sloat, right on Skyline blvd., and turn into Herbst Road before continuing on Skyline.
  

View Larger Map

• Going towards Legion of Honor: At Winston & Lake Merced, re-route turns right onto Lake Merced (northbound), left before road changes to Sunset Blvd., continues down Lake Merced Blvd, turns right onto Skyline, and bus continues normal route.
• It's "normal" route between map points "A" and "B" would turn left at Lake Merced/Winston, go southbound on Lake Merced, turn right on John Muir Drive, turn right on Skyline, and continue on it's route to map point "C" and turn right on 46th Avenue.
  

View Larger Map

When you take a look at the maps, it shows a poor planning from the SFMTA/Muni. Look at the huge gap of service on the lower map, it literally removes all stops from Lake Merced/Winston, John Muir Drive, and Skyline (including the Center for the Disabled on Herbst).

I have officially lodged a complaint via 311's phone line about the 18's route changes:

1. You cannot disenfranchise service to these remote areas on the southern rim of Lake Merced (not boulevard, it's the lake) by not having the re-routes try its best to cover the areas where the roads are closed.
2. The re-route removes all bus service to the Center for the Disabled; who will supplement service for this problem?
   
3. The route going towards the Legion of Honor is the worst because it skips all the stops on Lake Merced Blvd. south of Winston, and the homes on John Muir drive near Skyline. Every time I ride the 18, I see SFSU students who live on John Muir hop on the bus and pay the $2 fare for a short 5 minute ride, versus walking 30 minutes on the very long walk to/from campus.
   
4. How about the old and disabled people who depend on that bus line to these far away regions? Do you know how far you have to walk?
5. Why is there NO INFORMATION ON THE SFMTA WEBSITE?
6. DID YOU TAKE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEND NOTICES TO AFFECTED RESIDENTS AND THE SF STATE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY?
   
7. HOW CAN MUNI DO THIS TO THE PUBLIC??????

UPDATE: SFMTA/Muni finally posted the re-route information (but hidden from the SFMTA website; I found it on 511)... but I was FASTER TO POST THIS ON MY BLOG!!!

For the 88-BART shuttle:

• Inbound towards Balboa Park Station will operate normally.
• Outbound will be re-routed due to closure of westbound John Muir Drive. At southbound Lake Merced Blvd. and Font (corrected), bus will continue on Lake Merced, cross the Daly City border, turn right on John Daly Blvd., turn right on Skyline Blvd., cross San Francisco border, and turn right onto John Muir Drive eastbound.

View Larger Map

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In this situation, there will be road closures around the golf course. This information is posted on the SFMTA's website, under the ISCOTT minutes (see here), be aware that this information is NOT yet posted on the "alerts" page of both SFMTA and 511.

Here's the road closures:

• John Muir Drive between Lake Merced blvd. and Skyline (westbound only).
• Herbst street (home to the Center for the Handicapped, SF Zoo staff entrance, and the National Guard).
• Skyline between Lake Merced Blvd. (the road that goes around the north west portion of the lake) and Great Highway.

While there is no official posting about this, expect delays anywhere around the region, even if the roads are open to traffic:

• Lake Merced blvd. between Sloat and Brotherhood will be bad, especially with the extra spectator entrance they've installed near Font.
• You can still take Skyline, but you are forced to use Great Highway to go around the closure between Great Highway and Lake Merced.
• I won't bet on this, but Sunset Blvd. may become a nightmare going Southbound.

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SF State University students, staff, and faculty... what should you do?

1. If you are going to park in the garage, bring your campus ID. Campus cops will kick-out any golf spectator who uses the garage that is exclusively for university affiliates.
2. PARKING IS BANNED (see photo below) on Lake Merced Blvd. between Winston and Font. This will be a heavy impact on the campus garage due to the large amount of street parking in that area.
   
3. If you are taking public transit, expect delays on the 29-Sunset and 18-46th Avenue.
4. Arrive to campus EARLY. Get yourself a nice breakfast on-campus.
5. If you live on John Muir drive and take the bus the campus, you may want to consider carpooling with a neighbor. Muni coverage will suck. I suggest complaining to your city supervisor and Muni officials NOW.

Lack of Communication between San Francisco Government Agencies?

You would expect that in this day of age and a modern city government, that their agencies/departments would be communicating with each other so they are all on the "same page." Surely the 311 program has helped bridge that gap by directing people in the right direction when they need services and information...

Yet, there are still problems between agencies sharing information so the public can be informed with straightforward information, instead of getting one answer here and a different one there.

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Example #1: Just today, I was riding Muni's 18-46th Avenue bus to work and noticed that Upper Great Highway was shut down due to sand on the road. Both entrances at Sloat and Lincoln (north and south directions) had to be closed.

But whatever city agency shut-down that road segment did not inform SFMTA/Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) about the closures so they can switch the road signals at those two key intersections to 4-way stop.

How did I learn this fact of lack of communication? I called DPT traffic signals directly, instead of calling the incompetent idiots of 311 who would just ask questions of why the signals should be changed.

This leaves two big problems, lack of communication between city agencies, and if the signals ran their normal (three color) cycles, some person may think it's OK since it's a green light and ram the steel gates closing the road and this means a possible LAWSUIT against the city for negligence.

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Example #2: The PGA golf tournament (President's Cup) is coming to San Francisco's Harding Golf Course next week (October 6-11) and this will bring in up to 25,000 golfing fans every single day to the south west region of the city. As always, combine it with over 32,000 SFSU students who are getting their education right next to the golf course, and hell will be here in no time.

But to the point: The city is informing the public that the entire length of John Muir Drive will be closed (south end road of Lake Merced, also home to the SFPD shooting range), and a portion of Skyline Blvd. from at least Sloat to Great Highway. While they are informing drivers with big electronic signs, 311 has not been helpful if these closures will affect SFMTA/Muni's 18-46th Avenue bus line that goes directly into both of these closed areas, mainly because city agencies failed once again to share information.

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Bravo City and County of San Francisco, bravo. How long until Mayor Newsom's term is up?

What needs to be fixed: 2009 PGA President's Cup at Harding Park

On October 6-11, 2009: the PGA will host the President's Cup at the Harding Golf Course located at Lake Merced in San Francisco.

The last major PGA event turned out to be a real hassle, and I hope the city learns some lessons to save us the pain in the back that many of my fellow colleagues at SF State University, who works and lives next door to the event experienced.

Let me recap the problems from the last PGA event at Harding Park:

1. Sunset Blvd. became a parking lot, where two lanes on each direction was used to park on the entire length of the road (Sloat to Judah). This caused a massive delay for Muni's 29-Sunset, which is already notorious for being slow... well, one of my friends recalled that during the first day, she waited 90 minutes for a bus to get her to college.
2. The PGA failed to advertise in the SF State University's "Golden Gate [X]Press about how the PGA event will affect the entire campus as there are over 25,000 full-time students everyday.
3. The City of San Francisco had lacking information of road closures, and procedures when traffic gets worse.
4. The City of San Francisco wasted money repaving John Muir Drive when it really did not need it.
5. Local radio personalities questioned the purpose of having rocks lined all around Lake Merced. While the intention was to prevent people from parking their cars on the pathways, it's unintentional consequence the radio folks said is that some punks could roll one of those rocks into the street and cause a serious accident. It never did happen, but there's still that possibility when the roads surrounding the lake varies from 35MPH to 45MPH.
6. Citizens questioned the need to "beautify" the surrounding of the lake, then realized the money they spent could have kept the public restrooms in the city parks clean and open for the public.

Here are things the city can do to fix the problems:

1. Advertise in the neighborhood newspapers, including the Golden Gate [X]Press.
2. Don't make Sunset Blvd. a parking lot. That's a major thoroughfare for the Richmond and Sunset district residents. If you do it on Great Highway, that's even worse.
   
3. The city should spend their money wisely to patch-up the grass and keep it ready for a major event.
4. If parking lots will be used, it should come with a heavy tax to discourage parking, and to take the damn bus for crying out loud.
5. Muni should provide more vehicles, at the PGA's expense.
   
6. Encourage spectators to stay out of the SFSU parking lot. Once you tick-off the student, faculty, and staff population, don't expect some happy words from the management.

Now, go play some damn golf! I'll be yelling out "Tiger sucks!" and blowing an airhorn outside the fence.