Even More Improvements on Powell Street Parklets

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog entry. How's everyone doing? I hope you enjoyed your Christmas holiday with friends and family, and New Year's Eve is just around the corner; too bad I can't get a Beach Blanket Babylon ticket for Saturday's 10PM show (totally sold out), that would have been fun to watch and celebrate the new year.

Let's get on with a new blog entry today... how's the Powell Street parklets doing?

Things are turning out for the better after several months. The barriers separating the parklet from the road are not getting bent out of shape from people sitting on it, and it's being well maintained.

Has anyone tried the free wifi access that's being powered from the solar panels? I haven't.

The newest improvement they've done is place steel cables between the gaps in the parklets to prevent jaywalking. The trash can looking objects that holds plants wasn't doing a great job in preventing someone from jaywalking and getting hit by a Cable Car or car, so the new cables are doing the role. It's good they are using steel cables because the stuff that's keeping people from jaywalking from the Ocean Beach parking lot to the Beach Chalet keeps breaking and people risk their lives crossing a four lane road with vehicles going at 35 MPH.

Even then, jaywalking is still rampant on Powell Street because the parklets doesn't cover the entire blocks as they still need unloading/drop-off zones for deliveries and taxicabs for the hotels.

I'm proud my blog has forced the city to make essential upgrades to the Powell Street parklets in the name of safety, but I'm still disappointed it took them so long to do it.

To read the entire Powell Parklet saga: First blog entry, repair update, and second repair update.

Solar Panels Back at Powell Street Parklets & Less Dangerous

I've been keeping tabs on the Powell Street parklets ever since there was some serious safety flaws discovered when they first opened to the public in mid July. Read up: My initial report, follow-up on improvements and new damage, and more improvements.

Now that we are in October, there's much more improvement and care for the parklets. The barriers are not getting bent, new plants are flourishing, and the newest change, the return of the solar panels.

Supposedly, the solar panels are supposed to power up the free wifi for the parklets, but I haven't tried that out for myself.

The reason why they were originally removed is because they were dangerous trip hazards. They were placed in the middle of the width of the parklets and their base stuck out like scissor blades.

They are now back and while they still have their trip hazards, they have now been relocated to be the closest to the barricades that separates the parklets from the vehicular and Cable Car traffic.

One thing that still bugs me is there's still a lot of people smoking on the parklets and dumping their butts in the planters. On the brighter end, I appreciate the city reading my blog to fix the serious problems with the Powell parklets from the start. Next time, the city should think before they build; unlike the $567,000 on this cheap ass looking wheelchair ramp in the "Board of Stupidvisors" chambers.

Major Improvements & Repairs on Powell Street Parklets

The City & County of San Francisco has made some major improvements since my last two blog entries about the Powell Street Parklets (original story and update).

A lot of the problems stemmed from the tripping hazards caused by the solar panels installed and the barricades separating the parklet from the road traffic was getting bent and damaged because people was sitting on them.

Solar Panels Removed

Originally installed to give power for free wi-fi on Powell Street from Ellis to Geary, the installation was terrible with large metal parts sticking out from the base of the parklet to cause injury to those who tripped over it.

The city has now removed the dangerous hazards from all parklets and now there's new planters the size of garbage cans being installed. Just last week they looked like empty garbage cans, this week it's filled with brand new plants.

Bent Rails Fixed

I just snapped this photo last week Saturday (August 20th) and this one in front of the Walgreens was really bent out of shape. Actually, most of the ones between Ellis and O'Farrell was almost all bent with some of the bolts keeping them together, snapped off. The ones between Geary and O'Farrell last weekend was repaired with new ones and newer types that have a smaller gap, thereby impossible to bend out of shape.

I just snapped this photo a few hours ago while I was eating a sandwich at one of the parklet's tables in front of the same location where that heavily bent rail was last week. The city did a great job to replace ALL the bent rails between Ellis and O'Farrell.

Still... I caught two people starting to destroy our new barricades. People don't respect city property and that makes me grumpy. I wonder why the Union Square ambassadors in red doesn't boot their ass off the rails.

Improvements to Powell Street's Parklets and New Damage

A few weeks ago, I reported here at Akit's Complaint Department about the Powell Street parklets going from Ellis to Geary. There was some very dangerous hazards that needed to be fixed, including two major trip hazards.

Even KRON 4's Stanley Roberts joined in the fun by reporting about people throwing their cigarette butts in the planters.

I'd thought I come back to the scene of the crime and take a look around... here's what happened.

Trip Hazard Fixed

This is some great news to report. The big trip hazards at the end of each block (such as the one at the northeast corner of Ellis and Powell) has been fixed with a thin sheet of metal so it wouldn't be a trip hazards and makes it accessible for those with disabilities. Unfortunately, the city hasn't taken action on the other dangerous trip hazards, such as the bottom of the solar panels.

New Damage

To make sure the parklets are safe from cars and cable cars, the parklets have metal barricades to separate them. After just a few weeks, there are a handful of the barricades that have a new curve in them because people sat on them. These are not hard steel barriers (like the police barricades), they are light in weight and was never meant to be sat upon.

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Akit's Opinion
While these new parklets are nice looking and have eased foot traffic on Powell, it needs some serious work. Poor planning equals big problems, just like the new bent barriers that should have been with harder metal. Also, tourists should respect the parklets by not dumping their cigarette butts in them.

In only a matter of weeks, there's noticeable damage to the parklets. How long until it gets worse, and when will the city attempt to make improvements? I appreciate fixing the trip hazard, but there's plenty more work to be done.

Powell Street Parklets are Gorgeous & There's Safety Hazards

If you've been on Powell Street lately, you might have noticed the new parklets just south of Geary. This has made it able to expand the sidewalk to ease overcrowding while eliminating most parking spaces.

I'm impressed, San Francisco government, you can do something quite interesting. It's a little disappointing they couldn't expand the sidewalk to cover the entire block; instead, there are still some parallel parking gaps, but it's only for active loading zones, such as the one in front of DSW, and others in front of hotels.

The way it's made is very interesting, there's plants, places to sit, high top tables, and extra space to walk around without that Times Square feeling of being crushed while walking. Even more interesting is the solar panels, but I'm not sure what they do.

Here's some odd observations from the use of the parklets... I've noticed Cable Car passengers waiting at O'Farrell lining up for the Cable Car because of the way the parklet was built near that corner. Um... there's no such thing as a line, unless if you are at a turnaround.

Safety & Tripping Hazards
While I do love these gorgeous piece of works, there's some things they really need to fix.

The above photo is a perfect example. The edge of the parklet is supposed to be level with the height of the curb. In this shot at the northeast corner of Powell and Ellis, this particular parklet is not even with the curb (about four inches at its highest point). That's a definite tripping hazard.

A second hazard as seen in this photo is where you see the brown slabs of wood and the metal parts sticking out. This particular piece is where the solar panels are attached to, but why are the metal parts just sticking out like that? I know it's all about looking futuristic and such, but what will it cost the city in lawsuits?

Lastly, there's also some gaps within the parklets where the safety barrier meets the road. While I don't have a picture of it, those gaps within the parklets has been encouraging people to jaywalk across the street where they encounter no gap on the other side's parklet. It also encourages cars to double park and let passengers off in those gaps, and that means holding-up city traffic and the Cable Cars.

Hopefully the city is reading this and can get the contractors to make some necessary corrections so we have happy tourists willing to come back to the city, instead of injured tourists thinking of visiting somewhere else next time.