The San Francisco Planning Department, together with The East Cut Community Benefit District hosted a Halloween-themed public meeting and workshop on October 30, 2017 from 6:00 pm-8:00pm to share project updates and gather public input on the design and activation of the streets, sidewalks, and open spaces of the South Downtown project area. Approximately 100 participants attended. The workshop was held in a mixer format with food, drinks, and an interactive activity. It featured intermittent presentations on the South Downtown Design and Activation plan by Paul Chasan of San Francisco Planning.

Community participants were:

• presented with project updates in the neighborhood;
• provided interactive opportunities to help program open spaces; and
• engaged in a pop-up retail experience and

Throughout this event, attendees were free to visit 10 stations based on the four goals of the plan: 1) Refine and Implement Long-Approved Projects; 2) Enhance the Built Environment; 3) Elevate the Experience; and 4) Improve Safety and Mobility. At each of these stations, attendees were invited to write their comments on posted boards.

Feedback, responses and comments the community provided are summarized below:

Elevate the Experience

Improving the quality of life and enhancing experiences at the street level.

• Desire to see a commercial/retail mix that meets the needs of the
• Support for using markets and events to offer evening and weekend
• Wanting to improve access to and programming of existing public
• Providing more spaces and activities for
• Support for more activities and events that increase a feeling of community in the area.
• Desire to see more nontraditional means of activating public spaces (ie: Giant Jenga, pop-up art, and board games).
• Demand for more dancing, gardening, exercising and other outdoor activities to be held in public

Enhance the Built Environment

Improving upon and creating new public spaces for residents and visitors.

• Demand to stop removing parking
• Interest in providing more rain gardens, green walls, and other greenspaces throughout the
• Desire to see more general seating as well as seating that can accommodate groups.
• Wanting to see more public art, especially sculpture and other forms that the public can engage
• Requesting better lighting for both day and night
• Wanting to increase and expand sports and playground
• Stopping buildings from gating off or restricting access to public

Safety and Mobility

Improving safety for all streetscape users with an emphasis on people walking, biking, and riding transit.

• Requests for improved regulations and locations for rideshare pick up and drop-offs.
• Demand for more consistent and more advertised bus transportation
• Requests for an increase in bike share stations available in dense areas of the neighborhood.
• Improving wayfinding for pedestrians and bicyclists in alleys and
• Demand for more traffic calming and road safety

Next Steps:

The East Cut Community Benefit District and the San Francisco Planning Department will continue to conduct further outreach to better understand how to design and engage the neighborhood in order to promote higher levels of safety, places for community building and socializing, and more efficient transportation systems.

For more information on upcoming public meetings and projects by the San Francisco Planning Department or to sign up for the SF Planning mailing list, you can visit: sf-planning.org/soda