by Randy Shaw on January 22, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
Time to Revisit an Outdated Decision
A June 2015 unanimous SFMTA vote banned private cars and rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft from Market Street between Third and Eighth Streets. Taxicabs were still allowed.
I’m sure I cheered SFMTA’s action. Many of us despised the corporate shenanigans of rideshare companies. We felt Mid-Market was best accessed by foot, public transportation and bicycles. Mid-Market was starting to boom in 2015. The car ban and the planned Better Market Street upgrade offered an exciting urbanist vision for San Francisco’s grandest street.
Well, Mid-Market’s fortunes have radically changed since 2015 . Better Market Street has since been sharply scaled back. Mid-Market’s economy has gone from boom to bust, a contrast highlighted by the thriving Westfield Centre then and the mass vacancies there now.
Given the dramatic shift in the neighborhood does restricting rideshare access to Mid-Market still make sense? Why is San Francisco making it harder to reach a neighborhood desperate to attract customers?
I’m curious what people think.
Mid-Market Needs Help.
Mid-Market faces two major structural challenges.
First, retail clothiers in the area are gone and not likely to return. The San Francisco Centre (formerly Westfield) could sit vacant for years. The clothing stores along Powell Street leading to Union Square have long been closed.
Second, there is little to no demand for Mid-Market office space. Mid-Market office space took off prior to COVID because 1. the Mid-Market/Tenderloin tax exemption on new hires 2. rents were a lot less in downtown 3. businesses were attracted to the area’s historic buildings.
Today, the tax break is gone. Businesses can get better deals on downtown office space than was ever possible pre-COVID. Businesses are no longer interested in investing in restoring Mid-Market office buildings.
San Francisco clearly must improve public perceptions of the area’s public safety. But getting people to come to Mid-Market has proved challenging even when the streets are dealer and user free.
Multiple Strategies Needed
Unless someone has a powerful, sweeping idea like Mayor Lee’s Mid-Market tax credit, it’s likely that multiple revival strategies will be needed. Revisiting the ride share ban should be among them.
I know the politics that allowed taxicabs but not Uber and Lyft. But San Franciscans are accustomed to using rideshare, not taxicabs. Why single out Mid-Market as a no rideshare zone when Uber and Lyft freely operate in the rest of the city?
When people’s preferred method of transportation is not available to get to a desired destination many will choose to go elsewhere. The rideshare ban clearly takes business from a Mid-Market neighborhood that desperately needs it.
Uber and Lyft can leave passengers at Mason and Turk or another street parallel to Market. But a lot of people don’t want to have to undertake an evening walk on those side streets. Nor do they want to wait on these near Market streets for a return pick-up.
Ending the Mid-Market rideshare ban on at least a six month or one year trial basis is an easy and cost-free step San Francisco can take to revive the area. Is it too small a step to make a difference? Perhaps. But rideshare would be in addition to other revival plans.
IKEA’s full opening this spring—which will add the food court and entertainment center– should attract interest in the area. That seems like a good time to open rideshare to Mid-Market on at least a trial basis.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
