{"id":32420,"date":"2024-03-20T13:43:17","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T20:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32420"},"modified":"2024-03-20T13:43:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T20:43:18","slug":"2m-federal-grant-funds-study-of-reconnecting-fillmore-nearby-neighborhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/20\/2m-federal-grant-funds-study-of-reconnecting-fillmore-nearby-neighborhoods\/","title":{"rendered":"$2M federal grant funds study of reconnecting Fillmore, nearby neighborhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Natalia%20Gurevich\">By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer |<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mar 19, 2024\u00a0 (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/2\/4f\/24f62bec-e63c-11ee-b306-3775e11d7de6\/65fa0b10badb3.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Geary Boulevard with the Fillmore Street bridge above\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Construction of the Geary Expressway and Fillmore Street underpass, pictured above on March 19, 2024, displaced scores of businesses and residents from the Fillmore. The U.S. Department of Transportation granted $2 million to a local study examining how to reconnect the Fillmore with nearby neighborhoods.Craig Lee\/The Examiner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Federal transportation officials are granting San Francisco $2 million to fund a study identifying how to reconnect the Fillmore with Japantown and the Western Addition neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sixty years after The City widened Geary Street into an expressway, cutting the neighborhood off from other communities in The City and displacing residents and businesses, the U.S. Department of Transportation\u2019s multimillion-dollar award will create a community council representing Black, Japanese and Jewish residents displaced by the construction of the Geary Boulevard and Fillmore Street underpass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The federal grant has signaled a long-awaited change to the Fillmore\u2019s residents and business owners, many of whom have grappled with the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kqed.org\/news\/11825401\/how-urban-renewal-decimated-the-fillmore-district-and-took-jazz-with-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ripple effects of urban renewal<\/a>&nbsp;since the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s long overdue,\u201d said Majeid Crawford, the executive director at New Community Leadership Foundation, one of the Fillmore-based organizations that wrote a letter of support for the grant project. \u201cI believe that the federal government seems to have recognized the harm that transportation and freeway projects have caused Black communities throughout the country, and this is a first step toward undoing that damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Construction of the eight-lane Geary Expressway and an underpass along Fillmore Street in the early 1960s amounted to one phase of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sf.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-07\/AARAC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The City\u2019s urban-renewal efforts<\/a>&nbsp;that closed hundreds of businesses and displaced thousands of households from the Fillmore, according to the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee\u2019s final report submitted last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey did this to widen Geary Street so that the so-called \u2018elite\u2019 could get from work to their house in the suburbs of San Francisco 5-to-10 minutes earlier,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The City\u2019s first application for the federal Reconnecting Communities grant wasn\u2019t accepted, but Supervisor Dean Preston \u2014 whose district includes the Fillmore \u2014 called upon the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to spearhead another application last year. Federal transportation officials approved it last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preston said he is hopeful the funding can help bridge together communities that have been divided because of San Francisco\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s my hope, with these funds, to develop a plan where we see physical changes that make that area more pedestrian-friendly and reunify these neighborhoods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The $2 million federal grant will help establish the community council, as will another $350,000 from the SFCTA\u2019s Proposition L fund and $150,000 from the San Francisco Planning Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SFCTA will facilitate the council of representatives from Black, Japanese, and Jewish communities in the area, who in turn will collaborate on the Geary-Fillmore Underpass Community Planning Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The council will consider transportation and safety, as well as opportunities to build affordable housing and implement strategies to prevent further displacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Japantown Task Force is particularly supportive of the US Department of Transportation\u2019s Equity Strategic Goal to reduce inequities across transportation systems and the communities they affect,\u201d said Alice Kawahatsu, secretary of the Japantown Task Force, in a statement last week. \u201cThe Geary Boulevard expansion during Redevelopment literally cut off San Francisco Japantown from Black neighbors in the Fillmore District\/Western Addition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SFCTA officials said the agency is hoping to get as diverse a committee as possible, extending beyond ethnic and geographic groups to businesses, residents and most anyone else who uses Geary Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bay Area in terms of growth between July 2022 and 2023, seeing a roughly 0.15% increase in residents calling The City home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While there is no current limit on the number of participants, about 15 organizations have already written letters of support for the grant, including Crawford. In order to join the committee, organizations will have to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to be reaching back out to everyone who provided letters of support and let them know that this opportunity is now real, and hopefully they\u2019re still interested,\u201d said Rachel Hiatt, the deputy director of planning for SFCTA. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s not limited to anyone who provided a previous letter of support, but we will definitely include those folks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hiatt said she anticipates that the application process won\u2019t begin for another six months while elements of the grant acceptance process are finalized. Once the committee is formed, the study itself will likely take around 18 months to complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen this roadway was designed originally, it was not developed in consultation with the surrounding communities,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do here is ensure that the community has the opportunity to voice what their needs are and to have the improvements designed to respond directly to those.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recommendations gathered from the study will then go before the SFCTA board for approval. The board will then determine how to fund or implement the recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time that local agencies have been involved in plans to address the expressway and the underpass. Ten years ago, San Francisco officials&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/s-f-s-50-million-plan-to-fill-geary-underpass-5209004.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposed filling in the underpass<\/a>, which carried a $50 million price tag that couldn\u2019t be funded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfmta.com\/projects\/geary-rapid-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reduced the number of lanes<\/a>&nbsp;on the Geary Expressway in 2021, seeking to improve the safety and efficiency of the 38 Geary Muni line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-32.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32423\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ericka Scott, right, seen with Majeid Crawford in front of the Boom Boom Room at Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard: \u201cMy main hope for whatever the development is, is that Black people just have access.\u201dCraig Lee\/The Examiner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Some residents are taking a wait-and-see approach to the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really tied to the devastation and the breaking apart of a thriving community that existed before the urban renewal and redevelopment,\u201d said Ericka Scott, the owner of Honey Art Studio in the Fillmore and a neighborhood native. \u201cA lot is owed to the African American community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scott said the council\u2019s study, and any of the changes it recommends, must represent the interests of \u201cBlack people who\u2019ve been a part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always people from outside the community,\u201d she said, referring to perceived support for newer businesses that have opened along the Fillmore corridor rather than longtime tenants. \u201cSo my main hope for whatever the development is, is that Black people just have access. That\u2019s really what matters to me, more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crawford echoed these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey wanted to slow traffic to make transportation more accessible to the new residents of the neighborhood,\u201d he said of the SFMTA\u2019s efforts three years ago. \u201cBut those aren\u2019t the same residents that were harmed &#8230; That\u2019s the critical thing this study has to get right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal transportation officials are granting San Francisco $2 million to fund a study identifying how to reconnect the Fillmore with Japantown and the Western Addition neighborhoods. Sixty years after The City widened Geary Street into an expressway, cutting the neighborhood off from other communities in The City and displacing residents&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/20\/2m-federal-grant-funds-study-of-reconnecting-fillmore-nearby-neighborhoods\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32425,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32420\/revisions\/32425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}