For years, neighbors have been assured that the road would reopen once the University Mound Reservoir renovation project was completed. As recently as June of this year, the documents being presented to the community talked of the "temporary closure" of Bacon St.
In email exchanges people have had with SFWater, we've been able to piece together a different story, complete with flimsy excuses that are intended to be used to convince neighbors that closing Bacon St is in their best interest and those of the city's water supply. We've been told by SFPD that emergency services "never" use this part of Bacon St to access the neighborhood west of University Ave, known as University Mound. But firefighters who've been with the department for over two decades, and who've worked out of the Portola Station paint a very different picture, remembering "hundreds" of emergency trips on the road prior to the temporary closure. We've been told by SFPD that closing Bacon will eliminate an "escape route" for villains, when in fact and more importantly it closes off a direct access route from the Bayview Police station for police to get to University Mound. We've been told there will be a beautiful promenade for bikes and pedestrians, although bikes and pedestrians haven't had much trouble in the past using the sidewalks and road. What a closed-off area will do is create a skateboard park and unmonitorable and unpolicable hang-out space for drug dealing and other illicit activities. Direct access to McLaren Park by neighbors in Silver Terrace and the Bayview will be cut off. Direct access to the shops of San Bruno Ave by neighbors on University Mound will be cut off.
In email exchanges that I've had with SF Planning, I've determined that SFPUC has not yet officially proposed closing the street, but is working with SFPUC to determine whether permanent closure would require the PUC to apply for a new environmental review OR if they can simply amend the existing application. This is important, because if the original CEQA exemption is simply amended, the PUC may not even be required to notify surrounding neighbors, and can simply keep the street closed. If a new application is needed, then PUC and Planning have to notify neighbors, but seemingly no public meetings are required.
For two years, the SFPUC, SFPD, and SFFD have had a unique opportunity to perform studies on actual traffic flow patterns, environmental impacts, criminal capture rates, emergency services response times, and to gauge neighborhood reaction to the temporary closure of Bacon St. so that they could bring real data to tomorrow night's meeting. By all accounts, this has not been done, and so the excuses being brought up for the reason why we NEED to have Bacon St closed are based solely on conjecture and hypothesis.
Tomorrow night's meeting should be interesting. The SFPUC Yellow House holds no more than 25 people in its meeting spaces. However, petitions have been circulated and chatter on the Portola Yahoo group has been brisk, so more neighbors than I'm sure SFPUC wanted have been notified of the agency's plans and will be attending tomorrow's meeting. SFPUC is bringing out the big kahunas, with SFFD, SFPD, and even Homeland Security coming to tomorrow night's happy "University Mound Reservoir reopening and discussion of the future and safety and security of the reservoir and our extremely vulnerable water supply that terrorists want to destroy" party. See you there!
