Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Harvey Milk Plaza: SFMTA's Major Redo Concept Study Online

Over Gay Pride Weekend, a little birdie sang to me about an elevator was allegedly to be installed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Department of Public Works in the next 12-16 months at Harvey Milk Plaza. I contacted SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose and he gave me the scoop on a major redevelopment coming to this vital piece of queer public property"

"We are currently in the very early stages for a new elevator at Castro station. The scope of the project includes a new elevator on the south side of the station. As part of the project we will be adding other accessibility improvements including re-grading the path of travel to the new elevator, relocating a curb ramp to improve access, replacing sidewalk paving on the street and mezzanine levels, improving lighting along the path of travel, plus other misc improvements. We have just begun meeting with community groups and will continue reaching out as we move forward."



The 12-page conceptual study shows the elevator at Milk Plaza will go in next to the rainbow flag pole on the sidewalk level and descend down to the sunken plaza and entrance level to the Muni underground station. Needless to say, I'm quite curious to hear _any_ public discussion about the flag and the plaza and who controls this public space. 

I've posted the SFMTA document here and have not heard from the agency as to whether they've shared it on their site.


The scope of the work info confusingly states that "Harvey Milk Plaza re-design and modification are not part of the scope of work for this project." Well, after reading the 12-page outline and looking at the imagery, I'd sure like to hear more about how installing the new elevator won't affect the design of the area surrounding it.


What's the schedule for the project? It began in February of this year, civic design review concludes in October, Milk Plaza design review finishes at the end of this year, and the elevator installation will be completed by January 2019.

Lotta changes coming to the plaza and I hope the first open community meeting is soon announced.

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