America's Cup: SPUR Weighs-in On Development Plans

By Peter Jamison Mon., Feb. 7 2011 at 2:56 PM

Categories: Business, Development and Real Estate, Environment, Politics

In the current issue of SF Weekly, staff writer Joe Eskenazi goes deep on the story of how bombastic former Supervisor Chris Daly saved the city millions by holding out for an optimal plan for hosting the America's Cup. Now that San Francisco has sealed the deal on the regatta, lots of hard work remains -- including figuring out how the city can capitalize on the event from an urban-planning perspective.

Enter the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), the highly regarded urban-studies think tank. On Friday, SPUR released a set of suggestions for development initiatives that the center asserts would be both timely improvements for the visiting America's Cup hordes and wise long-term investments.

Among their suggestions:

-- Extend the F-line to Fort Mason. This would provide public transit spanning the city's northern waterfront, where the event will be based.

-- Create a separated two-way bike lane along the Embarcadero. One-way bike lanes already exist on much of the Embarcadero, but SPUR envisions a more attractive and safer set-up that is barricaded from auto lanes.

-- "Europeanize" Fisherman's Wharf by ditching some of the kitsch and creating a public plaza with a more modern feel. We can't help but wonder: Will Bush Man be deemed sufficiently continental to stay?

You can check out the full list of suggested improvements at SPUR's blog.

Via SF.Streetsblog

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