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Photograph by Brittany Riddick

Photograph by Brittany Riddick

July 2010

Parking Restrictions Coming to Tennessee Street

By Sarah Mcdonald

A block of Tennessee Street in the Central Waterfront may see increased parking restrictions soon.  Business owners and residents in the area have petitioned the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority (SFTMA) to restrict overnight parking on the west side of the street between 23rd and 24th streets.  If the restrictions are adopted, no parking would be allowed on the block from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., subject to towing. The petition cites “the habitual overnight parking on this street of individuals whom the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) says are meeting to plan and commit illegal acts” as the reason for the restrictions. The petition originally called for parking restrictions from 23rd to 25th Streets, but was amended to accommodate employees of businesses between 24th and 25th streets who start work at 5 a.m.

According to Scott Wilkinson, who was involved in the petition drive, and lives nearby at Minnesota and 24th streets, occupants of a group of campers and vans that park in the area may be causing problems in the neighborhood.  “Whenever you see the vans move in, things start disappearing and problems start arriving,” he said.  “We’ve had wiring on telephone poles stripped,” he said, and bronze caps on the fire plugs on his building have been removed.  Wilkinson has seen people with shopping carts full of scrap metal near the vehicles on Tennessee Street.  When the vehicles move on, they leave a mess behind, and eventually return. “I feel like that’s their home base,” he said.  The City’s 311 Customer Service Center has received 16 calls so far this year about abandoned vehicles at the corner of 23rd and Tennessee streets.

Bruce Kin Huie, who was also involved in the petition drive, and lives at 23rd and Indiana streets, said community members met with the SFPD about the parking issue. He said the police are aware of the problem, and that overnight parking restrictions will give them a better ability to safeguard the area. “We’ve had the support of the San Francisco Police Department on this issue,” said Huie.

The block of Tennessee Street in question has no sidewalk or street lights, and is surrounded by industrial buildings on either side with no doors or windows facing the street. Wilkinson and Huie believe that the environment attracts individuals who are avoiding the police. As the neighborhood steadily becomes more residential, Huie said the problems on the block are becoming more of a safety issue. Tennessee Street is a block away from the T-line light rail’s 23rd Street stop, which started service in 2007.   Last year Huie called the police after witnessing a person he thought was homeless getting beaten on that block in what he assumed was “a drug deal gone bad.”

The petition was approved last month at a public engineering hearing for the SFMTA Sustainable Streets Division.  It will be presented at the SFMTA’s August board meeting; the new parking restrictions will be posted if it passes. The board meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at noon, August 3 at City Hall, Room 400.

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