Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association

GWPNA is happy to be contributing funds for permits and closure of Wawona Street so that residents can continue their long tradition of providing a wonderful Halloween evening.  Please drop off candy donations at Zephyr Real Estate, 215 West Portal Ave, between now and October 30 to help Wawona St. residents who will eagerly receive the largest volume of trick or treaters.

On August 21st, GWPNA received confirmation that two of the three applications we submitted to the SFMTA Neighborhood Traffic Calming program were accepted into the evaluation phase for the 2014 program. The MTA will evaluate all applications between now and January 2014. During this time, the SFMTA will choose the top 25 applications for traffic calming. As part of the selection process they will conduct on-site speed and traffic count studies and research the collision history for each location under consideration. After that, they will rank all the applications for pedestrian risk, and select the top 25 for implementing pedestrian safety measures. 

If they do select the locations we suggest, they will notify us in January of 2014, they will ballot our neighbors and hold a public hearing to ensure support for the project before doing any construction. 

Our contacts at the SF MTA for this program include: 

• Jeffrey Banks, (415) 701-5331, jeffrey.banks@sfmta.com
• Bridget Smith, Deputy Director – Livable Streets (415) 701-4500, bridget.smith@sfmta.com

Applications:

1) Ulloa St. between 15th Ave and West Portal Avenue – ACCEPTED 

When we first submitted the application for this street, the MTA rejected it because we didn’t have enough signatures from neighbors who lived directly on Ulloa St. We needed to go back and get more than half of the homes with addresses between #900 and #1,300 Ulloa St. to sign the application form. The MTA counted 45 homes on that stretch of Ulloa St., so it meant we need 23 signatures — which were hard to get during Summer vacation. Luckily, they gave us a 7-day extension to collect the additional signatures and we were able to do it with the help of a small group of very dedicated volunteers. 

2) Vicente St. between West Portal Ave and Madrone – ACCEPTED 

Because there weren’t many homes with addresses on Vicente St. along this stretch, signatures wasn’t a problem. Also, since the most recent pedestrian death occurred on Vicente St. at West Portal Ave, the MTA seemed very willing to consider this application for traffic calming. 

3) West Portal Ave at 14th Ave – REJECTED 

Unfortunately the Neighborhood Traffic Calming program is limited to residential streets, so our application for traffic calming at the intersection of West Portal Ave. and 14th Ave., was rejected. We will continue to pursue some sort of pedestrian safety improvements at this dangerous intersection through other programs.

The Traffic and Safety Committee for the West Portal Neighborhood Association has been working to get some pedestrian safety improvements in three locations in the neighborhood: 1) along Ulloa St., 2) at the 5-way intersection of Vicente, Wawona and Madrone, and 3) at the corner of West Portal Ave. and 14th Ave. near the Bank of America. 

We have applied to the SF Municipal Transportation Agencies Neighborhood Traffic Calming program. Each year, the MTA selects 25 locations from all the applications in San Francisco for study and possible improvements. 

Here’s a quick update on our progress: 

1. Ulloa St. Application (between 15th Ave and West Portal Ave.) – We didn’t get the required 23 signatures from addresses on Ulloa St. itself, but they gave us an extension until next Wednesday to try for more signatures. 
2. They accepted our application for Vicente St. between West Portal Ave and Madrone Ave. 
3. They rejected our application for West Portal Ave. at 14th Ave. because it’s not a residential intersection. 

So, we’re going to try again this week to collect signatures from the 45 homes that have street addresses on Ulloa St. between 15th Ave and West Portal Ave. We need at least 23 signatures to reach the threshold to qualify to be considered, and even then they may not accept application into this years program. If not, we’ll have to try again next August. 

If you personally know anyone who lives on Ulloa St. please call or email them and ask them to sign the application for neighborhood traffic calming. Few of our neighbors on Ulloa St. are members of NextDoor.Com, so your help is appreciated. Tell them to contact me directly (Matt Chamberlain), either by email or by phone and we’ll schedule to have someone pick up their signature this weekend. 

Matt Chamberlain, 
GWPNA, Chair of the Traffic and Safety Committee 

Traditionally GWPNA has met on Wednesday nights, but that can conflict with SF Board of Supervisors meetings on some evenings, so starting in the Fall of 2013, the monthly GWPNA meetings will be held on the first Wednesday of the month instead. This will allow our members to attend BOS meetings when necessary without missing a GWPNA meeting. More importantly, it will allow our Supervisor, Norman Yee to join our monthly GWPNA meetings and provide updates on how he’s advocating for us at the Board of Supervisors.