Pacific Heights Residents Association

September 2003

Community Meeting Provides Hope
for More Parking on Fillmore Street

More parking on Fillmore may be in the offing as the Department of Parking and Traffic considers reducing the hours for yellow loading zones to mornings only, Monday-Friday.

There are 38 such zones on Fillmore between Geary and Jackson. They currently operate all day, including Saturdays.

Following a PHRA-sponsored public meeting on transit and parking June 6, a walk of the area was taken by a committee consisting of Margot Parke, representing PHRA; Tom Reynolds, president of the Fillmore Merchants Association; Jimmy Borgasano, owner of the 2412 Fillmore salon; and Cheryl Stewart of Repeat Performance.

They were accompanying Tom Folks, a DPT engineer.

Some Zones May be Eliminated

In addition to agreeing to shortened hours, the group decided that some of the yellow zones could be eliminated entirely at the Jackson/Fillmore intersection, where the commercial zones, bus zones and a concentration of Muni busses make residential parking – not to mention traffic – a nightmare.

The group also agreed that Repeat Performance, which had a white zone at its previous location, should have one again instead of the two, green short-term meters now in front of the thrift shop.

Borgasano is crusading for two-hour meters for the entire street. “People need time to spend money,” he said. A visit to one of the street’s restaurants, especially if it includes a bit of shopping, takes more than an hour, he said. He often has to feed meters during his own customers’ hair treatments. However, the group’s consensus was that longer parking time is in effect a reduction in the number of parking spaces.

The owners of Dobson Gray, just west of Fillmore on Sacramento, suggested that the bus zone there should be shortened and a metered space added.

All of the changes are subject to public hearings. None have been scheduled.

Muni Begins Outreach

Meanwhile, Muni has sent a letter to residents and businesses on Jackson Street about the 12-Folsom terminal, asking comments on two proposals:

Moving the terminal east of Fillmore by extending the existing 24-Divisadero terminal across the front of the school building.

Lengthening the existing bus terminal at Jackson and Fillmore from 122 feet to 220 feet to accommodate the 12-Folsom terminal as well as stops by the 3-Jackson and the 24-Divisadero. The extension would be available for parking on nights and weekends, and at those times the 3 and 24 would stop in the traffic lane.

At least one resident of the Webster-Fillmore block of Jackson has already objected to moving the 12-Folsom terminal there.