Having helped engineer the return of San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin and the takeover of the Democratic County Central Committee, Chinatown powerhouse Rose Pak is moving on to a new cause — killing Union Square merchants’ push to turn lower Stockton Street into a pedestrian walkway.

“They want to choke us to death,” Pak said of the street closure plan being proposed by the Union Square Business Improvement District, whose members include Macy’s, the Apple store and Forever 21.

The idea of turning lower Stockton Street into a permanent pedestrian space — possibly with a provision for buses — has been percolating since the city tore up the once heavily traveled link between Chinatown and Market Street five years ago to build the Central Subway.

The street closure, coupled with the noise and dust that came with the subway dig, sent Union Square-area businesses into a tailspin. So to help merchants, the city started suspending work during the holiday shopping season and turning the three-block stretch between Market and Post streets into an artificial-turf-covered walkway, complete with benches, food trucks and nighttime light shows.

“It was an extreme success,” said Karin Flood, head of the Union Square Business Improvement District. “The businesses loved it. The visitors loved it.”

Now, Union Square merchants are calling for the city to make the mall permanent when the subway to Chinatown is completed in 2019.

“Retail is changing. There are a lot more options out there now, so you have to give shoppers a whole experience to keep them coming to the city,” Flood said.

And it’s not just merchants. “Every major city in the world is moving toward making their business core more pedestrian-centered,” said Tom Radulovich, a BART board member and head of Livable City, a nonprofit advocacy group that encourages bike and pedestrian use in neighborhoods.

But even the idea of a preliminary study for a permanent mall is a nonstarter for Pak. She says Stockton Street is a vital link in and out of Chinatown that needs to be restored to its old self as soon as possible.

In a letter to Ed Reiskin, head of the Municipal Transportation Agency, Pak said Chinatown has already suffered from construction of the Central Subway and that a permanent mall is “unacceptable.”

Flood called Pak’s objections unfair. “We’ve had eight meetings, and now because of one group we are hitting the pause button,” she said. “Everyone should have a say.”

“It hasn’t been put on pause,” said transportation agency spokesman Paul Rose. “We aren’t going to make any final decision until we work out concerns from all communities involved.”

Ironically, it was Pak who almost single-handedly persuaded the city to build the $1.5 billion, 1.7-mile Central Subway to make up for the 1991 demolition of the quake-damaged Embarcadero Freeway that fed into Chinatown.

In any case, the clock is ticking on Stockton Street: The Central Subway contractor is scheduled to return the street to its old auto-friendly design within the next two years.

Pak appears unmovable, pledging to fight the pedestrian mall “with everything we have.”

“It’s not going to happen,” Pak said.

TKO: The civil case in San Francisco’s jailhouse “fight club” scandal ended before the first-round bell rang — and one of the plaintiffs is already back in jail.

With barely a peep, the Board of Supervisors agreed last week to pay $90,000 to settle the suit brought by former jail inmates Ricardo Palikiko-Garcia, Stanley Harris and Keith Dwayne Richardson. They sued last year, saying that sheriff’s deputies had forced them to fight one another for the deputies’ entertainment.

Criminal charges against a current sheriff’s deputy and former deputy are still pending.

The $90,000 lawsuit settlement is a far cry from the multimillion-dollar judgments that the plaintiffs’ attorney, John Burris, has won in civil rights cases in the past.

Still, it’s not chump change. The city figured the payout was worth eliminating the unpredictability of a trial: If a jury awarded the former inmates so much as $1, the city would have been on the hook for Burris’ legal bills, which were sure to top $90,000.

For Harris, at least, it’s a bittersweet victory. According to booking records, he’s back in County Jail after being arrested July 4 on suspicion of burglary, grand theft and resisting arrest.

Blast money: For San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane, federal prosecutors’ decision to drastically slash the penalty they are seeking from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for allegedly breaking pipeline safety laws hit a sensitive spot.

Eight people died in his city and 38 homes were destroyed when a PG&E pipeline exploded in September 2010. When the California Public Utilities Commission levied a $1.6 billion fine last year, the state kept $300 million of it — another $850 million went into improving PG&E’s gas lines, $400 million was returned to customers and the rest went into assorted remedies.

“I was hoping that some of it would go into hiring more staff to keep an eye on utility safety,” Ruane said. “I’ve been calling the governor’s office to see where the money went, but I haven’t gotten an answer.”

We called Gov. Jerry Brown’s office and were told the money went straight into this year’s $122.5 billion general fund. That meant it could go to any state department or program.

“It was probably all spent before it ever got” to Sacramento, Ruane said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross