Opinion

S.F. solicits ideas for Market Street ON SAN FRANCISCO'S MAIN STREET

The crosswalk at the intersection of Castro and Market Streets where an elderly man was stuck and killed by a bicyclist on March 29 in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, April 13, 2012. The crosswalk at the intersection of Castro and Market Streets where an elderly man was stuck and killed by a bicyclist on March 29 in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, April 13, 2012. Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close S.F. solicits ideas for Market Street 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

San Francisco's Market Street has always had the potential to shine as the elegant main street of the Paris of the West.

Plans for the city's central thoroughfare have evoked hopeful comparisons to the Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Great White Way in New York City.

The promise never was fulfilled - the persistent shabbiness of some downtown blocks and of some of the denizens of the street always frustrated efforts to create a showplace boulevard.

But Market is still San Francisco's main stem, the geographic and spiritual spine of the city.

It's a street full of history: For more than a century, it has been the most popular gathering place for anybody who wanted to celebrate something or make a point or just meet. When thousands were left homeless after the 1906 earthquake and fire, where did they go to rendezvous with their families? To a squat little fountain, named after actress Lotta Crabtree, at Market and Kearny streets. In 1910, soprano Luisa Tetrazzini sang to tens of thousands on Market to rejoice at the rebirth of the city. Labor rallies in the 1930s, jubilation at the end of World War II in 1945, the arrival of Willie Mays and the Giants in 1958, parades in honor of the 49ers' first Super Bowl victory and the Giants' World Series wins in this decade - if you want to celebrate something distinctly San Francisco, Market Street is where you go.

It's the city's epicenter, the heart of our modern transit network, the one street that's impossible to ignore if you're giving directions to an out-of-towner. About 250,000 people use the surface of Market on an average weekday.

Unfortunately, it's falling apart.

Improvements made in the early 1970s - repaving the street, widening sidewalks and adding picturesque brickwork, improving lighting, planting trees and adding expensive trash cans - are wearing out.

Today, the sidewalks are uneven and cracked, the lighting seems inadequate for the demands of modern nighttime crowds, the trash cans overflow, and anybody walking across the street risks breaking an ankle because of holes in the deteriorating asphalt.

Thankfully, the city's Department of Public Works has located $25 million to repave and improve this heavily used and vital transit corridor from the Embarcadero to Octavia Street.

But that isn't enough. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink and remake Market into a boulevard worthy of its role in the city's past and present. The DPW is teaming up with the Planning Department and the Municipal Transportation Agency to ask San Franciscans what the city's main street should look like in coming decades.

So what's the vision?

What about taking cars off altogether in favor of a pathway for pedestrians and bicycles? Or at least the addition of bike lanes? Or allowing more cars?

How about widening the sidewalks - or narrowing them?

What about adding plants to create a greener environment? (The surviving sycamore trees are a magnet for monarch butterflies - what's not to like?)

Should we designate bus lanes to remove the huge vehicles from auto traffic flow, increasing the efficiency of public transit?

What about building a ceiling over the dreary, badly designed Hallidie Plaza at Powell Street to create a more friendly place for public events? Or at least raise the floor so it doesn't look like an open-pit mine.

Spruce up the entrances to transit stations in hope of attracting more regular citizens who would make them more pleasant places?

Add street furniture, such as benches?

What about temporary art and music events installations that could attract people who don't normally hang out in the area?

In the words of one official, the city aims to attract "people who want to use the street for positive purposes, not antisocial purposes."

One way would be to use the marketplace: If a renewed Market Street attracts more jobs and foot traffic, the character of the street could remake itself.

The money for new pavement has been found, but that's all there is. Funding for a grander vision - an estimated $250 million would be needed - will have to come from private sources or creative financing.

So what should the main street of the City by the Bay look like for the next generation? The city is seeking your ideas.