Tell the SFMTA Board to protect struggling Geary businesses and delay the bus lane quick build until after sewer work is done!

With the disruption of the new SFMTA "quick build," the loss of parking, and the disruption of the sewer work, Geary Blvd will cease to be a viable or practical place for visitors, residents, and potential customers to visit. We estimate Geary small businesses will lose significant revenue from this reduction in parking - if they are able to hold on at all. It's just common sense to only tear up the street once, not twice!

Geary Blvd Merchants Association would really appreciate it if everyone could click and send an email today!

CLICK HERE!

"Tell the SFMTA to delay Geary quick build"

Your urgent help is needed!

Premature SFMTA Project will kill Geary businesses.

Send an email today!

What's happening:

Geary Boulevard small businesses, places of worship, other organizations and customers ask you to save our Geary Blvd small businesses from SFMTA’s quick build project along Geary Blvd. Please help by clicking to send the email below.

SFMTA wants to start the project this year. However, the City’s sewage system upgrades along Geary will begin in 2025 - 2026. The sewer work will rip up any prior work done by SFMTA.

Despite that, SFMTA is pushing forward with its “quick build” project, which will remove over 26% of the general meter parking spots along Geary Blvd as early as this fall. Not only will the project kill more Geary businesses, it is also wasteful of tax dollars since everything will be ripped up a couple of years later. We have tried to collaborate with SFMTA and while they offered to give us back a few of the parking spaces they previously commandeered for e-bike racks, they have been unwilling to discuss other options.

With the disruption of the quick build, the loss of parking, and the disruption of the sewer work, Geary Blvd will cease to be a viable or practical place for visitors, residents, and potential customers to visit. We estimate Geary small businesses will lose significant revenue from this reduction in parking - if they are able to hold on at all.

While SFMTA claims that the quick build will save 38-Geary riders two minutes of travel time, general Muni ridership and service are still far-below pre-pandemic levels. It begs the question: Why is SFMTA rushing to remove parking spaces and sacrifice hundreds of Geary Blvd small businesses?

Geary Boulevard small businesses are already struggling to recover from the pandemic. Many storefronts are sitting vacant. Fewer and fewer customers are shopping along the corridor. Outer Richmond’s sales tax has been decreased by 28.6 % from 2019 to 2023. We cannot afford to have parking removed in the central Geary commercial corridor during this period of economic uncertainty. The impact of the conversion from angled parking to parallel parking raises a concern: How many people would avoid Geary Blvd with its complicated parking and instead head to an area that has more easily accessible and ample parking spaces (often outside of SF altogether)?

We delivered over 1200 signed petitions to SFMTA director Jeff Tumlin in January 2023. By ignoring our plea to allow us to recover before the larger project begins construction in 2026, the SFMTA will thwart San Francisco’s much-needed economic revival.

Please send an email to Mayor Breed and the SFMTA Board of Directors to reject the quick build project and demand SFMTA Director Jeff Tumlin prioritize the restoration of all transit services.

Sincerely,

Sean Kim & David Heller

The Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association