By Carl Nolte, Columnist March 8, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
Every so often San Franciscans need to remind themselves that they live in a city, not just a collection of neighborhoods, no matter how charming.
That means people have to take a look at the core of the city, not just the edges. Think of Market Street, the city’s main stem. It’s worth another look. It’s better than it was even a couple of years ago, but it’s not the same as it used to be. Sounds like San Francisco.
Market Street has been a symbol, an opportunity and a problem nearly forever. It was laid out in 1847 by Jasper O’Farrell, a 26-year-old Irish surveyor who saw it as a grand boulevard running in a straight line from the bay to the hills.
His street — named for Market Street in Philadelphia — was a surveyor’s compromise between streets north of Market laid out in one direction and streets south of Market laid out in another. It was a compromise to please property owners. It pleased no one, and the odd way Market Street was designed created a traffic problem that’s lasted 178 years. Very San Francisco.
The city’s government has been tinkering with Market Street for years, from the “What to Do About Market Street” report of 1962 to banning cars on a portion of Market five years ago.
The street is like a thermometer that measures the city’s economic and social health. At the onset of the homeless crisis Market seemed to be a magnet for beggars and lost souls. And when the city’s economy turned sour, Market Street showed it first.
Everybody knows that story. But maybe there’s another story. I went to look. I picked lower Market, skipped the bad parts of the street.
S.F. Market Street is the city’s thermometer, and things are looking better
Greg