They won’t have to demolish them without replacing, just bring them underground, so they won’t be a divide or an eyesore in a city and let the car drivers breath the exhaust fumes instead of the city folk. That’s my solution.
While I generally consider stockholm to not be too bad when it comes to highways. As with the exception of the EU's fucking E20 highway, most of the highways in stockholm city have been dug underground. Reducing the amount of displacment by... Well a lot. And most of our highways have been getting slimmed down, and/or had car lanes replaced with bus lanes. So there is even less of a focus on them in modern Stockholm... However, I would consider one of them to be a pretty massive mistake. The 73 is a highway that comes from Farsta to the south, past *Johanneshov,* before crossing a bridge over the water and going underneath the central city. It connects to the streets around Stockholm's central train station, before continuing north west as *"Klarastrandsleden"* to connect with the E20 and E4. The intent was mostly to allow for easier travel between *Johanneshov* and the two islands making up the central city. *(Södermalm,* and *Norrmalm.)* However, a lot of traffic ends up just using it as a _shortcut_ to skip going around the city when traveling south from the E20 and E4, or too them while going north. So what I would do, is straight up demolish *Klarastrandsleden,* and the section of the 73 that goes underneath *Johanneshov.* Not any of the on and off ramps though, so people coming from the south on the 73, could still get onto the 75, which leads to both Nacka, and the E20. The latter of which was the thing people were avoiding by shortcutting along the 73 in the first place. So they still have highway access to wherever the fuck they wanted to go. And similarly, not removing the ramps on the northen end of *Johanneshov* would still allow local traffic to cross over to *Södermalm* via the previously mentioned bridge. Which was the original intention of the 73. But these two simple changes, would stop it from being a shortcut for through traffic. And by the looks of things, the city has already spent some time slimming down the northen section of the 73 that goes under the city. So who knows? Maybe they'll at least demolish *Klarastrandsleden?* Perhaps add a few more rails to the central station, lol.
Considering that you have never been here, you have done an amazing job with this. However, you should have mentioned the equally awful Central Freeway (I-80). It crossed Market Street near Civic Center, also blocking views of the Ferry Building as it sliced through the heart of the Hayes Valley neighborhood. The quake of 1989 forced the removal of most of it and it now ends at Market Street. Across Market a new tree-lined Octavia boulevard replaced it. The revival of Hayes Valley that followed is as dramatic as the restoration of the Embarcadero.
In those original highway master plans I-80 was projected to make a beeline from the Central Freeway to the Great Highway through Golden Gate Park! I-280 was planned to run up San Francisco's west side to meet it, then continue as I-480 to and along the waterfront as the Embarcadero Freeway, which would be connected to the Southern Embarcadero Freeway. A veritable Chinese Wall of elevated freeways!
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, near San Jose. Removing these freeways did make the waterfront more beautiful. But it also increased the travel time by a lot and made people living in the suburbs more difficult and less convenient to go to San Francisco. I grew up in Hong Kong where the majority of people use public transit. The public transit in San Francisco is good in US standard but bad when compared to Hong Kong and most other major Asian cities. We have around one train per hour going from San Jose to San Francisco, compared to every 3 minutes or so in Hong Kong, and you have many subway lines to bring you to any furthest corners of the city. Tearing down gigantic ugly freeway structures is good, but if you don't have the funding to vastly improve the public transit, you'd be replacing one problem with another. Adding a Muni light rail line to Chinatown is a good start but far from enough
San Francisco transit isn't even up to 🇺🇸 standards. In fact. People here complain about it. When you compare it to New York and Chicago. It's no contest. New York and Chicago is more closer to Hong Kong and Tokyo's transit
@@cccoolbucket1285 in the context of your point regarding San Francisco. New York and Chicago are up to 🇺🇸 standards in comparison to San Francisco's transit. In fact. A few years ago, I'd met this lady from Japan. She was pointing out how the transit here in the Bay area is lacking. She'd compared it to Tokyo, Chicago and New York as being better and more reliable.
@@epicsseven7686 Yeah, I'm just saying the average american transit system is pretty terrible, and San Francisco compares pretty well with most of them. Chicago and New York have great systems, but the rest of the country doesn't
@@epicsseven7686 Have you even been to SF? The transit network is excellent. It's just that nobody uses it, because they aren't forced to by government. They use ride shares.
The Ferry Building's clock tower is NOT aligned with Market Street. It splits the difference between Market and Commercial Streets -- which can be easily seen in person.
I, too, think that this video was very well done ... a good account of the history. In 1989, I was working at a Radio/TV complex that was very near the Broadway terminus of the Embarcadero freeway. It was a massive, two decked, and it commanded all the attention of any view. As you stated, there was concern for the its safety. Also, a double-decked freeway in Oakland suffered a collapse of the upper deck onto the lower. A portion of the double decked Bay Bridge fell onto the lower deck, further "enlightening" folks that this may not be an ideal mass transit conduit. During the de-construction, there was some confusion in the re-adjustment of traffic ... understandably so. However, if anything great came from the frightening quake, it was the demolition of that structure. I was very young when the freeway was constructed. So, I didn't remember the beauty of seeing the unobstructed view of the Ferry Building from Market Street, and so many other vistas. A colleague of mine had an apartment on a high floor near the station, and had a commanding view of the 'take-down.' He set up a camera on his deck, and took multiple pictures every day, then ran them together in time-lapse. It was an amazing presentation, when he put it all together.
Excellent presentation. I lived in San Francisco from 1984-2006. I was thrilled when the Embaradero (ferry building area) Freeway was demolished! The beautiful historic sightlines were finally restored!
I voted have the Embarcadero Freeway torn down in 1986 and was glad that it _was_ demolished following the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 but I _do_ recall two positive things about it: you could pretty easily swing by freeway onto Broadway and Chinatown, which I did pretty often in those days and, going in the other direction, from Broadway, on the upper deck, you had a kind of “helicopter view” of the Embarcadero on the right side. That said, when the freeway came down, I think people were surprised by just how “liberating” the effect was. The waterfront was not in the shadow of this enormous, hulking-and just plain ugly-structure, and, as you indicated, the Ferry Building no longer had this “barrier” in front of it. Even decades later, going along the waterfront, I think about how much nicer it is.
I've been to San Francisco twice before and I feel in love with the city. I can easily get around the bay without a car, and I grew up in a small car-dependent town in Florida.
@@TohaBgood2 I wish I could say that, but it really isn't. The NIMBYism is so bad, the state had to basically step in and say "enough is enough", either they build enough houses, or the state of California will force every new housing proposal through, and I can guarantee you that San Francisco will drag its feet for as long as they possibly can to stop the new houses at all costs. Outrageous housing prices, homeless tent cities, literal trash and human feces everywhere, and high crime rates, SF has seen much better days. Yet despite everything I just said, I'd still rather live in San Francisco than in Phoenix Arizona.
NYC and Tokyo both have highways and they remain gold standard for walkability and public transit. You can bury them but I think tearing them down in general is unfair. We shouldn’t build more though. People have built their lives around the infrastructure we have. If someone bought a house somewhere knowing that road would be there but you got rid of it, you’ve made their life worse. Consider the opposite: you moved somewhere because it’s near a train but they got rid of it? Transit infra is transit infra. Taking away major arterial options is bad. Creating options is based. Highways can be annoying for walkable cities but can also be useful for cheap easy higher speed bus service to connect the city and the region compared to rail and it’s bureaucratic and cost overhead. You’ll find that some of the greatest walkable cities have highways and frankly they’re in no way mutually exclusive.
Incredibly well done video! I think it’s ironic that we named the Chinatown station after Ros Pak when if she had it her way, there wouldn’t have been a rail station in Chinatown and instead a highway exit. The Chinatown station was her last ditch effort to do something impactful. Tbh I’m not sure that station name worthy.
Fair, from what I found during research it seems like there's several things about the central subway that are controversial, mostly that they chose to use light rail and short platforms that prevent it from truly being expandable in the future. But despite her advocating for the freeway, Rose Pak was also pretty influential in getting this station built in the first place, with several media sources saying she "almost singlehandedly" made it happen (gotta love the journalistic hyperbole). From what I can tell, she was advocating less "for the freeway" and more "for chinatown," which seems worth celebrating even though some of the solutions she fought for may have been misguided. But again, I'm not from SF so I could be way off base on this lol
@@archstanton5973it’s really a shame the T-third had to be cut back in that way. there are plans to extend it to north beach (the tracks currently exist and end at washington square) and possibly to extend the subway to the marina district, but for the time being we’re stuck with a pretty lackluster line, and the combination of the 30/45 is still a viable (and sometimes better) option.
@@eryngo.urbanism "she was advocating less "for the freeway" and more "for chinatown"." Exactly! A white person who finally sees this. It's tiring to see the racist comments in this and other videos that lack any empathy towards the people most affected by it. Rose Pak deserves the recognition she deserves and not vilification that these racist urbanists always portray her as. She still got other concessions that involved more parking and better wayfinding to get people to and from Chinatown by car. It worked OK, not great, but Chinatown got what it could get without the freeway. "last ditch effort to do something impactful" - more like a last ditch effort to save Chinatown. The City was not planning to give any concessions to Chinatown even though they fiercely opposed the removal. Business went down after the earthquake closed the freeway. The City was just going to tear it down and leave Chinatown to fend for themselves just like the City has done in the past against the Chinese.
I love how you created this Video, bro. A perfect video showcasing not just how the Embarcadero's History, but how it affected the city and the people within the Community, and the history of why they created the Ferry Building in the first place. I think Another outstanding topic that you should cover is how Seattle managed to get rid of the Alaskan Way just like how the people of SF did in this video. In my honest opinion, the two outstanding examples from what San Francisco and Seattle has done is why I love the fact that the PEOPLE are taking a stand and change the course of the City's Landscape, History, and Connectivity to the roots that helped establish the city before The Automobile. Hell, I'll even throw in Portland with their Riverfront Park as well, and even Rochester changing their inner loop that surrounds downtown. I just hope that people will know that yes it is nice to have freeways and interchanges and stuff, just remember what SF did and try to do that in your hometown. Fantastic video, man!
Just found your channel. Mew subscriber. My love for a city is inversely related to the number of freeway kilometres it has in the urban area. I have seen different creators cover the Rochester and Boston removals several times but this is one of the first on SF I have seen. They did have the earthquake to help them make 5e tough decision and it’s a fair question to ask if it would still be there today if the 1989 quake hadn’t happened. Anyhow - there are many potential and proposed freeway removal projects in the USA. Congress for the New Urbanism publishes a report every year I believe with their current 20 top freeway removal/conversion targets. If you’re looking for ideas on other cities to explore “what would removing x do for y city” that’s a good place to start.
Great video especially towards the end! After this video, you should definitely make plans to visit San Francisco in the future because it's such a beautiful iconic city, and I know you would very much enjoy your visit and time here in the city by the bay. I know this because I'm a current Native San Francisco Resident myself😉👍💯
Good video. Thumbs up and subscribed. I'm 76, and have seen how cars, highways, the interstate system, zoning laws, etc., etc., have contributed to ruining the US. Mostly for relatively short term profits. Entire neighborhoods destroyed and hundreds (thousands?) of small towns ruined. Add in deindustrialization, globalization, and the financialization of the US economy, and we have the US of today. With all of the resources and wealth of the US, it could have been done so much better. Hopefully it's not too late to improve things in at least some cities.
the general answer is yes, they should. and urban centers should have more residences, be very walkable, bikeable, and have a lot of public transit in complementary modes. subway, trams, brt, regular buses. that said, there needs to be a case by case study before demolitions. in some cases, just tear it down. in others, tunnels might be the answer. a few of them might realistically need to stay put
Seattle brought down its ugly viaduct (not exactly a freeway) a few years ago... and the improvement to the waterfront and surrounding areas has been amazing! People who have lived here for years complained that the beautiful views of the Sound from the viaduct would be missed. You're driving... not sightseeing. I don't miss the monstrosity at all.
Wait this is actually insane to me. I was born in San Francisco in 2004 and raised there and I had NO IDEA that there was a giant freeway on the Embarcadero not even that long before I was born. So glad I didn't get to see it in person lol. What were they thinking when they build that ugly shit loll My parents have always lived in the city since they born in 1973 and they never even mentioned it to me. I'm going to have to ask about it now 😂
The film _Koyaanisqatsi_ features a drive through the lower deck of the Embarcadero Freeway to the Washington Street exit. Search TH-cam for "San Francisco freeway from Koyaanisqatsi • 1983". For the upper deck drive through, see "1984 drive on the San Francisco Embarcadero Freeway". For the news report of the demolition, see "1991 Demolition of Embarcadero Freeway". For a view of the yet-to-be-completed Embarcadero freeway, see "The Lineup (1958)" and advance to the 1:22:21 mark.
As a San Franciscan, I agree with your point about how underground rail connections are just a better method for travel in the city. It doesnt cut communities in half like freeways would. And it creates so much more open space for urban development. If you look at the Embarcadero today, is a beautiful area with parks and tourist attractions abound. That also goes without mentioning how bad of a design the Embarcadero Freeway was. Before the 1989 Earthquake, a lot of our freeways had a double decker design, with one road on top of another. When the earthquake hit, a good number of said roads collapsed upon each other, including the rather infamous example of the Bay Bridge on the Oakland side during the Earthquake. Its part of the reason why the Oakland side of the bridge was completely rebuilt in the 2010s. I was born after the freeway was demolished, and i just couldnt imagine the Embarcadero with it today.
As indian we are doing same mistake we built coastal raod project in mumbai 😢😢😢 Very slow metro expansion in mumbai city only 46 km open compare to capital delhi ncr which have over 400 km network I don’t like car centric projects
In my city in pa, our highways are eiher in between cities or in the industrial areas and more out of the way. Our railways that no longer carry passenfers still go thru the citys though
The whole winter after the '89 quake, crowds were outdoors in downtown SF every day to watch the deconstruction of the Embarcadero Freeway. The earthquake gave the city our waterfront back. A lot of people left after the quake--just like now, people from elsewhere talked about how much they hated California & I've always appreciated that. I love it when people stay away.
Actually the demolition of the Embarcadero freeway did not begin until the Spring of 1991. I know as I was there riding my bike along the Embarcadero and I was astounded how different the Ferry Building looked with the sun beaming down on it.
Philly should demolish I-95 between the airport and the turnpike. fucks up the riverfront and prevents transit oriented development, besides there’s an alternate route which is way better (either NJ turnpike or the 476/276 loop)
Nice video! A city without freeways mainly serves those who already live within the city. I would prefer if San Francisco had an underground freeway network, like Boston, but that's very expensive.
Speaking as a San Francisco resident and former civil engineer, San Francisco’s removal of some of its elevated viaducts is both a blessing and a curse. Yes it’s great not having a freeway block your view of the Bay, but it didn’t solve downtown SF’s traffic problems. It can easily take an hour to go from a building parking garage to finally getting on I-80. With that said, SF’s robust public transportation system is probably the reason why anyone there is able to get anywhere. SF’s network of arterial and collector roads is just terrible and sadly it’s probably going to take another major earthquake to design the city properly (you can’t NIMBY a project if your backyard is a pile of rubble).
To my understanding, Boston moved a freeway to an underground status. Don't know this helps the conversation. I would like more rail connections across Oklahoma. 😁 please. It seems that "some folk" (those that like city living? those that can 'just say so' & it gets done?) juat want ALL Oklahomans to move to the city, "where real people live;" 😢 in that hot place, where: the wind is fierce & straight; the sun bearing down incessantly, heats the asphalt & concrete; some noticeable people live very angrily; and life moves too FAST! 😢 😢
Great video once again! Really hope that the US eventually catches up with the rest of the world. Glad that you and your generation see and are working towards a better future!
What future do you mean? Since India china and many eastern countries that are booming Have Freeways that make ours look small haven’t you seen how utterly massive the freeways are in china? On average the size of the Vatican State! Yet they have a booming economy and people can get in and out rather quickly but the USA is demolishing the freeways causing more congestion and the time spent in cars extra emit more pollution and cause more destruction of the environment you can’t demolish the freeways to just add a delusional park and expect the city to grow and attract more money or investors (which drives the growth of the city) if you plan on actually planning such one must have a reliable transit system otherwise it all collapses and causes stagnant growth driving more inequality and poverty this is a fact, you cannot replace 1 problem with another.
It would certainly contribute to beautification, allow room for public transportation, and make cities more walk/bike friendly. However, it would also rapidly increase the rate of gentrification already taking place throughout US cities, where residents are at risk being being displaced due to rising living costs, many of whom come from parents/grandparents displaced to build the highways in the mid-20th century.
You mentioned that trains carried passengers on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge beginning in 1939, but didn't mention their demise in 1958, ironically at the same time as BART and the Transbay Tube were being planned. The tracks on the Bay Bridge used by Key System interurban trains were removed so that the bridge would have three more vehicle lanes so it would accommodate motor vehicle traffic only. No lanes were reserved for buses which remains the case today.
To be fair, the construction of the transbay tunnel was very complicated and expensive. To have a heavy rail link you'd have to either 1. build another tunnel or b. negotiate big boi trains through the existing tunnel (which they probably won't even fit through)
Paris closed down the expressway along the right bank of the Seine and turned it into an urban park. And then they did it to the expressway on the other side of the river. No more urban expressways cutting through Paris!
As a Torontonian who once lived in Jane Jacobs' neighborhood in Toronto (and knew her slightly), I'm fascinated to see that the signs of the San Francisco protesters carry her name, including one saying "Jane Jacobs speaks for us!" Jacobs almost singlehandedly saved our city core from being carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey. The resistance of San Francisco's downtown citizens further inspired Vancouverites to keep freeways out of their city entirely. That feisty little lady has had unending positive influence on both our countries.
Urban freeways create blight, ESPECIALLY elevated freeways. SF is so much better off without these eyesores (and I saw that as someone who used to enjjoy regularly driving on the Embarcadero Freeway.
Sydney buried its freeways (actually tollways) it has about 90 km of road tunnels including several directly under the cbd. They are very convenient but also quite disorienting and arent the place to be if you suffer claustrophobia. And the I5 through downtown Seattle needs to go. It is an eyesore.
I will agree that the Tulsa freeway system is terrible - lived in the area (Owasso) for 10 years - don't even bring up the fact that some of them are Toll Roads GRRRR. Tulsa is not a "Walkable" city 9 months out of the year - Winters are cold and icy - summers sweltering and sticky. Large areas especially the North side are dangerous. Now Cherry street and areas over around the Arkansas river - those areas are very nice and compact enough to be walkable. I currently live in the Phoenix area due to Urban Sprawl - we are stuck with our freeways - what little public transportation there is - is a bad joke
Ideally, of course. However because the United States is still so grossly over-dependent on auto and truck transportation it's not going to happen anytime soon. The Embarcadero freeway is a very rare example that actually was torn down.
The Embarcadero Freeway benefited North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf too. They also opposed its removal. Chinatown was not just a tourist attraction. It is a community/neighborhood like many others but was started due to racism, social and economic factors. Your video kind of made it sound like Disneyland or something...
A lot of people thinks roads, freeways, etc… give us independence. They’re wrong. A well balanced transportation system with roads, metro and commuter rail, buses, streetcars, airports and last but not least intercity high speed rail and passenger rail will be the true path to independence. Not to mention bike and walk lanes too
Well that was a real "deep dive" but I'm glad it had a "happy ending", urban freeways are the worst and I'm glad the full glory of the clock tower was restored!
If you think removing freeway in a city is a good idea. You are very wrong. I live 30 mins away from SF, and in afternoon weekday and weekend traffic is awful. Yes it makes the place looks nicer but guess what, imagine going through San Francisco takes you more then an hour... Honestly they should've create a tunnel system to relive this issue before they rebuild SF.
As someone who lives near the embarcadero, I could not imagine the area with a nasty freeway there. These megastructures put the needs of suburbanites over locals as we are left with urban blight and increased air pollution and noise from traffic. I'm glad we have a subway now in chinatown, it helps a lot of people especially since most residents in the neighborhood do not own a car; and the existing traffic along the corridor for busses can take upwards of 30 minutes to go a few blocks vs the subway that bypasses that in minutes. From older residents I've come to see that the area adjacent to the freeway was a very dangerous part of town, the structure burying light and the closeness to rich fidi guys probably made it a hotbed for crime that could be easily swept under the shadows of the structure. As for freeways that need to go; I'd really like if the 280 stub and central freeway were to go; as well as the 980 through oakland. Though if there was unlimited money, I'd make the 280 stub into a new bridge that crosses into alameda, and "boulevardize" the 80
Final note; there's a big difference between the chinatown residents and chinatown owners. Most residents in chinatown live in SROs and are low income and do not benefit directly from increased car-based transit connections to the area; while most business owners live outside of chinatown. Most people who visit chinatown as well are within the north beach/chinatown/d3 area and access the area primarily by walking as most hotels; houses and condos are pretty close by to this neighborhood; I don't believe the freeway was ultimately beneficial to chinatown as people thought versus helped higher income individuals access FIDI faster and business owners get to work with less traffic lights (probably same amount of traffic). Nowadays I go to community meetings and these business owners will fight against bus stops in chinatown because less people can park (3 spots); versuses thousands of people being able to access area easier
@@shubdotclub Your final note shows you do not know Chinatown. Residents did benefit from people coming from all around the Bay Area particularly families with children and elderly who may not be able to walk far. The ones who could afford to not live in Chinatown moved out but still had deep connections with the residents, businesses and social clubs in the area. They would come back to visit with family in tow to continue supporting Chinatown. After the Embarcadero Freeway was damaged, business went down drastically. It was already slowly going down due to other forces but the closed freeway accelerated it. The lack of easy car access drove people who used to come elsewhere. That is why Chinatown and Rose Pak fought so hard to keep the freeway because City Hall continued to ignore their concerns and ram the freeway removal down their throats. Your last sentence is complete bull. The bus stops in Chinatown have been red zoned for no parking for ages. You do not know Chinatown. I would not remove any more freeways in SF. The remaining freeways critically serve and affects the entire Bay Area freeway network. Removing any one of them will affect the others negatively and cause more congestion and pollution.
I disagree! Analyzing precedent from various places around the world is always worthwhile, and can teach you a lot of interesting things you wouldn't have discovered otherwise! Every city does have differences, but they all have similarities as well!
Idk everyone else is demolishing theirs but lake shore dr is the model everyone keeps missing the mark. Cant build a double decker inside a earthquake prone zone And dude visit a barber what the heck hair you call that
Yes, all of them. Freeways are useful to travel between cities but it's an insane waste of space to have them inside urban areas. The words "urban" and "freeway" should not go together. At most we should have boulevards in cities with no more than two lanes in each direction. Most people ought to be able to walk and cycle for their daily needs, or use transit.
I know that as a youtuber, you must do The TH-cam Things, but it's still aggravating to waste 15 minutes of my 30 minutes of down time before heading to work on a wikipedia summary of some basic history in a city I do not live in when the title led me to believe it was going to actually have some urban planning theory.
@@eryngo.urbanism what a patronizing comment, so theu can waste their down time for another day? Couldve made it up to them by commenting some urban planning theories in your reply.
Utrecht filled in a canal to build an urban freeway. They then tore down the freeway and restored the canal. Seattle, like SF, tore down it’s freeway, The Alaskan Viaduct. The one thing all three projects have in common is that the traffic simply disappeared. None were ever really necessary and the doomsday traffic projected upon their demolition never came to be. Cable cars predated the 1906 quake by over 30 years and streetcars by 18 years. Do better research dude. Or focus on your town and leave ours out. It took three votes to get rid of the Embarcadero freeway, it was the first time the Chinese voted as a bloc, but we voted a third time to overcome that bloc and won.
YOU need to do better research. Traffic didn't disappear when the Embarcadero Freeway was removed. It only pushed all the cars to the surface streets that are now jammed up instead of on a freeway. The "traffic disappears" statement is something that anti-car people spread to push their hate-filled agenda and ideology against people not like them. Nice anti-Chinese racial overtones. NOT.
I recall staying on an upper floor of the Embarcadero YMCA. The Freeway was just outside my window - heave traffic droning past. I rode BART and was very impressed. That was 1980, and by the videos I see today, I do wonder what has been allowed to happen to San Francisco since I returned home. It seemed safe and vibrant. I saw only one homeless sleeping in Market Street, no beggars and saw no violence of any kind. Late Friday evening I walked alone from China Town to Embarcadero, and felt safer than I do at home. Market street had BART, ?Busses/trams?, but celebratory entertainment. I came across some Hawaiian dressed girls teaching passers-by the Hula dance. To be candid, what I see today scars my memories, and I shake my head. But finally, I agree that I would have preferred an unobstructed view of the Ferry building.
This is mostly right wing propaganda. SF is mostly the same as it was 5-10-20 years ago. The Tenderloin is still as messed up as ever, but it's been like that since the Gold Rush. What's different with San Francisco is the insane media frenzy that a bunch of right wing outlets have been desperately trying to create. It has failed for the most part. SF's tourism numbers are at 89-90% of 2019, which itself was a banner year. Retail occupancy in Union Square is back at 85% after the pandemic, and it never dropped that low in the other neighborhoods. In other words, we have about a 10% reduction in economic activity due to tech only returning to work part time. Everything else is about the same or better than you remember it. The rest is noise.
Freeways give us independence. Bad designs aren't a sound argument, since a freeway can be designed well to compliment everything else. Environmental concerns are always questionable or outright fabrications.
Free ways should never go inside cities, cars are noisy, polluting and dangerous. A much better option is to have metro stations with large parking lots on the outskirts of the city, that way instead of disturbing the entire city with you car, you can leave it outside the city and continue on foot.
@@michah321 it’s really not, there are plenty of mobility devices that don’t require a gas engine, public transport would actually allow more people to move then cars. You are the one being ableist by assuming more people have trouble walking then driving.
@@logans3365 that's astounding mental gymnastics. My comment stemmed from all the people I know with mobility issues who can easily ride in cars. If they read your comment, they would be furious and feel super disrespected. "oh sure, I'll just walk then..."
@@michah321 why are you assuming that I don’t know a bunch of people who can’t drive cars and suffer from it because there is no public transit, and the streets are too Dangerous for walking due to cars. And if you can drive a car, then you can also drive an electric scooter in theory, I haven’t seen an example where this isn’t true yet.
I'll advocate for the removal of the North Loop in downtown Kansas City, which separates downtown from the River Market neighborhood. The recently defeated plan for a new Royals ballpark downtown was highly controversial, but one part of the proposal I really liked was that it capped I-670 on the south side of downtown for several blocks. The city is trying to get at least some of that cap built in time for the 2026 World Cup, but it's by no means guaranteed. As a kid, I was fascinated by natural disasters, and the Loma Prieta earthquake specifically. I don't know that the Embarcadero and Central Freeway viaducts would have been demolished if it wasn't for the catastrophic collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland that killed 42 people. The horror of watching a pediatric surgeon describe cutting a woman's body in half and amputating a boy's leg with minimal anesthesia to rescue him from a crushed car left a lot of people terrified at the thought of something similar happening to them. Had the freeway been damaged but not destroyed, it's likely Caltrans would have just completed repairs and seismic retrofitting to all the highways in the area without removing any of them.
In Canada, no major highways or freeways intersect our cities. They always go around. It makes a city feel much more liveable, especially when considering we have more liveable spaces in our city centres (apartment buildings), rather than industrial or office buildings, so it’s kinda needed to be like that.
Which freeway does your city need to demolish? Let us know!
None they gotta be adding lanes for all the ignorant city drivers creating congestion
I live in SF, we should remove all our highways🤗
Absolutely none. I live in Phoenix, and our freeway system is generally really good.
They won’t have to demolish them without replacing, just bring them underground, so they won’t be a divide or an eyesore in a city and let the car drivers breath the exhaust fumes instead of the city folk. That’s my solution.
While I generally consider stockholm to not be too bad when it comes to highways. As with the exception of the EU's fucking E20 highway, most of the highways in stockholm city have been dug underground. Reducing the amount of displacment by... Well a lot. And most of our highways have been getting slimmed down, and/or had car lanes replaced with bus lanes. So there is even less of a focus on them in modern Stockholm...
However, I would consider one of them to be a pretty massive mistake. The 73 is a highway that comes from Farsta to the south, past *Johanneshov,* before crossing a bridge over the water and going underneath the central city. It connects to the streets around Stockholm's central train station, before continuing north west as *"Klarastrandsleden"* to connect with the E20 and E4. The intent was mostly to allow for easier travel between *Johanneshov* and the two islands making up the central city. *(Södermalm,* and *Norrmalm.)*
However, a lot of traffic ends up just using it as a _shortcut_ to skip going around the city when traveling south from the E20 and E4, or too them while going north.
So what I would do, is straight up demolish *Klarastrandsleden,* and the section of the 73 that goes underneath *Johanneshov.* Not any of the on and off ramps though, so people coming from the south on the 73, could still get onto the 75, which leads to both Nacka, and the E20. The latter of which was the thing people were avoiding by shortcutting along the 73 in the first place. So they still have highway access to wherever the fuck they wanted to go. And similarly, not removing the ramps on the northen end of *Johanneshov* would still allow local traffic to cross over to *Södermalm* via the previously mentioned bridge. Which was the original intention of the 73.
But these two simple changes, would stop it from being a shortcut for through traffic.
And by the looks of things, the city has already spent some time slimming down the northen section of the 73 that goes under the city. So who knows? Maybe they'll at least demolish *Klarastrandsleden?* Perhaps add a few more rails to the central station, lol.
Im so happy about the acknowledgement of the Emperor
And not just once, but twice
Considering that you have never been here, you have done an amazing job with this. However, you should have mentioned the equally awful Central Freeway (I-80). It crossed Market Street near Civic Center, also blocking views of the Ferry Building as it sliced through the heart of the Hayes Valley neighborhood. The quake of 1989 forced the removal of most of it and it now ends at Market Street. Across Market a new tree-lined Octavia boulevard replaced it. The revival of Hayes Valley that followed is as dramatic as the restoration of the Embarcadero.
Thanks! And that's fantastic, I will definitely look into this!
In those original highway master plans I-80 was projected to make a beeline from the Central Freeway to the Great Highway through Golden Gate Park! I-280 was planned to run up San Francisco's west side to meet it, then continue as I-480 to and along the waterfront as the Embarcadero Freeway, which would be connected to the Southern Embarcadero Freeway. A veritable Chinese Wall of elevated freeways!
Agreed, you can't even tell there was a freeway there
@ 5:45 "1989- Taylor's Version" lol 😂
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, near San Jose. Removing these freeways did make the waterfront more beautiful. But it also increased the travel time by a lot and made people living in the suburbs more difficult and less convenient to go to San Francisco. I grew up in Hong Kong where the majority of people use public transit. The public transit in San Francisco is good in US standard but bad when compared to Hong Kong and most other major Asian cities. We have around one train per hour going from San Jose to San Francisco, compared to every 3 minutes or so in Hong Kong, and you have many subway lines to bring you to any furthest corners of the city. Tearing down gigantic ugly freeway structures is good, but if you don't have the funding to vastly improve the public transit, you'd be replacing one problem with another. Adding a Muni light rail line to Chinatown is a good start but far from enough
San Francisco transit isn't even up to 🇺🇸 standards. In fact. People here complain about it. When you compare it to New York and Chicago. It's no contest. New York and Chicago is more closer to Hong Kong and Tokyo's transit
@@epicsseven7686 That's true, but New York and Chicago are not the standard unfortunately
@@cccoolbucket1285 in the context of your point regarding San Francisco. New York and Chicago are up to 🇺🇸 standards in comparison to San Francisco's transit. In fact. A few years ago, I'd met this lady from Japan. She was pointing out how the transit here in the Bay area is lacking. She'd compared it to Tokyo, Chicago and New York as being better and more reliable.
@@epicsseven7686 Yeah, I'm just saying the average american transit system is pretty terrible, and San Francisco compares pretty well with most of them. Chicago and New York have great systems, but the rest of the country doesn't
@@epicsseven7686 Have you even been to SF? The transit network is excellent. It's just that nobody uses it, because they aren't forced to by government. They use ride shares.
Its amazing how the city made so much more space in the city center available for tents!
@ageoflove1980 I'm sure the guy that made this would love for all of us to live in tents like he does.
The Ferry Building's clock tower is NOT aligned with Market Street. It splits the difference between Market and Commercial Streets -- which can be easily seen in person.
I, too, think that this video was very well done ... a good account of the history. In 1989, I was working at a Radio/TV complex that was very near the Broadway terminus of the Embarcadero freeway. It was a massive, two decked, and it commanded all the attention of any view. As you stated, there was concern for the its safety. Also, a double-decked freeway in Oakland suffered a collapse of the upper deck onto the lower. A portion of the double decked Bay Bridge fell onto the lower deck, further "enlightening" folks that this may not be an ideal mass transit conduit.
During the de-construction, there was some confusion in the re-adjustment of traffic ... understandably so. However, if anything great came from the frightening quake, it was the demolition of that structure.
I was very young when the freeway was constructed. So, I didn't remember the beauty of seeing the unobstructed view of the Ferry Building from Market Street, and so many other vistas.
A colleague of mine had an apartment on a high floor near the station, and had a commanding view of the 'take-down.' He set up a camera on his deck, and took multiple pictures every day, then ran them together in time-lapse. It was an amazing presentation, when he put it all together.
Excellent presentation. I lived in San Francisco from 1984-2006. I was thrilled when the Embaradero (ferry building area) Freeway was demolished! The beautiful historic sightlines were finally restored!
I voted have the Embarcadero Freeway torn down in 1986 and was glad that it _was_ demolished following the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 but I _do_ recall two positive things about it: you could pretty easily swing by freeway onto Broadway and Chinatown, which I did pretty often in those days and, going in the other direction, from Broadway, on the upper deck, you had a kind of “helicopter view” of the Embarcadero on the right side.
That said, when the freeway came down, I think people were surprised by just how “liberating” the effect was. The waterfront was not in the shadow of this enormous, hulking-and just plain ugly-structure, and, as you indicated, the Ferry Building no longer had this “barrier” in front of it. Even decades later, going along the waterfront, I think about how much nicer it is.
Oops, “voted *to* have.” 😳
Remember traveling on freeway experience well - as it was literally two blocks away from where I used to live.
🤬 You are what’s wrong with San Francisco
I just wanna say I’m blown away by how well-done this video is. Well researched and super easy to follow.
I've been to San Francisco twice before and I feel in love with the city. I can easily get around the bay without a car, and I grew up in a small car-dependent town in Florida.
I've never had a more love-hate relationship with a city before than with San Francisco
NIMBYs so powerful they could block freeways in the '60s
Why the hate? SF is pretty great these days.
@@TohaBgood2 I wish I could say that, but it really isn't. The NIMBYism is so bad, the state had to basically step in and say "enough is enough", either they build enough houses, or the state of California will force every new housing proposal through, and I can guarantee you that San Francisco will drag its feet for as long as they possibly can to stop the new houses at all costs. Outrageous housing prices, homeless tent cities, literal trash and human feces everywhere, and high crime rates, SF has seen much better days.
Yet despite everything I just said, I'd still rather live in San Francisco than in Phoenix Arizona.
NYC and Tokyo both have highways and they remain gold standard for walkability and public transit.
You can bury them but I think tearing them down in general is unfair. We shouldn’t build more though. People have built their lives around the infrastructure we have. If someone bought a house somewhere knowing that road would be there but you got rid of it, you’ve made their life worse.
Consider the opposite: you moved somewhere because it’s near a train but they got rid of it? Transit infra is transit infra. Taking away major arterial options is bad. Creating options is based.
Highways can be annoying for walkable cities but can also be useful for cheap easy higher speed bus service to connect the city and the region compared to rail and it’s bureaucratic and cost overhead.
You’ll find that some of the greatest walkable cities have highways and frankly they’re in no way mutually exclusive.
Incredibly well done video! I think it’s ironic that we named the Chinatown station after Ros Pak when if she had it her way, there wouldn’t have been a rail station in Chinatown and instead a highway exit. The Chinatown station was her last ditch effort to do something impactful. Tbh I’m not sure that station name worthy.
Fair, from what I found during research it seems like there's several things about the central subway that are controversial, mostly that they chose to use light rail and short platforms that prevent it from truly being expandable in the future. But despite her advocating for the freeway, Rose Pak was also pretty influential in getting this station built in the first place, with several media sources saying she "almost singlehandedly" made it happen (gotta love the journalistic hyperbole). From what I can tell, she was advocating less "for the freeway" and more "for chinatown," which seems worth celebrating even though some of the solutions she fought for may have been misguided. But again, I'm not from SF so I could be way off base on this lol
NOT running the subway line to Fishermans Wharf was what doomed the subway and it's nothing but a useless truncated nothing.
@@archstanton5973it’s really a shame the T-third had to be cut back in that way. there are plans to extend it to north beach (the tracks currently exist and end at washington square) and possibly to extend the subway to the marina district, but for the time being we’re stuck with a pretty lackluster line, and the combination of the 30/45 is still a viable (and sometimes better) option.
@@eryngo.urbanism "she was advocating less "for the freeway" and more "for chinatown"." Exactly! A white person who finally sees this. It's tiring to see the racist comments in this and other videos that lack any empathy towards the people most affected by it. Rose Pak deserves the recognition she deserves and not vilification that these racist urbanists always portray her as. She still got other concessions that involved more parking and better wayfinding to get people to and from Chinatown by car. It worked OK, not great, but Chinatown got what it could get without the freeway.
"last ditch effort to do something impactful" - more like a last ditch effort to save Chinatown. The City was not planning to give any concessions to Chinatown even though they fiercely opposed the removal. Business went down after the earthquake closed the freeway. The City was just going to tear it down and leave Chinatown to fend for themselves just like the City has done in the past against the Chinese.
This chapter is very under rated.
Im not a car-hating extremest, but I thoroughly enjoyed this video and and the history lesson.
I love how you created this Video, bro. A perfect video showcasing not just how the Embarcadero's History, but how it affected the city and the people within the Community, and the history of why they created the Ferry Building in the first place. I think Another outstanding topic that you should cover is how Seattle managed to get rid of the Alaskan Way just like how the people of SF did in this video. In my honest opinion, the two outstanding examples from what San Francisco and Seattle has done is why I love the fact that the PEOPLE are taking a stand and change the course of the City's Landscape, History, and Connectivity to the roots that helped establish the city before The Automobile. Hell, I'll even throw in Portland with their Riverfront Park as well, and even Rochester changing their inner loop that surrounds downtown. I just hope that people will know that yes it is nice to have freeways and interchanges and stuff, just remember what SF did and try to do that in your hometown. Fantastic video, man!
Just found your channel. Mew subscriber. My love for a city is inversely related to the number of freeway kilometres it has in the urban area.
I have seen different creators cover the Rochester and Boston removals several times but this is one of the first on SF I have seen. They did have the earthquake to help them make 5e tough decision and it’s a fair question to ask if it would still be there today if the 1989 quake hadn’t happened.
Anyhow - there are many potential and proposed freeway removal projects in the USA. Congress for the New Urbanism publishes a report every year I believe with their current 20 top freeway removal/conversion targets. If you’re looking for ideas on other cities to explore “what would removing x do for y city” that’s a good place to start.
Great video especially towards the end! After this video, you should definitely make plans to visit San Francisco in the future because it's such a beautiful iconic city, and I know you would very much enjoy your visit and time here in the city by the bay. I know this because I'm a current Native San Francisco Resident myself😉👍💯
Nice video. i would prefer that the videos of old san fransisco didn't have the vintage filter or if it showed the date of the film taken
1989 - Taylor's Version, don't think I didn't notice that
Good video. Thumbs up and subscribed. I'm 76, and have seen how cars, highways, the interstate system, zoning laws, etc., etc., have contributed to ruining the US. Mostly for relatively short term profits. Entire neighborhoods destroyed and hundreds (thousands?) of small towns ruined. Add in deindustrialization, globalization, and the financialization of the US economy, and we have the US of today. With all of the resources and wealth of the US, it could have been done so much better. Hopefully it's not too late to improve things in at least some cities.
the general answer is yes, they should. and urban centers should have more residences, be very walkable, bikeable, and have a lot of public transit in complementary modes. subway, trams, brt, regular buses. that said, there needs to be a case by case study before demolitions. in some cases, just tear it down. in others, tunnels might be the answer. a few of them might realistically need to stay put
*cries in Nashville*
Dam what a great video.
I really wish they built that second bay bridge off of army St.
Seattle brought down its ugly viaduct (not exactly a freeway) a few years ago... and the improvement to the waterfront and surrounding areas has been amazing! People who have lived here for years complained that the beautiful views of the Sound from the viaduct would be missed. You're driving... not sightseeing. I don't miss the monstrosity at all.
Wait this is actually insane to me. I was born in San Francisco in 2004 and raised there and I had NO IDEA that there was a giant freeway on the Embarcadero not even that long before I was born. So glad I didn't get to see it in person lol. What were they thinking when they build that ugly shit loll
My parents have always lived in the city since they born in 1973 and they never even mentioned it to me. I'm going to have to ask about it now 😂
The film _Koyaanisqatsi_ features a drive through the lower deck of the Embarcadero Freeway to the Washington Street exit. Search TH-cam for "San Francisco freeway from Koyaanisqatsi • 1983". For the upper deck drive through, see "1984 drive on the San Francisco Embarcadero Freeway". For the news report of the demolition, see "1991 Demolition of Embarcadero Freeway". For a view of the yet-to-be-completed Embarcadero freeway, see "The Lineup (1958)" and advance to the 1:22:21 mark.
That’s why people now have to spend extra time in traffic jams gladly polluting the earth more 😊
Emperor Norton mentioned
It's fascinating that it takes an earthquake to get rid of such an overpass. Makes sense too. Since San Fran is a hotbed for earthquakes.
As a San Franciscan, I agree with your point about how underground rail connections are just a better method for travel in the city. It doesnt cut communities in half like freeways would. And it creates so much more open space for urban development. If you look at the Embarcadero today, is a beautiful area with parks and tourist attractions abound.
That also goes without mentioning how bad of a design the Embarcadero Freeway was. Before the 1989 Earthquake, a lot of our freeways had a double decker design, with one road on top of another. When the earthquake hit, a good number of said roads collapsed upon each other, including the rather infamous example of the Bay Bridge on the Oakland side during the Earthquake. Its part of the reason why the Oakland side of the bridge was completely rebuilt in the 2010s.
I was born after the freeway was demolished, and i just couldnt imagine the Embarcadero with it today.
As indian we are doing same mistake we built coastal raod project in mumbai 😢😢😢
Very slow metro expansion in mumbai city only 46 km open compare to capital delhi ncr which have over 400 km network
I don’t like car centric projects
In my city in pa, our highways are eiher in between cities or in the industrial areas and more out of the way. Our railways that no longer carry passenfers still go thru the citys though
The overwhelming majority of urban freeways in the US need to be removed or at least burried. They are a scar on this country
The whole winter after the '89 quake, crowds were outdoors in downtown SF every day to watch the deconstruction of the Embarcadero Freeway. The earthquake gave the city our waterfront back. A lot of people left after the quake--just like now, people from elsewhere talked about how much they hated California & I've always appreciated that. I love it when people stay away.
Actually the demolition of the Embarcadero freeway did not begin until the Spring of 1991.
I know as I was there riding my bike along the Embarcadero and I was astounded how different the Ferry Building looked with the sun beaming down on it.
Philly should demolish I-95 between the airport and the turnpike. fucks up the riverfront and prevents transit oriented development, besides there’s an alternate route which is way better (either NJ turnpike or the 476/276 loop)
Nice video! A city without freeways mainly serves those who already live within the city. I would prefer if San Francisco had an underground freeway network, like Boston, but that's very expensive.
Speaking as a San Francisco resident and former civil engineer, San Francisco’s removal of some of its elevated viaducts is both a blessing and a curse. Yes it’s great not having a freeway block your view of the Bay, but it didn’t solve downtown SF’s traffic problems. It can easily take an hour to go from a building parking garage to finally getting on I-80. With that said, SF’s robust public transportation system is probably the reason why anyone there is able to get anywhere. SF’s network of arterial and collector roads is just terrible and sadly it’s probably going to take another major earthquake to design the city properly (you can’t NIMBY a project if your backyard is a pile of rubble).
To my understanding, Boston moved a freeway to an underground status. Don't know this helps the conversation.
I would like more rail connections across Oklahoma. 😁 please.
It seems that "some folk" (those that like city living? those that can 'just say so' & it gets done?) juat want ALL Oklahomans to move to the city, "where real people live;" 😢 in that hot place, where: the wind is fierce & straight; the sun bearing down incessantly, heats the asphalt & concrete; some noticeable people live very angrily; and life moves too FAST! 😢 😢
They had earthquake. Major section collapse causing people to die
Great video once again! Really hope that the US eventually catches up with the rest of the world. Glad that you and your generation see and are working towards a better future!
What future do you mean? Since India china and many eastern countries that are booming Have Freeways that make ours look small haven’t you seen how utterly massive the freeways are in china? On average the size of the Vatican State! Yet they have a booming economy and people can get in and out rather quickly but the USA is demolishing the freeways causing more congestion and the time spent in cars extra emit more pollution and cause more destruction of the environment you can’t demolish the freeways to just add a delusional park and expect the city to grow and attract more money or investors (which drives the growth of the city) if you plan on actually planning such one must have a reliable transit system otherwise it all collapses and causes stagnant growth driving more inequality and poverty this is a fact, you cannot replace 1 problem with another.
I like the format of this video
I'm glad you enjoyed! And, like I said in the video, don't get too used to it, because it's probably somewhat one-of-a-kind.
awesome vid. subbed
I-84 thru Hartford, And drop I-91. Connecting Hartford back to its its river. Same with I-95 in New Haven. Connect the bay city, back to its bay
It would certainly contribute to beautification, allow room for public transportation, and make cities more walk/bike friendly. However, it would also rapidly increase the rate of gentrification already taking place throughout US cities, where residents are at risk being being displaced due to rising living costs, many of whom come from parents/grandparents displaced to build the highways in the mid-20th century.
I love highways ❤❤❤
1989 taylors version 😭😭😭
Tearing down the Embarcadero freeway was possible because have the 280 freeway and it wasn’t as heavily used as the bayshore freeway.
You mentioned that trains carried passengers on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge beginning in 1939, but didn't mention their demise in 1958, ironically at the same time as BART and the Transbay Tube were being planned. The tracks on the Bay Bridge used by Key System interurban trains were removed so that the bridge would have three more vehicle lanes so it would accommodate motor vehicle traffic only. No lanes were reserved for buses which remains the case today.
To this day it confuses and enrages me that there is NO direct heavy rail link between San Francisco and Oakland. Bart has one, why can’t Amtrak??
To be fair, the construction of the transbay tunnel was very complicated and expensive. To have a heavy rail link you'd have to either 1. build another tunnel or b. negotiate big boi trains through the existing tunnel (which they probably won't even fit through)
@@eryngo.urbanism Well, what if we just...rebuild tracks on the bay bridge??🤔
@@realadrieno Good point, that might be an option as well!
@@eryngo.urbanismplease, do a video about the upcoming second transbay tube here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Paris closed down the expressway along the right bank of the Seine and turned it into an urban park. And then they did it to the expressway on the other side of the river. No more urban expressways cutting through Paris!
Didn't the earthquake help in taking that freeway down?
As a Torontonian who once lived in Jane Jacobs' neighborhood in Toronto (and knew her slightly), I'm fascinated to see that the signs of the San Francisco protesters carry her name, including one saying "Jane Jacobs speaks for us!" Jacobs almost singlehandedly saved our city core from being carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey. The resistance of San Francisco's downtown citizens further inspired Vancouverites to keep freeways out of their city entirely. That feisty little lady has had unending positive influence on both our countries.
La just got rid of 10 lanes because of the 3 arson fires under the freeway
Urban freeways create blight, ESPECIALLY elevated freeways. SF is so much better off without these eyesores (and I saw that as someone who used to enjjoy regularly driving on the Embarcadero Freeway.
Sydney buried its freeways (actually tollways) it has about 90 km of road tunnels including several directly under the cbd.
They are very convenient but also quite disorienting and arent the place to be if you suffer claustrophobia.
And the I5 through downtown Seattle needs to go. It is an eyesore.
2:15 bro wtf was that 😂
That was Market Street in the early 20th century! Here's the full video colorized th-cam.com/video/1Ok_lwYyHWo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=lm9AyTVy8-c1rwTO
I will agree that the Tulsa freeway system is terrible - lived in the area (Owasso) for 10 years - don't even bring up the fact that some of them are Toll Roads GRRRR. Tulsa is not a "Walkable" city 9 months out of the year - Winters are cold and icy - summers sweltering and sticky. Large areas especially the North side are dangerous. Now Cherry street and areas over around the Arkansas river - those areas are very nice and compact enough to be walkable. I currently live in the Phoenix area due to Urban Sprawl - we are stuck with our freeways - what little public transportation there is - is a bad joke
Wrong, many sf native miss the convenience of embarcadero and other stops
If you seen the freeways in texas you would feel uncomfortable. I know its total garbage.
Cars, freeways, and highways suck.
@@durece100 If there state and central planned with the incentives and legislative approval? Then yes! The highway defense act of 1956 was a disaster.
Ideally, of course. However because the United States is still so grossly over-dependent on auto and truck transportation it's not going to happen anytime soon. The Embarcadero freeway is a very rare example that actually was torn down.
The Embarcadero Freeway benefited North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf too. They also opposed its removal.
Chinatown was not just a tourist attraction. It is a community/neighborhood like many others but was started due to racism, social and economic factors. Your video kind of made it sound like Disneyland or something...
I miss the embarcadero freeway
The freeway collapsed on itself during an earthquake. And part of the reason why it was demolished.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Can never have enough space for the homeless!
A lot of people thinks roads, freeways, etc… give us independence. They’re wrong. A well balanced transportation system with roads, metro and commuter rail, buses, streetcars, airports and last but not least intercity high speed rail and passenger rail will be the true path to independence. Not to mention bike and walk lanes too
Well that was a real "deep dive" but I'm glad it had a "happy ending", urban freeways are the worst and I'm glad the full glory of the clock tower was restored!
If you think removing freeway in a city is a good idea. You are very wrong. I live 30 mins away from SF, and in afternoon weekday and weekend traffic is awful. Yes it makes the place looks nicer but guess what, imagine going through San Francisco takes you more then an hour... Honestly they should've create a tunnel system to relive this issue before they rebuild SF.
As someone who lives near the embarcadero, I could not imagine the area with a nasty freeway there. These megastructures put the needs of suburbanites over locals as we are left with urban blight and increased air pollution and noise from traffic. I'm glad we have a subway now in chinatown, it helps a lot of people especially since most residents in the neighborhood do not own a car; and the existing traffic along the corridor for busses can take upwards of 30 minutes to go a few blocks vs the subway that bypasses that in minutes.
From older residents I've come to see that the area adjacent to the freeway was a very dangerous part of town, the structure burying light and the closeness to rich fidi guys probably made it a hotbed for crime that could be easily swept under the shadows of the structure.
As for freeways that need to go; I'd really like if the 280 stub and central freeway were to go; as well as the 980 through oakland.
Though if there was unlimited money, I'd make the 280 stub into a new bridge that crosses into alameda, and "boulevardize" the 80
Final note; there's a big difference between the chinatown residents and chinatown owners. Most residents in chinatown live in SROs and are low income and do not benefit directly from increased car-based transit connections to the area; while most business owners live outside of chinatown. Most people who visit chinatown as well are within the north beach/chinatown/d3 area and access the area primarily by walking as most hotels; houses and condos are pretty close by to this neighborhood; I don't believe the freeway was ultimately beneficial to chinatown as people thought versus helped higher income individuals access FIDI faster and business owners get to work with less traffic lights (probably same amount of traffic). Nowadays I go to community meetings and these business owners will fight against bus stops in chinatown because less people can park (3 spots); versuses thousands of people being able to access area easier
@@shubdotclub Your final note shows you do not know Chinatown. Residents did benefit from people coming from all around the Bay Area particularly families with children and elderly who may not be able to walk far. The ones who could afford to not live in Chinatown moved out but still had deep connections with the residents, businesses and social clubs in the area. They would come back to visit with family in tow to continue supporting Chinatown. After the Embarcadero Freeway was damaged, business went down drastically. It was already slowly going down due to other forces but the closed freeway accelerated it. The lack of easy car access drove people who used to come elsewhere. That is why Chinatown and Rose Pak fought so hard to keep the freeway because City Hall continued to ignore their concerns and ram the freeway removal down their throats.
Your last sentence is complete bull. The bus stops in Chinatown have been red zoned for no parking for ages. You do not know Chinatown.
I would not remove any more freeways in SF. The remaining freeways critically serve and affects the entire Bay Area freeway network. Removing any one of them will affect the others negatively and cause more congestion and pollution.
dude fr used san francisco in the title (vancouver would’ve been better)
I actually didn't get to choose the topic! This was an essay I wrote for a college class.
it’s just a joke
SF did it mainly and quite possibly because of the earthquake damage. Otherwise it might still be there
No. But videos need be regionalised, this, as an example means SFA in any place out of this city.
I disagree! Analyzing precedent from various places around the world is always worthwhile, and can teach you a lot of interesting things you wouldn't have discovered otherwise! Every city does have differences, but they all have similarities as well!
1989 Taylor's Version 😏
The City didn't demolish it. They asked Cal Trans to take it out, but they said no. The earthquake did it.
Only if you have good transit. Doesn't work in places like LA
San Francisco was never laid out in a way to ever accommodate a full freeway system... only way that could work is underground freeways
Are they tearing down all urban freeways
I hope so
Short answer… NO‼️
Idk everyone else is demolishing theirs but lake shore dr is the model everyone keeps missing the mark. Cant build a double decker inside a earthquake prone zone
And dude visit a barber what the heck hair you call that
If you want to visit SF you have a place to stay!!
Thanks again for volunteering Alex to gather some footage!
Taylor's Version
Yes all create large ring Freeways that are far outside the city centers mqke Freeways a rural thing
Yep, everything you say is wrong !
Surely not everything!
Yes! More trains and less cars, please!
Streetcars, light rails, and subway lines.
I’m on board with that
0:49 some hard ass old school hip hop would make this pop
Chinatown is far from its once glory. "Your, Mind and Ours" with Lucille Ball 1968 was Chinatown at its heyday.
Yours, mine and ours? I only remember a scene in a Japanese restaurant, which I assumed was filmed at their studio
Yes, all of them. Freeways are useful to travel between cities but it's an insane waste of space to have them inside urban areas. The words "urban" and "freeway" should not go together. At most we should have boulevards in cities with no more than two lanes in each direction. Most people ought to be able to walk and cycle for their daily needs, or use transit.
I know that as a youtuber, you must do The TH-cam Things, but it's still aggravating to waste 15 minutes of my 30 minutes of down time before heading to work on a wikipedia summary of some basic history in a city I do not live in when the title led me to believe it was going to actually have some urban planning theory.
You might be more interested in some of my other videos!
@@eryngo.urbanism what a patronizing comment, so theu can waste their down time for another day? Couldve made it up to them by commenting some urban planning theories in your reply.
@@fried0nion503 To be fair, the answer to the question posed in the video title is simply "yes"
dont GRIDLOCK sux
Take the train!
@@eryngo.urbanism Train to Busan
And san Francisco has been declining ever since. Good job, pod people 👍
Utrecht filled in a canal to build an urban freeway. They then tore down the freeway and restored the canal. Seattle, like SF, tore down it’s freeway, The Alaskan Viaduct. The one thing all three projects have in common is that the traffic simply disappeared. None were ever really necessary and the doomsday traffic projected upon their demolition never came to be.
Cable cars predated the 1906 quake by over 30 years and streetcars by 18 years.
Do better research dude. Or focus on your town and leave ours out. It took three votes to get rid of the Embarcadero freeway, it was the first time the Chinese voted as a bloc, but we voted a third time to overcome that bloc and won.
YOU need to do better research. Traffic didn't disappear when the Embarcadero Freeway was removed. It only pushed all the cars to the surface streets that are now jammed up instead of on a freeway. The "traffic disappears" statement is something that anti-car people spread to push their hate-filled agenda and ideology against people not like them.
Nice anti-Chinese racial overtones. NOT.
Well if San Francisco did it, then it must be good. Everything is good in San Francisco
I recall staying on an upper floor of the Embarcadero YMCA. The Freeway was just outside my window - heave traffic droning past. I rode BART and was very impressed. That was 1980, and by the videos I see today, I do wonder what has been allowed to happen to San Francisco since I returned home. It seemed safe and vibrant. I saw only one homeless sleeping in Market Street, no beggars and saw no violence of any kind. Late Friday evening I walked alone from China Town to Embarcadero, and felt safer than I do at home. Market street had BART, ?Busses/trams?, but celebratory entertainment. I came across some Hawaiian dressed girls teaching passers-by the Hula dance. To be candid, what I see today scars my memories, and I shake my head. But finally, I agree that I would have preferred an unobstructed view of the Ferry building.
It's always interesting to see how cities change over time!
This is mostly right wing propaganda. SF is mostly the same as it was 5-10-20 years ago. The Tenderloin is still as messed up as ever, but it's been like that since the Gold Rush. What's different with San Francisco is the insane media frenzy that a bunch of right wing outlets have been desperately trying to create.
It has failed for the most part. SF's tourism numbers are at 89-90% of 2019, which itself was a banner year. Retail occupancy in Union Square is back at 85% after the pandemic, and it never dropped that low in the other neighborhoods. In other words, we have about a 10% reduction in economic activity due to tech only returning to work part time. Everything else is about the same or better than you remember it. The rest is noise.
Freeways give us independence. Bad designs aren't a sound argument, since a freeway can be designed well to compliment everything else. Environmental concerns are always questionable or outright fabrications.
Free ways should never go inside cities, cars are noisy, polluting and dangerous.
A much better option is to have metro stations with large parking lots on the outskirts of the city, that way instead of disturbing the entire city with you car, you can leave it outside the city and continue on foot.
@@logans3365 sure that's not ableist.
@@michah321 it’s really not, there are plenty of mobility devices that don’t require a gas engine, public transport would actually allow more people to move then cars.
You are the one being ableist by assuming more people have trouble walking then driving.
@@logans3365 that's astounding mental gymnastics. My comment stemmed from all the people I know with mobility issues who can easily ride in cars. If they read your comment, they would be furious and feel super disrespected. "oh sure, I'll just walk then..."
@@michah321 why are you assuming that I don’t know a bunch of people who can’t drive cars and suffer from it because there is no public transit, and the streets are too Dangerous for walking due to cars.
And if you can drive a car, then you can also drive an electric scooter in theory, I haven’t seen an example where this isn’t true yet.
I'll advocate for the removal of the North Loop in downtown Kansas City, which separates downtown from the River Market neighborhood. The recently defeated plan for a new Royals ballpark downtown was highly controversial, but one part of the proposal I really liked was that it capped I-670 on the south side of downtown for several blocks. The city is trying to get at least some of that cap built in time for the 2026 World Cup, but it's by no means guaranteed.
As a kid, I was fascinated by natural disasters, and the Loma Prieta earthquake specifically. I don't know that the Embarcadero and Central Freeway viaducts would have been demolished if it wasn't for the catastrophic collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland that killed 42 people. The horror of watching a pediatric surgeon describe cutting a woman's body in half and amputating a boy's leg with minimal anesthesia to rescue him from a crushed car left a lot of people terrified at the thought of something similar happening to them. Had the freeway been damaged but not destroyed, it's likely Caltrans would have just completed repairs and seismic retrofitting to all the highways in the area without removing any of them.
Part of the reason why Tulsa has urban freeways is no thanks to the infamous Tulsa massacre.
#bringbacktheembarcaderofreeway🛣️
🤔
In Canada, no major highways or freeways intersect our cities. They always go around. It makes a city feel much more liveable, especially when considering we have more liveable spaces in our city centres (apartment buildings), rather than industrial or office buildings, so it’s kinda needed to be like that.