Once San Francisco's 'Grandest Boulevard,' Van Ness Almost Done With Another Makeover

San Francisco has been working on the Van Ness Improvement Project, which includes the controversial addition of bus rapid transit lanes, for a decade and a half. Now a column by Carl Nolte reveals that the long haul is finally on the home stretch in a paywalled article for the San Francisco Chronicle.

First, here's how Nolte sums up the experience of planning, building, and waiting for the Van Ness Improvement project:

Van Ness has been torn up for the city to build an ambitious bus rapid transit corridor 2 miles long from Lombard to Mission streets. Two special lanes, just for buses, were built, along with landscaping, street trees and wider sidewalks. The project was designed to speed up local Muni buses and regional Golden Gate Transit service. It seemed like a great idea when it was in the planning stage. “When it’s done you’ll be thanking us,” Mayor London Breed said when she was president of the Board of Supervisors. But the work took forever. There were delays and cost overruns. It was the mess on Van Ness.

Nolte's exploration of the project includes a tour of the city that reaches back beyond the Roaring 20s, when Van Ness transitioned from the city's "grandest boulevard" to its auto row. Now new development is again transforming the buildings around Van Ness, punctuated by an ambitious rezoning and redevelopment effort at Van Ness and Market called The Hub.

Planetizen's coverage of the Van Ness Improvement project stretches back to 2006. A San Francisco Civil Grand Jury investigated the Van Ness Improvement project, asking where the project went wrong after winning funding from voters in 2003, but waiting until 2016 to break ground and then until about now to complete construction. A separate article by Kevin Truong reports the findings of the Grand Jury's investigation, providing a comprehensive account of the project's long history.