Why now, of all times?

moto-rama

moto-rama

Well-known member
The parking lot next to City College of SF, formerly the Balboa Reservoir, has been the target of developers for decades. Apparently it is finally going to be re-paved, with a housing development.

"What does this have to do with Motorcycles?" you may ask. For many years this lot has been used by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and other riding schools.

On a personal note, I have been using this lot for unmitigated wheelies for at least 25 years. I've been questioned a few times over the years by the City College Police (Woo hoo, hunky guys with Glock 19s) about the wheelie thing. One even threatened to write me a ticket, then admitted he only had a citation pad for writing parking infractions.

But seriously, with so many people supposedly leaving the Bay Area and SF in particular, why are they building more housing? Wouldn't it make sense to build an underground parking lot with a nice Green Park on top? A place where CCSF students could park their cars/bikes/motos or take a walk with their GF or BF, or even walk their dogs. No city ever has enough parking or green space, or a place for Geezers who like to tear up parking lots.

:afm199
 
Gabe

Gabe

COVID-fefe
moto-rama said:
The parking lot next to City College of SF, formerly the Balboa Reservoir, has been the target of developers for decades. Apparently it is finally going to be re-paved, with a housing development.

"What does this have to do with Motorcycles?" you may ask. For many years this lot has been used by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and other riding schools.

On a personal note, I have been using this lot for unmitigated wheelies for at least 25 years. I've been questioned a few times over the years by the City College Police (Woo hoo, hunky guys with Glock 19s) about the wheelie thing. One even threatened to write me a ticket, then admitted he only had a citation pad for writing parking infractions.

But seriously, with so many people supposedly leaving the Bay Area and SF in particular, why are they building more housing? Wouldn't it make sense to build an underground parking lot with a nice Green Park on top? A place where CCSF students could park their cars/bikes/motos or take a walk with their GF or BF, or even walk their dogs. No city ever has enough parking or green space, or a place for Geezers who like to tear up parking lots.

:afm199
Click to expand...

Hey Jim!

I think this is more a topic for the Sink, as it doesn't have much to do with :ride That said, you may be the only person I've ever known who has said SF doesn't need to build more housing. So whether it actually needs more housing or not is kinda moot, as there will be housing built there.

Where BAMT (local CMSP school) is going to hold their classes is a serious concern to BARFers, as they trained thousands of riders there a year--I don't know if it's the busiest range in the state, but it's up there. When I worked there, the word was the contract with CCSF was so old nobody knew where it was, or how to go about renewing/rewriting it. I'm hoping CCSF sees the public good of motorcycle training and finds another parking lot for them to use.
 
moto-rama

moto-rama

Well-known member
If the mods want to Sink this topic, that's fine.

The thing is, I've always thought that parking lot was ALL about motorcycles and :ride:ride.

It's clearly a wheelies VS housing issue, or a Place Where Motorcycle Training Takes Place VS Housing issue or all 3 issues, if we include the parking thing. After all, where will people park if there is No Lot at CCSF?

I don't see people eager to jump on public transit anytime soon, so a place to park their motorcycles, scooters and maybe cars is a real thing to consider.
 
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budman

budman

General Menace
Staff member
Getting harder to find training spots.

People in the planning department have an affinity to trees.

Those are not good for training but good for the environment. We will lose every time.

Jim with da wheelies!! :party
 
Gabe

Gabe

COVID-fefe
budman said:
Getting harder to find training spots.

People in the planning department have an affinity to trees.

Those are not good for training but good for the environment. We will lose every time.

Jim with da wheelies!! :party
Click to expand...

The riding school we started--MotoU--probably wouldn't have amounted to much, but the main obstacle was finding an affordable and functional training site. Landlords are terrified of motorcycle business. They'd rather let you run a combination opium den/brothel/demolition derby in their parking lot than anything motorcycle related, even something as mild and regulated as motorcycle rider training. It sucks.
 
Lowerside

Lowerside

Well-known member
This pandemic will pass, and it's very likely that we'll need all the extra housing that we can get afterward.

I do wish that cities would require private locations with large parking lots and/or park areas to make them public during off-peak days/hours. Maybe also require them to be rent-able to businesses for reasonable rates in exchange for not being liable for any injuries. Empty parking lots during the weekends are a waste of space.
 
Sucka Free

Sucka Free

Well-known member
I took the motorcycle course there in the 90’s and I did not know it was a former reservoir! Fond memories of my first ride on a motorcycle there.
 
moto-rama

moto-rama

Well-known member
Well, we can hope things will get back to normal If this Pandemic is ever parked.

What is going on now is not the answer, as we can all see with our own eyes.

As for development, once it is built, it won't go away until the next Ice Age.

My preference? A really nice motorcycle mini track, with a dirt infield and some stunting set-ups.

The infield could be dedicated to urban gardening allotments.

Who would object to that?
 
N

NoTraffic

Well-known member
They're already one year deep into removing many of the m/c designated spaces with those $#@! lyft/uber rental bikes. What makes you think they have care about m/c training?

I honestly think there should be representation for motorized two wheels to collaborate with SF Bicycle Coalition (they are doing most of the lane re-engineering for bicyclists).
 
moto-rama

moto-rama

Well-known member
NoTraffic said:
They're already one year deep into removing many of the m/c designated spaces with those $#@! lyft/uber rental bikes. What makes you think they have care about m/c training?

I honestly think there should be representation for motorized two wheels to collaborate with SF Bicycle Coalition (they are doing most of the lane re-engineering for bicyclists).
Click to expand...

SF Motorcycle and Scooter Coalition still exist, no?
 
Lowerside

Lowerside

Well-known member
A quick Google search didn't yield results on the first page for "SF Motorcycle and Scooter Coalition". If they exist, they need to work on getting their name out.
 
DucatiHoney

DucatiHoney

Administrator
Staff member
This is all said without me having a position on the subject of housing vs. moto training spots:

The housing thing is a lot more complicated than there are X places to live and X number of people. Some places are more desirable than others to live. We're lacking AFFORDABLE housing, so the more there is, technically competition for homes is reduced and prices go down. Parking lots don't necessarily yield a lot of money for the landholder, but ya still gotta pay taxes n stuff on it, patrol it, maintain it, etc. At some point, with limited acres in SF, it simply will not pencil out for a property owner to not develop their land.

I'm not a real estate lawyer, but I believe there is some sort of clause, ordinance, law, whatever that states that if a piece of land has been used for a certain purpose for a certain amount of time, then that land can transfer ownership. You see this a lot with beach access--if a property owner has allowed the public to access their gate and use a road to get to the beach for 30 years, and then sells that property to a new owner to denies this access, you'll see a court case. That's because (maybe) there's this law thing out there. And what happens is often that the case is made that the path to the beach is now actually pubic right-of-way, so an access easement is created. There's something about notification in there too. That's why you see those notes on alleys n stuff in SF saying that the public is allowed. If you don't have that notice and allow it, you can lose that property. If you have the notice, then it's a different situation. So, you might try that route.
 
N

novaks47

Well-known member
Sorry, wasn't trying to start a debate or anything, I was too far off topic I now realize. I'm a bit of ranter, something I need to work on.
 
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SFSV650

SFSV650

The Slowest Sprotbike™
The state is short about 4 million units of housing by some estimates.

Even with a trickle of folks leaving for greener pastures post 'Rona, there's a lot of unmet demand.
 
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