Pandemic running and... Wait, What?

My mind likes to find strange things that don’t fit in, and this was especially so during the early pandemic. I had started running for exercise shortly before the world started panicking about toilet paper. I had begun training for the Bay to Breakers. One of my training routes around took me beyond my neighborhood and around Pacific Heights. There are some nice hills to run up, and the view at the top is inspiring. In this neighborhood you see folks running up and down the stairs along Lyon Street, as well as private coaches with their portable equipment helping clients train. Sometimes folks park their cars nearby to take a good look out over the bay. A nice pivot in what became a less indoor world.

This is one of those neighborhoods with the very big, fancy houses. Home renovations are important here.

Parking lot on Broderick Street

I use the steps and steep inclines in and around this neighborhood as a kind of public stairmaster. Heading along Broderick, between Vallejo and Broadway, I see something odd. Nice enough to nearly gloss over, but definitely odd. Access by car through this block is blocked off, and traffic is diverted elsewhere. Is it because the grade is too steep through here? Maybe, though there are other blocks that are just as steep with car traffic. I wonder if I'm on a public sidewalk or a private open space. There are neatly attended trees and shrubs and other public amenities. One patch is fully set in cobblestones. The overall feel here is of a street which had been closed off for some time, and has the look of a very small urban park. It’s in the middle of what would might have been a normal street a long time ago.

Partway along this block at the midpoint, one can see a leveled driveway connected to a house. This driveway is built in the middle of Broderick, and is kind of dominating. It is a largish flat area built on a concrete structure, clearly designed to make parking easier for one house in particular. It has enough room for several cars. It does not serve anyone else. The structure's overall shape is doorstop-ish, due to it being flat on top, yet on a hill.

Entry (?) to the parking lot

At the the top of the block, at the intersection of

Broderick and Broadway, there is a big “DO NOT ENTER” sign facing the intersection. There is a one lane road that leads partway down Broderick (northward), marked “2798 PRIVATE” on this same sign, also facing the intersection. This roadway twists back and forth, like the famous part of Lombard.

Taking a look at online maps and city planning documents, I see that the physical location of 2798 Broadway is not on Broadway at all, but at the intersection of Broderick and Vallejo, the house which the mystery parking lot serves.

The thing that I really notice is that the location for the signage, the curvy road, and the parking structure are all depicted in San Francisco city records as being on public land. How is it this road really intended for one home can take up so much space on top of public land? Does this roadway and parking lot serve anyone other than the one home? Appears not. Can anyone park in that car lot, or is the space somehow deeded to the nearby house? What does the word “private” mean if it’s on public land?

Steps in the middle of Brodericks Street, part of the driveway structure.

I understand the notions of private and public can be nebulous. The Presidio is a public park, though with large corporate buildings which generate lots of jobs. Then there are the private hot dog vendors in Golden Gate park, hocking wears to hungry folks. The list goes on. I guess this is just one of these instances where private concerns end up on public land.

#running #PandemicProjects #urbanplanning #onlyinsanfrancisco