Shopping Local and Getting There: The Valencia Street Controversy

Crowded store on Valencia Street, December 2023

If you live in San Francisco and pay attention to street developments, you surely have heard about and probably have an opinion on Valencia Street's reconfiguration. A group of merchants is up in arms about the loss of parking in connection to new bike lanes placed down the middle of the street. One bar closed, claiming that business went down 80% after the bike lanes were installed.

Valencia Street sits in the middle of a multimodal transportation and retail corridor. There is a car thoroughfare (Guerrero St.) and a street with dedicated bus lanes (Mission St.) parallel to Valencia, each one block away. Two regional transit stops (BART) are also a block from Valencia. Several parking garages nearby provide hundreds of parking spots.

Valencia Street has been a mix of cars, bikes, and pedestrians competing for space within a narrow streetscape for years. With much retail activity, cars were often double parked, blocking the prior, unprotected bike lanes on the street. Sidewalks are narrow. Given the surrounding auto and transit infrastructure, it makes sense for Valencia Street to lean into being a pedestrian and biking street, with space for delivery and emergency vehicles.

The current configuration was actually presented as a compromise to preserve parking. Parking spaces weren't directly replaced by bike lanes but instead converted to loading zones for commercial delivery and ride share. Given the uproar, the SFMTA is converting 70 spaces back to parking, shifting from one motor vehicle use to another. It's important to set the record straight, so if I'm missing something here, please let me know.

Valencia Street’s narrow but busy sidewalk

Where does this go from here, who knows? It's too bad it's turned into such hostility. Claiming a loss of 80% of business from the reconfiguration seems to be a huge stretch. It's been hard to park near Valencia for years. (Did the bar really rely on people driving their own cars there with rideshare and other transportation modes available to get there and thousands of people who live within a walkable distance?) There are many factors. No doubt, there is pent-up frustration from lingering pandemic impacts and having to deal with city bureaucracy and regulations over the years.

For now, all of us who live near Valencia and Mission Streets (Mission also has much retail) can shop there. This past Sunday, I rode my bike to Valencia, which is about 1 mile from my home, and walked the street, stopping in several shops. In contrast to the doom narrative, I noticed a lot of foot traffic on the sidewalk and in stores, like the one pictured here, and even empty parking spaces. If you can walk, bike, take transit, or drive to Valencia in the next couple of weeks, please do so. Enjoy the vibrant corridor and support the local restaurants, cafes, bars, and retail businesses. That's one thing we can hopefully all agree to do.

Some merchants are letting customers know about available parking