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Get to Know Your Local Experts with the Van Ness Improvement Project Team

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

The Van Ness Improvement Project will bring a lot of new features to the neighborhoods along one of San Francisco's grandest avenues: new water and sewer lines, new street and sidewalk lighting, and a new Bus Rapid Transit system. We’re also using the opportunity to test out new ways of keeping community members involved and informed.

Seated man in a blue sports points at a diagram showing three evenly spaced dots on a straight line. Each dot is inside a larger red diamond with overlapping corners. The heads of his audience are blurred in the foreground and a woman sits near the window behind him.
Michael Schwartz, a transportation planner with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, shows a diagram explaining ways to evaluate bus stop locations for consolidation.

The Meet the Expert series is a new, casual monthly event that introduces residents to the people who can best answer questions about a given topic — from project planning to transportation history and more. Every first Wednesday, neighbors meet qualified people from the field to better understand the project and and our city.

This week's MTE event will be led by staff from the Public Utilities Commission, who will explain how city projects can use natural methods to keep our bay and ocean clean and to relieve our sewer system during heavy rainstorms. Though these events are planned by Van Ness project staff, the speakers are not always from the SFMTA. The Van Ness Improvement Project spans multiple city agencies and departments, so we bring in the most qualified people we can from across these agencies.

These laid back events help neighbors get to know the project team outside of more formal meetings and hearings and give them a chance to ask questions and find out more about the project.

The events help businesses on Van Ness, too, since each one is held at a different business along the corridor. Although attendance is free, everyone is encouraged to purchase food or drinks from some of their favorite Van Ness merchants.

Past events, which have been held at places like Village Pizzeria and Happy Donuts, have focused on topics like the phases of construction for the Van Ness Improvement Project, an overview of the concept of bus stop consolidation and how it is used to improve public transit systems, and the history of public transportation on Van Ness Avenue.

If you’re interested in learning about future Meet the Expert events for the Van Ness Improvement Project, be sure to sign up for project updates on our website. Space is limited at each event, so RSVPs are required.

If you have questions about the project — or ideas for future Meet the Expert events — you can contact the team by email at vannessbrt@sfmta.com.