The long wait for Octavia Boulevard

A caption on the front page of the September New Urban News said Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco is “soon to be built.” This turns out to be not quite accurate. In November 1998 San Francisco voters passed a proposition to replace part of the Central Freeway with a ground-level boulevard. The following February the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution establishing a Central Freeway Project Office to oversee the coming of the boulevard — a handsome street designed under the leadership of Allan B. Jacobs and Elizabeth Macdonald. Though part of the freeway was torn down after being damaged in the 1989 earthquake, state transportation officials have moved more slowly on the proposal than some would like. The project now has a completion date of 2005, according to the city.