Greening of the Broadway Tunnel Project

Project update: Funds retracted February 2008.

Forty-two trees were to be planted on the side walls and median strip from Broadway to Hyde Street with four planter trees on the Hyde Street overpass at the cable car stop. This project would have transformed the barren concrete hole that is the Broadway Tunnel into a beautiful, tree-lined entry through Russian Hill to North Beach, Chinatown, and the City beyond.

The Project:

Greening the Broadway Tunnel-West is a $660k DPW project. The City awarded us $325k, but the funds have now been retracted because of major budget cuts. Potential grants were also stopped due to the retraction of City funding. We desperately need to raise money for this project through grants and donations.

Greening: ($299k) -- planting twenty-eight trees up the sides of Broadway (just outside of and rising with the tunnel retaining walls), four planter trees on the pedestrian bridge, and fourteen trees in the median strip.

Cable Car Square on Hyde Street ($174k) -- A pedestrian pathway will lead from the SE corner of Broadway and Larkin (starting at Helen Wills Park) to an attractive square at the Hyde Street Cable Car stop. The pathway and square would be demarcated by special paving.

Traditional Ornamental Street Lamps ($187k) -- will help demarcate Broadway as an historic, grand boulevard.

All in all, the City has stopped spending $18,000,000 of the $233,000,000 deficit (these numbers keep increasing). No State or Federal funds appear to be available. We will continue to seek funding for this worthy project through corporate sponsors, by developing a potential Park Improvement District, and through private donations. If anyone works for a company that offers grants or funding, please let us know whom to contact. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Donations can be made through PayPal or sent to RHN at the following address:

Judy Junghans, Treasurer
RUSSIAN HILL NEIGHBORS
1819 Polk St. #221
San Francisco, CA 94109
Voice 415-267-0575