SF's Central Subway Construction Halted For Some Holiday Shoppers
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— The streets around San Francisco's bustling Union Square are back in order after a temporary construction moratorium on the Central Subway Project was called through the holiday-shopping season.
The big dig - the San Francisco Muni light-rail extension - will go on another five years until things come to fruition. Business owners and residents are upset in Chinatown and North Beach, where the subway line extends, because no such moratorium like the one in union square was planned.
SF's Central Subway Union Square Construction Moratorium Not Extended To North Beach-Chinatown
At a billion dollar a mile between the Caltrain station at 4th and King Street and the heart of Chinatown, it's a pricey project, but one that critics say is noisy, dusty and divisive too.
"The restaurant owner just next to us here [at] Piazza Pellegrini; his tables sometimes shake and his customers get a little upset and leave - so it has vibration, it has noise, and dust. It has bright lights in the evening. It has everything you don't want during a merchant shopping season," said Lance Carnes with the organization, 'No Dig'.
No Dig has appealed to City Hall for a similar halt to construction through the holidays, but their efforts, he said, have fallen on deaf ears.
North Beach residents said it's only fair to treat the north and south ends of the project equally, but concede they don't have money or the influence of Union Square, not even close.
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