New improvements coming to downtown! Maybe. The Streets and Neighborhoods Workgroup, a task force made up of unlikely allies from law enforcement to homeless advocates came together this week to draft a host of new changes to clean up the Tenderloin, Union Square and Yerba Buena areas and "improve the San Francisco experience." The long list of potential improvements includes additions of temporary shelters benches and bathrooms, additional homeless services and a crack-down on "quality of life" issues, including honking, littering and "aggressive" panhandling. More controversial is the measure to create temporary drug-free and "high-impact" areas with increased police presence and heightened punishments for crimes, modeled after a similar program in Washington, D.C. Once finalized, the list of suggestions (yes, at this point that's all they are) will go to the mayor's office for ultimate approval and implementation -- overstretched city budget allowing, of course...
· S.F. panel recommends safe-streets programs [SF Gate]
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