Board urges MTA to preserve Van Ness historic street lamps as BRT work proceeds

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution on Sept. 20 urging the Municipal Transportation Agency to make every effort to preserve or replicate the historic street-lamp network along Van Ness Avenue as part of the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who introduced the resolution, said the request is intended to reconcile historic preservation with a major transit upgrade. "We can speed up headways for our buses… and we can preserve a little bit of our patrimony and our history," Peskin told the board, adding the city should seek solutions that achieve both efficiency and preservation.

Members of multiple preservation and neighborhood organizations testified in favor of the measure during public comment. Lynn Neuhaus Siegel of the Pacific Heights Residents Association said the street lamps contribute to San Francisco's civic…