Board of Supervisors votes to revoke Kearny Street pedestrian bridge permit, orders permittee to bear removal cost

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on April 12 to grant a petition to revoke the major encroachment permit for the private pedestrian bridge that spans Kearny Street from the Hilton Hotel to Portsmouth Square, saying the permittee must pay the cost of removal and restoration.

The decision, made after a public hearing that included presentations from petitioners, the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the permit holder, followed hours of public comment from Chinatown residents, community groups and other stakeholders who urged the board to approve the Portsmouth Square Improvement Project and remove the bridge.

The board’s action matters because the bridge sits above a public park used daily by Chinatown residents — including many seniors and residents of single-room occupancy (SRO) housing — and the approved Portsmouth Square plan would replace the bridge with new open space, a community room and a resiliency center. Petitioners and community groups argued the bridge is underused, often closed, casts shadow over the park and limits the square’s utility as Chinatown’s "living room." The permit holder countered that building the bridge was a condition of the hotel’s original development and that demolition costs would be prohibitive.

At the hearing, pro bono counsel for the lead petitioners, attorney Alan Lowe of Perkins Coie, summarized the community process that produced the Portsmouth Square Improvement Plan. "The pedestrian bridge has outlived its useful purpose," he said, adding that the community-driven plan would open about 20,000 square feet of new playground space and create roughly 9,000 square feet of community space, including a resiliency center for heat and poor-air-quality events.

Lead petitioner Janet Lee Se, a longtime Chinatown resident,…