Sponsored by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the city’s Planning Department, Department of Public Works and Public Utilities Commission, the website was offered to encourage citizens to improve city streets by making the process easier.
“Before this website was launched, this information wasn’t available,” said Joanna Linsangan, communications manager for the Planning Department, as reported by as reported by Streetsblog San Francisco editor Aaron Bialick. “For someone to go through the process, someone would have to go and contact various departments around the city. People may not think they have the ability to do so, but if they want to, they can apply for a parklet, put out bike racks or put out planters in their neighborhood, at their storefront, and we’re trying to give them all the information to make it happen.”
The website is the spiritual successor of the city’s 2010 Better Streets Plan, a less extensive version of the newer site. The purpose of both websites is to make people-oriented street improvements easier for citizens to complete by outlining program processes, offering permit information and generally streamlining street improvement in the city.
