Manager’s Messages

significant progress toward vaccinating people who live and work in San Francisco.

The City is making headway in minimizing the risk presented by the coronavirus through its vaccination efforts and its balanced approach to reopening and harm reduction behaviors. This allows key activities central to the City’s economy, such as offices, dining, and some forms of entertainment to begin to reopen. While the City is updating its health order to come into near alignment with the State reopening guidelines, it continues to limit some activities, particularly those where people to gather indoors without masks or for extended amounts of time, in order to minimize the risk to public health.

Similarly, San Francisco continues to focus on harm reduction approaches to managing public health. Health officials continue to emphasize the need for masking and social distancing by all, including those who have been vaccinated when outside their homes, prioritizing the reopening of outdoor activities, and encouraging businesses to have outdoor options wherever possible. People at risk for severe illness with COVID-19, such as unvaccinated older adults and individuals with health risks, and members of their household are urged to continue taking strong precautions by choosing lower-risk options whenever possible.

New Reopening Guidelines announced soonWith this in mind, the San Francisco Department of Public Health will issue final health and safety guidelines to reopen activities allowed under the orange tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, with some additional local restrictions, effective as of 8:00am Wednesday, March 24, 2021. The City will post the revised Health Order with detailed requirements to its webpage by the end of the day today March 23, 2021. Under the new Health Order, the following activities will be opened or expanded.

Activities to Resume Wednesday, Mar. 24, 2021

The following activities may be reopened:

• Offices
  • Indoor non-essential offices of 20 or more employees may reopen at up to 25% capacity, including meeting and conference rooms at 25% (though use of conference rooms should be minimized).
  • Indoor offices of fewer than 20 employees must reduce their capacity to whatever allows for required 6 feet of physical distancing between employees at all times.
• Indoor family entertainment
  • Indoor bowling alleys, mini golf, pool halls, and other family entertainment where individuals may readily maintain at least 6 feet of distance may open up to 25% capacity with groups consisting of members of one household.
  • Concessions are allowed following indoor dining rules in a separate room or with 12 feet of space from other activities.
• Indoor recreation
  • Indoor recreational facilities may open to 25% capacity up to 100 people.
  • Up to 12 participants from up to 3 households may participate in low-contact indoor recreation (and from up to 4 households in the case of indoor tennis and pickleball).
  • Indoor organized sports for youth and adults may resume with stable groups of up to 16 participants, with no household limitation. For moderate- or high-contact sport involving middle school, high school or adult participants, regular testing and a COVID-19 prevention plan must be in place. Elementary age children may not participate in moderate or high contact sports. Spectators are not allowed in any context except the necessary supervision of children in youth sports. Adults may only participate in up to two organized activities at a time, and only one activity if it is a moderate- or high-contact sport. Youth may only participate in one organized indoor activity at a time.
  • Competitions may only occur in county or with teams from adjacent counties (i.e., Marin, San Mateo, and Alameda) in an equal or less restrictive tier. Consistent with State guidelines, travel for out of state tournaments may not take place.
  • Indoor ice hockey, wrestling, and water polo remain prohibited.
• Indoor gatherings
  • Up to 12 people from 3 households may gather in a private residence, with face coverings and with ventilation measures and distancing urged. Such gatherings are discouraged unless they are gatherings with vaccinated individuals consistent with CDC guidelines. If possible gatherings should take place outdoors.
• Outdoor bars, breweries, wineries and distilleries
  • Bars, breweries, wineries and distilleries may open for outdoor, seated table service of up to 6 people at a table without the provision of a meal. Guests may not mingle between tables. Indoor bars, breweries and wineries without meal service remain closed.

The following activities may expand their operating capacity:

• Dining
  • Indoor dining at restaurants, bars serving meals, cafes and coffee shops, hotels, museums, and food courts in shopping malls may expand to 50% capacity up to 200 patrons. Table size may expand to up to 6 guests from up to 3 households. Service must end by 11:00 pm.
  • Outdoor dining may remove restrictions of number of households seated at a table and may allow group reservations of up to two tables outdoors (12 people maximum). Tables remain limited to 6 guests. Tables may be seated outdoors for drink service only.
• Gyms and Fitness
  • Indoor gyms, fitness centers and climbing walls may expand to 25% capacity up to 100 patrons, including youth patrons under the age of 18.
  • Group fitness classes including cardio may resume up to lesser of 25% capacity or 100 people.
  • Indoor locker rooms and showers may open with the implementation of a DPH approved ventilation measure. Indoor sauna, steam rooms and hot tubs remain closed.
  • The 25-person limitation to outdoor fitness classes is lifted as long as physical distancing between participants can be maintained.
• Retail
  • Stand-alone retail, shopping centers, low-contact retail services, equipment rental, financial institutions, laundromats, etc. may expand indoor customer capacity to 50%.
  • Personnel may handle customer-supplied items such as reusable bags, jars, mugs, and other containers.
• Personal services

• Indoor personal services may expand to 50% customer capacity.

o   Seated food or beverage concessions may resume for groups of audience members of up to 6 people from up to 3 households so long as there is 6 feet of distance between them and other audience members and a DPH approved ventilation measure is in place.

• If there are multiple auditoriums, each auditorium is limited to the lesser of 50% or 200 people provided the theater complex does not exceed 50% capacity.

Activities that will resume at a later date:

• Outdoor arts, music, and theater performances and festivals
  • Starting April 1, organized outdoor arts and performance events may take place with audiences of up to 50 people with a Health and Safety Plan submitted at least 5 days before the event.
  • Assigned seats are not required but social distancing between audience members must be maintained.
  • Seated concessions are allowed following outdoor dining or bar health guidelines.
• Outdoor spectator sports and large outdoor entertainment facilities
  • Starting April 1, outdoor spectator sports and live entertainment venues with assigned seating may reopen with capacity restrictions and other operating guidelines with an approved Health and Safety plan.
• Overnight Youth Camps
  • Starting June 1, overnight youth camps may resume following State guidance.

Stay safe!

started on Taraval Street between 40^th and 41^st avenues. For track replacement work, traffic is being detoured at the intersections of 40^th and 41^st avenues at all times of the day until track replacement work along these segments are complete. During active construction hours, parking on both sides of the blocks will be temporarily restricted to give the crew the safety clearance they need to demo and replace the aged tracks in the center of the road and allow eastbound/westbound vehicular traffic. Parking will be returned at the end of each workday along the impacted blocks.

Since Aug. 2019, the traffic pattern on lower Great Highway between Ulloa and Santiago streets has been changed. The northbound travel lane on lower Great Highway has been rerouted to 48th Avenue for two blocks between Ulloa and Santiago streets. The southbound travel lane will continue on lower Great Highway as usual. This will be in effect until project completion in fall 2021. For project details, visit SFMTA.com/LTaraval Project.

ONGOING

ONGOING: Muni Service During the COVID-19 Shelter-In-Place Order

Until further notice, Muni buses will continue to serve the K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View and N Judah Metro lines.

To learn more information about bus substitution for Muni rail lines visit Muni’s Bus Substitution for All Rail Lines. For information about upcoming service changes, read our latest service change blog.

Some Muni routes have been modified under the current health order. For details of Muni’s individual lines/routes, visit each route’s webpage or the Muni Core Service Plan.

• Core Routes in Service: J Church (Balboa Park to Church & Duboce streets); K Ingleside (Balboa Park to Embarcadero); T Third (Sunnydale to Embarcadero); L Taraval Bus (all buses) (SF Zoo to Embarcadero); N Judah Bus (Ocean Beach to 4th and King streets); M Ocean View Bus (Balboa Park to West Portal); 1 California; 5 Fulton; 7 Noriega; 8 Bayshore (rerouted to Stockton); 9 San Bruno, 9R San Bruno Rapid (weekday only); 12 Folsom/Pacific (Financial District to Russian Hill), 14 Mission; 14R Mission Rapid; 15 Bayview-Hunters Point Express; 19 Polk; 22 Fillmore; 24 Divisadero; 25 Treasure Island; 27 Bryant (modified route); 28 19th Avenue (Daly City BART to California Street & 6^th Avenue); 29 Sunset; 30 Stockton; 33 Ashbury-18th Street; 37 Corbett (Twin Peaks and Van Ness & Market Street); 38 Geary; 38R Geary Rapid; 43 Masonic (Geary Boulevard to Crocker Amazon) ; 44 O’Shaughnessy; 45 Union-Stockton; 48 Quintara/24th Street (20th at 3rd streets and West Portal Station); 49 Van Ness/Mission (extended from North Point to Powell and Beach); 54 Felton (Daly City BART to Hunters Point); 55 Dogpatch; and 67 Bernal Heights.
• Late-night Owl routes start at 10 p.m. (instead of 1 a.m.) All regular Owl routes are in operation, except 5 Fulton and 48 Quintara/24th Street.
• The following routes are running 24 hours a day or providing special Owl Service: L Owl; N Owl; 14 Mission; 22 Fillmore; 24 Divisadero; 25 Treasure Island; 38 Geary; 44 O’Shaughnessy; 90 San Bruno Owl; 91 3rd Street/19th Avenue Owl.

ONGOING: Geary Rapid Project

As part of Verizon’s private facility expansion, excavation is planned within the project limits of the City’s Geary Rapid Project, which includes water main replacement and surface transportation improvements such as sidewalk extensions at intersection corners.

The following construction forecast is subject to change due to weather delays or unexpected field conditions:

From Saturday, Feb. 20 through Saturday, March 13, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. (on Saturdays only):
In preparation for the installation of conduits for future fiber-optic cables, crews will perform “potholing” – digging small exploratory holes to verify the locations of existing underground utilities in order to minimize potential conflicts.

There may be partial lane closures and temporary parking restrictions as a result of this work.

ONGOING: 19th Avenue (CA Route 1) Combined City Project

San Francisco Public Works is leading a multi-agency project to replace aging infrastructure and improve safety along 19^th Avenue between Holloway Avenue and Lincoln Way.

Construction work for the first segment of this project along 19th Avenue between Lincoln Way and Noriega Street has begun.

As part of the 19th Avenue Combined City Project , the SFMTA will implement transit priority and safety improvements for people walking along the route of the 28 19th Avenue. The improvements will make it safer to walk, remove stops to make transit service more reliable, and enhance customers’ experiences—on and off the bus.

To improve safety along 19^th Avenue, the SFMTA will: 1) install pedestrian bulbs at 19 intersections and transit bulbs at 13 intersections; 2) modify traffic and pedestrian signals to give people who walk more time to cross the street; and 3) extend the bus zone at one intersection. Installing transit bulbs allow Muni vehicles to stop for passengers without having to pull out of traffic, and pedestrian bulbs increase the visibility at intersections of people who walk.

As part of the project, seven Muni stops were removed on 19th Avenue between Irving Street and Ocean Avenue on Oct. 17. The following Muni routes have been affected with the stop removal:

• 28 19th Avenue
• 91 3rd Street/19th Avenue Owl

To find additional information about the transit reliability and pedestrian safety components, visit sfmta.com/28Rapid. For overall project information, visit sfpublicworks.org/19th-Avenue.

ONGOING: Shared Spaces Program

The city’s multi-agency Shared Spaces program opened some parts of streets in San Francisco to create public space for outdoor dining, retail and physical distancing. The program allows the use of sidewalks, full or partial streets, or other nearby public spaces like parks and plazas for restaurant pick-up and other neighborhood retail activity, as allowed by San Francisco’s Public Health Order. For details, locations and updates on street closures related to Shared Spaces visit SFMTA.com/SharedSpaces.

ONGOING: Essential Trip Card Discount Program

The SFMTA’s temporary special program, Essential Trip Card (ETC) Program, will assist people with disabilities and older adults to make essential trips under Muni’s temporary transit changes. The program provides two to three round trips at an 80% discount per month, i.e. rider pays $6 to receive a value of $30 or pays $12 to receive a $60 value. The discount is limited to a value of $60 taxi service per month per customer.

To qualify for the program: customer must be either age 65 or older or an adult with disabilities. Eligible adults may apply for the ETC program by calling 311 and mentioning the program. Staff will be available between 9 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., Monday through Friday. Visit https://www.sfmta.com/etc for additional details and for a list of San Francisco taxi companies, visit https://www.sfmta.com/taxi/directory.

SFMTA’s pre-existing Shop-a-Round program that offers registered seniors and people with disabilities personalized assistance and rides to and from grocery stores and farmers markets is still available and will continue post public health order. For more information, visit https://www.sfmta.com/shop-round.

Stay safe!

the state will allow bars (who don’t provide meals) to open outdoors, major sports allowed outdoors with 20% capacity restriction and indoor museums, indoor dining and movie theaters will be allowed to expand to 50% capacity. See guidance by “tier”

In order to “advance” a tier, a county must have been in the current tier for a minimum of three weeks. And counties can always opt to be more restrictive than the state allows as happened multiple times with San Francisco during the past year.

Stay safe!

book appointments. People who are eligible to be vaccinated can sign-up for an appointment at: SF.gov/getvaccinated. Anyone who works or lives in San Francisco can sign up for a notification when they are eligible for vaccination at SF.gov/vaccinenotify.

More information about transportation to vaccination sites is available online at sfmta.com/COVID.