S.F. spent nearly $2 billion on the Central Subway. Did it really help Chinatown?

By Ko Lyn Cheang | San Francisco Chronicle (TNS)

SAN FRANCISCO — Shaobing Yi, 82, and her husband, Youwai Chen, 84, take the T-Third line into Chinatown after one transfer from their Ingleside home five days a week to buy affordable Chinese groceries and socialize. While she shops for freshly made wontons, her husband plays ping pong in Chinatown with his friends.

"It is very important for the elderly to have the subway," Chen said in Mandarin.

It's been just over a year since the long-awaited Chinatown-Rose Pak Station started operating as part of the $1.95 billion, 1.5-mile Central Subway, an over-budget and long-delayed extension of Muni Metro's T-Third Street line. Decades in the making, the station was named in honor of late Chinatown activist Rose Pak, who first campaigned for it.

Members of the Asian American community like Yi and Chen have welcomed the increased accessibility to Chinatown and community leaders have touted the benefits for the neighborhood. But ridership has fallen short of some expectations and some merchants said they're frustrated that the promised boost hasn't arrived, raising questions about whether the massive taxpayer investment in the extension has paid off.

Average weekday daily ridership on the T-Line in 2023 was about 33% of the long-term goal of 43,521 set by city transportation officials, at about 14,300 average weekday daily riders. Before the pandemic, officials projected reaching that goal by 2030. But Jeffrey Tumlin, director of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said the pandemic required his agency to push back that timeline and that it will take "at least a decade" to catch up.

Last year, Chinatown-Rose Pak Station saw only about 1,250 daily weekday entries on average — still higher than the two other new stations: Union Square/Market Street, which saw just over 1,110 entries, and Yerba Buena Moscone Center, which saw about 350.

Tumlin said that his agency does not measure the success of the Central Subway based on projections that were done before the pandemic changed the landscape of office work, and by extension, commuting, in downtown San Francisco.

Rather, he said, SFMTA measures the success based on several factors, including whether it creates new job opportunities within commuting distance for Chinatown residents by making transit more frequent, fast and reliable.

"The $1.95 billion investment is a hundred-year investment," Tumlin said. "It doesn't pay for itself in any one year. ... It was the right decision to build a subway to the densest neighborhood west of the Hudson River."

Despite the anemic ridership, some advocates and community leaders in the nation's oldest Chinatown have vociferously defended the extension and the station, arguing that data on daily boardings doesn't capture the intangible benefits of the station.

David Ho, a Chinatown advocate and political consultant who was part of the years-long lobbying efforts to get the station built, said in addition to connecting a low-income, transit-dependent population more easily to Chinatown and the rest of the city, the station secures the existence of Chinatown.

"The moment you have a station called ' Chinatown' anywhere, they can never get rid of you," Ho said.

But some critics argued that the station hasn't shown the benefits promised by the significant investment. Many Chinatown business owners had hoped the subway station would bring in more customers, especially sports fans attending games at Oracle Park, which connects directly to Chinatown.

So far, Edward Siu, president of the Chinatown Merchants United Association who owns a travel agency, said he has not seen an increase in business in the past year from the station and wants the city and transit agency to do more to promote small businesses in Chinatown.

"We had a lot of ball games at AT&T Park but I don't see that bringing in a lot of people," Siu said, referring to the ballpark's former name. "We were expecting this Central Subway to do more."

Part of the problem, he thinks, is the T-line's full potential has not yet been realized. SFMTA is exploring plans to extend the subway line to Fisherman's Wharf with a final version of a study due in late 2026 though getting funding to pay for an extension would be politically difficult.

"Central Subway, if it goes all the way down to North Point (Street), Fisherman's Wharf, that will be good," Siu said. "But now when Chinatown is the final destination, it's wasting money."

Unless the line is extended, Siu said that he thinks the station is a waste of taxpayer money because the T-Third line into Chinatown duplicates the 30 and 45 bus routes.

Transit advocate Vinita Goyal, who was until February the executive director of SF Transit Riders, said that even with the significant subway extension into Chinatown, the T-Third line still suffers from long-standing issues like delays for riders taking the line south to the Bayview neighborhood.

"The T-Third light-rail line is also known to be unreliable and is a perfect example of compromises," Goyal said, explaining that the line's signal priority design, which is the system of giving a special green light to transit vehicles at traffic intersections, has technical flaws that result in delays. "There are commonsense transit improvements available that would speed up service and improve reliability."

Tumlin said SFMTA is addressing those issues on the T line through the Muni Forward program, which speeds up transit by adding traffic signals that stay green for Muni, for example.

Despite the problems, many transit-dependent Asian seniors and families have welcomed the station, saying they prefer to ride the subway than the bus because it feels safer, cleaner, less crowded. On rainy days, residents who prefer to avoid waiting outside for the bus pack the station.

One such commuter is Joyce Lin, who sends her 9-year-old daughter to her bilingual elementary school in Chinatown from their Mission Bay home every weekday.

Before the station opened, Lin would have to transfer between bus lines on a 45-minute trip. Now, she takes a 20-minute direct ride on the T-Third Street line into Chinatown. She can even bring her 1-year-old son in a stroller, which is difficult on a bus.

Chinatown station is also a gathering hub for the community, which helped design and program the space. A wooden dragon sculpture greets commuters at the station entrance, installed by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the Chinese zodiac year. A pop-up shop selling goods, including intricate pipe-cleaner artwork created by a Chinatown immigrant artist, was opened in December and will be there until March.

Many see the subway station's rooftop plaza as a vital asset, even more so due to the upcoming closure of Portsmouth Square later this year as it undergoes a two-year renovation.

"In Chinatown, there is a lack of open space," said Sarah Wan, executive director of Community Youth Center, a nonprofit that serves Chinatown immigrants and youth. Apart from Willie Woo Playground and Portsmouth Square, there aren't really any large public outdoor spaces in the neighborhood.

Another welcome feature of Chinatown station are the bilingual ambassadors who greet tourists and help elderly residents navigate the station seven days a week.

Tumlin said SFMTA is hoping to find permanent funding for the program.

On one February afternoon, Tony Ng, a Chinatown station ambassador who lived in the neighborhood from the 1960s to 80s, explained to a pair of confused tourists the difference between Muni and BART.

"Chinatown is struggling and we need to do more," Ng said. "But this (the station) is a step in the right direction. Past all the politics, all the sacrifices businesses had to make, to me, this is a bright spot."

Reach Ko Lyn Cheang: [email protected]

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