New plans for North Beach Muni extension

Admit it: It annoys you Muni doesn’t go up into North Beach, and that your only options of getting to yummy food and entertaining nightlife is to trek up-hill — if you’re like me you know how much that sucks when you’re in heels — cough up a few extra bucks for a cab, or — my personal non-favorite — find a parking spot in Chinatown.

It isn’t as if Muni hasn’t been trying to extend a subway line into the north-east neighborhood of The City. But the need to jackhammer into sections of Columbus Avenue has also brought on complaints from local businesses and residents, making progress very difficult.

Muni General Manager Ed Reiskin may have found the solution.

SFGate reports that Reiskin is ready to propose that Muni extend the Central Subway all the way up to Powell and Columbus, and turn the abandoned Pagoda Theater into the Chinatown-North Beach Muni station.

Sounds pretty solid, right?

Especially considering the relocation of the subway line would actually solve two problems: It will keep North Beach residents happy, and give the city something to do with the dilapidated Pagoda.

Of course, it’s also going to cost Muni upwards of $8 million dollars to buy the theater and refurbish it. But Reiskin told SFGate:

“If we could make something happen at the Pagoda in the next couple of months, we would go with that.”

Should the plan to abandon the Columbus Avenue extension come to fruition, the underground drilling machine could simply be left under the street, SFGate reports, rather than digging up Columbus just to extract it.

Reiskin will be taking the plan of extending the subway to the Pagoda Theater to the Municipal Transportation Agency board this Tuesday.