The Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association supports California Assembly Bill 2578, sponsored by David Chiu, which will provide an estimated $250 million toward efforts to address urgent seismic and flood risks posed by the current state of San Francisco’s Seawall. This bill would authorize the city to use various mechanisms to address those risks by financing improvements to the Seawall. This measure is critical to us as our neighborhood lies on the waterfront and adjoins the Embarcadero Seawall.
We support AB 2578 for the following reasons:
- The city needs to start addressing the two significant risks now. A major earthquake could occur at any time and is highly likely to occur within the next 30 years. The City also faces flood risk today which will dramatically increase in the future as sea level rises.
- This bill will significantly help the effort to address the threat of earthquakes through upgrades to the century-old Seawall. The Seawall was built before engineers understood how to design against earthquake risk. It could settle into the Bay by up to 5 feet in a major earthquake. This threat puts peopleâs lives and $100 billion in economic activity in great jeopardy if there is no action.
- This measure is also needed to help make waterfront infrastructure more resilient to flooding. Without upgrades, a 100-year flood could damage critical utility and transportation infrastructure for BART and Muni as well as the downtown.
- It is in the Stateâs interest to provide financial support for upgrades to the Seawall. The Port currently manages State tidelands on behalf of the people and State of California. Financial aid is consistent with the Stateâs role.
Read our letter here.