Last September, after a five-year construction period that tore Taraval Street apart, the Muni L-Taraval train returned to service, once again hauling residents who live on the farthest end of the city to downtown and beyond.
Five months in, as business owners along the corridor have gotten used to the ground rumbling as trains pass by every 10 minutes, they vividly recalled the years of construction: The jackhammers, blocked streets and countless detours.
“Those years, we wouldn’t even know if we can open our door every day,” said Patrick, a bartender at Karl’s Beacon at 24th Avenue and Taraval Street.
“Now, we are doing better,” agreed Shubo Wang, owner of the Happy Family Gourmet, folding dumplings as she spoke in a northern Chinese dialect. “It was too bad in the past. We were so close to losing our business.”
This week, the Board of Supervisor passed an ordinance to refund the commercial vacancy tax paid by property owners on Taraval Street between Forest Side Avenue and Sunset Boulevard from 2022 to 2024. This was the period they were impacted by constructions, which made it difficult to lease out the empty spaces.
Four properties that paid the vacancy tax in 2022 and 2023 will receive the refund, according to data from the Treasurer and Tax Collector.
Today, aboard the train are seniors with shopping carts, high schoolers getting off school and downtown workers who make the commute a few times a week.
Here’s what Mission Local saw along the L-Taraval line.
19th Ave
Sunset Blvd
OUTER
SUNSET
L Taraval
PARKSIDE
WEST
PORTAL
46th Ave
19th Ave
Sunset Blvd
OUTER
SUNSET
L Taraval
WEST
PORTAL
46th Ave
PARKSIDE
Source: DataSF, SFMTA
Map by Junyao Yang.
End of line: 46th Avenue
Jacky Le has been driving Muni trains for 10 years. On a Wednesday morning, he was taking a break on the train at 47th Avenue and Wawona Street. “Seems like it started to pick up more people,” Le said. “Mostly seniors.”
At 46th Avenue and Wawona Street, a neon sign glows in front of the Ocean Park Motel, one of the oldest motels in the city.
Chester Rowell works at the front desk, behind a tiny window that opens inwards, allowing him to greet travelers coming and going. “People didn’t want to come down here,” he recalled, of the years when people needed to take the L shuttle bus to West Portal and transfer to a train there.
“It’s a curse and a boom,” Rowell said. “It’s noisy, and we are a motel.”
As the motel is close to the train terminal, customers are often awakened by an empty inbound train. “What really irks them is that there’s nobody on the streetcars. It’s like we are tortured by a ghost train.”
Mark Duffett, owner of the motel for about 50 years, still lives on the second floor of the property. “The screeching and the sound of the bells is crazy,” he said. “It’s like the drivers are auditioning for the cable car.”
Because of the noise, Duffett said they tend not to rent the rooms up front, “even though we have the double-pane windows.”
Cecilia Boyer, sweeping her front yard with rubber gloves on, has lived in the house on 46th Avenue for some 50 years. She used to take the L train more when she ran a daycare at her house. “When I was with the kids, we took the train to 19th Avenue. There is a nice playground over there.”
“The train is fantastic,” she said. “The noise, you get used to it.”
Parkside, between 19th and Sunset
Around 5 p.m. on a gloomy, freezing day, some eight neighbors, in gloves and beanies, huddled in a circle at McCoppin Square, their dogs running around and having a much better time.
When asked about the L train, the initial reaction: “We can get back from the bar without stumbling home.”
One of them recalled a fond memory of the train.
“We were getting home from Elena’s at West Portal. We were loud and drunk, somewhere around Ulloa Street and 15th Avenue. ‘Look! It’s the train!’ And the train just stopped in the middle of the street, and opened the door to let us in.”
West Portal
OK, that’s all pretty cute. The interesting part is how Guerra’s and the Gold Mirror fared with SFMTA making them whole on the construction damage to their properties.
Very nice photos to go along with an interesting story. Thanks
Portrait of every self-entitled SF dog owner: thinks it’s perfectly okay for their dog’s ass to be in contact with the eating surface in a restaurant.
Sir, that’s a collie, not a mere dog. Most people would use a plate, you do you. Also I’d suggest you don’t eat off MUNI seats or Market Street, but again, be yourself.
It’s actually what they call “outside” – you’re looking in a window there holmes. Tricksy hobbits.
That’s the only comment you can come up with? Nothing about the L or the neighborhoods? Are you even a local?
Didn’t we learn from the cut and cover destruction of “mid market” and the Mission Street commercial corridors during BART construction in the 1970s, that if the City is going to tear up streets, then if it wants to defend and preserve existing patterns of small businesses, that it needs to ensure that these businesses are made whole during construction?
this is such a fun story!!! love the portrait of the muni line and great photos 🙂
Great article! We lived in the area by the zoo for 13 years. I have happy memories of the L line or the L Terrible on some days.