SF Mayor Lee Says Police Substation on 6th Street to Open Next Month

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A long-planned police substation along San Francisco's blighted Sixth Street will open some time next month, Mayor Ed Lee said today.

Supervisor Jane Kim asked Lee about the substation during his monthly voter-mandated question-and-answer session with the city's Board of Supervisors.

The site, located in Kim's district at 72 Sixth St. between Jessie and Mission streets, has long been slated for the substation but plans stalled early in 2012 when a new state law went into effect ordering the dissolution of local redevelopment agencies.

San Francisco's redevelopment agency was overseeing the project, prompting officials to alter their plans and instead pay $775,000 out of the city's general fund for renovations to the building.

The substation had tentatively been set to open Dec. 1 but is now scheduled for opening some time in February with construction ending by the end of this month, Lee said.

He said the revitalization of the city's Central Market area is one of his key policy goals and that the substation will play an important role in that.

"We have to make sure this neighborhood is a safe place," Lee said.

Police Chief Greg Suhr said the substation will serve as a space for officers to fill out reports and do administrative work without having to go back to a district station.

"Whatever we can do to keep the officers in the field," Suhr said.

He added that the substation's location almost exactly midway between the department's Southern Station at 850 Bryant St. and Tenderloin Station at 301 Eddy St. will allow officers from both stations to use it.

Lee said the space will also be available for use by other city departments and Central Market community ambassadors to help improve the neighborhood.

"We're looking forward to cutting the ribbon soon," he said.