Central Subway’s North Beach solution? Throw more money at it

North Beach merchants have been up in arms about plans to dig up Columbus Avenue to extend the $1.6 billion Central Subway project only as far as Stockton and Washington streets. So now the plan being floated by Muni general manager Ed Reiskin is to extend the route to Columbus and Powell, and build a North Beach station on the site of the abandoned Pagoda Theater (pictured), the Chronicle says. Price tag to come.