BOS Hail Mary to Save Muni by Rejecting its Budget

As promised, here's more from Paul Hogarth about another attempt by the Board of Supervisors to reject Muni's badly flawed budget.

David Chiu may have cut a deal with the Mayor’s Office on the MTA budget, but the Full Board never actually voted to accept it. All they did at the May 12th meeting – by a 6-5 vote – was to “table” Chiu’s motion to reject the MTA budget, but the City Charter still gives them until May 31st to act. -Paul Hogarth (via Beyond Chron)

Yesterday the Budget Committee (John Avalos, Ross Mirkarimi, Carmen Chu, David Campos, Bevan Dufty - B Duft and C Chu dissenting) voted to send the Muni budget to the full Board with a recommendation to reject it. Bryan Goebel of Streetsblog reports that the Board will take the matter up at its next meeting on Tuesday.

Similar results can be expected from repeating this process unless David Chiu and Sophie Maxwell see the error of their ways. One wonders how feasible it would be to plaster Muni buses and shelters with posters saying "Fares will go up to $2 unless you call David Chiu (554-7450) and Sophie Maxwell (554-7670)"

BOS Should Reject the Badly Flawed SFMTA Budget

Rachel Gordon reports that the SFMTA board has approved a budget that balances a $129,000,000 deficit (~$80,000,000 of which it absorbed from other departments for no good reason) almost entirely on the backs of Muni riders.

• Adult fares will go up 50¢ to $2.00
• Senior/disabled/youth fares will go up 25¢ to 75¢
• Adult Fast Passes will go up to $55.00 in July (already scheduled) before reaching $60.00 in January
• Senior/disabled/youth Fast Passes will go up by the same amount, to $15.00 in July and $20.00 in January
• The following lines will be canceled:
• The 4-Sutter
• 7-Haight
• 16-Noriega morning express
• 20-Columbus
• 26-Valencia
• 53-Southern Heights
• 74X-Culture bus
• 89-Laguna Honda
• And to quote Ms. Gordon, "Dozens of other lines will have their routes modified or hours cut back."

Private motorists' share of the pain:

• Meter rates will go up 50¢ an hour and operate on all holidays except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Sound fair? Not to me.

Only Little People Get Parking Tickets

SF Weekly has called out Mayor Gavin Newsom for parking his SUV illegally all over town. It's certainly not the first time someone in the media has noticed this and photographed it. In fact, a few years ago I worked on a remodeling job across the street from the Green and Leavenworth highrise pictured at right and I can tell you his people park their car like that (or worse) every morning, idling the engine for an hour or more while waiting for him.

SF Weekly reports

[SFMTA Spokesman Judson] True notes that the mayor is not any more entitled to park illegally than you or I -- but adds that PCOs are not in the habit of ticketing cars with drivers sitting in them. -SF Weekly

Which neither surprises nor comforts me.

I'm convinced that San Francisco needs a mayor who takes the bus every day. It's insane to think that Muni will run reliably and conveniently when the chief executive of this city gets rides everywhere in a chauffered SUV. Our streets look very different when viewed through those tinted windows.

Not bloody likely anytime soon

In the meantime, at least we do have a Board of Supervisors President with a Fast Pass. It's a step in the right direction, and here's to hoping that Chiu's experience mingling with the common folk has some bearing on the policies his board enacts.

But with a mayor so distant from the lives of his constituents, livable streets advocates have our work cut out for us.