It's a Smaller System

Muni used to carry around 700,000 trips per day.  Well not anymore.  Have we reached the right size yet, Mr. Ford?

$3 Per Person

I've been cleaning a bunch of old photos out of my cell phone, and I came across this one of the cable car information sign at the Van Ness terminal of the California line.

 
Of course, the fare for a cable car ride has been $5.00 since 2005 - this sign has been out of date for five years. 

While the price of a cable car ride won't be going down any time soon, the SFMTA Board just voted unanimously to restore half of the recent service cuts.  Starting September 4th service on some of Muni's most crowded lines will get moderately better than it has been for the last couple months.  It's a small step in the right direction.

Honesty

I gotta say, it's really tough to be an advocate for Muni these days.

"My, That's a Lot of Blood! Can I Offer You a Band-Aid?"

"It will be a smaller system," says Muni chief Nat Ford. As a direct result of the 'leadership' of mayor Gavin Newsom and his appointees on the SFMTA Board, the San Francisco Municipal Railway that has served San Francisco for almost 100 years will be serving fewer people.

This meltdown is readily perceived by Muni riders, and there's a lot of political hay being made by claiming to know how to fix it. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd is riding a wave of bus driver and union contempt to push a ballot measure that he hopes will save Muni some money. And SF Weekly drew a lot of eyeballs with its thorough feature on a large number of ways that Muni wastes some of the money it gets.

Bad management takes its toll on the Muni system, but $3 million in wage cuts here and $7 million in service cuts there won't solve the real underlying problem: Lack. Of. Money.

Do Us a Favor

When forced to fill an unprecedented budget deficit over the last year, the SFMTA took some rare, if wobbly, steps toward bringing in new revenue from drivers in addition to their go-to fare hikes and service cuts. The political resistance to charging drivers bent slightly when confronted with the sheer size of gap, and for the first time the MTA Board was seriously considering charging more to park in SF.

Well now Governor Schwarzenegger has agreed to a (dubious) gas tax swap that will give the SFMTA $36 million dollars for Muni. My first reaction was not 'Hooray, no more service cuts or fare hikes.' It was 'Great, there go the revenue measures.' I had hoped I was wrong, but it's looking like the MTA staff is considering just what I was afraid of. Lame, lame, lame.

SFTRU Ramping Up

Dave Snyder of the newly formed San Francisco Transit Riders Union sent out the group's first email to its members. If you haven't already joined their ranks yet, you can do so by filling out the form at muniriders.org (they also have a Facebook page). SFTRU is planning its first member meeting for this Thursday, March 25th.

Read the email message after the jump.

Save Muni

Dozens of Transit advocates and concerned citizens showed up bright an early at the Women's Building on 18th Street for the Save Muni Summit. The goal, according to the organizers, was to identify solutions to the problems that prevent Muni from meeting the transportation needs of the city of San Francisco.

Most people at the meeting came because of their involvement in one of a large number of organizations that signed on as co-sponsors of the summit. That's to be expected, but several commenters noted that the makeup of the group was not reflective of Muni's ridership. Indeed, more than one person who stood in front of the room to speak described themselves as 'lapsed Muni riders,' meaning they no longer ride the system.

The hour and a half or so of public comment was the most insightful. Commenters were encouraged to keep their statements positive and constructive, rather than to generally gripe about Muni service. I wasn't able to catch a lot of the names, but I tried to jot down as many of the ideas proposed, which you can read below:

SFMTA Doomsday

Well, tomorrow's the big day. The SFMTA Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on the package of service cuts and fare hikes that the MTA staff recommended in late January. According to the agenda, the directors will vote on whether to:

• Require the Premium Fast Pass to ride express buses and cable cars
• Reduce service by 10% across the board by by reducing the frequency of buses along some lines as well as shortening operating hours
• Raise the fares for seniors, disabled and youth passes to $30/month, triple what it was just 6 months

Streetsblog is reporting that the third item above, the price increase for Senior/Disabled/Youth Fast Passes is off the table, but it will still be formally considered by the Board tomorrow.

And even without this latest fare increase, the cost of those Fast Passes will still go up by $5.00 in May as part of the last round of fare hikes (remember those? The ones that brought the Adult pass to $55.00 last July followed by the $60-M/$70-A pass split just under two months ago?) And all of this is to bridge a $16.9 million budget gap predicted between now and June 30th. On July 1st the new fiscal year will begin with an estimated $100 million hole. Make no mistake about it, what happens tomorrow is the tip of a very large iceberg.

For anyone who enjoys the mobility that Muni provides, or who cares about public transit or the state of government, this is really freaking depressing. And the insistence of the MTA Board to make up the budget deficit almost entirely on the backs of Muni riders is absolutely infuriating. The Board is obligated under the City Charter (SF's Constitution and the very same piece of paper that gives the mayor his executive power - in other words a seriously binding document) to diligently seek out new revenue sources for Muni. They have refused to do that because the Board members are appointed by the mayor and so feel they ought to carry his water.

$70 Million of Federal Money Redirected from OAC to Struggling Transit Agencies

Word just in from Transform that the FTA has rejected BART's plan to bring its Oakland Airport Connector project into compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. From the FTA's letter to BART and the MTC:

Since my letter of January 15th, FTA staff and BART have worked diligently but unsuccessfully on the development of a corrective action plan that might be acceptable. I am required to now inform you that your plan is rejected.

This means that the $70 million of Federal stimulus funds will instead be distributed to regional transit agencies. Muni's chunk: $17.5 million rebuild the trucks on its light rail vehicles and add ADA-compliant voice announcements to those LRVs.

In unrelated(?) news, Rachel Gordon reports in today's Chronicle Comical that the SFMTA Board of Directors has postponed their upcoming meeting to discuss the doomsday fare hikes/service cuts. The meeting, which was to be held this coming Tuesday, will now take place two weeks from today at 9am, Friday, February 26th in Room 400 of City Hall.

Speak Out Against SFMTA Doomsday Cuts

Tonight at pm the SFMTA will be holding the second of two town hall meetings to discuss its proposed service cuts and fare hikes. The meeting will be held in the second floor atrium at One South Van Ness and will run from 6-8pm.

Please attend if you can to show support for your fellow Muni riders and let the MTA know we're watching to see if they will execute their Charter-mandated task of diligently seeking new revenue sources for Muni.

Also, if you haven't already, please use this nifty form the SF Bicycle Coalition put together to let the mayor and MTA Directors know how you feel.

'I Don't Respond Well to Threats'

You go, Bruce!!

SFMTA Board to Discuss More Service Cuts and Fare Hikes

Please let all your Muni-riding friends know about tomorrow's SFMTA Board of Directors meeting. The Board will be discussing ways to close a nearly $17 million shortfall in its budget before July 1st. Specifically, they will be responding to MTA staff recommendations to:

-Raise the cost to ride the F-line to $5

-Require riders to buy the $70 Fastpass in order to ride the Cable Cars and Express Buses

-Raise the fares for seniors, disabled and youth passes to $30/month (Triple what it was just 6 months ago)

-Reduce the frequency of buses along some lines as well as the operating hours.

Join the event on Facebook, and post it to your Facebook Wall to let your friends know. If you can attend the meeting at 2pm tomorrow, please do so! If, like many of us, you work at that time please send an email to gavin.newsom@sfgov.org and mtaboard@sfmta.com telling them:

-How the fare increases and service changes have affected you

-Riders should not bear the brunt of the current financial meltdown

-Extended hours meters and Sunday meters need to be a part of any solution

Stay tuned to Streetsblog's Facebook and Twitter pages; they will be updating them during the meeting so that you can figure out if its worthwhile to stop by City Hall after work to testify.

More on the MTA's Parking Meters

Paul Hogarth has some thoughts at BeyondChron.

He tips his hat to Melissa Griffin, who rightly notes that May's emergency budget was only 'balanced' if you include money from the proposed meter changes.

And Streetsblog has its usual high-quality coverage of this important issue.

It's not too late to head to City Hall and put your 2¢ on the record. Room 400.

A Paper Whose Time Expired

So The Chronicle Comical has decided to campaign against rational pricing for parking meters in SF. In doing so they reveal themselves as tireless advocates for those few privileged enough to drive in San Francisco.

Where was their outrage when Muni fares went up in May? A bus ride now costs twice what it did when our spokesmayor took office and, come January, so too will your Fast Pass if you want to use it on BART. Newsom voicebox Nathan Ballard, who apparently has the ear of the Chron's Editorial Board, reacted to the MTA study thusly:

In this economy, we can't ask people to pay more for parking. Our small businesses don't need one more reason for people to stay away.

Read the report, Mr. Ballard! Businesses don't get their customers from on-street parking. Across SF, only 14% of customers at local businesses drove to get there, and they spend less per capita per month than any other group of shoppers. These are people you want beating a path to your door, I suppose, as long as you're not interested in making money.

SFMTA (PDF)

Ballard, Newsom, and the Comical's concern for the plight of the private motorist is especially insulting given their apparent disregard for Muni riders.

SFMTA's 'Planned Emergency'

There's an interesting piece on Beyond Chron today. Marc Norton reports on some SFMTA memos from 2005 in which then-chief Michael Burns (currently at Santa Clara VTA) describes potential plans for a $2.00 fare by 2010. That would seem to run counter to present SFMTA chief Nat Ford's claims that the currently proposed fare increase is the necessary result of the fiscal emergency in which the agency has declared that it finds itself.

In related news, Paul Hogarth's Facebook status reads:

Supes vote 7-4 to schedule a special meeting on the 27th to consider rejecting MTA Budget ... Sophie [Maxwell] voted with us; keep it up!!

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)"

Fare Hike Fight Not Over?

Beyond Chron Managing Editor Paul Hogarth's Facebook Status update has some mysteriously good news:

WOO-HOO!! Budget Committee voted 3-2 to send Muni budget back to the full Board, with a recommendation to REJECT!!

Does this mean the fight's not over yet? The BOS Budget Committee consists of John Avalos, Ross Mirkarimi, Carmen Chu, David Campos, Bevan Dufty.

Details as they become available.

Board of Supervisors Accepts Muni Fare Hikes

After negotiating with the Mayor's office, Supervisor David Chiu abandoned his objection to the SFMTA budget in exchange for a $10 million reduction in costs to riders, according to Stephen T. Jones. (Update: more detail from Paul Hogarth at Beyond Chron)

By a vote of 6-5 the Board voted to accept the SFMTA budget, which includes a 50¢ fare increase and a $10 increase in the cost of a Fast Pass. Chiu changed his position after SFMTA chief Nat Ford agreed to shift some of the budget pain by:

• Paying $2.8 million less in work orders to other departments (which have their own budgets)
• Avoiding $8.6 million in previously proposed cuts
• $6.5 million in salary reductions
• $1 million in new revenue from increased parking meter enforcement (after a 90 day study, naturally)
• Delaying Fast Pass increases for youth, disabled and seniors by six months

Chiu also supposedly got some promises that Ford and the MTA would "immediately complete MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) negotiations with the SFPD to finally explain why the MTA is giving them millions of dollars every year."

His Kingdom for Some Ideas

According to Rachel Gordon, Gavin Newsom really just doesn't have any ideas to balance the SFMTA budget without raising fares and cutting service:

I hate the idea of raising fares. I don't want to cut Muni service. But I ask (critics), 'What ideas do you have that do not eviscerate public safety and health and human services?' -Gavin Newsom (via SF Chronicle)

Well, lay them on him. Let the mayor know what he and the SFMTA board should do to solve Muni's financial problems for good and without simply passing them on to riders.

I'll start with two really obvious ones:

Reign in the work orders that other departments are using to pass their cuts onto the MTA (saves around $60,000,000)

Implement congestion pricing in accordance with the study done wearlier this year (brings in $30,000,000 to $60,000,000 per year)

Budget hole closed. Muni service improved. Public Safety increased. HHS negligibly affected. That wasn't very hard.

Fingers Crossed, BOS Just Might Reject MTA Budget

Sources in-the-know say it looks likely that the SF Board of Supervisors will find enough votes to reject the SFMTA's budget, which is badly flawed. This as Beyond Chron reiterates its opposition to the current budget and new-and-already-awesome blog SwitchingModes.com adds its voice to team 'No.'

They should do just that and I'd like to encourage you to contact your supe of you haven't yet done so.

There are so many good reasons to reject this budget that have been put forth by so many sharp minds in the transit advocacy and progressive community:

• Raising fares and cutting service hurts ridership
• This budget balances the deficit on the backs of Muni's poorest users
• In creating this budget, the SFMTA board has shown an inclination to avoid making drivers pay their fair share of road costs
• This budget represents a sharp departure from the goals and promises of the much-touted TEP