Reactions to story from SFGate

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  O Hai! Chatter, Chatter, and More Chatter About Fares, Fines, and Fun on MUNI!

  http://www.njudahchronicles.com/2008/03/post_12.html
  38 days ago in The N-Judah Chronicles · Authority: 43

  The long, slow march towards some increases in MUNI Fast Passes and parking fines continues, unabated, as we approach tomorrow's SFMTA meeting to discuss said changes. The Mayor's been playfully hinting at said increases, and earlier talk that said Fast Pass increases would happen only as a "last resort" seems to have been just that - talk - since after just 10 days, the MTA folks seemed to have reversed course. The proposed parking ticket increases seem to be creating the most discussion on local blogs around town. But as always, in these "discussions" some points tend to get missed because we narrow the topic to the point where we exclude a few basic points. One thing we've done pretty good here in Our Fair City is give MUNI lots of unstable sources of revenue. When times are good, there's "money" and when the inevitable recession hits, suddenly there's "no money." I'm sure to someone looking at a balance sheet, jacking up parking ticket prices is an easy way to show "hey look ma! more money!" but don't seem to realize that relying on parking ticket money to cover the costs of running the MTA/MUNI is inherently unstable. Put it another way: If you raise the parking ticket fines into the going-medieval-on-your-wallet zone, people are more likely to either a) not drive their cars, or b) make sure the darn meter is fed. Ironically, if more people pump money into the meters, the number of tickets starts to go down because, um, well, people are doing what they're supposed to when they park at a meter. More importantly, it seems more than a bit strange that we'd take parking tickets, which were once used primarily to cite people for unsafe parking or for meter violations, and turn them into a "revenue source" backed by the criminal justice system. It also leads one to cynically wonder if the city has so much to gain from issuing lots of tickets if perhaps those meters aren't broken on purpose, just so they can jam another ticket under your windshield. (Given that they've been proven to do a poor job simply collecting the parking meter money in the first place, one wonders if they'll just give up and make everyone pay $60 to park, period!) All of this comes as we just read the other day about all the City employees who make huge salaries (and will get huge pensions for life too!). The Mayor blew out the budget last year with big pay raises and big increases in the city payroll, but we haven't seen a correlating drop in crime or improvement in city services one might expect. San Franciscans need to start making smart choices. We can continue to bloat the city payroll, year after year, by "moderates" and "progressives" alike, but we have to be aware that continuing to do so, without some sort of accountability or performance that merits such a bloated payroll has consequences. The next time you see your car being booted for a handful of EXPENSIVE tickets, think about this: not only are you paying for the people to tow your car away, you're also going to be paying their salary, pension and health care for the rest of their life, too! UPDATE: I just remembered something. Back in the 1990s, when the State of California was coming up with all sorts of goofball ways to "balance budgets," Gov. Wilson and his allies in the Legislature actually passed a law that mandated local governments had to pay a few bucks to the State of California for every parking ticket they wrote. Locals had the option of just coughing up the cash, or tacking on the surcharge to existing fines. If that's not racketeering or extortion, I don't know what is!
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  Higher Fares and Fees Proposed for Next Year’s MTA Budget

  http://www.rescuemuni.org/2008/03/30/higher-fares-and-fees-p...
  40 days ago in Rescue Muni · Authority: 13

  Higher Fares and Fees Proposed for Next Year’s MTA Budget March 30th, 2008 On the agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting: a budget for the next two fiscal years (as required by last year’s Proposition A), with several fare and fine increases to cover a two-year operating deficit of $81 million. Most notable for Muni riders is a proposed $10 increase in the monthly Fast Pass, and a $5 increase in the discounted pass, beginning in 2009. However, it appears that cash fares won’t go up - so more riders will pay cash, which is exactly opposite of London’s strategy to move riders to passes to speed boarding. Parking fees are also proposed to increase. More details as we see the exact budget proposal, but an initial recommendation: make it easier to get a fast pass! Muni needs to encourage more people to use passes, not more difficult and expensive. Many other systems let you buy a monthly pass via vending machines that take credit cards; only Muni forces you to go to a corner store, and hope they haven’t run out (see one blogger’s comment on this), or remember to order online during a twelve day window. Update: Matier and Ross comment on the proposed expired meter fine, noting that it might scare away downtown shoppers - of course, ignoring entirely those shoppers who take mass transit. Update 2: The MTA is expecting to raise $100M per year from parking fines from this year’s budget, spending it mainly on filling staffing shortages to improve service. Posted in Budget |
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  Higher Fares and Fees Proposed for Next Year’s MTA Budget

  http://www.rescuemuni.org/2008/03/28/higher-fares-and-fees-p...
  41 days ago in Rescue Muni · Authority: 13

  Higher Fares and Fees Proposed for Next Year’s MTA Budget March 28th, 2008 On the agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting: a budget for the next two fiscal years (as required by last year’s Proposition A), with several fare and fine increases to cover a two-year operating deficit of $81 million. Most notable for Muni riders is a proposed $10 increase in the monthly Fast Pass, and a $5 increase in the discounted pass, beginning in 2009. However, it appears that cash fares won’t go up - so more riders will pay cash, which is exactly opposite of London’s strategy to move riders to passes to speed boarding. Parking fees are also proposed to increase. More details as we see the exact budget proposal, but an initial recommendation: make it easier to get a fast pass! Muni needs to encourage more people to use passes, not more difficult and expensive. Many other systems let you buy a monthly pass via vending machines that take credit cards; only Muni forces you to go to a corner store, and hope they haven’t run out (see one blogger’s comment on this), or remember to order online during a twelve day window. Posted in Budget |
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  I’ve Been Feeling a Little Homesick…

  http://voenixrising.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/ive-been-feelin...
  41 days ago in Voenix Rising · Authority: 49

  …and was thinking of next month making my first trip back to SF since I left in 2002, but fuck it. Thank you, SF Gate, for reminding me of just a few of the reasons I left the City with my middle finger firmly outstretched to begin with. Yes, the City is beautiful, the weather gorgeous, and at times it can be one big E-Ticket ride for consenting adults, but parking and traffic in SF is deplorable. It always has been, and probably always will be until the city fathers get serious and actually do something about it—like building parking garages—instead of simply sitting back and milking the cash cow known as fines. Don’t get me wrong—after spending sixteen years of my life there, I came to know and love San Francisco as much as anyone the City has ever taken to her bosom. But toward the end, the daily annoyances of living in those 49 square miles—things that I was either able to ignore (or at least accept as the price of admission) when I was a newly minted San Franciscan—were no longer offset by all the things San Francisco had going for it, and became unbearable. Disregarding for the moment the absolutely ridiculous cost of living, pervasive street people, and the general surliness of the population that descended upon Baghdad by the Bay after the dot-com bust, for the most part it was actually the simple act of getting around town that generated the most aggravation for me. It was a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. If you left your car at home, you were at the mercy of notoriously unreliable public transportation. If you drove, you’d have to pray that the parking gods were in a mood to smile upon you. I can’t tell you how many times I’d been on a streetcar that was designated to go to a particular location, only to have the driver unceremoniously announce halfway there that everyone would have to get off and wait for the next train because he was turning around and going back downtown. WTF? If you took your car, you could get anywhere you wanted in 20-30 minutes, but oftentimes you’d spend an equal amount of time searching for a parking space once you got where you were going. And if you were lucky enough to secure a parking spot, there was no guarantee you’d return to your car sometime later and find it unmolested. (One night, while living on Folsom Street, I watched out my window as a gang of teenagers with baseball bats in hand, simply ran down the street, smashing every car window they passed. I called the police while this was happening and was told “We’ll get someone out there.” Of course no one from the Ess Eff Pee Dee ever showed up.) It was tough readjusting to the less frenetic pace of life in Phoenix when I first moved back here in ‘02, but six years later I can say quite honestly that I can’t see submerging myself in the madness that is San Francisco—even for a visit—ever again.

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