…what’s Sup. Chu’s excuse…?

link: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Ed-Jew-asks-judge-for-one-year-sentence-42235227.html

Sure, I don’t think their views are completely illegitimate. But they are very NIMBY, and I’m not going to mince words about that.

They’re also self-defeating. There’s never any parking on the Chinatown Westside stretch of Irving St, yet residents still insist on driving everywhere.

As usual the only solution is to provide options that will take people out of their cars.

1. Increase development on the major transit arteries so residents don’t have to drive.

2. Promote and/or subsidize car-sharing to get casual errand-running vehicles off the streets. Have you looked at the maps for Zipcar and City CarShare in the Sunset? There’s almost nothing. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem.

3. Give people an incentive to clean the crap out of their garages and start parking in them. Charge a fee for curb cut maintenance and rebate it on the property tax. Or offer a one-time, subsidized and expedited dumpster service to property owners with a currently inoperative garage.

I’d like to see Supervisor Chu come up with creative solutions, not just the usual lame status quo, and that’s why this interview was so disappointing.

Basically, there are too many cars in the Judah and Taraval areas for her constituents, who feel entitled to all the free parking they can use.”

Well this is the desired result of district elections isn’t it? A true reflection of the median voter of a small section of a small city.

Just happens to be in a moderate district who like their cars.

1) Pay raise
2) Free parking spot?

Even David Chiu is talking about potentially needing to cave in – the supes are getting pulled every which way. Personally I think that can be done with a bike, BART, and a very quick trigger finger on NextBus and encyclopedic MUNI knowledge, but instead of buckling down and getting a car, it should be insisted that “normal people” can have a “reasonable existence” without a private vehicle. And “normal” can include a supe. At least if Chiu buckles, he’ll be buckling, rather than celebrating his newfound fortune.

@GregDewar – how is it that the Sunset always get to claim victimhood? I mean, we didn’t elect Ed Jew, you guys did. North Beach denizens tell me I live on “The Peninsula” a.k.a. Noe Valley – no matter how many strollers we have. Being “A student of the city” it seems that the Excelsior is far more of an afterthought than the Sunset ever will be (teflon coating firmly in place). And yes, I have lived in the Avenues (of course I was looking down on y’all from 12th and Quintara).

Man, can you talk about transit with any less enthusiasm than Carmen Chu?

Also: while she worked at City Hall not as a supervisor, she took Muni every day. Now that she works at City Hall as a supervisor, she is unable to take it more often than twice a month?

Special thanks for the part about my pet peeve, sidewalk parking. District 11 resident here, and here too it is totally rampant. Chu is an unlikely one to do anything about it, but hey – no complaints here, if she does. I emailed my supe, John Avalos with a link to your blog entry about it. He replied, saying he is likely to support any proposal to reduce sidewalk parking.

Carmen Chu was re-elected by the voters, and clearly, no one provided an alternative plan for D4 that resonated with voters despite all the gimmicks of the local election process. I realize that because she’s not subscribing to a certain point of view 100% that’s going to upset some people, but I have to say she does represent a segment of the population and guess what – they get to have their say too. I don’t agree with ‘em 100% myself, but that’s life in a diverse city – we’re not all cookie cutter people.

I live in the inner Sunset and don’t agree with her 100% but throughout the campaign not one other candidate responded to my queries or bothered to even listen to anything related to MUNI or bikes for folks like me who do not own a car (and do not want to, either!).

At least Carmen’s staff and Carmen pay attention when I bring up issues, and I’m technically in Ross Mirkarimi’s district (who also has tried to make MUNI do better with some great town hall meetings yay Ross).

I guess before folks start getting out the judgment sticks they may want to step back, and ask “How can we find common cause with people in a part of town we technically despise, and yet need so that we can all move forward?”

Try, people, to think positive. Throwing brickbats and the like make you feel great. They do not make for solutions that benefit the entire city. Choose-up-siderism never helped anyone ,and if people could put aside this irrational hatred of anyone west of the red line, we can ALL benefit. It’s not “us vs. them” , it’s “us.”

(PS I know it’s fashionable to bash Carmen’s residency, but the fact is that most people in SF are from somewhere else. It sucks, I know, and I realize people who’ve lived her 10 years think they’re natives, but they’re not. It’s a cheap shot, and the fact is there are “progressives” who have lived in SF as long as she has and no one seems to mind them…or..?)

-marc

Frighteningly so:

“We’ve installed a left-hand turn signal on Sloat, which has been good to help facilitate car traffic there.”

Sloat is in Elsbernd’s D7… did she actually mention any projects in her own district?

“We do face the challenges of how do you try to create an environment that is good for pedestrians when there are so many cars moving at high speeds”

You don’t; it’s either/or.

“To be frank, we see a lot of individuals right now who are driving out to the Sunset, parking their cars there to take the transit line. We see a lot of neighborhood concern with regard to that issue.”

The solution to this problem has existed in SF for over 30 years: parking permits! No wonder people drive there to park all day, look at all that free space: http://tinyurl.com/dnghf6

Basically, there are too many cars in the Judah and Taraval areas for her constituents, who feel entitled to all the free parking they can use.

So they’re already angry about people driving to the transit lines and parking, and they’re unlikely to accept any more development that increases the density of cars near those lines (i.e. development, because it’s just not reasonable to go car-free in the Outer Sunset).

Let’s paraphrase those last 4 quotes:

‘Pedestrian safety is impossible because cars need to move fast.’
‘I haven’t read a single word on a Car Free Market idea. Oh, and people will drive, regardless of how great our transportation could be.’
‘Supporting TOD means we need to worry about parking along the transit lines.’
‘I don’t know anything about the Bike Plan- even though it’s been available for over 6 months.’

other than that, if someone lives in Ms. Chu’s district, they need to set up a meeting with her stat and do some edumacation about livable streets. we need to start putting pressure on her to actually read some damn documents. this stuff is important. she acts all laissez faire about people in her own hood getting run down by motor vehicles. it’s not acceptable. if she was my rep i’d be on the phone already.

and whatever is making someone drive a car 24×7 in San Francisco is a problem. she’s probably not an evil person – just a sane one. which means we need to give people real transit options. i know why most people don’t bike in the city — it’s absurd to even consider it in such inhospitable conditions. that being the case, how is Ms. Chu so ignorant of the great need for the most basic bike infrastructure? and if there is no real transit available to Ms. Chu, then we need to make that happen, and we need her help.

it’s unbelievable that someone would be so completely noncommittal – almost flippant – on topics so urgent. forget global warming and sustainability and all that nonsense — how many people need to get run down before Ms. Chu thinks that transportation is important enough to take seriously? allowing more and faster cars in and through her hood is not going to make things safer – not for kids, not for the elderly, not for anyone.

Seems like Carmen is a little out of touch…