Comments on: Newsom Parking Meter Story is Not a ‘False Controversy’

By: mikesonn

mikesonn — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:23:02 +0000

Newsome hasn’t been in the city for months (dare I say years?). I doubt he talked for the city when he started, but I can definitely say that he does not speak for the city now. Why doesn’t he just wash his hands of San Francisco and let us move on. If we want to try some crazy thing like making people pay for parking, we’ll just take the responsibility and he can go on with his uphill gubernatorial campaign.

By: eddo

eddo — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:05:41 +0000

Reading this is so satisfying. By the way, I do think sometimes here in the Bay Area we’re crippled with fear that changing anything will result in passionate outcries. I’m personally of the mindset that if it’s done with the correct intentions and messaging in mind, most of our fears of mobs upset about parking meters or walking one more block to a bus stop are largely overblown. Let’s not make something a problem until it actually becomes a problem.

By: ZA

ZA — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:46:52 +0000

“The simple fact is that Mayor Newsom could avoid the specter of bad publicity by firmly embracing his own traffic professionals’ data-driven study to explain to the public that increasing meter hours in commercial districts would be good for business.”

Yes, but that logic doesn’t sell in Orange County, and Newsom wants to be Governor, remember. There comes a time in every politician’s career when their constituency are the eggs to their ambitious omelet.

By: the friend

the friend — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:01:53 +0000

To be clear: I meant ‘unicorn berries’ because, well, there wasn’t really any ‘revolt’– just one whiny guy who happened to own a very large marquee. So, like unicorn berries, the ‘Oakland Parking Revolt’ Gavin so fears never actually existed.

Alas, I’d really hoped that Gavin’s realization that Market Street changes didn’t result in (basically ANY) outcry from motorists would’ve made him a little less afraid of his own shadow.

Gavin- it’s pretty simple: until car drivers start paying their fair share in this city, us transit riders will continue to pay higher fares while car drivers block transit.

By: jarichmond

jarichmond — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:19:35 +0000

Oakland had meetings for weeks discussing the possibility of raising parking rates and extending hours! They most certainly did not do this without consulting anyone!

It is true that it’s still not an apples to oranges situation, since Oakland explicitly did this to raise money for the general fund, but it simply isn’t true that the city council blindsided everyone by suddenly deciding to make this change.