Streetsblog San Francisco

District 5′s newest representative is Christina Olague, the car-free president of the SF Planning Commission and noted progressive activist. Advocates say she holds promise as a champion of livable streets and sustainable transportation on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

“Her values and expertise are going to be invaluable as we transition into San Francisco’s post-redevelopment era, and in our continued quest to make San Francisco more affordable, equitable, and sustainable,” said Tom Radulovich, the executive director of Livable City.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced the appointment Monday morning before joining Olague on a merchant walk along upper Haight Street, where she told Streetsblog that she would make pedestrian and bicycle improvements in her district a priority, along with extending parking meter hours.

“I want to start talking about all those issues right away,” she said.

Olague will join her first Board of Supervisors meeting this afternoon, representing District 5, which is comprised of neighborhoods including the Western Addition, Hayes Valley, the Fillmore, Haight-Ashbury, Inner Sunset, and NoPa. She succeeds former Supervisor Ross Mikarimi, a strong advocate for livable streets who left his seat vacant after being sworn in as sheriff on Saturday.

“As happy as I was to see Supervisor Mirkarimi elected to sheriff,” said Radulovich, “I was sad to see such a strong advocate for sustainable transportation, affordable housing, walkable neighborhoods, community benefits from development, and accountable planning leave the Board of Supervisors. Fortunately for us, Christina has been a leader in all those areas as a planning commissioner.”

Read more…

Commercial buildings in downtown San Francisco could be required to provide indoor bicycle parking accommodations under a proposal introduced at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

“One of the ways that we can really assure our bikes are safe from theft is to be able to bring them into our buildings,” said Supervisor John Avalos, who has asked the City Attorney’s Office to draft the legislation.

Providing secure parking would encourage would-be bicycle commuters deterred by the prospect of leaving their bicycle locked to on-street poles and bike racks for hours, where they could be vulnerable to theft. In 2007, police estimated 2,000 to 3,000 bikes are stolen in the city every year, according to the Bay Guardian.

“For many existing commercial buildings, there isn’t bike access,” said Avalos, “and we want to be able to provide that access in the future for cyclists in San Francisco.”

“It’s the last major gap in solving the commuter bike parking problem,” said Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition. Many office buildings, he noted, have room for bike parking but don’t allow access.

Read more…

In the strongest showing of political support ever for bicycling in San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee, ten of the eleven members of the Board of Supervisors, and a range of city officials pedaled to City Hall with advocates and thousands of commuters on the 17th Annual Bike to Work Day. Commuters pedaling along the city’s most important route, Market Street, were greeted with new green paint and protected bike lanes thanks to SFMTA crews who have been racing to fill in the gaps.

“We have more to celebrate than ever before in the history of Bike to Work Day,” said San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) Executive Director Leah Shahum, “from the beautiful new green separated bikeways on Market Street, to dozens of new bike lanes in every neighborhood throughout the city, to hundreds of new bike racks, to dozens of new on-street bike parking corrals.”

Riding in on some of the city’s major routes, supervisors proclaimed their support for safer streets and expanding the city’s bikeway network. Mayor Lee announced that a separated bikeway would be in place on John F. Kennedy Drive by the end of the year, filling a crucial segment on the popular Bay to Beach Connecting the City route being pushed by the SFBC.

“I want to see that 100 miles from the Bay to the ocean, north and south, painted by the year 2020 to see everybody ride the whole city and connect up either way using their bikes,” said Mayor Lee, who rode to City Hall from Golden Gate Park via the Wiggle with Shahum, SFMTA Board Chair Tom Nolan, and a convoy of others.

Read more…

The SF Board of Supervisors Rules Committee approved the nomination of transit advocate Joél Ramos to the SFMTA Board of Directors today without deliberation, and his final confirmation is expected by the full board on Tuesday.

“Joél is the real deal,” said Andy Thornley, the policy director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, who turned out with fellow advocates in uniform support of Ramos’ confirmation. “He is a transit advocate, a transit lover, and a champion for equity and social justice. He’s very qualified to join this important body and lend his intelligence and energy to it.”

Advocates roundly praised the Mayor’s nomination of the TransForm community planner to the board in April after a seat was left vacant by the passing of Cameron Beach, a veteran transportation professional who was being considered for reappointment.

“The appointment of Joél Ramos to this board could be a step forward in actually making the real change we need on our streets,” said Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe. “Joél Ramos will speak up for sustainable streets, and we also know that he will speak up for the underserved communities who face a disproportionate risk of being hit by cars on our streets while walking and who depend the most on public transportation.”

Read more…

Supervisor David Chiu, a key player in the city’s sustainable transportation movement who gets around on his electric bicycle, was reelected president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this afternoon on an 8-3 vote.  The 40-year-old District 3 supervisor called on his colleagues to “move beyond the past oppositional politics of personality” and build consensus to tackle some of the city’s most pressing problems.

“None of us were voted into office to take positions. We were voted into office to get things done. We were voted into office to create jobs, to make sure Muni runs on time, to make sure our streets are safe and clean and to make sure…that the least fortunate among us is taken care of,” said Chiu, referring to past positions supervisors have taken against the Mayor or other supervisors.

The vote to reelect Chiu came after four new members elected to the board — Jane Kim, Malia Cohen, Scott Wiener and Mark Farrell — were sworn into office along with Supervisor Carmen Chu, who ran unopposed for her District 4 seat.

In the first round of voting for president, Chiu, who was nominated by Kim, and Supervisor Sean Elsbernd (nominated by Chu) both got four votes each with Supervisor John Avalos (nominated by Supervisor David Campos) garnering three. All three supervisors were allowed to vote for themselves.

After the initial vote, Elsbernd stood up and noted how multiple rounds of voting can result in long-term elements of discord and distrust, and decided to withdraw his name “in the spirit of moving this meeting forward.” On the second round, Chiu’s nomination got the support of every new member, along with Supervisors Eric Mar, Chu and Elsbernd. Avalos was supported by Campos and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.

Chiu is widely rumored to be exploring a run for mayor. Just yesterday, it was publicly unclear whether he had enough votes to remain board president. Earlier this week, he was blasted by now former Supervisor Chris Daly, who pledged to “politically haunt” the former prosecutor and civil rights attorney after he announced his support of City Administrator Ed Lee for interim mayor with the eventual backing of six other supervisors.

Read more…

During a dramatic eight-hour Board of Supervisors meeting last night, seven supervisors, including President David Chiu, Bevan Dufty, Eric Mar and Sophie Maxwell, lined up late in the session to support City Administrator Ed Lee for interim mayor. It prompted an angry outburst from outgoing Supervisor Chris Daly, who declared that it would be “the biggest fumble in the history of progressive politics in San Francisco.”

In the end, the supervisors agreed to continue the meeting and a decision on appointing a successor mayor to Friday at 3 p.m. Whoever the current board appoints (it requires six votes) would have to be confirmed by the new board. Four new supervisors are being sworn in Saturday. Even then, all the cards, at this point, seemed to be stacked to favor Lee, who was in Hong Kong and not available for comment.

In several interviews, some transit advocates and others who have worked with the former Asian Law Caucus managing attorney over the years offered nothing but praise, saying that even though some of outgoing Mayor Gavin Newsom’s staff might remain in place — something Daly and other progressives predict would mean more of the “same ole’, same ole‘” — Lee would set a different tone and get work done.

“He comes out of a strong civil rights background so I think he would look at transportation from an equity point of view and a transportation justice perspective,” said Supervisor Mar, who is supporting Lee. “Even though he has been a bit distant, in city government, from civil rights or community organizations that’s where his values are in supporting a better transportation system, especially for lower-income people and working families.”

Lee, who would become the city’s first Asian American mayor, has more than two decades of experience in city government, serving as the city’s first Whisteblower Ordinance investigator, executive director of the Human Rights Commission, the director of City Purchasing, and before his current job, was director of the Department of Public Works. When he was reappointed City Administrator in October, the Mayor’s Office praised him for “reducing the size and cost of city government and reducing the vehicle fleet.”

Read more…

Though the dust is far from settled in the elections from Tuesday, some results will have a noted impact on transit in the Bay Area and the state. We’ll have more coverage of the election results on smart growth in a future installment

San Francisco Proposition G

San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition G, stripping the City Charter of the clause guaranteeing Muni operators the second highest salary and benefits package of any transit operator in the nation. The final vote was 64 percent for, 36 percent against. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) 250-A, the union that represents Muni operators, will now have to negotiate wages and benefits with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) through collective bargaining, a maneuver Prop G supporters hoped would compel the union to ditch some of its work rules deemed to be inefficient and outdated.

While the SFMTA declined to discuss its bargaining strategies before it sits down with TWU to negotiate a new contract to replace the one that expires on June 30, 2011, SFMTA CEO Nat Ford released a statement about the results.

“Proposition G gives the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency more flexibility to improve the work we do for San Francisco residents, visitors and the business community,” said Ford. “It will allow us to be more creative in our efforts to improve service and expand our programs for our customers, while at the same time respecting the hard but vital work of our operators and the other employee units covered by the proposition. We look forward to working cooperatively with the unions.”

According to the SFMTA, negotiations with TWU will likely begin shortly in the hopes they are able to negotiate a new contract before next summer and avoid an impasse. Representatives for the TWU did not return repeated requests for comment.

Read more…

The Board of Supervisors, acting as directors of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), voted 8-3 yesterday to put a $10 vehicle registration fee increase on the November ballot, a measure that would raise $5 million yearly for congestion mitigation, street and road resurfacing, pedestrian safety and improved transit.

The fee increase was made possible when the governor signed SB 83 (Hancock) in late October, which has compelled county congestion management agencies to debate the merits of an increase. According to SB 83, any county could raise the vehicle registration fee by $10 dollars, so long as the money was spent on programs for congestion and pollution mitigation. The SFCTA's expenditure plan would allocate the $5 million to street resurfacing (50 percent), pedestrian safety (25 percent) and transit technology improvements (25 percent).

Surprisingly, the three "no" votes were from supervisors traditionally very supportive of transit: David Chiu, John Avalos and Eric Mar. Those supervisors raised numerous concerns about the measure, most notably that it would not raise much money and that it would compete with other significant tax measures that might be on the ballot. $5 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's more than $700 million annual budget, they argued, and would amount to few improvements on the street.

"I personally think this is the wrong time to do it," said Chiu. "We only have a few shots at new revenue. I think if we're going to place anything on the ballot, we have to put on tax measures that result in real revenues for the general fund needs, not a measure that will provide us pennies on the dollar for congestion and pollution mitigation projects."

Read more...

Heads up, Muni riders and supporters: the Board of Supervisors will be taking the first step towards approving or rejecting the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's two-year budget today at its Budget & Finance Committee meeting.

Follow Streetsblog SF's Twitter feed for news of major developments at the meeting, or come down to City Hall in person at 1:30 p.m. to speak during the public comment period. In addition to discussing the budget, the supervisors will be talking to the city's budget analyst, Harvey Rose, about the results of an SFMTA management audit released yesterday.

The Board of Supervisors rejected an appeal today that would have halted the 10 percent cut in Muni service that's set to go into effect May 1.

By a 7-4 vote, the supervisors affirmed the Planning Department's determination that the service cuts are statutorily exempt from environmental review since they're covered by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's declaration of fiscal emergency.

David Pilpel, a regular at SFMTA Board meetings, had appealed the service cuts' exemption from environmental review, arguing that the SFMTA isn't a publicly owned transit agency but a city department, that the service reductions did not receive public hearings and that the SFMTA's budget shortfall is a chronic problem and not a short-term crisis.

"This is a known, predictable and preventable problem. This is not brand new," Pilpel told the supervisors during a hearing today.

The Planning Department responded that the SFMTA had met all the criteria for exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act, and that the decision wasn't on the merits of cutting service, but on whether the SFMTA had followed procedure.

"For the Planning Department this is very much a black-and-white issue: you either meet the statutory exemption requirements or you don't," said the Planning Department's Viktoriya Wise.

Sonali Bose, the SFMTA's Chief Financial Officer, said the law allowing exemptions from environmental review was created for just such an occasion. "We believe it's very clear the MTA met the standard," said Bose. "We did not have enough revenue to meet our expenses."

Read more...