Streetsblog San Francisco

It's no surprise, but it's troubling. Mayor Gavin Newsom has confirmed to Streetsblog that he remains opposed to extending parking meter enforcement to Sundays, despite a promise by MTA Chief Nat Ford that it's being studied and remains on the table for consideration, along with evening metering to 10 p.m. -- revenue measures that would raise $9 million --  potentially offsetting fare hikes and service cuts, changes Ford still has the power to make (within five percent).

"I don't support Sunday parking. I don't think that was part of the budget and...I support the budget as passed.  I don't believe in it," Newsom, a former parking and traffic commissioner, said yesterday following a press conference to unveil a new Muni bus shelter. 

Newsom's fervent opposition comes despite a change of heart by several politicians and organizations, including some that have traditionally opposed increasing parking enforcement. As Supervisor John Avalos explained at a recent BOS meeting "times have changed" and "there’s a different feeling about moving forward on revenue from parking that didn’t exist before." Except, of course, from the politician with the most power over the MTA.

Even the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce likes the idea of Sunday metering: "We favored Sunday enforcement because that will turn over parking for merchants just like it does on Saturday," said Jim Lazarus, the chamber's senior vice president.

As we've written, other cities that have managed street space with market-rate pricing and curbside vacancy targets, and have invested additional revenues in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements, have seen a rise in business, not a drop. There was further proof of that this week, with the release of a TA study noting that most shoppers in downtown San Francisco don't drive.

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The Board of Supervisors will try again on an MTA budget, voting 7-4 this afternoon to delay a motion to reject it. Instead, they'll hold a special meeting Wednesday, May 27th, at noon.

The delay, requested by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, came after Supervisor Sophie Maxwell indicated a change of heart on parking. Maxwell, considered a swing vote on the rejection motion, had previously indicated she was against adding Sunday and evening parking enforcement, measures Supervisor John Avalos, some of his colleagues and transit advocates have demanded be put back in the budget to more equitably balance it between drivers and Muni riders.

“I too have come to a different feeling about parking. I mean, I was one who said I don’t know about Sundays and I don’t know about 10 [p.m.] but I am reconsidering and I think a lot of other people could too, so I think it’s something that should really be put on the table.”

Maxwell asked MTA Chief Nat Ford how soon an MTA study on parking would take. As part of a "compromise" reached with Board President David Chiu last week, Ford agreed to study increasing parking enforcement downtown from 6 to 8 p.m. Advocates, however, have proposed that Ford's original plan to enforce parking until 10 p.m. be added back in.

“My concern is that without pressure maybe the discussion won’t happen because the parking issues are something that we need to look at and I want to look at it sooner rather than later," said Maxwell.

Ford indicated that more parking measures will be studied and brought before the MTA Board, especially in light of the fact that the agency is now facing an additional $13 million gap, due to the recent rejection of an SEIU contract and more state budget impacts.

While not giving a specific time line, Ford responded: “It will be something that we’re looking at very quickly.”  He had earlier indicated additional parking measures would not be added without consultation with the MTA Board and the Mayor's office, which is opposed to adding more parking revenue in the budget.

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The Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee voted for a second time Wednesday to reject the MTA budget and send it back to the full Board. It followed a narrow vote by the full Board Tuesday to table BOS Prez David Chiu's original rejection motion, following a "compromise" reached at the last minute to put $10.3 million in revenue and cost savings back into Muni's budget.

The 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Bevan Dufty and Carmen Chu dissenting, followed a lengthy discussion in which Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos and Ross Mirkirami argued that the MTA budget was still woefully unacceptable, with all agreeing the rejection motion was the only way to get the MTA to budge some more. A procedural move at the last meeting allowed members to consider the motion again.

"We were able to get to where we got to yesterday because we had a measure before us calling for the rejection of the MTA budget," said Avalos. "I do think that we live in a political world and need to have this rejection measure before us in order to be able build the kind of pressure we might need to get some more changes."

Avalos said if there was anything flawed about the process over the last week it was that supervisors weren't being specific enough about changes and ideas they wanted to see in the budget, instead only criticizing what they thought was wrong with it. 

"I think if we have a process where we can come to some agreements that are specific and take those to the MTA and the Mayor and use the next week to discuss that somewhat further, we might be able to make a few other changes that can alleviate perhaps fare increases [and] service cuts that are alarming.”

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In less than 24 hours, city officials, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, will be standing in a new pedestrian plaza on the former roadway at 17th Street at Market Street to announce the long-anticipated opening of the street as public space, the first of several such projects that will appear throughout the city over the next year. 

DPW crews have been working at a feverish pace to complete the city's first "Pavement-to-Parks" plaza, pouring yellow, slip-resistant road paint over the surface and installing 70 demarcation bollards that will be filled with soil and gravel and adorned with fan palms, yucca jewels and birds of paradise. Crews are installing movable barriers at both ends of the plaza to allow for emergency fire access. Tables and chairs will also be situated around the plaza, and locked at night on a nearby catenary poll. 

"The goal of this opening on Wednesday is to show how you can do something really quick, really simply," said Andres Power, an urban designer at the SF Planning Department.

Liz Ogbu, an architect with Public Architect Inc., which has designed the project pro bono, said, "This is a little nuts. It’s sort of forced everyone to have to think out of the box and sort of roll with the punches and just be quick on their feet."

For example, Ogbu said they ran out of paint Sunday and a new shipment was still a day away but "somebody came up with the idea of, well, we can tap the traffic paint, and we were a little skeptical because we couldn’t match the color, but it works well and we’re in good shape.”

Crews have also set up the bollards to accommodate the streetcars and buses that will continue passing through the plaza. Ogbu said plazas with transit ways have worked well in some European cities, including Amsterdam.

"All the Muni drivers have been giving us thumbs up as they’ve been coming through," said Ogbu. "And the business owners who we’ve been back and forth with, they’re in good shape.”

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So whether or not this is a result of Supervisor Bevan Dufty's oversight hearing or a very auspicious coincidence, Streetsblog San Francisco reader Megan Allison (who runs several good blogs, including goodurb.com) sends us this photo of a cop and his K-9 companion on Muni.  Unlike jackalope and Sasquatch sightings, we're pretty sure this is an authentic member of the SFPD and his trusty German Shepherd. 

Too bad he wasn't on the 71 when my friend was assaulted and robbed a few months ago, in broad daylight.  From the police report:

On Saturday, January 24, police arrested Humphrey Garrett, 27, no local address, in a brutal assault and robbery that occurred on a No. 71 Muni bus at approximately 1:45 P.M.  The victim, a 26-year-old San Francisco woman, had boarded the bus at Market and Powell streets and was talking on her cell phone at the rear of the bus when the male suspect walked up to her, punched her in the face, grabbed her phone, and punched her again.  Another Muni rider, a woman, taking advantage of the situation, attempted to take the victim’s purse, but the victim held on and the woman fled off the bus.

Stories like the above are unfortunately too common, though maybe this new attention from the SFPD will help.

Thanks for the photo, Megan.  Readers can add their good shots to our Flickr pool here.

According to a "fact sheet" (PDF) released by the Mayor's office Friday, "new operational improvements and efficiencies" have been identified that will amount to $3.5 million in cost savings for the MTA, including giving MTA Executive Director Nat Ford more power over the SFPD's Traffic Company.

The plan, first reported in the Chronicle this morning, was formed in discussions between the Mayor's office, Supervisor Bevan Dufty and the MTA, which is facing a $129 million budget deficit, and considering fare hikes and service cuts: 

The SFMTA will share a greater role in management of the SF Police Department's Traffic Division. The Traffic Division will now be under SFPD Deputy Chief Tony Parra, who already works closely with the SFMTA. This will ensure the Police Department's traffic enforcement functions are coordinated with the SFMTA's goals for safe streets and accident reduction. 

The SPFD has been under a lot of scrutiny lately over of its work orders to the MTA. Dufty held a Budget and Finance commitee hearing recently in which he blasted the SFPD for billing Muni a whopping $19 million, mostly to fund its traffic functions.

The plan also calls for the implementation of "a new, more highly structured management program for its Muni Response Team and Bus Inspection Program (BIP)" on the T-Third line which the document claims will save $1.2 million. Muni has been getting hit with bills for overtime for officers who are supposed to patrol the T-Third line but rarely do.

Ford is no stranger to managing a police force. In Atlanta, he oversaw a staff of 300 police officers at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and said in a recent interview that he often heard the same concerns voiced in San Francisco that police are rarely seen on buses. "That was the number one complaint," he said.

So far, we haven't heard of any opposition to this plan from supervisors who were very critical of the SFPD and the MTA at that hearing. "It's a good first step," said Dufty's legislative aide, Boe Hayward.

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District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty was elected the chairman of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (TA) this week, rounding up the necessary six votes to beat District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly. It's a position Dufty says he's excited about.

"It's a very creative, energetic environment. It's not at all bureaucratic. There a lot of young, hard-working transportation planners that are there. I would like to have a culture at the staff level that is positive and good and keep the talented staff that we have and hopefully get a lot of good things done."

Dufty, who is serving his last two years as supervisor, was first elected in 2002 and is a likely candidate for mayor in 2011. His District 8 encompasses an area stretching from the Lower Haight, to the Castro, all the way south to San Jose Avenue. 

Today we present our second Streetscast. The interview, with myself and reporter Matthew Roth, was recorded on Inauguration Day, January 22nd, a week before Dufty was elected TA chair:

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