District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston was defeated in the last election by newcomer Bilal Mahmood. Preston was, for the most part, a reliable ally for advocates of safe and livable streets. He supported car-free J.F.K., expansion of the Wiggle, and slow streets in his district. In addition, his aid, Preston Kilgore, was always incredibly responsive and forthright with Streetsblog. Near the end of his term, Kilgore reached out to Streetsblog to find out if we'd be interested in doing an exit interview with Supervisor Preston. Here's the resulting conversation, edited for length and clarity, and with a follow up question/note at the end:
Streetsblog: You've obviously always held a strong interest in bike lanes and transit. We can see that from your bookshelf. So let's start out talking about SFMTA. Any thoughts on Jeffrey Tumlin's tenure and pending departure?
Dean Preston: I have mixed feelings about his time in office. On some issues he was a strong ally and shared a perspective of trying to move our city in the direction of more pedestrian friendly and bicycle friendly streets. But we had our differences on a number of issues, particularly on equity and public transportation. I was a big fan of piloting free public transit and he and the mayor were not in favor of that and really obstructed those efforts. Under his watch we’ve seen ramped-up fare enforcement and fines increasing. I think that is not helpful to more of a long-term vision for public transportation in our city.
Streetsblog: Where else did you clash?
DP: He had a vision of investing in the core lines of the transportation network, and downsizing and eliminating a lot of the other transit lines, that was our
battle throughout the pandemic.
Streetsblog: You're talking about his decision during the lockdown to focus on core lines that serve so-called essential workers?
DP: Right. It was geographical coverage versus investing in major lines. But I'm of the view that you do both. So we had our differences on some fundamental
policy issues but I think we worked well together and got things done.
SB: So more collaboration on the slow streets side of things?
DP: I would say where we were more closely aligned and effective pushing for slow streets, car-free JFK, and other things that I felt strongly about and I think he did as well.
SB: But he wasn't always on the same side. I'm thinking of that leaked mayoral memo about cancelling the slow streets program. And there was his stereotyping of cyclists.
DP: He has more of a mixed record.
SB: Was that him or the fact that he was working under a mayor who, shall we say, wasn't as enthusiastic about such issues?
DP: He was working under a mayor who has not prioritized these issues.
SB: To switch back to transit, Jeff did cut back lines, but only because he was constrained by budgetary realities, no?
DP: I would hope whether it was Jeff Tumlin or a new person that we need leadership around public transportation that is not just managing its downsizing. And that sometimes requires clashing with the mayor and being more demanding of tax money. Would Jeff have been different under a different mayor and done more? I don’t know. But if I get another presentation about financial cliffs (shakes his head). I would rather see a PowerPoint that says 'if we’re bold about public transit and raise this much money here’s what we can deliver.' I would love to see that presentation.
SB: So the SFMTA has its own board and it's supposed to act independently of the mayor and the board of supervisors. In practice it almost never does that. Do you see room for a fundamental restructuring of the SFMTA board? Maybe something more akin to the BART board, with direct elections?
DP: I’ve thought about that and I think it would be possible to do it better. I’ve been very concerned about appointing people to head the agency who
don’t have public transit experience. But there are other structural issues, such as the mayor exclusively doing appointments to the SFMTA board. I think that’s hampered the independence of the agency. Maybe you need a mix of elected representatives and mayoral appointees.
SB: So don't go full BART model, but something inbetween?
DP: I’d be wide open to talking about that. It doesn’t function as an independent agency because of the appointment structure.
SB: Then again, if you have district by district elections or appointments, you can end up with more parochialism. Which is exactly what the current structure is supposed to avoid, even if it doesn't.
DP: I think we should also look at longer terms, so you have people who can operate more independently.
SB: Where has the current structure been effective, in your view, working from this side of city hall?
DP: We’ve tried to take issues that are normally treated on a district,
neighborhood level and tried to elevate those to a citywide mandate. A lot of time, people have this reaction, well-meaning as it is, that we should 'pilot' things in one district before going city-wide.
SB: But some things don't require a pilot. Some things are better just rolling them out? Such as?
DP: Such as banning parking in bus stops. We did we ever allow a car to park in a bus stop? And why would we pilot fixing that in one district only?
SB: Right. So that was fixed citywide. Seems like the same concern is causing problems with No Turn on Red, something you've advocated for. SFMTA is, so far, rolling it out only in certain neighborhoods.
DP: If you’re really going to push for transforming the street landscape, and improving safety, you can’t just do it neighborhood by neighborhood. If it’s a really good idea in say District 5, it’s probably a good idea everywhere. If we
shouldn’t have cars parked in bus stops in Cole Valley, why would we allow it in the Sunset? So we take those ideas and turn them into resolutions at the Board of Supervisors which gives a mandate to the SFMTA to do it citywide. Supervisor Norma Yee did that with daylighting.
SB: Seems like the right approach for No Turn on Red. It's easy to remember you just don't make a right on red in San Francisco. Very hard to continually keep track of what district you're in and what the rules are--or read every sign as you go.
DP: Our resolution called for a citywide plan. But they came back with a neighborhood-by-neighborhood plan.
SB: Right. The slow roll-out versus just declaring a policy. Even if they can't legally write tickets under state law without posting a no-turn-on-red sign, you can still declare it the policy and start rolling out the signs. And you can simultaneously ask our state legislators to start working on a New York-style solution, where the state carves out a no-turn-on-red exception for the city.
DP: Also people lose confidence in agencies when you tell people it’s going to take seven years to paint the bus stop curbs red, or that it takes this many years to tell neighborhood by neighborhood that there's no no turn on red.
SB: Let's get to one thing that's in your neighborhood that I know Streetsblog readers will want me to ask about, and that's the ARCO gas station debacle on the wiggle. There are always cars blocking the bike lane at the entrance on Fell. Obviously, you and SFMTA have failed to fix that.
DP: That is the weakest link by far in an otherwise improved east-west connection of protected lanes. We’ve approached the gas station, we’ve had numerous conversations with SFMTA and the city attorney. But ARCO has not
been willing to voluntarily work with the city. They’ve got four driveways, two on each side.
SB: Isn't that enough for crying out loud? Why can't drivers enter from Divis?
DP: It’s part of their business and ownership rights. So there’s no quick fix to it. There are ways to address it. We've been out there with SFMTA. We’ve explored extending the concrete island. But long term as long as you have cars pulling in and out of that driveway it's hard for me to see how we make it safe without figuring out how to close one or both of those driveways. We believe that the next step is for SFMTA and the city attorney to be exploring enforcement work to get the property owner to maintain a safer environment. There are ways to compel that. We have flagged it repeatedly as a priority for SFMTA, but it is not a block where there’s been a record of serious injuries or fatalities, so it does not get the prioritization that it needs.
SB: What's your proudest accomplishment, from the viewpoint of safe and liveable streets?
DP: When we took office there were no clear east-west bike connections. Oak Street still isn't there yet, but we got Fell, we got JFK.
SB: Right, the protected bike lane along the panhandle. And JFK of course. That was a great accomplishment. I know we're almost out of time, so what's next for Dean Preston?
DP: I'll take a little break. Then I'll continue to advocate from outside city hall. I’m not going anywhere.
***
Shortly after doing this Q&A last December, Dean Preston, as one of his last acts as Supervisor, joined Supervisors Peskin, Safai, Ronen, and Walton and quashed the nomination of Sara Barz to the SFMTA board. Barz was nominated by Mayor London Breed to fill the seat vacated by Amanda Eaken. Streetsblog emailed Preston to ask him why this time he sided with the most anti-safe streets members of the board of supervisors, such as Peskin and Walton:
"I agreed with the unanimous Rules Committee recommendation to reject all of the Mayor's lame duck appointments to allow the incoming Mayor to appoint his own commissioners."
