Elections

We may never know why Sean Parker decided to pour tens of thousands of dollars into Proposition L, a measure crafted and funded by Republicans who want to enshrine 20th-century car-centric policies in San Francisco. With his contribution, Parker decided to amplify this "primal scream from motorists," as the Bay Guardian put it.

The race is on for the BART Board of Directors seat representing District 8, which wraps around northern, western, and southern San Francisco. Twenty-four year incumbent James Fang faces a challenge in the November election from Nick Josefowitz, and the two debated for the first time at last week's meeting of the Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People. The video of the debate above was provided by the Josefowitz campaign.

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets.

Prop L was slammed by the SF Democratic County Central Committee last night, via an almost-unanimous vote against endorsing the measure to "restore transportation balance" for motorists. The DCCC's endorsements hold a lot of sway, and its resounding "no" vote on the measure was a key litmus test to see whether the Republican-backed measure would garner any sympathy from SF's political establishment.

A campaign has been launched opposing the cars-first ballot measure that claims to "restore transportation balance," which will appear on the November ballot as Proposition L. Prop L was crafted by the SF Republican Party, and is bankrolled by $49,000 from Sean Parker, a tech billionaire and Mayor Ed Lee supporter.

At last night's presidential debate in Nassau County, the best opening for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to talk about transportation policy came when undecided voter Phillip Tricolla asked the following question of the President:

The results are in from yesterday's election - well, most of them are. The mayoral race won't be finally called until 2nd- and 3rd-choice votes are counted, but 1st-choice results put Ed Lee in the lead at 31 percent followed by John Avalos at 18 percent.

With the anti-incumbency narrative dominating elections this fall, it shouldn't be a surprise that two of the longest-serving BART board directors are facing stiff competition from upstart challengers who claim they have lost touch with the electorate they serve. Far from the anti-government Tea Party rhetoric, however, the two candidates providing the greatest challenge to the incumbents are long-time bicycle and transit advocates whose common arguments are that BART needs to shift its investments away from costly extensions and focus on improving core capacity and access to stations.