Muni

The Municipal Transportation Agency has released a revised budget proposal for the 2009-2010 fiscal year that calls for eliminating up to nine bus routes, and scaling back service on as many as 29 routes, including some popular lines, in a series of cost-cutting moves that would help Muni close a $129 million budget gap.

The Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors will be asked to declare a fiscal emergency at its meeting next Tuesday, a move that will allow Muni to skip environmental reviews and implement service cuts and fare hikes this year to deal with a projected $129 million budget deficit.

District 2 Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier represents the Presidio, Cow Hollow, Marina, Pacific Heights and part of the Richmond District. She was originally appointed to her seat by Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004, and comes from a well-known political family. Her grandfather, Joe Alioto, was mayor from 1968-1976 and her aunt, Angela Alioto, was President of the Board of Supervisors and a candidate for mayor.

“Rebuilding Market Street has become a civic obsession in San Francisco. The city’s main street has been torn up and rebuilt completely at least once in every generation since the Civil War.”

At yesterday's Rules Committee meeting at City Hall, as first noted by the Examiner, there was some banter between Supervisor Chris Daly and MTA Board Chair Tom Nolan about MTA Executive Director Nat Ford. They seemed to indicate he was looking to leave the agency.

Raising the price of parking is a contentious issue anywhere, but it's particularly divisive for the BART Board of Directors, who may be debating a proposal from their finance committee as soon as next Thursday's board meeting to raise parking fees to mitigate their soaring budget deficit.

San Francisco Supervisor Carmen Chu represents the Sunset District, which includes some of the city’s major thoroughfares: the Great Highway, 19th and Sunset avenues and Sloat Boulevard. She was appointed to her post by the Mayor in 2007 and elected last November.

The MTA is now considering fare increases and service cuts to deal with a deficit that has grown to $129 million. The shortfall has worsened because of the state budget crisis, the sinking economy and the elimination of the State Transportation Assistance fund.

In the lead up to the November 3, 1999 election, more than a year after a massive Muni meltdown and with ridership low, Proposition E was sold as a way to make Muni more accountable and set higher enforceable standards for service. It was also meant to improve street management and put more detailed transit-first language in the city charter. Voters agreed to create a new Municipal Transportation Agency, a "coordinated transportation system," merging the Department of Parking and Traffic and Muni into a single entity.