Parking Meters

The SFMTA Board of Directors voted to continue the agency's declaration of fiscal emergency today, but took a proposal to charge a premium for cable cars and express bus routes off the table, and promised to use some of the $36 million expected from a state windfall to help "defray or delay" a 10 percent service cut scheduled to take effect in a month

No sizable city in the country, or likely the world, has been able to say with any certainty how many parking spaces it has, public or private, until now. Over the last 18 months, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) has tallied every publicly accessible parking space within city limits, including free and metered spaces on-street and every publicly accessible garage [PDF map].

MTA Board Director Bruce Oka has confirmed to Streetsblog that a proposal to increase monthly Fast Pass prices for seniors, youth and the disabled will not be considered to help solve the MTA's budget crisis after the outcry from those communities.

After months of opposing an extension of parking meter enforcement hours, Mayor Newsom may be finally open to a limited proposal that would help reduce Muni's staggering budget deficit. The Chronicle's Heather Knight  and The Appeal's Chris Roberts report that Newsom is still against extending weekday metering to evenings, but has come around on the idea of Sunday enforcement, which would raise an estimated $2-3 million dollars annually. Knight writes:

It's no secret who controls the MTA budget, and the pared down solutions that wind up on the table to solve the agency's worsening deficit, so it comes as no surprise what happened yesterday at City Hall in Room 200 when the Mayor's office called in three members of the MTA Board of Directors who so boldly expressed an interest in extending parking meter hours at their last meeting. Directors Jerry Lee, Cameron Beach and Bruce Oka were apparently told to back off. At least one of them, however, is bucking the Mayor's wishes.

City parking meters are a gold mine, and in Chicago, Morgan Stanley is rolling in parking riches. Secret company documents leaked to reporters show the company will rake in a 70 percent profit margin this year from its $1.15 billion, 75-year lease of Chicago’s parking meters. This profit is on top of the millions Morgan … Continued

The MTA parking meter extension study, and the recommendations to extend meters past 6 pm on weekdays and all day Sundays, which Mayor Gavin Newsom strongly opposes, is being circulated to business groups and community stakeholders throughout the city, though the pace of setting up meetings is underwhelming and MTA staff have no schedule for bringing the matter before its Board of Directors anytime in the near future, raising the prospect that the agency will have to balance its significant mid-year budget deficit on the backs of its riders, again.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to those of you who didn't watch the San Francisco MTA Board meeting yesterday on your live-feed or on SFGTV that the meeting devolved into a referendum on the merits of free, or nearly free, parking. With half a dozen television cameras lined up along the far side of City Hall's Room 400, approximately 60 people took the microphone to testify, some with the opprobrium of a pastor admonishing the unrepentant, all with a fervor that few other issues in urban life can stimulate.

It shouldn't be too surprising to those who have followed the debate on extending parking meter hours that Supervisor Carmen Chu is not a big fan. A tipster forwarded us an email from Chu's office sent out last night to constituents encouraging them to show up at today's MTA Board meeting and give their opinion about the MTA extended meter hours study.