Scott Wiener

Proposition L was nixed by San Francisco voters yesterday. With nearly all of the votes counted, 62 percent rejected Sean Parker's measure to keep SF in the 20th century by prioritizing free parking and encouraging driving.

The Board of Supervisors yesterday voted unanimously to establish the National Association of City Transportation Officials' Urban Street and Urban Bikeway Design Guides as official policy for all city agencies, as proposed by Supervisor Scott Wiener.

The Board of Supervisors yesterday unanimously approved the original agreement to fund Transbay District transportation upgrades, like the downtown rail extension to the Transbay Transit Center, through development charges. Although supervisors had announced a compromise agreement two weeks ago, some developers apparently backed out of it. City Hall officials decided to move forward with the original agreement, since those developers threatened to file a lawsuit either way.

Supervisor Scott Wiener has introduced a bill that would make the National Association of City Transportation Officials' guides for Urban Streets and Urban Bikeways official city policy. The SFMTA Board of Directors already adopted the NACTO guides in January, but Wiener's legislation would establish them as official guidelines for other agencies to use, including the Department of Public Works, the Planning Department, and the SF Fire Department.

Developers agreed to pay nearly the full property assessment rates to help fund transportation projects in the Transbay Transit Center District, under an agreement announced by the Board of Supervisors yesterday. Supervisors and Mayor Ed Lee stood their ground against the developers, who hired former mayor Willie Brown as a lobbyist to try to lower the rates on the special infrastructure tax district, known as a Mello-Roos District. The move threatened to cut funds from the extension of Caltrain and high-speed rail downtown into the Transbay Center under construction.

BeyondChron editor Randy Shaw, who gets funding from the Mayor Ed Lee's office for projects like the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, penned a predictable defense of Lee's recent attack on Supervisor Scott Wiener's transit funding ballot measure today. Shaw backed Lee's decision to drop support for the vehicle license fee increase, and argued that Muni's share of the city's general fund has increased enough in recent years, compared to other city services.

Mayor Ed Lee, who has cut into transportation funding by nixing Sunday parking meters and abandoning a proposed vehicle license fee increase, now says that he will punish the six supervisors who voted to approve a ballot measure to increase transportation's share of the general fund. Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed the charter amendment as a stop-gap measure to fund the city's transportation needs, while SF waits two years for the mayor to support a vehicle license fee measure.

The Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 today to put on November's ballot a charter amendment that would increase the share of general funds devoted to transportation, based on population growth.

Supervisors are expected to vote next week on Supervisor Scott Wiener's backup plan for transportation funding -- a charter amendment that, with voter approval, would increase the share of the city's general fund that gets allocated to Muni, pedestrian safety, and bike infrastructure. That share would be tied to the city's growing population.