Have you ever heard the line "all San Franciscans talk about is real estate, traffic, and parking?" We have many times (obviously) and given the pre-election fervor over such subjects, we won't be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for a good, long while. Subject of the day? The San Francisco Transit Effectiveness Program, the much-hyped city program that (allegedly) aims to serve as a bastion of democracy by collecting analyzing citizen input on the MUNI system. Many local bloggers have made second careers out of upbraiding the city for its seeming inability to damn well deal with the "issues" of pedestrian plow jobs, slow service and surly drivers. Their efforts, it seems, might possibly pay off— or at least gain a public airing.
While letter campaigns and public shamings are well and good (not to mention kinda fun) irate citizens the city over are invited to get live and direct at a series of public forums on the TEP being held throughout the city during the coming week (schedule here). Otherwise, folks can get a little more intimate at SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association's "MUNI Mondays," a weekly noontime forum hosted by a different TEP official each week. No reports on whether security at these meetings, if present, will be armed with tasers or not though we do suggest that attendees have a creative retort on hand for protest arrests. "Don't tase me, man" is a little played at this point, don't you think? As with recent conversations on housing and homelessness, the issue of transportation, though a longtime problem, is coming to a head both practically and politically speaking. Proposition A vs. Proposition H. Parking schemes. Congestion Tolls. Bicycle programs. Lots of measures, but will they play nice together?
· San Francisco Transit Effectiveness Program [website]
· SPUR [website]
· Give A Dose of Reality to the "Transit Effectiveness Project" This Month! [N Judah Chronicles]
· The Best Laid Plans: Parking Proposal Promises Problems [Curbed SF]