Subject: Municipal Transportation Authority

• SF Gov InAction: These Are Not the Budget Numbers You're Looking For

  The excitement stops here. I know ... I know ... that today's the day Gubernatorial Candidate Gavin Newsom releases his budget for San Francisco (a California city he occasionally resides in for campaign purposes). And I know that, when he does, we're all going to die a little. I know. But, the action's still not likely to happen this week.The budget will be a big document. People will need time to go through it. Oh, sure, someone's likely to start shouting about it any second now, b

  June 1, 2009

• SF's New Top Cop Won't Have Contract Protection

  By John Geluardi The San Francisco Police Commission will begin the New Year by kicking off a national search for new police chief who, unfortunately, will be denied a critical tool to make improvements on one of the most dysfunctional departments in the country. Chief Heather Fong, who will step down in April, leaves behind a technologically backwards and rudderless police department in which the only thing lower than morale are the arrest statistics. The most poigant statistic is the de

  December 31, 2008

• Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi gets the boot for parking in his own spot at City Hall

  June 3, 2009

• Ain't That the Mayor's SUV Blocking Two Handicapped Access Ramps and Crosswalks?

  One ticket for blocking a handicapped curb ramp? $250. Two tickets? $500. Being mayor and dumping your SUV wherever you like? PricelessYesterday we wrote about how Mayor Gavin Newsom's taxpayer-funded Chevy Tahoe Hybrid gets awful mileage, is only marginally more efficient than a regular Tahoe, and costs scads more. We also noted that a would-be neighbor of the mayor's was rankled by the mayor's tendency, like those featured in Los Angeles police chase videos, to just leave his vehicle wherever.

  February 18, 2009

• Controversial police ticketing program gets makeover

  October 15, 2008

• Subwaylaid

  Why the new mayor should spend his political honeymoon taking the doggle out of a boondoggle known as the Central Subway

  December 10, 2003

• Death, Maiming, Money, and Muni

  The enormous costs -- human and financial -- of bad drivers and lax discipline at the San Francisco Municipal Railway

  August 6, 2003

• Someone's Getting Thrown Under the Bus on MTA Budget Battle. Who Will It Be?

  Perhaps this graffiti artist was displeased with Muni's budget as well...When Supervisor David Chiu last month placed an item in the Budget and Finance committee's Wednesday agenda rejecting the Municipal Transportation Authority's controversial budget, he wasn't doing it to merely test out the buttons on some new legislative assignment gizmo he found on Craigslist. In crafting such a motion even before the MTA deigned to pass a budget, Chiu presciently took the Groucho-as-Professor Quincy Waggs

  May 4, 2009

• S.F. Ticketing Program Could Open Costly Pandora's Box For City

  Joe EskenaziFormer SPOT director Pat Tobin lectures a mover during a hearing. Contractors claim such hearings denied them their right to due process -- and members of the Police Commission worry this could be true.Wednesday night's hearing regarding a controversial police ticketing program was not nearly so crowded as the last time this matter came before the Police Commission; perhaps last night folks were gawking instead at the half-naked male and female dancers gyrating at a loud Carnival sho

  May 7, 2009

• S.F. Inquiry Regarding Disability Placards May Miss the (Disabled) Elephant In the Room: It's Just Too Damn Easy To Get a Disability Placard

  Who wants some?Supervisor Eric Mar was on the side of the angels yesterday when he convened a hearing looking into the Municipal Transportation Authority's enforcement of potential disability placard fraud; if Mar can help bring the legal hammer down on able-bodied folks who fraudulently represent themselves as disabled, hog San Francisco's precious parking spaces all day long for free, and cost the city millions in the process, more power to him. And yet, a discussion framed around MTA enforcem

  May 12, 2009

• MTA Budget Showdown Leads To ... Wait For It ... A COMPROMISE!

  Jim HerdThat sound you heard earlier today was every City Hall journalist in San Francisco slapping his palm on the table when the Board of Supervisors vote over the controversial Muni budget was continued. And continued again. And more time went by. And now ... after several hours of behind-the-scenes intrigue, a compromise budget has been announced. Chris Roberts at SF Appeal has been live-blogging this thing -- a Godsend for those of us chained to our desks -- and SF Weekly's Peter Jamison is

  May 12, 2009

• Ticket Master: Parking Officers 'Boot' Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's Car

  Reconsidering your vote on the MTA budget, Mr. Mirkarimi?The truly insidious Us Magazine has a nifty little photo feature titled "Just like us!" featuring famous people caught in the act of jogging, ordering at Del Taco, buying handbags at Prada -- just like us! We're not sure if San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi is "just like us" -- most folks don't have anecdotes at the ready about charming the hell out of a Venezuelan soap opera queen at a Brazilian meet-n-greet (and starting a family w

  May 28, 2009

• Bicyclists Pack City Hall -- No Spandex in Sight

  Anna McCarthyValet?Bike parking was scarce at a City Hall hearing this morning as bike advocates arrived downtown in droves donning helmets and fluorescent pink identification stickers reading, "Double the number of bike lanes." Although helmets, U-locks, and other bicycling accessories abounded, many had traded their spandex for khakis and collars. This was no rowdy critical mass crowd: This crowd meant business. With the hearing room full by 9 a.m., bicyclists filed into the overflow area to s

  June 26, 2009

• Muni Union Head: Early Switch to Manual Power In Train Tunnel, Fingered for Weekend Crash, an 'Understood Practice' Among Drivers, Management

  Jim HerdA pair of culprits have emerged as the potential causes for the weekend's nasty Muni crash at West Portal station: Sources within Muni have told the media that the veteran driver reported he blacked out -- which wouldn't have been a problem if the driver didn't shift his train from automatic to manual operation while coming out of the tunnel, an apparent violation of Muni policy. Irwin Lum, the president of the Transit Workers Union, confirmed to SF Weekly that the driver told him he bla

  July 20, 2009

• Fare Cheats Beware: Muni Crackdown Continues

  Four friendly fare inspectors​Today at the intersection of 4th and King Streets, passengers aboard the N train with no ticket to ride were about to get caught. As the doomed passengers recognized this, some attempted to look innocent and formulate explanations. Others were less strategic. "Faggot-ass mother fucker," one ticketless passenger said as he disembarked into a wall of four fare inspectors and four cops.  The team was carrying out wh

  September 9, 2009

• U.S. Sues San Francisco Over 2005 Muni Fuel Spill

  Jim Herd​UPDATE: City, DOJ, EPA Agree on $250K settlement, see details here.U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed suit against San Francisco in connection with a 2005 bus yard fuel spill that released as much as 54,000 gallons of diesel gasoline into San Francisco soil and sewers -- with some of it ultimately reaching the Bay.According to the complaint, filed on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, personnel at the Municipal Transportation Authority's John M. Woods Motor Coach f

  October 29, 2009

• 'Signs' Point to Better Times Ahead for Cyclists

  The tide is turning...​ For San Francisco's ever-growing cadre of bicyclists, this week opened with both good news and bad.On Monday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch postponed until Nov. 12 his decision on whether to allow the city to install bicycle improvements. San Francisco has for years been barred from installing amenities such as bike lanes and racks thanks to a court injunction based on the theory that the city hadn't devoted sufficient environmental review to the notion

  November 6, 2009

• No, Motorists Cannot Put 'Smart Boot' On Other People's Cars

  PayLockThe 'Smart Boot'​Apparently the "Smart Boot" people are one bootstep ahead of us. The devices are just like the boots you'd find, say, immobilizing Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's 1993 Jeep Wrangler. But instead of requiring an employee of the Municipal Transportation Authority to come out and unlock your car, the unfortunate motorist can pay off his or her debt electronically, then punch a secret code into the Smart Boot and remove the device. Last week, Oakland became the 14th city i

  November 16, 2009