{"id":38269,"date":"2024-12-17T14:01:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T22:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38269"},"modified":"2024-12-17T14:01:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T22:01:32","slug":"muni-stands-to-be-eviscerated-but-this-would-eviscerate-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/17\/muni-stands-to-be-eviscerated-but-this-would-eviscerate-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"Muni stands to be eviscerated. But this would eviscerate San Francisco."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> DECEMBER 16, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This
\u201cInformation gladly given, but safety requires avoiding unnecessary conversation.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For all the bluster coming from some of San Francisco\u2019s more bombastic mayoral candidates that they\u2019d fire transit boss Jeffrey Tumlin on day one, they were never going to have the chance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next mayor will be sworn in on Jan. 8 and Tumlin\u2019s contract is up at month\u2019s end. He\u2019s not coming back. It\u2019s a \u201cYou can\u2019t fire me! I \u2026 am letting my contract lapse\u201d situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tumlin\u2019s bus is pulling out, but his capable director of transit, Julie Kirschbaum, will fill his place in an interim role \u2014 and, perhaps, far longer than that. If you\u2019re looking for a sports analogy, Kirschbaum is to the SFMTA as Buddy Ryan was to the \u201985 Bears<\/a> \u2014 the coordinator overseeing the most outstanding element of the organization. That\u2019s the defense<\/a> in Ryan\u2019s case and transit<\/a> in Kirschbaum\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things are bad. Real bad: Frustratingly, the SFMTA\u2019s major problem isn\u2019t that transit in San Francisco is crappy, even though San Franciscans love to complain about it: Ridership is steadily improving and, on some lines, exceeds pre-pandemic levels. Considering few people are going downtown, that\u2019s a neat trick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, a big part of the transit agency\u2019s fiscal crisis stems from the evaporation of the money from city-operated parking lots, parking meters and citations. There just aren\u2019t as many people driving out and about as there used to be, especially downtown \u2014 and, when they do, there are Ubers or Lyfts or even driverless Waymos \u200b\u200bto take them there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet the department stands to be eviscerated. But make no mistake: When you eviscerate Muni, you eviscerate San Francisco. This will affect your life, even if you haven\u2019t set foot on a bus or light-rail vehicle for years. There will be no downtown recovery without functional transit. You could run the Valencia bike lane through <\/em>the businesses of the aggrieved merchants, and it would have a trivial impact compared to a transit-bereft downtown where BART shuts down at sunset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the SFMTA sent up a warning flare, and a series of articles<\/a> appeared, positing possible draconian service cuts in the face of a looming fiscal cliff, including \u2014 quelle horreur \u2014 <\/em>suspending or cutting back the cable cars. If Muni\u2019s purpose of seeding this message was to spur the public and the city\u2019s leadership into serious discussions about transit and what a grown-up city needs and how to fund it, that didn\u2019t happen. Instead, the overarching response, from Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie <\/a>on down, was hands off the cable cars \u2014 <\/em>and the discussions went no further than that. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was frustrating. Cable cars are inextricable from the character of San Francisco, and they surely bring added value to the city \u2014 though San Francisco\u2019s longstanding association with Rice-a-Roni (ding, ding!<\/a>) is not necessarily a net positive. And it warrants mentioning that, while cable car service is protected in the city charter<\/a>, core Muni service is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of net positives, the city funds the cable cars out of the same transit monies that keep core lines operating. Lay a finger on the cable cars, and you\u2019ve got a problem. Shrug your shoulders as the core system is allowed to collapse, bringing down the city\u2019s viability with it, and \u2026 crickets. Hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans ride Muni every day. But it\u2019s long been apparent that they don\u2019t organize, don\u2019t vote collectively and don\u2019t constitute a constituency. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Elixir\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And Muni is treated accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo by Aaron Kitashima.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Municipal budgeting is complicated. Transit budgeting is more complicated still. But this much is approachable: When transit is run well \u2014 and when it goes where San Franciscans want to go and when they want to go there \u2014 people take it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are taking Muni. Ridership numbers are at around three-quarters of what they were prior to the pandemic. On a handful of lines, ridership is equal or better to early 2020 \u2014 in some cases, way better. <\/a>Those lines include the 49, the 22, the 14R, the 9, the 19 and the 12. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you seeing a pattern here? Other than the 14R, none of these is a major downtown feeder (the 14R runs from Daly City BART to the Embarcadero, offering plenty of chances to on- and offboard without getting near Downtown). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dec23\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Merely throwing money at problems rarely solves them, especially in this city. But funding transit adequately so it works well means more people will take it \u2014 and that makes it work better still. Transit, again, is complicated \u2014 but this much isn\u2019t. Muni\u2019s viability benefits businesses large and small and keeps our roads from becoming parking lots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a policymaker, I always felt this is lucky: This region has resources. You don\u2019t need to convince people transit is important and don\u2019t need to do much convincing to ask people to tax themselves to support it,\u201d says former longtime BART commissioner and transit advocate Tom Radulovich. And then he sighs. \u201cSo why is transit hanging on a thread when these are our circumstances?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stricken metaphor spotted on Geary. Photo by Jim Herd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Afrustrating answer to Radulovich\u2019s question is that San Francisco went through the most prosperous period in its modern history, and all it has to show for it is the dysfunctional Central Subway.<\/a> Billions of misbegotten federal dollars built it. And now we\u2019re stuck paying local dollars to operate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a shame that money can\u2019t instead be used to stave off service cuts, which will undo the progress made in the past four-plus years. Riders, again, do not hop on buses or trains for a joyride or out of a sense of transit boosterism. If Muni is not convenient and functional \u2014 if it does not go where people need when they need it \u2014 it ceases to serve a purpose. There is little practical use for a palatial train station for a rail line that few choose to ride. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adv<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In an ideal world, you could suspend the Central Subway until Muni\u2019s finances are less insane. Shunt its piddling ridership back into the redundant surface bus lines (which are doing fine, by the way). Save the operating costs and use that money to run the system writ large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that won\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something else that should happen \u2014 but won\u2019t \u2014 is to stop perversely funding the cable cars out of transit operating funds<\/a>. Again, everyone loves cable cars. They surely make money for someone \u2014 but it\u2019s Muni that pays for them. And in 2023, they ran at a $55.2 million operating deficit<\/a>, even with ticket prices approaching ballpark beer levels (Muni\u2019s annual deficit will hover between $239 million and $322 million<\/a> by fiscal 2026-27). Wealthy people and businesses have put private funds into backing cable cars before. That should happen again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it likely won\u2019t. Other than farcical calls for firing Tumlin, mass transit was a non-issue in the mayoral race: Again, Muni riders are legion but do not represent a constituency<\/em>. Clearly, there would be social and political blowback for any move leading to a reduction in cable car service. The political repercussions for allowing the rest of the Muni system to dissipate, however, would apparently be far less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fare<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because dialog around transit in San Francisco is reactionary and bleak. It seems to be dominated by people grousing about crime \u2014 and, for what it\u2019s worth, reported crime on transit is down 75 percent in the past decade<\/a> \u2014 or naifs who seriously believe you could adequately replace a public transit system in a congested 47-square-mile city with 15,000 Waymos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe majority public opinion on public transit is formed by people who do not ride public transit,\u201d notes Radulovich. \u201cAnd the decisions are made by people who do not use it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sad truth is that while promoting the wholesale replacement of a public transit system with a fleet of private cars is inane, the city\u2019s pending evisceration of its transit agency will actually help to bring it about. For the industries that stand to benefit from the death of public transit, these are heady times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just wait until they invent a driverless cable car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI DECEMBER 16, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) For all the bluster coming from some of San Francisco\u2019s more bombastic mayoral candidates that they\u2019d fire transit boss Jeffrey Tumlin on day one, they were never going to have the chance.  The next mayor will be sworn in on Jan. 8 and Tumlin\u2019s… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38270,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38269\/revisions\/38270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}