75% in SF oppose Congestion Pricing

SF Examiner file photo

The annual Chamber of Commerce public opinion poll is a Rorschach test: the Bay Guardian's Steve Jones is annoyed at the questions about taxes and Ranked-Choice Voting. Jones also knocks the Examiner's article that focused on the positive response to the idea of tax breaks for businesses to create jobs. 

The Examiner's Melissa Griffin notes that homelessness and panhandling are at the top of the list of citizen concerns, which is true. But only 27% made that their main concern, and 73% put other issues on top.

Jones supplies readers with a link to the poll itself, but the Examiner doesn't. Hard to see why the Guardian can provide its readers with that service and the Examiner can't.

But the Examiner does list the poll results below its story, which include issues of interest to those of us who write about traffic. The results are bad news for the city's anti-car movement: 65% say that parking in the city is getting worse; 75% oppose charging drivers a fee for driving downtown, aka Congestion Pricing; 60% oppose an increase in the parking tax; and 53% oppose raising the vehicle license fee.

City Hall is determined to shove Congestion Pricing down our throats, as planning for that eventuality continues at the SFCTA, which is funded by a sales tax that brings in $70-$80 million a year for transportation projects in the city, including paving city streets. Instead of getting mundane and essential projects like that done, the SFCTA is a breeding place for anti-car traffic schemes.