City voters and the MTA

Mayor Lee only rides Muni for photo-ops

According to a story on the front page of the Chronicle this morning, we are going to get to vote on Muni. Check out the mostly negative online comments to the story. Hard to believe that these featherbedders are going to get a two-thirds vote from city voters.

A letter to the editor below from the November 24 SF Examiner in response to Ballot proposal would address service disparities for Muni:

Let public vote on Muni

San Francisco certainly needs to put San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency policies and practices on the 2014 ballot. Muni is largely unreliable in all neighborhoods of San Francisco, but in the poorer neighborhoods transit needs are barely addressed.

The problem is the SFMTA itself. Were San Franciscans asked if they would like to receive a $400 million federal grant to make bicycling safer and easer for the 3.7 percent of the population that uses bicycles as its main commuter vehicle? Why didn't the SFMTA instead apply for federal, state and local grants to develop transit that tried to meet the needs of seniors and the disabled, as well as all the neighborhoods of The City? Were San Franciscans asked if parking meters should be put into residential neighborhoods as the SFMTA is trying to do in Dogpatch, Potrero Hill and Northeast Mission?

The SFMTA certainly needs to be on the ballot, but any ballot measure should address its apparent lack of interest in the needs of most San Francisco residents (except for the small few who ride bicycles).

Fiona McGregor 

San Francisco