Eyesore of the Week: Crissy Field

Photo by Russell Yip for the Chronicle

City Hall's campaign against cars

From: Howard Chabner
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013
To: Mayor's Disability Council

Subject: MDC 5-17-2013 Meeting, Accessible Parking, Item #7

           
Dear Co-Chairs James and Wilson and MDC Members:

Last week I had a delicious lunch in Dogpatch, and I picked up a copy of the Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association Business Directory. The welcome letter from President Keith Goldstein says: “Here, you will find that the weather is sunny, the people are friendly, and that we even have abundant, free parking."

MTA can’t do anything about the weather, but if MTA has its way, parking in San Francisco will be neither abundant nor free, not for disabled people nor for the general public.

On the one hand MTA never misses an opportunity to remove street parking spaces, and in their environmental documents they claim that removing parking has no impact because, in response to fewer spaces, fewer people drive.

On the other hand MTA adds parking meters, expands payment hours, requires payment on Sundays, increases prices and increases fines, all in the name of demand management because they say demand is too great and there is shortage of parking.

Of course placard fraud should be punished and eliminated, and the DMV should only issue placards to those who are truly eligible. For example, placard renewals are sent out automatically. I have had one since 1982, and after I submitted a doctor’s note to get my first one, the renewals have come in the mail automatically every two years. I could have moved away or died (or my medical condition could have been cured!) many years ago and the renewal placards would probably still keep coming.

But accessible parking policy can’t be looked at in a vacuum---it must be considered in the context of San Francisco's campaign against cars, including removing parking spaces altogether, installing meters in residential neighborhoods, and eliminating many spaces (unmetered and metered) that have been de facto accessible, even though not designated as such (for example, the recent elimination of three blocks of parking spaces on Oak Street, and the reduction of de facto accessible spaces on JFK Drive).

To learn more about MTA’s campaign against cars, please visit:

Save Masonic: www.savemasonic.com

Save Polk Street: www.savepolkstreet.com

District 5 Diary: http://district5diary.blogspot.com/

Meter Madness: http://metermadness.wordpress.com/ 

Eastern Neighborhoods United Front: www.sfenuf.org

SF Park Info: http://sfpark.info/

Thank you for considering this e-mail.

Cordially,
Howard Chabner