Progs support congestion pricing advocate to lead SFCTA

Matier and Ross (below in italics) provide us with an item about replacing the head of the San Francisco County Transportation Agency (SFCTA) that spends Prop. K sales tax money for city transportation projects---and for overpaid administrators---$228,368 a year! They tell us that "progressive" supervisors support Tilly Chang for the job, probably because for years she's been dedicated to pushing the ultimate anti-car plan, the punitive, unpopular congestion pricing idea on San Francisco that will charge city residents a fee for driving downtown in their own city.

Eeny, meeny...: Deciding on a replacement for recently departed $228,368-a-year county Transportation Authority chief Jose Luis Moscovich has produced plenty of political hand-wringing and indecision down at City Hall.

The authority, one of the few agencies that the Board of Supervisors has direct control over, can influence spending on big transportation projects such as the Doyle Drive replacement.

Three finalists are in the hunt, the authority's deputy director Tilly Chang (whose strength is planning); Municipal Transportation Agency finance director Sonali Bose (who knows financing); and Stephanie Wiggins, an executive with the Orange Country Transportation Authority (who has experience in project management).

Progressives appear squarely behind Chang; moderates are leaning toward Bose. Others see outsider Wiggins as a possible compromise.

After failing to reach a consensus before their August break, the supervisors are scheduled to resume private deliberations Tuesday.

Cute Movement demo Friday

Calling on all members of the Cute Movement and all narcissists and exhibitionists! Gather on Friday with Thea Selby, former happy-talk candidate for District 5 Supervisor, to celebrate your adorable creativity! 

Don't forget that allowing UC to trash the former extension property on lower Haight Street was all about the garish "art" by Jeremy Fish and other artists, as candidate Selby explained last year:

As founder and President of the Lower Haight Merchant and Neighbor Association I worked hard to “activate” the previously abandoned UC Extension site at 55 Laguna St. This meant bringing together various members of the community, including Upper Playground and local artists. We transformed the blighted building into a spectacular canvas for public art. 55 Laguna is now under development and outside the official lines of District 5, but I’ll continue to grow the relationships that were built during the process of the mural in order to ensure that the needs of our neighborhood are met.

In reality Selby and all the other District 5 candidates worked to allow UC to trash a state and federal landmark---property zoned for "public use" for the previous 150 years---to fatten its real estate portfolio at the expense of District 5 and the city. UC is now in the process of putting 450 new housing units---and 1,000 new residents---on the property in a neighborhood that is already choking on the 60,000 vehicles a day coming through the heart of Hayes Valley on Octavia Boulevard, another planning/traffic fiasco facilitated by our oh-so progressive leadership in City Hall.

But it's all good! We're all artists! We're all adorable! Bring your cameras to record how cute we are!

Hello, Lower Haighters and Neighbors.

Remember that Silly Pink Bunny that has graced the corner of Haight and Laguna for the past almost 3 years? 

The one that, like the murals, has been tagged, paint-sprayed with a fire extinguisher, and otherwise abused? The one that has been lovingly scrubbed by neighbors, by Walden House, anti-graffiti painted by the community to keep it going over the years, and most recently, repainted and given a giant eye patch by the fab artist Jeremy Fish who donated his time and talent and statue to this wonderful project? The one that was photographed with the rest of the amazing and ever-changing mural, more times than anything else in the Lower Haight? The one that said Love in the Lower Haight and was a gateway to our neighborhood?

Always envisioned as a temporary project, Silly Pink Bunny is going away along with the two mural walls on Laguna and Haight. On Friday, she will be grabbed by the Jaws of Death (as I call them) and shaken like a puppy until she gives up her foam and spider-filled inner guts. Demo’ed, as they say in the trade.

AND YOU’RE INVITED!

Please join us Friday September 13th as we say goodbye to the Silly Pink Bunny, and talk about what’s next art-wise at this location. I don’t want to give away too much yet, but if you come on Friday, we will unveil exciting plans of resurrection. I mean permanent-style.

BE THERE!

Corner of LAGUNA AND HAIGHT

FRIDAY THE 13th of September

6pm

Bring your cameras and your videos and your eyes and your hearts. Wear black. Or pink.

Thea and the Lower Haight Merchant + Neighbor Assn, in collaboration with Haight Street Art Center and Jeremy Fish