Photo-ops and wishful thinking

Photo: Amy Osborne

Reading the story in the Chronicle about the new Muni platform near the under-construction Warriors' stadium, you have to wade through a lot of happy-talk to get a reality-check in the last paragraph:

Drivers may experience difficulty. The center garage holds only about 900 parking spaces, in addition to about 2,000 in the vicinity, all priced at $7 an hour during special events. The city will bar most private cars — including ride-hail vehicles — from several blocks surrounding Chase Center.

As the story reminds us, the Chase Center stadium will have only 900 parking spaces for its 18,000 seating capacity.

Speaking of transportation folly, there was this interesting paragraph in a Chronicle story on the Adachi search warrant fiasco:

What’s more, The Chronicle learned, there was more to the chief’s decision to stop backing the raid. Scott changed course after City Attorney Dennis Herrera told the chief he could not defend the raid, according to several sources with knowledge of the discussion.

This is a mere footnote to a previous City Hall fiasco on how it pushed the Bicycle Plan illegally through the process before we got an injunction and a court order to force the city to do the legally required environmental review of the ambitious project.

Evidently Herrera didn't take that hard line in the run-up to the Bicycle Plan fiasco, which would have saved city taxpayers a lot of money. Instead he gave City Hall a feeble warning and then had his staff vigorously defend the indefensible in court.

Why the different approach? Because Herrera was thinking about running for mayor and didn't want to antagonize the Bicycle Coalition and city cyclists, an important part of the Democratic Party's base here in Progressive Land.

See also Masonic Avenue bike lanes: Gaudy monument to wishful thinking.