SaveMUNI Meeting

Monday, September 21, 5:30 PM
Your chance to hear discussion of two of the most important ballot measures facing Bay Area voters in the November election.  Please invite your friends and neighbors to join us via Zoom.

AGENDA
1. Introduction
2. Announcements
3. Congestion Pricing: SFCTA Presentation on ways to Participate in the On-going study
4. Proposition 22 – Discussion with Proponents and Opponents of the State Ballot Measure to classify Uber and Lyft drivers as employees. (6:00 – 6:45)
5. Proposition RR – Discussion with Proponents and Opponents of the Regional Ballot Measure to raise the sales tax in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties by 1/8 cent to fund Caltrain (6:45 – 7:30)
6. New Business

RSVP: bobf@att.net

JOIN US ON ZOOM
Via Computer: https://zoom.us/j/6377599629
Dial in: +1 720 707 2699 Meeting ID: 637 759 9629
One tap mobile: +17207072699,,6377599629#

BART gets $1.2 billion from feds to add more trains in Transbay Tube amid pandemic woes

By Mallory Moench : sfchronicle – excerpt (includes audio track with Rachel Swan)

BART is getting a $1.2 billion federal grant to help pay for more frequent trains in the Transbay Tube, even as the agency struggles with low ridership, plummeting revenue and an uncertain future because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The funding supports a program that will include a new train control system, 252 new railcars, six new power substations and a 250-railcar storage facility. The improvements will increase trains in the Transbay Tube from 22 to 28 per hour.

“This is a huge day for BART and anyone who needs to get across the Bay during commute hours,” BART General Manager Bob Powers said in a statement Monday…(more)

So, Muni, SFMTA’s idea on how to deal with the public it will not be serving by punishing drivers with Slow Street projects, making it hard to get anywhere by public or private transportation modes. The smoke and fires have made people less likely to not drive when they have to. Not only is it the safest way to avoid contact with people, but, it is the safest by far way to get around in the smoke. How many kids playing in the streets in the smoke?

Dear Peter Hartlaub: A reader conversation about who gets left out of a car-free SF

By Peter Hartlaub : sfchronicle – excerpt

When I remember The Chronicle’s Throughline section, I’m going to think of Howard Chabner.

The nine-week special section exploring San Francisco’s post-pandemic potential always felt like a dialogue with readers. While writing about everything from a bike utopia to a cultural crisis at a burrito shop, I’ve received stronger email feedback than I have from any project in recent memory. Most correspondence was constructive. And all — including the letters from angry golfers — was appreciated.

But no one put in more effort than Chabner.

After reading my July 10 Throughline project, “Back to the drawing board: A map to make SF a bike and pedestrian utopia,” the disability rights advocate who uses a power wheelchair sent an 11-page letter (single spaced!) that challenged several of my points in detail, made a case against a car-free San Francisco and included block-specific grievances — while still conveying an inextinguishable love for the city. (The letter is included in its entirety below.)…(more)

Stay tuned for more on this subject…