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Muni proposes eliminating weekend services for waterfront neighborhoods
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As you may have read in the San Francisco Chronicle today, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency expects a $128.9 million budget deficit in fiscal year 2009-2010 that begins July 1, 2009. In order to balance the budget, the agency is proposing Muni service reductions and staff cuts.
While reductions of service and route changes for Muni lines 1-California, 10-Townsend, and 12-Folsom probably are not a big deal for the Rincon Hill neighborhood segments served, I am very alarmed about the recommendation to eliminate weekend service of the N Judah metro rail line past Embarcadero Station and hope that you share my alarm and desire to ask SFMTA to leave waterfront neighborhoods' weekend N-Judah metro rail service alone.
While I'm thankfully able to get around on my own two feet and can ride a bicycle to Mission Creek park, the Mission Bay Branch Library, to Caltrain, and other destinations further south of the Bay Bridge, there are many of our neighbors who cannot get around so easily ... and that number will increase as more empty nesters and other older residents move into Rincon Hill. The T-Third metro line is a single car line, and it is pretty unreliable because of the turn it makes off of 4th Street onto King Street among other reasons.
Perhaps an alternative is to let every other N-Judah metro train go to Caltrain at 4th and King on the weekends ... and/or ramp up the E-Embarcadero street car service on the weekends. This would help fill the void for the Rincon Hill, South Beach, and Mission Bay neighborhoods. Especially for Rincon Hill residents, because of the increasing population and lack of transit options going through the neighborhood to get people to grocery stores and other resident servicing businesses, it is important that the City doesn't cut off our efficient transit option on the weekends.
Please get out your pens, paper, and stamps and write letters to Mayor Gavin Newsom, to Supervisor Chris Daly, and to the SFMTA Board of Directors and please send emails with 200 words or less to the various newspapers' editors (this last item is especially effective - if I've learned anything it is that government employees hate being called on the carpet in the media and usually react if the volume is loud enough from the residents' outcrys). Addresses are provided below. The letters should share why you personally depend on N-Judah metro service on the weekends and ask that the N-Judah service be maintained on the weekends or perhaps every other N-Judah train get sent past Embarcadero to Caltrain and/or the Muni E-Embarcadero street car service begin operating on the weekends. Remind these people that the waterfront neighborhoods south of Market Street account for quite a large portion (if anybody knows the exact numbers, please email them to me at jamie@rinconhillneighbors.org) of property tax, transfer, and other revenues these days, and we deserve equitable treatment on the weekends for those huge contributions to the City's budget. All letters must be received by addressees by Friday, April 10th.
After you write the letters, please plan on attending one of the following public meetings to voice the same outcry to retain public transit service along the waterfront rails south of Embarcadero Station.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009, at 2 p.m.
SFMTA Board of Directors Meeting
Room 400 in City Hall
Tuesday, April 14, 9 a.m.
SFMTA Board of Directors Policy and Governance Committee
One South Van Ness Avenue, 2nd Floor Atrium Conference Room.
Saturday, April 18, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Information Meeting on the SFMTA Budget and Proposed Service and Fare Changes
One South Van Ness, 2nd Floor Atrium Conference Room.
Tuesday, April 21, 2 p.m.
SFMTA Board of Directors Meeting
Room 400, City Hall.
Thursday, April 30, 2 p.m.
Special SFMTA Board of Directors Meeting on fiscal year 2010 Budget
Room 400, City Hall
Note: The SFMTA Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on a budget balancing plan at this meeting.
In addition to encouraging attendance at the upcoming meetings, the SFMTA requests public feedback on the budget balancing options and proposed service reductions and modifications via:
* E-mail: sfmtabudget@sfmta.com
* Telephone: 311 or TTY 415.701.2323 or outside San Francisco 415.701.2311
* Facsimile: 415.701.4502
* U.S. Mail: SFMTA Board of Directors, One South Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA, 94103
NOTE: All written comments on the declaration of a fiscal emergency on the Board’s April 7 agenda must be received at the SFMTA by Friday, April 10.
Mailing addresses for your letters:
Mayor Gavin Newsom
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
gavin.newsom@sfgov.org
Supervisor Chris Daly
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244
San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689
Chris.Daly@sfgov.org
SFMTA Board of Directors
One South Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA, 94103
Newpapers' Letters to the Editor Email Addresses
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Examiner
Bay Area Reporter
San Francisco Bay Guardian (and Op-Eds for consideration to Tim Redmond)
SF Weekly
