Muni Losing Money, Routes ... and Fuel
San Francisco MTA details cuts
By JACKSON WEST
Updated 4:30 PM PST, Tue, Nov 3, 2009
After raising fares earlier this year and promising to cut service in order to balance its budget, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has revealed its plans for the latter.
Starting Dec. 5, you can kiss the 26-Valencia goodbye. As well as the 20-Columbus (though I'm pretty sure that bus was already a figment of the imagination). The 4-Sutter, 7-Haight, 53-Southern Height and 89-Laguna Honda will all go the way of the dodo.
Additionally, routes will be shortened for some lines, and others will run less frequently -- half of all bus routes and one train route are affected.
So you're already paying more, and soon you'll be getting less, as promised! Unless you live in the Richmond, in which case, there will be more 38-Geary express busses for your riding pleasure.
But don't worry, nobody has the political chutzpah to charge more for parking, which is the SFMTA's friendly way of saying "Get off the bus and into that gas-guzzling car and burn fuel for hours while you look for parking!"
Have any of these moves actually solved the SFMTA's budget mess? Bwahahahahaha!
No, the agency is still in deep deficit doo-doo, with $45.1 million in projected deficits for the remainder of the budget cycle. So it will cut 250 jobs, and spend stimulus money meant for investment in infrastructure on daily operations.
Not that the agency wants you to know that.
In a somewhat unrelated story that certainly seem instructive as to just how things work around Muni, the Environment Protection Agency is seeking $250,000 in damages from the SFMTA after workers allowed thousands of gallons of diesel fuel to leak into storm drains leading to San Francisco Bay.
Of course, there was an obnoxious alarm warning them of the spill, but rather than, you know, fixing the problem, the alarm was simply turned off.
Oh, Muni -- once again illustrating the fine line between tragedy and comedy.
Photo by Flickr user hereandthereblog.
Jackson West's purchase of a bicycle was the best decision he made all year.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Nov 3, 2009 3:00 PM PST
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