San Francisco residents who have dreamed of a Target store in the city are finally getting their wish. Last week, the San Francisco Redevelopment agency gave the green light for Target to move into the Metreon, on Mission and Fourth Street. Target plans to begin construction in late spring or early summer of 2011 and […]
Yearly Archives: 2010
Posted inEducation, Government & Politics, Labor, Law & Justice, Social Justice
State audit: local agencies not providing efficient bilingual services
A state audit released Thursday revealed that many local agencies are not providing proper bilingual service called for in the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, passed 37 years ago. The audit says agencies need to improve services by providing more staff who are bilingual and translated written materials.
Posted inMuni, Transportation
Drivers take the heat for discontent of Muni riders
Operators face long hours, crowded streets and a sometimes hostile ridership
Proposition G, the initiative that voters overwhelmingly approved to change pay and work rules for Muni operators, focused attention on the system’s drivers, painting them as a reason that San Francisco’s Muni transit system is notoriously slow and unreliable.
And the drivers did little to help their cause on the public relations front — rejecting cuts that other city workers agreed to, boycotting the annual Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest and threatening to strike if the measure passed.
But on the job, drivers work in a high-stress environment, with long hours and, for many drivers, few breaks.
Posted inNews
San Francisco, Bay Area home prices fall for first time in a year
Bay Area home prices fell in October for the first time since last year, according to a report. Prices have fallen as unemployment and the end of certain tax incentives have made home purchases decline, according to an MDA DataQuick report. In San Francisco, prices dropped by 5.6 percent to an average of $652,000 and […]
Posted inMuni, News, Transportation
Muni: In elusive quest for 85% on-time performance, computers are displacing eyes on the street
Transit agency says tech will help it turn corner, but money remains tight
Multimillion-dollar vehicle-monitoring technology installed at Muni headquarters is at the heart of a new initiative aimed at solving the transit system’s never-ending performance problems.
By investing $13.6 million in the NextMuni satellite tracking system and a new 24-hour vehicle monitoring center, San Francisco transit officials promise major improvements in keeping the city’s more than 1,000 buses and trains running on schedule. Already this year, Muni Metro trains in the Market Street tunnel are speeding up, they said.
But Muni managers are still struggling with the question of how to get the most out of this new technology to increase performance at a time when budget pressures make it increasingly difficult to do that.
Posted inMuni, Transportation
Muni planners say speed to come from untangling messy streetscape
Transit planner calls the city’s streets and tunnels ‘a nightmare’
San Francisco transit planners say a recipe of small fixes could amount to big changes in the nation’s fifth-largest urban transit system. But without new sources of money, many of these ideas, some of which would change the way the city’s streets are configured, will remain on the drawing board.
The system is chronically slow and crowded in part because its diverse fleet of bus and rail lines operates on a rollercoaster terrain in a fully built-out urban grid. Street fairs and demonstrations, ball games and construction routinely clog major arteries, making schedules seem academic.
The Municipal Transportation Agency launched its Transit Effectiveness Project in 2006, to reconfigure the city’s streets and tunnels — where physical constraints notoriously slow basic public transit to what one Muni planner called “a nightmare.”
Posted inMuni, Transportation
Finding the slow buses
This map shows which San Francisco transit routes have the highest ridership and which adhere most closely to their schedules. Color indicates on-time performance; thickness of the lines indicates ridership.
The 1-California and 30-Stockton, traversing San Francisco’s northern flank, are high-ridership lines (green), with 80 percent or better schedule adherence.
The J-Church, K-Ingleside, T-Third, L-Taraval, and N-Judah Muni Metro lines, and the 14-Mission and 38-Geary bus lines, also have high reliability, with 70 percent or better schedule adherence (yellow).
Posted inEducation, Muni, Neighborhoods, Transportation
Reporters’ Notebook: En route: 28-19th Avenue often off schedule
Reporter Jerold Chinn, Multimedia Editor Monica Jensen and Social Media Editor Sarah Fidelibus rode one of the Muni bus lines that has the most trouble keeping on schedule — the 28-19th Avenue.
They documented the problems the bus faced while traveling on a recent Wednesday afternoon along the route from Fort Mason to Daly City. The bus travels for much of its route along 19th Avenue, or Highway 1, which leads to the Golden Gate Bridge to the north and Interstate 280 to the south.
Posted inCity Hall, Elections, News, Politics
Supervisors announce open house for mayor’s office
Supervisors approved the selection and nomination process for Mayor Gavin Newsom’s successor and decided to hold a series of public meetings to solicit input.
Posted inNews
Rave music events banned at Cow Palace after deaths
A moratorium has been placed on electronic music events, commonly referred to as raves, at the Cow Palace following drug and alcohol-related incidents that led to two deaths. The Cow Palace’s board of directors voted Tuesday to bar two events — the Subsonic Spookfest and Pop 2010: The Dream — from taking place in the arena, according […]