Can S.F.’s next mayor save Muni? – Part 2
San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos, who is seeking the mayor’s job, says Muni has an infrastructure problem within the transit system. He has said that Muni is too centered in the downtown area. He wants all residents in the city to have better access to Muni and wants to stop the practice of switchbacks, where Muni buses or trains change direction during mid-route.
Can S.F.’s next mayor save Muni? – Part 1
Public Defender Jeff Adachi, a candidate for mayor of San Francisco, said Muni must live up to its voter-mandated on-time performance rate of 85 percent. How does he plan to do that if elected? One of his ideas is to stop city departments from taking resources from the transit agency, known as work orders. Work orders are charges from city departments to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Last year SF 311 charged the agency for each customer assistance call related to Muni, which resulted in a $6.3 million bill.
UPDATE: 10/19/11 Muni announced more service improvements to other lines this week. Plans to improve one of the Muni’s worst performing bus lines will finally take affect on Monday. The 28L-19th Avenue bus line, which usually is packed with riders and not on-time (42 percent on-time performance in the latest Muni report), will not make stops at the Golden Gate Bridge and four stops along 19th Avenue and Park Presidio.
Since installing Clipper Card readers on the front and back doors of Muni buses, riders have wondered if Muni would ever go to an official all-door boarding system. At Tuesday’s San Francisco Municipal Board of Transportation meeting, Muni chief Ed Reiskin said it could happen in 2012.
A systemwide all-door boarding would speed up boarding on Muni buses and reduce travel time for riders, according to Muni officials.
It’s that time of month again — when the city’s transit agency releases its quarterly performance report card. And it looks like not much has changed from previous reports, which is not good news for Muni officials. For the last three months of the 2010-2011 fiscal year (April through June 2011), on-time performance measured at 72.9 percent, far below the 1999 voter-mandated goal of 85 percent. During the previous quarter for the first three months of 2011, on-time performance was at 74.7 percent.
Extreme biodiversity, coupled with the surrounding extreme urbanism, makes the Presidio arguably the epicenter of native plant restoration in the West. The 2.3 square mile park, formerly an Army base, is home to 600 plants, more variety than in most states. It owes this biodiversity to its San Francisco location, a city at a biogeographic crossroads. At the Presidio, Betty Young leads a team of botanists that collect and grow native plants as part of a painstakingly precise attempt to restore the park’s native habitat.
Welcoming porpoises back to San Francisco Bay
Cavallo Point at Fort Baker is not just a place to watch sailboats go by as the morning sun illuminates the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s also a great place to watch the water surge in and out with the tides. And with a little patience, you might see a black dorsal fin cut the swirling water, followed by another, smaller fin.
UPDATE 8/19/11: Hear reporter Angela Hart discuss her story with KQED News, a Public Press reporting partner (fast-forward to second item)
San Francisco could have saved at least $33.5 million over the last two years’ budgets if departments, commissions and contractors had acted on advice from regular audits pointing out government waste and inefficiencies. The savings, much of it coming out of transit and police employee overtime, could have reduced the need to cut some vital services this summer as local government agencies faced $380 million in projected deficits over the next year.
Some of the audits produced by a unit of the controller’s office have been implemented swiftly. Yet as many as 40 audit reports out of 70 performed since 2009 linger officially unresolved. The problem is, there’s no recourse if departments choose to ignore auditors. And after two years, the office is not required to follow up on the reports, which could explain why 14 additional audits highlighting potential savings of $700,000 were not indicated on a list produced by the controller’s office.
The apparent success of Muni’s Nx-Judah express bus service could offer hope to riders on other crowded streetcar lines. Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose said other express buses could be possible, but the agency will look at community needs before adding buses to other lines. For now, riders seem to be enjoying the added service to the N-Judah line. Ridership on the express bus, which started in June, has grown from 938 passengers to 1,282 a day during the first four weeks, according to the transit agency. Muni projected an average daily ridership of 1,000 to 1,500 passengers. Riders have asked Muni to extend the hours during the evening and to add express buses for other rail lines.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors announced Thursday that the Department of Public Works Director Ed Reiskin will become the next agency’s executive director. Reiskin arrives at a crucial time in the agency where Muni’s on-time performance fell slightly to 71 percent and the relationship between the agency and its drivers is increasingly strained.
