Friday Round Up – New Chances to Tell MUNI Like It Is (Sort of)

Whilst perusing the likes of SFist.com I found this recent post announcing a so-called Town Hall Meeting with MUNI Director Nate Ford. The devil, as they say, is in the details – apparently the people at Rescue MUNI have indicated this meeting came about only because of a petition by commuters from the Peninsula upset with the Caltrain to MUNI.
Devilish detail #1 – if you live in San Francisco, you get squat. If you live elsewhere, someone listens. WTF? Devilish detail #2 – the “where” and “when” – in this case at noon at a conference room on the second floor of the Ferry Building. Nothing indicates an easy to attend meeting like one held somewhere hidden in the Ferry Building at noontime.
But devilish detail #3 – the biggie – is this really a “meeting” or one of those self-serving “lectures” like the ones the Mayor’s been holding around town? I really hope it is the former, and not the latter.
Supervisor Mirkarimi’s event last fall at least tried to hold MUNI leaders accountable and has been used to hold them to promises (often broken).
More importantly, questions not answered in person were done in writing afterwards. And, the meeting wasn’t allowed to devolve into techno-talk – the real-world concerns such those brought up by Loyal Readers were kept at the forefront. It’s hard to know for sure, at this point, and while I’m hopeful it’ll produce something concrete, it’s all too easy for bureau-bots and status quo defenders to turn a public meeting into a PR stunt.
I am not sure I can attend this one myself, but I am definitely going to try – if any of you are interested, you should attend, and post your thoughts in the comments section afterwards! This kind of meeting is not a cure-all, but it’s something for now, and why not take advantage of the chance if you can?
NOTE: A Loyal Reader (who’d rather not use his or her name online) made a suggestion that people stop by the Mayor’s Neighborhood Lecture in West Portal to try and ask a few questions , but since the topic is officially “public works” I don’t know that would be particularly helpful. If you go, let us know what happened!