Sup. Mirakrimi New Chair of San Francisco COUNTY Transit Authority!

While we await word as to when today’s Muni N/J Failwhale will be repaired, there’s some news today that is of interest, particularly those of you who live in District Five (Inner Sunset, Haight, et al) – Sup. Ross Mirkarimi is the new chair of the San Francisco County Transit Authority.
This is big news, and not because Ross has been known to fight street crime firsthand and save lives (really). The SFCTA was created 20 years ago to administer the sales tax money from Prop. K for transit related projects. Because Prop. K created a sales tax, under state law, said money has to be adminstered by…..leaders elected by the people. As a result, the board of the SFCTA is made up of…wait for it….the members of the Board of Supervisors. No, really. (I guess people elected by us peasants can run a transit agency in San Francisco?)
As I’ve discussed in the past, unlike the MTA, the SFCTA has a very focused staff, and spends money on specific projects. When Muni dragged its heels on fixing the Irving/9th turn mess, the SFCTA stepped in, did a study and got things done as fast as possible. Yes the solution now isn’t perfect – but the perfect one meant ripping out the rails. I bring this up because Sup. Mirkarimi was one of the few trying to keep the MTA and Muni to their promises made at a town hall meeting in 2006, which of course, they later reneged on.
Nowadays the MTA is begging for big cash infusions from the SFCTA’s bucket of cash, without any guarantees it won’t be blown on big pay for people who don’t like working, or on stupid crap like “work orders” or aides in the Mayor’s office. We need Sup. Mirkarimi to hold the line on such nonsense, and keep the SFCTA doing what it does best, and work with people on all sides to ensure that at least the sales tax money doesn’t just get wasted.
Sup. Mirkarimi, show us what you can do. The more electeds willing to stick their neck out on Muni issues and do something, the better for us Muni owners.