Reading today’s Chronicle on the hassles created by Nathaniel Ford and the MTA’s major cuts this morning read like a “No Duh University” report, whether you’re a Loyal Reader of this blog, or any blog about Muni, or about San Francisco. It is but the tip of the iceberg – between the many, many tweets I get from readers describing amazing failures of the system as is today, and my own experiences, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or an overpaid Muni manager) to figure that they’ve found a new way to wreck the system.
It’s also clear that no serious attempts were made to control costs or reform Muni substantially. Between the management/labor audit, work order audit, and the effectiveness of fare enforcement (and let’s not forget their fantasy budget projections) , it’s clear that many of these cuts never needed to happen. Nathaniel Ford and his boss, Mayor Newsom, and all the overpaid managers and consultants could have cared less. They don’t seem to understand how Muni works, nor do they realize they work for us, not for the frat boy in Room 200.
So today, I’m issuing a challenge to the senior management of Muni and the board of the MTA: I dare you, no I double dare you, to ride Muni exclusively for a month. And I don’t want to hear the typical elected official/bureaucrat’s excuse about “oh I’m so busy I can’t use it all the time blah blah blah.”
News flash: we, the owners of Muni are also busy. And yet you somehow deem our time worthless while you enjoy big pay, benefits or whatever it is that keeps you in a position to continue to ruin our lives and our city with your poor decisions.
So let’s see which one of you, if any of you, is up to the challenge. I would have issued this challenge to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor, but we know how pointless that would be. Either they’d lie about it or ignore it anyway.
Who wants to take bets on whether we’ll see our pricey, under qualified management team on Muni for a month? Anyone? Anyone?
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Love this idea, Greg.
I doubt any of them will do it.
Genius idea, Greg! I would pass the hell out if they accepted the challenge, which, really, they should.
Great idea! Get’s me thinking about a couple of ballot ideas:
= Director of SFMTA is an elected position.
= I want the whole SFMTA board to be elected. Expand the size of the board to 11 bodies, one for each district.
= The staff of SFMTA receive no transportation related perks: no free parking, no city car, no driver, no free fast passes, nothing. And to cut the question off at the pass, if a person does not want to take the director job without a driver, then we don’t need them in that job.
= 20% of the director’s compensation is based upon their riding muni 2 days a week.
I think you nailed it with this quote: “And yet you somehow deem our time worthless”. That is what has me seeing red through all of these transit cuts. I got into a bit of an argument with the BART customer service people when they rolled back night and Sunday service to 20 minute headways. The very last hour, 11 pm to midnight, actually saw even bigger rollbacks as there are only two trains in the last hour. Naturally, that is the train service I use often coming home from the Sharks. Who needs sleep, anyway? An extra half-hour to get home should be no big deal. Grrrrrr.
I waited 35 minutes for a K/T going into the Embarcadero from Caltrain last night. I had luggage and didn’t feel like schlepping it onto the 30/45, then trekking down Market to Montgomery and down the narrow staircase to the other Metro lines. There were tons of trains going the other way back to the new yard. The Next Muni sign said it would be another 33 minutes for the next K/T after mine. Two trains in 78 minutes???
Bravo! Too bad they’re really not invested in our system like we are. Seems like a lot of these people see MUNI as a stop on their whirdwind tour around the nation of overpaid positions with low accountability.
@zericm: No, a Fast Pass is *all* SFMTA employees should receive as a transportation-related perk. We do want to incentivize them to ride Muni, right?
Your Southern California correspondent here. The “transit officials should use their own product” idea has also been proposed (several times!) by our local transit enthusiasts and watchdogs.
YES!!!! The TV stations were ALL over the story of the metermaid parking in a “gasp” yellow zone & shopping at Goodwill, lets get them ALL over this challenge! I do think the Supervisors should also be challenged – becauase we can vote them out!
Has anyone done a study to see how all these service cuts affect businesses? Certainly if I’m spending more time at a bus stop, that’s less time I could spend shopping, eating out, etc.
I’ll say it again. ALL SF civil servants up through Mayor should get Fast Passes and no “staff cars” (sell them!) or parking (lease it out at market rates). I think six months of “attitude” from Muni drivers would find the rest of their union sisters/brothers giving them a woodshedding. And yes, an MTA ED who wants a car need not apply.
@BM I want don’t need to push them to muni per se, but I do want them to have the full impact of their transportation choice. If they have to pay for their own Fast Pass, I think they might have second thoughts about increasing the price.
Electing the MTA board would work great, because we know that only the best and most qualified get elected. Like the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors.
Definitely give them fast passes and take away sell their cars and lease their parking. The cost of fast passes is tiny compared to those frills that they enjoy.