“Supervisor” Campos’ So-Called Free Muni Plan – Cynical Politics Disguised as Charity

Reading the latest on the so-called “free Muni for kids” plan being pushed by So-Called Progressive “Supervisor” Campos just reinforces much of my misgivings from some time ago. You’d think that this idea would have died off by now, or at least been fixed to something rational the cash-strapped agency could support. This is San Francisco, however, and anytime you can push the right politically-correct buttons, people will follow a bad policy.
Already the cost of the program (which “Supervisor” Campos never deigned to explain how to pay for) has ballooned, but again, no one at City Hall seems to care, as they passed some gutless resolution asking the MTA to do this, costs and impact be damned. Worse, while Campos puts himself out there as some saint for pushing this and making everyone “feel good,” the sad fact is that Campos doesn’t give a damn about the MTA, Muni, or kids.
All he cares about is putting some feel-good crap on a piece of junk mail to get re-elected. Remember, this is someone who works closely with ultra-left organizations like “POWER” who believe in cutting service to the L-Taraval, the N-Judah, the 38, the 71 and other lines, all for a vague sense of “justice.” If he wasn’t getting “free Muni for the kids” he’d have found some other feel good cause to bankrupt Muni with. All he cares about is himself. I mean, even So-Called Progressive John Avalos, running for mayor, has said that the scheme is a “pipe dream.”
The SFMTA board was right in suggesting that they’d be open to the idea, if Money From Elsewhere Not the SFMTA ponied up the cash. However, therein lies another policy FAIL that SF politicians love to engage in – grant funded projects with a time limit.
You can almost predict what will happen. Somehow, somewhere, in our broke-ass economy, someone will find some one-time money source to pay for this so-called “pilot project.” People will get great press conferences, the special interest groups will sing praises to the politicians at election time, unicorns and magical frogs will pervade the city landscape, and everyone will think everything is Super OK.
Then reality kicks in when the one-time money runs out. By now, the politicians who pushed this have moved on to the next job. The special interests scream murder, and the kids are trotted out to cry on cue for the cameras. People scramble to “save the program” (which, come on, do you really think the economy’s going to be better in 3 years) and the mess will have been made.
No one will be held accountable, and the hard work to put in to make the SFMTA self sustaining never happens. Sure doing so now would not make for good mail piece politics in 2010, but it would be the best course for THE ENTIRE SYSTEM AND THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
Next time you hear a So-Called Progressive talk about Muni, be very skeptical. They all have a track record of betting wildly with your money, without putting much thought into the outcome. It’s easy to fall for tales of unicorns and magic frogs. Both, like the promises of politicians, are also bullsh*t.