People in San Francisco like to complain about Muni. Even people from New York and Points Elsewhere like to complain about it and add in a nice dose of smug superiority too (aren’t they nice?). However, in all the complaining no one seems to question why poor decisions made in the past that affect them now came to be. Nor do they really understand that as the Municipal Railway was created for the benefit of the people of San Francisco, that they have a role in keeping it running for their benefit. It’s a quaint notion, yes. It is also the only thing left to owner/riders to keep their system from dying.
Think about it this way – who loses their job if Muni fails? Anyone? Now, mob rule of a transit agency isn’t practical – neither is mob rule of any sort. However in doing a quick review of elections, 1980-2015, I could not find one example of an elected official that has been kicked out of office because Muni’s failure rate was unacceptable to the public.
My friend Joe suggested that part of the reason Frank Jordan lost was due to the infamous “Muni Meltdown,” but that was just one of many, many reasons Mayor Jordan lost re-election. Plus he was replaced by the incompetent and corrupt “Willie Brown” who stuck us with those awful Breda LRVs, and with the Central Subway mess. (I could go on and on about “Willie Brown”‘s failures, but that’s for another post).
Back to the main point: the fact is that San Francisco voters generally don’t spend much time staying informed on local elections (despite what smarty San Franciscans think). If they do pay attention, they tend to vote for people based primarily on who sends the MOST junk mail, and pay the most attention to what a piece of paper with the words “San Francisco Democratic Party” say, and vote accordingly without really thinking about it.
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