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Firefighters rescue two from China Beach cliff

Firefighters rescued two people this afternoon from a cliff in San Francisco's Sea Cliff neighborhood, according to fire officials.

SJPD ID man killed in cafe shooting

A man fatally shot at a café in San Jose Friday has been identified by police.

Car window-shooting vandals caught on video

Vandals using BB guns have shot out the windows of cars in dozens of incidents since December in Castro...

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4 Comments

  1. “Director Cheryl Brinkman said transit riders should not be ones paying for current budget shortfalls”

    Before Brinkman took her place on the SFMTA board she was involved in an anti-car lobbying group called Livable City. The organization maintained a CAR-FREE message board http://web.archive.org/web/20130516050910/http://livablecity.org/pipermail/carfreeliving_livablecity.org/2006-March/000537.html to “facilitate and promote car-free living in S.F.” Livable City used their tax exempt non-profit status lobbying against the the construction parking garages across the city. http://web.archive.org/web/20040606152053/http://livablecity.org/campaigns/stopexcessiveparking.html

    Brinkman then became Chair of the SFMTA Board and several people from the CAR-FREE living message board http://web.archive.org/web/20070729010141/http://livablecity.org/pipermail/carfreeliving_livablecity.org/2005-May/date.html#start were awarded city contracts through the SFMTA to “manage parking”. One of the people on the CAR-FREE living message board was awarded the contract to evaluate the SFpark pilot program. Another was awarded a contract to do traffic studies for the SFMTA, another was awarded with a full time position at the SFMTA,https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/walk-bloustein-bike-bloustein/QsHAlKfhIO8 and someones husband was awarded a contract with the Central Subway. https://savesfmuni.wordpress.com/complaints/

    Why is the SFMTA such an anti-car organization? Follow the money, the jobs, and the city contracts back to the people who are profiting from parking meters and trying to push CAR-FREE Living on to the public http://web.archive.org/web/20130516050910/http://livablecity.org/pipermail/carfreeliving_livablecity.org/2006-March/000537.html

  2. This is OUTRAGEOUS! The State of California has a budget of $165 billion with a population of around 38 million. San Francisco only has a population of 850,000 but look at our city budget. State spending is around $4,342 per resident, while SF’s spending is $10,470 per resident.

    Parking meter rates have quadrupled since 1992. The meter rates in SF are the second highest in the nation, and the fees and penalties for parking citations are the highest in the country. Also, the revenue of the parking meters and the revenue from traffic citations are not only paying for themselves, but are also subsidizing MUNI as one third (350 Million) of the SFMTAs BILLION DOLLAR budget comes from fines, fees, parking meters, and the SFMTA preying on city residents.

    Of course the SFMTA wants to charge for overnight parking! Aside from the outlandish salaries and pensions, employees of the SFMTA also get LOW COST TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED parking under a collective bargaining
    agreement. Thats right taxpayers SFMTA city employees pay less than 1/3 of what ordinary taxpayers pay for city owned parking spaces. See excerpt from collective bargaining agreement between San Francisco
    Municipal Transit Agency and SEIU Local 1021:

    “PARKING FACILITIES
    152.TheSFMTA agrees to participate, on behalf of service critical employees at the, in Union/ City discussions regarding parking facilities. For the duration of this Agreement, the monthly rate for basic employee parking
    at any SFMTA operated and controlled parking facilities, will not exceed rates in effect as of June 1, 2004 or the price of a MUNI Fast Pass, plus $10, whichever is higher.”Taxpayers pay $500.00 a month to park at City owned garages while SFMTA employees pay only $90.00 a month. Is that what the citys “Transit First” policy is about? Bleeding taxpayers dry to pay the salaries and pensions of city employees?

    • Follow the money! in early 2012 the SFMTA issued a NEW ‘Policies for On-Street Parking Management” document to the public, The document outlined the rules the SFMTA uses to install and enforce parking meters. The SFMTA claimed the document contain *NO NEW POLICIES*.

      After an investigation citizens learned that the document introduced all new Policies without outreach, citizen review, or buy in from the public. The most egregious conflict of interest is that the new policy document was also written by the same company who sold parking meters to the city of San Francisco. Thats right Taxpayers! The company that holds the SFpark meter collection and servicing contract created a *NEW* citywide policy document that justifies the installation of new parking meters that THEY MAKE MONEY FROM!

      20+ Business and Neighborhood groups have demanded that SFMTA rescind the policy document and examine staff actions. In April 2014 the SFMTA Citizens Advisory Committee passed a motion urging the SFMTA board investigate the conflicts of interest and to date the SFMTA Board has done nothing. Had ENUF? City Supervisors have a hidden power. They can vote themselves authority to review all
      SFMTA parking decisions and stop the them from preying on the public.