Yesterday, the SFMTA Board of Directors voted on a range of measures to begin close the year end deficit currently figured to be $12.1 million. The meeting ran over and will be continued until Tuesday, but some decisions were made on Friday including a 10% cut in Muni service. Unlike the changes made in December, no routes or segments of routes will be eliminated as happened with Decembers cuts and there will be no new or increased service to offset the cuts.
As the SFMTA Board of Directors hears public comment on proposed actions to address a $16.9 million deficit, Streetsblog San Francisco’s Bryan Goebel is there liveblogging coverage.
At a meeting this Friday, February 26, the SFMTA Board of Directors will vote on a number of measures to cut Muni service and increase fares in order to fill a $16.9 million year-end deficit. Under the proposal posted online, Muni riders will be the hardest hit with a second round of service cuts and fare increases in less than a year.
Market Street Railway produces a calendar each year featuring San Francisco’s historic streetcars and cable cars. The Museums in Motion calendar is an important project to us as both a thank you to members (included with membership of $100 or more) to raise funds for our non-profit work preserving historic transit.
Last fall, San Francisco kicked off a year long improvement program for Market Street including art, music, greenery and running trial programs to improve traffic flow.
A quick reminder: historianand author Woody LaBounty will be speaking at the San Francisco Railway Museum this Saturday, tomorrow, at 2:00 PM. His new book Carville-by-the-Sea: San Francisco’s Streetcar Suburb “vividly recalls one of the quirkiest communities in San Francisco’s rich history” made of retired streetcars and cable cars recycled into homes, shops, bars, and everything else that makes up a neighborhood.
Our first post about Carl Nolte’s Chronicle column on the “not-so-good old days” on Market Street mentioned that back when there were four streetcar tracks on Market, there was less than two feet of clearance between Muni and Market Street Railway Co. streetcars — including the stops where passengers had to stand while behemoth streetcars bore down on them.
Streetcars gridlocked on Market Street in 1922. In the foreground, Lotta’s Fountain is visible on the corner of Market & Kearny. San Francisco Municipal Railway photo.
Crime in San Francisco has been on the decline lately, with a notable exception. In addition to several high profile accidents and service outages in the several months, crime on board Muni vehicles is up as well.
