A year after San Francisco began activating city parking meters on Sundays, Mayor Ed Lee said today that he wants to scrap the program.
Lee will formally announce his desire to abolish Sunday parking meter enforcement during his State of the City address on Friday morning.
“I was never a big fan of metering people on Sundays,” the mayor said.
He said the proposal came about as a way to bring in money for the Muni system, which was badly underfunded.
“We’re figuring our way out of that, so why not stop nickel-and-diming people on Sundays?” Lee said.
He noted that a city transportation task force has come up with some other revenue-generating plans, including asking voters to approve a transportation bond measure that would appear on the November ballot.
He said his office has gotten constant complaints about the Sunday metering since enforcement began on Jan. 27, 2013.
“It hasn’t stopped, it hasn’t ended since the day the city and Muni imposed it,” Lee said. “People are still not used to it.”
The change would have to be made by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors at a future hearing.
SFMTA board chairman Tom Nolan said in a statement, “Heeding the mayor’s call to make living in San Francisco more affordable, we support the effort to reduce the cost of parking.”
Nolan said, “We will also work with Mayor Lee to find ways to increase service and permanently fund programs like Free Muni for Youth.”
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
