Nat Ford Defies Gavin: Sunday, Extended Weekday Parking Meters Back On Table

Just got back from a D8 supervisors candidate forum.

For the record - regarding parking meter extensions.

For - Mandelman
Against - Weiner, Heminger
Abstain - Prozan

This despite Weiner talking over and over how much he loves MUNI, that he would cut schools and police before MUNI. By the transitive theorem - free parking is more important than schools or police.

The solution to weekday evening meters is to drive a block away from the metered street and hog residential spaces that are free. This will annoy residents near a commercial area, who will pressure the city and cause a backlash. Do you seriously think people in this city will voluntarily just cough up quarter after quarter to park in a metered spot every time they go to dinner?

Riddle me this. Which population is larger.

"residents near a commercial area"

"MUNI riders"

@john murphy: doesn't matter which is larger; the question is which is louder. Or, more appropriately, who gets more attention at City Hall? Restaurant owners, or public transit riders? What did Mayor Newsom previously do for a living?

the squeaky wheel gets the grease... this is well known.

Which wheel are you? I need to know if I should adjust the my decibel level.

Right now, the MUNI riders are winning. This was off the table, the riders screamed, now it's back on the table. If it went to the BOS, it would be up to Bevan Dufty who wants to be Mayor. That requires votes - and each person only gets one...

@blooms what you're saying is transportation policy should favor a minority group which has enough money to buy a car, insurance, gas, and dinner out, but draws the line at 25 cents?

That is laughable on it's face and even if car owners made up 99% that kind of selfishness shouldn't be catered too when riders (who don't get nights and weekends free) are forced to pony up more money for less service.

Scenario B: Sensing the encroachment on their territory residents simply leave their cars on the street on Sundays and do things that don't involve driving.

Scenario C: Sensing the encroachment on their territory residents push for residential permits.

Scenario D: Given the high competition for parking already at these metered spots, residential permits are already required to park in the non-metered spots and your argument becomes moot.

Residential permits are irrelevant to someone who is going out to eat or shop for less than two hours near a commercial district. Permits are usually required to park in excess of that limit.

@jamison: what "minority" group? According to SFMTA's 2008 San Francisco Transportion Fact Sheet, as of 2006, only 30 percent of San Francsicans took public transit to work. 40.5% drove to work in SF--alone. Fully one third of the city owns at least one car, if not more. There were 473,000 registered auto owners in the City in a city of 744,000 people. If more than half of the city owns a car, and 40% drive to work every day, I'm not sure you can describe car owners/users as a narrow minority.

My point is simple: people aren't going to stump up to pay money, they're going to find other ways to get around it.