Physical graffiti, the worst kind:
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Posts Tagged ‘Paul Rose’
Your Federal Stimulus Money at Work: Half-Million-Dollar SFMTA MUNI Ticket Kiosk at Geary Marred with Graffiti
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013Detailed Report from The Bay Citizen re: San Francisco’s Sub-Par Taxi System – Going to the Sunset? Well, “Good Luck!”
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013Turns out that San Francisco’s cab system is more akin to “Crazy Taxi 3 WestCoast (San Francisco)” than not.
See if you agree after perusing this lengthy bit from transportation writer Zusha Elinson
Hey, it’s the video game version of Levi’s Plaza. Check it.
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And I’ll tell you, the reason why your cabbie doesn’t want to take you way the Heck out there to the West Side in the Richmond District or the Sunset District is that if s/he does then s/he will have less cash in his/her pocket at the end of the shift.
Probably.
Like $3 or $5 or $10 less.
Oh well.
It’s like if you’re a “chicken and water” customer at a restaurant, you dig? You and your three buds look down at the menu and spot the cheapest entree (chicken, at the one chain I’m thinking about) and then the cheapest “drink” (water, natch). You all are just as much trouble for the waitress as regular customers* and yet at the end of her shift, she’s walking home with $10 or $20 or $30 less than she would if she had had more typical customers plus she may very well get chided by her supe for not trying hard enough to “upsell” and whatnot.
So that’s why hacks generally don’t want to take you to 46th and Ortega. ‘Specially when the City is hopping.
*Or more, as chicken and water people have a reputation of being more demanding than average.
Oh Dear, Appears that “The Russian Embassy” of Alamo Square Opposes the SFMTA’s Attempts to Tax Parking in the Area
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012All right, first a little history:
“Up at Fulton and Scott is a great shambling old Gothic house, a freaking decayed giant, known as The Russian Embassy”
Here it is. Note that its owner opposes the current attempt of the SFMTA / MUNI / DPT to charge people for parking on the street. See?
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This issue is ably covered by Morgane Byloos in the Local Addition blog of the Western Addition.
Hey MUNI! Why don’t you manage your existing affairs before you start working on new things?
Just asking.
In closing, MUNI sucks.
Forget About Rob Anderson, the StreetsBlog Crowd Now Has a New Public Enemy #1: It’s Writer Scott James of the Bay Citizen
Friday, July 15th, 2011[UPDATE: Right on schedule: "Bay Citizen’s Scott James Tries to Drum Up Opposition to Fell and Oak Bikeways"]
Back in the day, Rob Anderson was The Most Hated Man In Town, ’cause he tied the City and County up in knots by insisting upon an Environmental Impact Report for the San Francisco Bicycle Plan. He instigated a slam-dunk lawsuit (really, he was pretty much guaranteed victory) owing to the City trying to go around CA state law by just pretending that an EIR wasn’t necessary.
But eventually, after years, the required report got finished and that was that. IMO, he should have quit while he was ahead, but no, he and his lawyer said the EIR wasn’t good enough – they ended up losing on that issue. Still, you’d have to say he was one of the most successful NIMBYs in CA history.
Remember when he was on the front page of the national edition of the Wall Street Journal? Good times:
But that was then and this is now, so forget about Rob Anderson.
Comes now Scott James of the Bay Citizen - feel free to set your sights (sites?) on him:
Why?
Well, because of stuff like this. People didn’t like that bit, not at all.
And now, today, ooh boy, that’s not going to go down well, no sir.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how there’s not a ‘no way, this is crazy, don’t do it’ feeling out there,” [Mike] Sallaberry said, according to Streetsblog.org, a pro-cycling website. But the bike coalition research, obtained using the open-records law, surveyed only 14 businesses — and it actually reveals very serious objections, which some survey respondents later reiterated in interviews.
To annoy drivers “and make it worse of a pain is not the solution,” Miloslavich said.
Robert Williams, owner of Panhandle Guitar, said: “Fell Street is dangerous to have bike lanes on.”
[SFMTA Spokesmodel Paul] Rose said he was not sure whether Sallaberry’s remarks had been correctly reported. Sallaberry was not available for comment.”
Wow, that’s all you can come up with? You’re “not sure whether the remarks had been correctly reported?”
Wow. That’s the last arrow in your quiver that you should be using, right? Oh, it was the only arrow you had?
Wow.
Obviously, when the SFMTA and its affiliates decide to do a program, it’s the job of the SFMTA to push that program through come Hell or high water. If the program gets executed then the manager succeeded and if the program doesn’t get executed, then the manager failed – it doesn’t matter a whit whether or not the program itself is good or bad for the commonweal at that point. Not at all. What matters is that the SFMTA decided to do something. It’s the job of SFMTA employees to cheerlead and mislead and lie to get any particular program through.
Remember the traffic circles of the lower and upper Haights? Boy, they took out stop signs on Page Street and Waller and then you’d just have to guess at what drivers were going to do when they came upon the intersection. You see, drivers didn’t have to stop. Anyway, that crazy idea got voted down – it lost five times out of five – but all the people behind the stupid traffic circles could say is how “sad” it was that the traffic circles were such a failure.
The fact that they weren’t a good idea never seemed to occur to the people behind the traffic circles.
Fixing the eastbound Panhandle-to-Wiggle connector shouldn’t be that hard. Mostly, it’s about taking out some parking spaces or otherwise freeing up some more room. It’s not about “completing” Oak Street, it’s not about being the next “win-win” from the SFMTA. It’s about making compromises, it’s about winners and losers, it’s about costs and benefits.
Lying to people about the costs doesn’t benefit the people of San Francisco.
Of course.
