Today is November 18. Exactly ten days after Prop D, which would alter the appointments to the MUNI board, was defeated. The MTA has been operating without an Executive Director. Apparently, there are still some people who want the job:
The general manager of Atlanta’s transit system is the front-runner to head The City’s transportation agency, city officials close to the decision said this week.
The Municipal Transportation Agency, which oversees Muni and the Department of Parking and Traffic and its $600 million annual budget, has been without a chief since Executive Director Michael Burns stepped down in July.
Nathaniel Ford Sr., formerly a midlevel manager at BART, is the lead candidate on a short list that includes acting Executive Director Stuart Sunshine. (SF Examiner 11/18/05)
Why anybody would want that job is beyond me, especially considering there is already(!) mud being flung.
Ken Rodriguez, president of the union representing Muni’s field managers, agreed with Sisk, saying it will be difficult for an outsider to navigate San Francisco’s tricky politics.
“Unless he’s a genius, I don’t believe he’ll be successful in San Francisco,” Rodriguez said, pointing out that Burns was also an outsider.
Personally, I don’t think the problems from “being an outsider” are really key here. The problem is that service is atrocious. And recent cuts in service (somehow timed at the same time as fare increases) have made the situation far worse. I have waited for 10 minutes, IN A PACKED CAR, in the subway tunnels. To say I felt like cattle would be an understatement. And today this, from a letter written by Be_devine to Supervisor Dufty:
Today began as most days in the past few months. Upon arrival at the Castro MUNI station at 7:20 a.m., the inbound platform was overflowing with people. A few minutes later a one-car train arrived, but it was completely packed. Perhaps two of the people from the Castro station were able to get on the train. The computer voice from the sky promised the angry crowd that another one car train would arrive in five minutes. Little solace.
Indeed, another one-car train did arrive five minutes later as promised. This car, like the last, was completely full. And so it went on. A total of six trains passed by, all completely full. Late for work, tired of being shoved by the crowd, and wondering why I didn’t drive to work, I was finally able to shove my way on the seventh train that arrived over 30 minutes after I arrived at the station. I left behind a huge crowd of people still waiting on the platform for their chance to shove themselves onto a packed train. It took me over an hour to travel the 4 miles to my office.
Since the service cuts and fare hikes, this is now business at usual at MUNI. It seems the City is begging people to stop using this failed system and instead find another more reliable means of transportation. It is working. I no longer consider MUNI a reliable method of transportation. If I need to be somewhere on time, I likely will look to another means of transportation – like a car. It is a shame that San Francisco has created a system that encourages people to use cars instead of public transit.
What can be done? Well, certainly shifting power from the mayor to the Board will have little power on the net result. We need a leader who can look at the situation as a business, optimize ridership and make this an effective transit system. If that is raising the fares, so be it. An ineffective system does nobody good.
Photo credit: Sacramento Bee/ Brian Baer