Muni FAILS Again: Union Says No to Concessions and Citizens Will Get Royal Screwjob

The public's anger about Muni is reaching a boiling point. Just yesterday, word came around from the Chronicle that Muni's two thousand unionized drivers rejected a proposal that would spare the agency the painful cuts and fare hikes that will hurt our city's citizens.

Vote count: 575 said yes to the offer, 857 rejected. Only 1,432 voted out of their 2,000 membership (yeah, that shows real unity when only 71% vote).

If the union voted in support, Muni could save $15 million by having their drivers make some minor sacrifices and changes in their working policies.

Grumble grumble grumble. It's interesting to note that Mayor Newsom, SFMTA Chief Nat Ford, union head Irwin Lum, and the union's executive board worked fought tooth and nail to work on a decent deal; the union membership just kicked management and it's citizens in the nuts.

I'm a unionized employee too, and we understood that taking furlough and pay cut was necessary to keep our jobs and let our university students be able to have open classes. Why can't this go through the brains of the unionized members of Muni's drivers? Muni will die a painful death (they are crying in agony and begging for morphine right now) unless serious changes happen without screwing the customers again.

I just read an interesting tweet of an organized protest and boycott of Muni, take a look: http://marchagainstmuni.org/

$5 ride on the F-Market and Premium Charge on Express Buses - IS MUNI NUTS?

Our city's public transit agency is a complete insult. With SFMTA/Muni trying to fill-in their massive budget gap of $16.9 million, the problem gets worse and worse every single time the agency opens their mouth.

Streetsblog San Francisco reports that as soon as May, Muni could be doing the following:

1. Fare on the F-Market line would increase to $5.
2. Cable Car service would require use of their "A" pass and the brand new "M" pass would be rejected.
3. Express buses would also only allow the "A" pass and refuse the "M" pass.
4. Discount passes would increase to $30/month.
5. New service fees for SFMTA services online and at their customer service center on Van Ness.
6. An extra $1.50 fee per citation issued by the SFMTA.
7. Neighborhood parking permits would be raised to $96 ($20 hike).
8. Reduction in service on all Muni lines (means less buses and trains on the road).

All these ideas are terrible. Muni should not be screwing with their loyal (and sometimes not loyal) customers. The city should be investing more into our public transportation system.

Muni tried some of these tactics before during the Frank Jordan era, and it FAILED so badly that Muni retracted their premium fare for express buses, gave back bus transfers, and issued a single pass for all adults.

Who in their right mind would ever ride the F-Market if the fee is $5? People could just wait at bus stops, gather four people and get to Fisherman's Wharf in a taxicab in faster time, and the taxi fee per person would be definitely less than $5 a head. What next, charge $5 for the 47-Van Ness and 49-Van Ness Mission because it gets to the tourist spots at the Wharf?

Express buses for a premium fee? I can understand charging a higher price for the Candlestick and Bay to Breakers express buses, but not the peak hour express buses. Those buses help reduce the passenger congestion on the local routes, especially the 1, 38, 38L, and 31 in the Richmond district. If pass prices stay the same and you can only use your premium "A" pass on the peak hour expresses, you would be spending an extra $120 a year just for that feature; for those penny pinchers, that means buying the "M" pass and riding the local bus lines just to save money.

And less frequency on bus lines? Some bus lines only operate every 20 minutes, so adding another 10 minutes would be terrible and ruin the good reputation of some of our best bus lines. Plus, if a bus breaks down, have a nice time waiting up to an hour.

Gavin Newsom promised that our city would be a "transit first city," but more of these bullshit price hikes and transit cuts makes us look more like a "car first city."

The citizens are fed-up with everything about Muni. Muni is the WORST managed agency in the entire city. If the SFMTA Board can't do the job, we the people must start yelling at the top of our lungs and demand change, starting with the IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF SFMTA CHIEF NATHANIEL FORD.

The next board meeting is: Tuesday, January 19th at 2PM in City Hall room 400. If you cannot be there, e-mail them. More info at: http://tinyurl.com/SCREWmuni

Akit's San Francisco Holiday Songs

With the holidays just around the bend, it's time to sing some holiday carols!

Here's one with our Mayor, Gavin Newsom.
Newsom the media walk away-er, didn't like Hank Plante's news.

Then he got all pissy on camera,
yelling out that "this interview blows."

All of the other media, laughed and called him names,
they never let poor Newsom run away from his pains.

Then one foggy San Francisco day,
Hank Plante came to say...

Newsom with your hair so greasy, why not get an interview tonight?

Then all the media loved him,
and he answered his questions with glee.

Newsom the media walk away-er, went down in history (and didn't become Governor!).


Ahh, the 10 days of Muni:

• 10 broken down buses.
• 9 overpaid inspectors.
• 8 fare evasion citations.
• 7 buses smell like asses.
• 6 windows with graffiti.
• 5 clipping nails!
• 4 Sutter is gone.
• 3 accidents.
• 2 stabbings.
• and an agency that is over $100 million in the red.

Always a classic... Jingle Bells!
Jingle bells, Muni smells, Nat Ford cuts our service.
Higher meter rates,
and no parking ticket breaks,
This city is going to hell, hey!

Another Jingle Bells classic!
Dashing through the bags,
on the most crowded bus in town.

Hearing the driver yell,
"get off the stairs or this bus is going to hell!"

Live chicken in the bag,
Ladies clipping their fingers.

Oh what fun it is to ride and smell the stinky bus tonight...
Oh 30-Stockton, 30-Stockton!

On the "Last Ride" for the 18-46th Avenue

It's tough to say goodbye to the 18-46th Avenue's route that serves Geary, Point Lobos, the Cliff House, and a small portion of La Playa.

Today is the last day of service for this segment before it is re-routed to take over the 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch segment from 33rd/Geary to the Ocean Beach terminal. This will make it more challenging for me to catch this bus line that goes directly to my workplace at SF State as I have to walk the notorious steep hills between Balboa and Geary.

Today's "last ride" did not have my usual driver (actually, I haven't seen her in a week), and one of those orange vested SFMTA "ambassadors" was on the bus as well to remind people of the deleted segment starting tomorrow.

Even more interesting is the buses had their automated announcements fixed. The bus announced every single stop, but only the street names. The modified announcements did not mention any major attractions/locations like this one: "Lake Merced and Font; San Francisco State University" or mentioning the SF Zoo.

Even more amusing is listening to the announcements that mentioned that the bus line will be modified and service hours reduced in three different languages, but also noticing that it kept getting cut-off every time because the stop announcements had priority over these reminders.

Read my obit-lette for the 18-46th Avenue and 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch on Muni Diaries.

Muni Meltdown II Coming this Monday

Yes, everyone knows by now that Muni will be do some major changes to their routes starting this Saturday, and everyone knows that the online trip planners are ready for these changes.

But let's get right to the point folks, Monday will be a world of hell, welcome to...

MUNI MELTDOWN II
(or is it meltdown XXVIII?)

Since not everyone rides Muni on Saturdays and Sundays, Monday's commute will be the big stress test for the agency if it will go down in history for being worthy or a huge failure.

But... there's already big failures for the SFMTA with these upcoming changes:

1. Not every bus stop has their yellow colored notice posted about their bus line or segment being cut. In particular, I noticed the 88-BART Shuttle stops on Lake Merced and John Muir Drive without any signage.
2. There's word from SF Streetsblog that Muni will have a huge mid-year deficit in the millions.
3. Muni didn't print enough of those pamphlets about all the route changes. Damn that is a thick pamphlet to carry around.
4. Muni and 511 did not publish a new time schedule for all their buses starting 12/5/09. Instead, we are required to depend on the "trip planner" programs available.
5. Don't forget, Muni is going to force you to cram another $5 to $15 on an adult fast pass in less than a month.

Remember folks, we are paying more for even worse service.

• Don't believe the city government saying these service changes are to improve their efficiency. That's a load of bullshit. Cutting a bus line simply means cramming all those passengers to another bus line that's already full of people.
• Gavin Newsom's dream is to have a "transit first" city; if you re-route or cut service to many lines and just increase frequency on just a few of them, PLUS increase fares and passes, AND massive deferred maintenance, how in the hell are we turning into a "transit first" city after December 5th?

We need to start organizing and fighting back. This is OUR public transit agency that is being destroyed by a bunch of idiots fresh from the insane asylum. Just see how angry I got when I published my 20 demands to fix Muni.

Has Muni Hit Rock Bottom?

Here's a good question for everyone, has San Francisco's Muni hit rock bottom?

If you are wondering... "why are you asking this Akit?" I'm concerned about the state of our public transportation system. It's been in such a decline for nearly a decade, ever since the infamous "meltdown" on the Muni metro system and immediately spreads to the rest of the agency's bus lines.

The meltdown was a sign of big anger for the city, and the head guy at that time came under fire. Mayor Willie Brown promised to fix Muni, but that didn't last. Even our previous mayor (before Brown), Frank Jordan came under fire for eliminating transfers and raising the cost of a fast pass.

But it looks like under the Gavin Newsom era, things don't seem to be going in the right path for our transit agency.

Take a look at the list of items that I believe have made Muni simply hit rock bottom:

1. Passenger injuries are creating crazy settlements. I just witnessed one recently at West Portal inbound when a lady injured her ankle upon boarding the train because the driver forgot to raise the stairs.
2. More frequently broken-down buses. If you ride a bus line with a 20 minute or 30 minute headway and it doesn't show-up due to a breakdown, you'd be pissed that you would have to wait much longer.
3. Muni metro is a total insult to our city. It's almost every single day that there's some kind of problem with the light rail system.
4. Letting NIMBYs get their way, like the folks on Union who didn't want articulated buses in their neighborhood, even though it's a fact that the bus line is at crush loads on the regular 40-foot buses.
5. More violence on the vehicles. A kid stabbed and no video footage? A fight that got over 500,000 views in 48 hours?
6. What happened to preventative maintenance?
   
7. More graffiti, and some of the places they graffiti is impossible to remove.
   
8. Bad passengers who really need a swift boot up their ass. You don't have the right to hog three seats with your legs or clip your nails in public.
9. Transit bus drivers that should have been fired a long time ago.
10. A really messed-up union. They tried to file an injunction against KGO-TV from letting them get public records on driver complaints.
    

What does it take in this city to get Muni on the brighter end? The New York Subway system gained an infamous reputation for its graffiti, broken down trains, and nearly on the verge of collapse in the 1980's. This was because the government didn't invest in the trains and money was being funneled towards freeways and bridges for cars. But look at New York now, they have a clean and well operated transit system with tons of police. It's like Muni is the 1980's version of the New York subway.

It's time for San Francisco to reinvest in it's public transportation system NOW. Saying there's "no money" is never an excuse; an easy way to get money is by simply firing the top brass of Muni and hiring new folks at much less pay.

Castro Halloween 2009? Newsom, Dufty, & Perry says NO

It's Halloween time again in San Francisco and we are just 15 days away from kids trick-or-treating in front of your house, or the adults hanging out at their favorite bar or street for a cool orange colored themed drink.

But come on... where's the biggest party going to be at? Where else? The CASTRO!

Since 2007, I've been advocating in support of continuing the Halloween tradition in the Castro district, and in 2009, this will be my third year of flicking my middle finger at Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, and P.R. a-hole David Perry.

So once again, the Mayor's office in support with David Perry's P.R. campaign has re-done "Home for Halloween" 2009 to promote you to keep your ass away from the Castro district. Hmmm... a third year you say?

Let's recall the last two years:

• In 2007: David Perry and Mayor Newsom shut-down the Castro and encouraged neighborhood businesses to not open in the evening of Halloween (at a cost of $40,000 of taxpayer money). People still came, and the places that defied Perry and Newsom's request saw a huge boom in business with people lining up for good eats and drinks. As for the ones that closed, they regretted doing it because they lost money. Dufty promised that the city will host an organized event in the Castro the following year, but broke his promise (see below).
  
• In 2008: The city decided to host an alternate event at the parking lot at AT&T Park and spent $500,000+ of taxpayer money, but also spending an untold amount of money to stop people from going to the Castro. It turned out to be the biggest bust ever when hardly anyone showed-up to AT&T Park, and many decided to party on the sidewalks of the Castro district since the city banned the event to leach onto the road.

Doesn't this city get it? People want to party at the original home of Halloween in San Francisco. So why not spend our hard earned tax dollars to host a legitimate event with the neighborhood where the city can have officers screen people for weapons and illegal drugs, and if need be, offer very low priced admission to cover the costs of permits, clean-up, and other related problems. If we want to help our fellow businesses in this tough economy, don't ban the event, encourage it so people will shop and eat.

By letting your city invest into David Perry's pockets, you are giving this jackass taxpayer money to tell people to get the f*** away from the Castro; but noticing last year's reaction where people still came out to that neighborhood, the Mayor should switch sides, especially if he wants to get elected to be Governor.

So I encourage you, resist the temptation of partying at home and ship your butt to the Castro. Let's give Newsom, Dufty, and Perry the ONE FINGERED SALUTE!

Why not piss-off David Perry a few more times?
-- Suggest a Halloween event on his website and simply mention the event title to be: "HALLOWEEN IN THE CASTRO!"
--Give a "one star" rating on his YouTube video. He banned comments (asshole).

Muni 74X Culturebus Dies August 15th

One of the biggest waste of tax dollars for SFMTA/Muni will finally die August 15, 2009...

CULTUREBUS!

Muni posted the bus line's termination notice and its last day of service will be Friday, August 14, 2009.

--------------------

Here's CultureBus' (unofficial) obituary that I wrote:
San Francisco Muni CultureBus, also known by its nickname "74X," and soon later "fail whale" and "tax waste."

Born September 20, 2008 and died August 15, 2009.

SFMTA officials predicted the bus line would obtain 168,000 to 250,000 passengers per year with an average 20-30 boardings per vehicle and running on a 20 minute frequency. It was estimated the City and County of San Francisco and SFMTA would spend $1.6 million on the experiment.

The light was shining for the 74X thanks to an article from the San Francisco Chronicle, but its extremely high $7 adult fare (now $10), very low ridership, and criticism from the local blogging community started the slow death of the bus line. Tour bus agencies argued that tax dollars should not be used to undercut the tourism industry and their vengeance also took its toll on the yellow colored bus.

Not long later, SFMTA scaled back the failing service on January 24, 2009 from 20 minute frequencies to hourly service, and from six buses to two. Still, with very low ridership, it was eventually going to be terminated by the agency due to the large financial deficit for the next fiscal year.

On August 15, 2009 Culturebus died while the 5-Fulton, 44- O'Shaughnessy, N-Judah, and 71-Haight/Noriega, easily overshadowed the 74X and provided service to visitors and citizens alike for 80% less than what the CultureBus charged.

Gavin Newsom and Nat Ford's experiment died a horrible death and at the expense of taxpayer money.

May it rest in peace.

Public Relations Nightmare - SF Muni and BART

Things can't get any uglier for Bay Area public transit... could it?

Muni just had a major accident at the West Portal station when a metro train collided with a stationary metro train. Luckily, nobody was killed, but there are dozens hurt. Odds are that ambulance chasers are at SF General hospital looking for victims and fare inspectors are asking themselves... should I check for proof of payment of the victims at the hospital?

But that's not just Muni's own PR nightmare, just last Thursday, SFMTA chief Nat Ford admitted that fare evasion is a multi-million dollar problem, but as many of us have known that for a long time. Just based on what Nat Ford has stated, tons of bloggers have gone on the offensive with opinions (SFappeal, SFist, SFgate comments).

--------------------

But how can we not forget about BART? Their PR nightmare is as bad as Muni's:

On Thursday, BART had a serious accident at the construction site of the future West Dublin station when a cherry picker was hovering way too low over the BART train tracks.

As always, the possibility of a strike looms over the Bay Area, but it seems like nobody gives a damn right now, but BART's PR office is as always busy putting their spin to the union's perspective.

--------------------

And where's Mayor Greasyhead, I meant Newsom in all of this? No word from him, and if he wants to be a future governor, he needs to get involved in this public transit crap.

The sorting garbage law absurdity of San Francisco - Makes me want to move to Daly City

Remember the slogans I posted here a year ago? Here's why I would move to Daly City:

• "We still use plastic bags and styrofoam boxes."
• "Lower sales tax rate and we've got TARGET!"

We can add to the list for literally any city other than San Francisco: "at least I don't have to sort my trash without a garbage company rat reporting to the city government." (News stories at SFist and Chronicle).

Can I just say, I really hate the way our city operates. We now have this new law that if we don't sort our trash correctly, we will get fined. What the hell is this bullshit? Why does this city need to be some kind of "nanny state?"

Sure, I'm proud this city has the highest recycling rate in the country as it sets a good example for other cities and towns to do the same, but now making it a law to tell people to do it or be fined with $100 fines is total crap.

So like... what's the standard to get a damn citation?

• Finding one piece of paper in a garbage bin full of legitimate trash in the black bin?
• Finding a non-greasy pizza box in the compost bin?
• Finding a plastic fork in the garbage bin?
  

What happens if your neighbor wants to seek revenge or some random person on the street dumps the wrong items in the trash? Is this city going to have to buy every citizen a padlock to secure their three garbage bins?

Isn't torturing us citizens with the ban on styrofoam and plastic bags at the grocery store enough? Sheesh.

Mayor Gavin Newsom + Twitter = Very Bad Idea

Our (cough!) beloved Mayor, Gavin Newsom uses Twitter as a way of public relations with the public. He posts announcements of fundraisers he will attend and other self promoting things, such as his recent posting of being on Larry King Live.

But let's ask ourselves the question, is Newsom's use of Twitter such a good idea or a really bad PR stunt that has gone horribly wrong?

BART did bad PR for their "hall of shame" photo gallery
If you recall from one of my postings on January 2, 2009, BART decided to open a Facebook page and invited people to post photographs of bad passengers in the act. Unfortunately, it came at a really bad time, when the local blog sites like SFist caught on to the story just one day after the shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART Police officer. I personally felt that having a government agency legitimize the posting of "bad" passengers in the act is absolutely inappropriate, and especially just after a police shooting, it's in really bad taste to sanction something like this.

Just one day after the negative remarks made by commentators on SFist, Gothamist (New York's version of SFist), my reaction, and websites that already posts snapshots (BARTrage), BART decided to take the photo album down. BART doesn't like negative publicity, so it did the right thing to stop the already bad PR bleeding from the shooting incident.


Newsom loves to block people on Twitter who challenge him
Gavin Newsom using Twitter is in really bad taste. While he is not involved in a high profile incident like how BART was, he should really consider quitting the Twitter stuff and let his press secretary do the work for him the old fashioned way.

The SFGate's "City Insider" reported that some of Newsom's critics are being blocked from his Twitter, and while only five have been blocked, it shows that Newsom is afraid of some criticism from the public. It should be noted that the "City Insider" entry states that only five people have been blocked from the Mayor's twitter for what his campaign representative calls "terms of service" violations, however it was not a Twitter TOS violation. So what is Newsom's list of self proclaimed "terms of service" violations? When people challenge his authority or policies? (Get your press secretary to answer this question in my comments box).

People known to have been banned:

• League of Young Voters: Newsom or his "crew" decided to ban them, even though this group only wanted to question Newsom's " legitimate policy issues related to his agenda" (Quote from Jonah Horowitz in the City Insider story).
  
• Steven T. Jones of the SF Bay Guardian questioned Newsom on Twitter asking "Why do you think Twitter is a good communication medium for you?" and instead of receiving a reply, got banned from Newsom's Twitter. Jones questioned the the Mayor's authority to do this through his public relations person and that person accused Jones of being an "internet troll."

I don't understand why Newsom blocking/banning certain people from his Twitter is even appropriate. The League of Young Voters asked legitimate questions about some of his policies, and I think that Gavin doesn't want to answer them because he's afraid of a good challenge.

Also, blocking Steven Jones is a really terrible idea. He asked the question that I think was absolutely appropriate and not made for "internet trolls." Having the press secretary of a major city government call you a "troll" for any reason, is just absolutely absurd, stupid, and really inappropriate. Plus, you never block the press. NEVER. They tell the stories to the public.

Here are some things to think about:

1. First of all, Gavin Newsom using Twitter is a poor use of public relations.
2. Posting on Twitter is a risky thing anyway (security wise), it's like putting a GPS device in your coat and everyone knows where you are at all times.
3. He represents a major city government. Whatever he says, basically goes, or can be misused or misinterpreted by the public.
4. By blocking Twitter users from his blog while using the service during his working hours on the TAXPAYER'S MONEY, he is promoting government sponsored censorship; which is absolutely inappropriate morally and ethically.
5. If he uses Twitter during the hours that he is paid by the taxpayers, is that considered public record under San Francisco's "Sunshine Ordinance?" Does this include any of replies back to Twitter members and commands on Twitter to block individuals?

In conclusion
Newsom should get out of Twitter NOW. He is opening up a can of worms and they are slowly sneaking away. Blocking the media and legitimate organizations asking the tough questions is absolutely inappropriate for a head of a major city.

Hey Newsom, it's time to stop running away from the hard questions and start taking them head-on. You want to call yourself a Mayor, prove it; otherwise, you will be as unpopular as Ron Dellums.

Doing the right thing - Public Defender Jeff Adachi refuses to cut budget

Jeff Adachi is our city's elected Public Defender and the news reports are showing that his office is refusing to cut the budget as per Mayor Gavin Newsom's request. In fact, Adachi wants an extra $1.7 million to add to his budget. By not adding funding, he is personally being the public defender for the city's Community Justice Center, a Newsom waste of tax dollars, and Adachi is doing it because his 93 lawyers are busy with their cases they handle.

Some are arguing that Adachi should resign because he needs money for his program, instead of cutting his budget. But while Adachi may be going against popular opinion in the world of city politics, I have to agree with P.D. Adachi on his move to give the finger to Gavin Newsom.


I'm going to give my view based on being an educated person and my basic knowledge of the constitution, a.k.a. the highest law of the land:

The constitution gives anyone accused of a crime the LEGAL right to a lawyer. Unfortunately, if one cannot afford a lawyer, the government is supposed to provide a lawyer at no charge to the accused. It is a basic fundamental right of this country that everyone has the right to a defense in court, and that's the need for Public Defenders, the people who help defend and protect the unfortunate people who cannot afford a private lawyer.

Jeff Adachi's office cannot take a budget cut. His office has reached a critical point where his 93 lawyers are busy with cases every single day and he has to personally defend people with "quality of life" accusations in court, then his office is working frantically at what their budget can afford.

If Newsom gets his way and Adachi cuts his budget, that means that the public defender system in our city will go haywire. In order for Adachi's office to make-up for the huge backlog of accused criminals, Adachi will have to pay for private lawyers to do the job, thereby costing more than having a public defender staff person working on the case.

Plus, we must understand that with the economy going down and unemployment going up, more people will commit crimes to get money, or the necessities they need. And when this happens, this impacts the public defenders with more cases, and the need for no cuts and possibly more money to run.

Please remember, the public defender's office has a LEGAL responsibility under the constitution to provide legal service to those who cannot afford. There may be a day when you may be accused of a crime and cannot afford a lawyer, and a Public Defender will defend and represent you in court.


With all due respects, I believe Jeff Adachi's defiance shows that Newsom cannot rule this city with his greasy slicked-back hair and should start using his brain power a little bit more, and worry less about being the next governor. Adachi should eventually consider being the mayor of our fine city.

If you did not get a chance to watch one of Adachi's popular documentaries, buy "The Slanted Screen" on DVD, and see his newest work about Jack Soo at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

Muni fare hike to $2? Kiss my butt SFMTA (33% hike)

This is just absolutely stupid. A report from the "City Insider" (SFGate/Chron) reports that Muni fares could go up if the city's budget gets far worse.

Right now, the city's deficit is at $129 million dollars, and the mayor feels that raising Muni fares is the last resort to fixing this insane crisis.

If the SFMTA decides to raise the fares for Muni, this would be effective September 1st:

• Adults: $1.50 (old) to $2.00 (new)
  
• Youth/Senior/Disabled: $0.50 to $0.75

Muni is already raising prices of Muni passes as a way to raise more money, but is raising the general cash fare price a good idea?

Personally, I don't think it is even a smart idea. Raising the fare is sticking it to the customer to pay for more service while quality is still going down the toilet. Take a look at this report from the Golden Gate [X]Press (SFSU) talking about the terrible service on the M-Ocean View, a main trunk line connection for thousands of SFSU students. One-car trains don't work when you pass by a major university.

Surely Muni can find other creative ways to cut some of the pointless crap of their service instead of making us go through a painful colonic:

1. Kill off the CultureBus program. Sure, you are running two buses a day now, but how many people ride the bus with the insane $7 fare? Not many. That's at least a million dollar savings.
2. Start laying off at least 50% of your fare inspectors. Then start hiring "bouncers" with no ticket issuing authority and a low wage with no benefits (college students are perfect) to accompany a ticket writing person. Basically a "team" would consist of one ticket issuing officer, and one or two wage donkeys/enforcers.
3. Fire the drivers with the worst service records. If the driver was involved in an incident where the city had to settle for more than their salary, that's enough grounds to get fired. Employees with too many legitimate complaints spend more taxpayer money on hearings, people making reports, etc. than a good employee with no complaints.
   
4. Just fire Muni's PR team. They are just blabber mouths covering their butts every time something goes wrong. Remember Maggie Lynch and KPIX investigator Anna Warner? Maggie said and walked away from the interview: "What is this, 60 Minutes?"

Lastly, Muni broke a promise to their citizens. In my posting in 2007, the Chronicle wrote about Muni's wish list and proposed some new ideas (with my opinions). One of them was a fare hike, but promised to keep it 5% every two years.

So let me get this right... 5% added to $1.50 regular Muni fare is $1.57 (make it $1.60 to keep the pennies out of the fare boxes). They now want to make it $2.00 a ride? You said 5%, not 33% you ASSHOLES!

Does San Francisco Need a Special Election?

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering to raise taxes in order to fix the budget shortfall the city suffering through (like $576 million). But in order to pass some real serious taxes, the Board of Supervisors chose to have a special election. Eight wanted the special election, while the other three did not.

So the resolution passed, but Newsom did not like the idea. As expected, he vetoed the Board of Supervisor's resolution, but this news report shows that the Board have enough votes to override the Mayor's veto and therefore the "special election" will happen on June 2, 2009.

Although the news report mentions that there is nothing yet on the ballot, rumor has it that the sales tax will go up 0.05%. This sounds a little bit disturbing, and just another incentive to head off to a different county when buying a big ticket item (car, mega size TV, etc.).

Here's my view about the pros and cons of holding a special election:

Pro:

• If voters pass more taxes, this can help the budget shortfall.

Sorry, it's the only pro I can think of.

Cons and doubts:

• How much will it cost to hold this election? How many millions?
• If the voters decide to reject all tax hike proposals, the Board of Supervisors better start having a low profile, because I smell a recall!
• How much more in taxes will we be paying to the city?
• Can passing new taxes cause more harm than good? Example: Business may close down and move to a county with lower tax rates.
• Once the economy goes back up, will the tax rates go back down to today's rates?

Just something to think about folks!

SFO Airport Incentives for Hybrids - Bad Idea Mayor Newsom

If you did not know, San Francisco International Airport is owned by the City and County of San Francisco, even though it is situated away from city borders and next door to South San Francisco and Millbrae.

Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today (courtesy of KPIX news) that alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles rented from the airport will receive a $15 incentive. The incentive is not per day, but just a one time offer regardless of length of rental.

But reporter Jeffrey Schaub noted that while the incentive will reduce the rental cost slightly, it still costs (on average) $15 more per day to rent one of the hybrids or alternative fuel vehicles. So basically... if you rent an AFV/hybrid for more than one day, you are not getting such a bargain after all. In fact, Schaub noted that a conventional fuel vehicle after a week of renting it, you would pay $75 less than getting the AFV/hybrid.

In my opinion... what a bad idea Newsom! Here's my reasons why:

• Mayor Newsom did it too late. If he offered the incentive during the high cost of fuel prices, people would pay more attention. If you rent a car, you will drive it around the Bay Area, and you can literally fry half a tank driving from SF to San Jose (round-trip) on a conventional vehicle with average gas economy. If Newsom offered the incentive during the rise in fuel prices, visitors and business people would rent the hybrid because of it's fuel savings, and after a lot of driving, that slightly higher cost for the car rental would reduce the amount you pay at the pump.
• If you are visiting San Francisco, have hotel accommodations in downtown, and don't plan to go outside of city borders (unless if you can access BART and the ferries) you don't need a rental car. Nothing against the rental agencies; let's all remember that parking your car at at downtown hotel's parking lot will cost you PLENTY. If you plan to rent a car, find a hotel or inn with free parking or street parking (without 2-hour parking zones and meters). Areas in the Sunset and Richmond districts that have inns and hotels offer free parking and usually next to a major Muni line. Seal Rock Inn on 48th and Pt. Lobos offers free parking, and you are just steps away from the 38L, 38AX, and the 18-46th Avenue.
• Smart tourists know the ways to save money on car rentals. You just don't pick-up your car from the airport. You go to one of the rental agencies (a.k.a. "local" centers) to get your car. Go to a fancy hotel, call Enterprise, and like they say, they'll pick you up.
  
• The economy is in a terrible state and people are trying to save money as much as they can. If they can find a cheaper car (a conventional fuel vehicle) and know about it's fuel efficiency, they'll rent it and say, "no thanks" to the hybrid.

So really Mayor Newsom... this is just a PR stunt. The news report states that a representative of one of the agencies said it is a better deal if the city did not enforce this $15 incentive. It looks like the city is not forking any money, just forcing the rental agencies to discount, even though the agencies can simply raise the price $15 to spare its losses.

The San Francisco Manners Quiz

I'm going to rip-off an etiquette quiz on SFGate by publishing my own set of questions, have fun!

Question 1: You notice a Muni passenger picking his nose on the bus (and I mean, the guy doesn't use the other hand to cover it). Do you:

1. Let him keep picking for fools gold.
2. Make an insulting joke at him saying: "Pick harder! You'll reach your brain soon."
3. Give the idiot a tissue.
4. Record it on your cell phone camera and post it on YouTube.
   
5. Slap him with the morning newspaper.
   

Question 2: Aboard the quiet express bus, a phone rings and a lady answers it. She starts having a conversation for ten minutes, and nobody tells her to shut-up.

1. Let her chat away and listen in: "My butt itches bad, and this cream is not working!"
2. Tell her to shut up.
3. Get on your phone and have a 'counter' conversation, telling her of how much of a bad passenger she is.
   
4. Slap her with your morning newspaper.

Question 3: You see Mayor Gavin Newsom scratching his butt in public. What do you do?

1. Ignore it.
2. Offer him some Preparation H.
3. Snap a photo and post it online.
4. Yell out what he's doing. "Hey everybody! The Mayor is scratching his butt!"
5. Slap his scratching hand with your morning newspaper.

Question 4: You are driving down the street and a moron starts crossing the street when it's the red light for him. Do you:

1. Honk your horn.
2. Mow him down.
3. Yell out how much of an idiot he is.
4. Conduct a "drive by" slap of the morning paper.

Question 5: The front end of the Muni bus is packed, but the back part is empty. What do you do?

1. Wait for the next bus, surely it won't be that bad.
2. Be like those pushy folks in Chinatown getting aboard the 30 Stockton.
3. Yell out: "Fare inspectors!"
4. Tell them: "In Japan, they have these Japanese dudes shoving you in the train. Now, why can't we be like that?"
5. Just start slapping people with the morning paper to move aside.
   

Question 6: You just entered your car at the parking lot. Another car wants your space. What now?

1. Hurry up, get the engine running and let him/her take the space.
2. Screw around with the other driver for five minutes by just sitting in your car. Hell, I'll just activate the brake lights once in a while.
3. Read the morning paper, then go up to the other driver, offer him/her the paper, then slap the driver.
   

Question 7: You see ashamed ex-supervisor Ed Jew walking down the street. Do you:

1. Just ignore him.
2. Point your finger and laugh.
3. Offer him a gift certificate to an erotic toy store, since prison will be "lonely" time with his fleshlight? (Or getting it in the butt).
4. Slap him with your morning paper (preferably one with his picture on it).

Question 8: KRON 4 is having a live call-in show with financial consultant Rob Black. You and the entire city hates KRON channel 4. What do you do?

1. Watch the show.
2. Turn off-the TV.
3. Make a prank phone call, get through the screener with a B.S. question, and insult the station and the guy live on TV.
4. Visit the KRON studios and slap him with your morning newspaper on live TV.

Question 9: You ride Muni metro and the train breaks down in the tunnel, just short of the next station.

1. Wait patiently while Muni find a solution to evacuate the train.
2. Sing an insulting song about Muni's problems.
3. Pull the emergency door lever and walk 50 feet to the next station.
4. Wait until the Muni supervisor tells everyone to hold on for another hour, walk up to him/her and slap him with your morning paper because now you are late to work and there's no cell phone reception to call your pissed-off boss.

Answer key:

• If you picked the slap with the "morning newspaper," maybe it's time to switch to a different type of coffee.
• If you ever recorded a person doing something bad and posted online, you've got some guts.
• Lastly, if you do nothing, um... can I buy you a punching bag for you to unleash your rage? You can't can it forever!

Small Holiday Budget? Time to White Elephant!

With the economy going really bad, we all can agree that we've had to tighten our belts and put a padlock on our wallet. One way to make the holidays more affordable and share it with friends is to do a "White Elephant" event at your annual family and/or work party.

What is a "White Elephant?" Well, it's basically a gift exchange, but instead of buying something new, you give away something that you own and don't need anymore. This is especially good for folks who have a lot of old (but useful) junk.

Here's the rules I play:

• Each person brings one wrapped gift to the party.
• Depending on the number of participants, a person will write digits on slips of paper.
• Every person draws a number out of the jar.
• The lowest number (number one) goes first to pick a gift and opens it.
• The second lowest number can "steal" number one's gift or open a new one. If person one's gift is stolen, the person can open a new gift.
• Continue following the pattern until everyone goes around once. The limit for steals PER GIFT is two. Once the gift is stolen the second time, that's theirs to keep.

One tip to give: Bring a backup gift, sometimes people forget to bring one.

It's a fun laugh riot full of mysterious surprises. Bring your camera to take photos of shocked reactions. Some people can also put a mysterious theme on their gift box, such as the "Mayor Gavin Newsom mystery box."

Happy holidays everyone!
My big holiday gift is coming soon... my Master's degree! I submitted my thesis on Monday.

San Francisco wants CONGESTION TOLLS? Is our city leaders STUPID?

In just the past week, the following "revenue generating" ideas were created by our city government idiots:

• Variable meter parking rates
• Doyle Drive congestion toll rates

And now... our city is proposing that we also include "congestion tolls" within the downtown region of San Francisco.

And have you seen the map of where they want to put the tolls? It's totally screwed up! They want to create a border on the west side on Divisadero and also cut the Castro district in HALF.

What does this mean for our city? It might mean millions, but also pissing off a ton of residents and commuters to our lovely city. Bridge tolls are already $4 and even higher at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here are some easy examples of pissing people off:

• Say a commuter lives in Marin county and drives to SF Downtown to do some shopping. They pay $5 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, pay another $2 for the Doyle Drive congestion toll, plus another $3 for entering the downtown zone. If you have to park at a downtown variable rate meter, you might as well get nailed with another $5 per hour.
• Do you live next to one of the congestion rate borders? What happens if you have to drive to your supermarket to get groceries? You would probably get nailed with a $$$$$ crossing fee every single damn time.
  
• On the Divisadero "border," I would not have any trouble getting to Kaiser Hospital for my doctor appointment, but how about when I want to visit JAPANTOWN? It's only a short hop away from Divisadero and IT'S NOT CONGESTED. Hell, I can find parking most of the time.

Lastly, if our city wants to make this congestion toll, how about fixing the infastructure of MUNI? If you are forcing people to get out of their cars and take public transit, are they ready for the influx of THOUSANDS of more paying (or cheating) customers to take the worst public transit system around? Delays, missing buses, and overcrowding... yeah... great idea. It works in LONDON because they have an excellent public transit system. Ours is crap.

I don't have any money, but if someone would like to volunteer some cash, the prize winner would be the one who gives the most headaches to city government officials. Go after the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and the SFMTA.

Castro Halloween 2008 Lives Again & AT&T Park Halloween Fizzled

Hot from the news folks at KPIX, their 11PM news broadcast reports that while the streets are closed in the Castro for this Halloween 2008, people still came to celebrate in the sidewalks and the businesses were wide open. Looks like the Castro's economy will prosper from this event, you need food and drink when you wear a costume and sweat to death in a mask.

And as for the city's "Official" event in the parking lot at AT&T Park... it fizzled! KPIX reports that attendance was only 2,000 and an official from the Entertainment Commission was expecting five times that number. The city estimates the event they planned, costs $500,000, and it looks like by the very dismal attendance, the city would have likely lost about $430,000 (2000 people, and multiply that by $35 admission fee per person, subtract that by 500,000).

The Entertainment Commission representative blames poor publicity (naa, blame yourself for thinking of this idea out your asshole).

Well hell, it was poor publicity from the start. Who the hell would want to party at a parking lot, where the vendors charge insane prices for food, charge money for admission, get pat searched down before entering, the T-Third line only runs single train cars (limited capacity), and AT&T Park's insane parking rates for these "special events."

So once again, our beloved (now moronic) city officials, and as always, David Perry, screwed-up again!

Let's point out the real bad things that went wrong:

• The city more than likely wasted even more money than last year. Last year was just a shut-down of the Castro (estimated $300,000) with anti-Halloween promotion by David Perry ($40,000), but this year is the huge financial loss of the AT&T Park festival ($430,000) and still paying for cops and city officials at the Castro (unsure, but at least $50,000).
• The retailers who paid for a space at AT&T park with the expectation of 10,000 people, got no business.

Oh hell, I'll just make it simple, Castro next year!

If you went to the Castro, thank you for giving a big middle finger and "FUCK YOU" to Gavin Newsom, Bevan Dufty, and David Perry. Now do you trust your city officials? No... that's why I should be Mayor. I'd kick anyone's ass who really deserves it. Up first, Muni's union.

Lastly, my poll shows a landslide victory for me to wear the Arnold outfit. So here's the photos!

Wasted San Francisco Tax Money on Lame 2008 Anti-Halloween Campaign - Again!

Looks like the city invested more of our wasted tax dollars on that bastard David Perry and Associates to make another "Home for Halloween" bullshit.

(If you are wondering why I feel that David Perry was paid with taxpayer money, look at the website, on the bottom left of Perry's site has the City and County of San Francisco's seal and sponsored by Newsom himself!)

So... let's see what kind of David Parry created shit he did this time.

It looks like my tax dollars went into updating his childish looking "Home for Halloween" website: http://www.homeforhalloween.com/

And notice the good ol' graphic (down below)? Yep, once again, it looks like a damn five year old made the graphic. And it's the same one he used last year! So really, his expense for creating this childish graphic is ZERO.



And now they have... YouTube (or they call "BooTube" videos)... but I like to call them BullshiTUBE videos because they once again make low quality commercials/PSAs that these local TV stations will NOT likely air it:

• KTVU (Fox 2)
  
• KNTV (NBC 11)
• KPIX (CBS 5)
• KGO (ABC 7)
• KQED (like who in their right minds would put it on PBS?)
• KOFY (TV 20)
• KBCW (CW 44)

But of course, there's always one station that will air the shitty commercials... KRON! Where do you think they got the studio space to make their BullshiTube quality videos? And if you produce a commercial at one TV station, the competitor stations will realize that "I don't want to air that material on my station because we are competing against them."

So make an effort to piss off David Perry... vote with "one star" on his stupid ass videos. And also... YouTube comments on his new vids are open! So go ahead and piss him off that way too. Remember David Perry... if you delete YouTube comments, you sponsor government censorship, since taxpayers are paying for you to promote "Home for Halloween."

Oh... and don't forget his "Home for Halloween" blog too! It seems that although he is getting a huge wad of cash to promote "Home for Halloween," he uses BLOGGER a FREE SERVICE to conduct his "official" blog.

Makes me wonder... for the wad of taxpayer money he gets... how much is he spending? Hey Newsom, get your auditors out there and check on David Perry's expenses. If he doesn't use all the money you gave him, get it back, even if that means getting the City Attorney involved.

Let's add up David Perry's expenses (a hypothetical estimate):

• Re-using homeforhalloween.com: Zero dollars.
• Re-using childish looking pumpkin, skull, and ghost graphic: Zero dollars.
• Using Blogger to make his "Home for Halloween" blog: Zero dollars.
• Making low quality commercials at the KRON studios: Zero dollars.
• Getting it aired on KRON: Zero dollars.
• Getting it aired on other TV stations: Not applicable.
• Hiring unknown celebrities to be part of the commercials: One $1 cheeseburger at McDonalds.
• Using YouTube to promote the commercials: Zero dollars.
• A make your own "Home for Halloween" contest for money: $750 of taxpayer money (given as a prize) for something that hardly anyone wants to make an ad for.
  
• (And just to add to this, I learned that last year's winner was the ONLY person who entered, and let me tell you, his video was crap... and the guy who made the video agreed!)
  
• People coming to the Castro on Halloween to give Bevan Dufty and David Perry the middle finger: Priceless.

Taxpayer money can buy a P.R. organization to tell you to get the fuck away from the Castro, but the people will still come.

Always remember... Akit's Complaint Department is watching you David Perry. Akit is always looking out for the San Francisco taxpayers to make sure that our government leaders are not wasting money on bullshit stuff.

And... Bevan Dufty is still a liar. I love this photo I found on Castro Halloween's website!


Did anyone notice that the Castro Halloween website is now in cohoots (better known as having sex with or sleeping with) the folks making up that 2008 Halloween event at AT&T Park? So now... the organization for "Halloween in the Castro" and David Perry's PR business is both supporting the AT&T Park Halloween bash. What the hell is going on around here? Last year it was the "Halloween in the Castro" organization did not want the city to shut down the neighborhood, and David Perry was sponsored by Newsom and taxpayer money to tell you to scram.

For all you readers, do me a favor, go have fun in the Castro for Halloween. Last year's closure crippled their economy. So buy that slice of pizza and get your beer and enjoy. Make sure you don't tick off the cops, it looks like the city will waste (once again) hundreds of thousands of dollars of our tax money to "shut down" the Castro once again. Just please, don't bring the FBI (is Osama going to pee on the streets?) and the SWAT sharpshooters (as confirmed by KTVU news last year).

Disclaimer: I can't really prove that David Perry received a wad of taxpayer money to sponsor the 2008 anti-Castro Halloween campaign, but if you see the City's official seal and noting that is sponsored by Mayor Newsom's office on Perry's website, then there is a very good possibility that there was some kind of financial payment of taxpayer dollars made to David Perry.