Fair Fares Part Deux
As expected, the Municipal Transit Authority proposal to increase fares by $.25 went over as well as Tara Reid's attempt to play a brainy archeologist in her new movie. So far, it's led to a protest, a rowdy committee hearing and some waffling on the part of the Gavster. Not to mention some spirited debate on SFist. The proposed fare increases are in an attempt to try and close a projected deficit of over $50 million for the upcoming year.
The protests against the fare hike opened with the traditional forming of the slightly-over-the-type-named organization with the slightly-over-the-top political agenda, the Coalition for Transit Justice. On Tuesday, they and others held a rally at City Hall, attended by Mr.'s Daly and Mirkarimi, to rally against the hikes. There was a lot of shouting about the fair hike being a "tax against the poor" and a "tenant tax" with Richard Marquez of Mission Agenda comparing protests against fare hikes in other cities to Rosa Parks and that the hikes constituted "institutionalized racism and class discrimination." Speakers called for a "fare strike" modeled on protests in other cities against proposed fare increases.
On Tuesday, the MTA held a meeting attended by an over-flow crowd with senior citizens and others bussed in for the event. In the meeting, the board laid out every possible proposal, including raising fares, eliminating tokens (which has caused a rush on tokens), cutting routes, and ending transfers (!). They blamed the projected deficits on salary increases, rises in health care and retirement costs, a jump in fuel prices and the defeat of Proposition K (the sales tax one) in the last election. After hearing complaint after complaint after complaint, including from Andrew Sullivan, head of Rescue MUNI, an exasperated MUNI head Michael Burns turned to the audience to ask for their ideas.
As for the Mayor, he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos where he hung out with Angelina Jolie and waffled a bit on what should be done. He told KCBS that the budget mess required "tough choices" and that even at $1.50, MUNI would still be a bargain. Later, he seemed to back away a bit from those statements during a phone interview with the Examiner in which he said that everything should be looked at before fares are increased. But just by saying he’s not opposed to the fare hikes has bought criticism from progressives, with Richard Marquez saying "certainly Mayor Newsom was inspired by his Switzerland. It’s motivated him, unfortunately, not to further the freedom fight at home, but rather further the free enterprise from the pockets of the poor." BeyondtheChron.org chimed in by saying that his support of an increase "further proves that despite his pro-poor and working-class rhetoric, he remains aligned with the City’s elite."
In all honesty, while SFist doesn’t like the idea of a fare increase, we're not sure there's a way to get out of it without causing some sort of sacrifice. We would also like to point out that at $1.50, it’s still much cheaper to ride MUNI than to do the pub trans thing than in other cities. It’s $2 in New York, for example, and a $1.75 in Chicago. We, in fact, actually agree with the Chron in that whatever solution comes forth, it should be done in such a way that's equitable and spreads the pain. One of the most common solutions, raising parking fees and instituting a "car tax" might ease some of the pain, but it can't be expected to take care of all of it. Among other things, and this might be a shock to some people, poor people have cars too. They even occasionally drive to work. Wouldn't the raising of parking fees or a car tax hurt them too? And aren't any "soak the rich" plans silly in that most "rich" people can also afford garages so any sort of parking fee would wind up just affecting the poor and middle-class? As the Chron says, however, any change in MUNI rates should also come with the caveat that MUNI will have to guarantee that, well, they won’t suck as much as they suck now. We’re also sure that cracking down on fare scofflaws is a pretty good idea and are okay with getting rid of some routes that are redundant (but also aware that when routes are cut-back, they sure aren’t cut back in the Marina or Pacific Heights). One idea, however, not being talked about much, is maybe wringing concessions out of the powerful MUNI union, something then-Mayor Willie Brown was able to do last time we went through this.
What do you think?