SF Examiner Letters in Reruns?
We admit, sometimes we get a little slacky when it gets close to a holiday, especially one as heady as Indigenous Peoples' Day. (That's why, later this week, you can look forward to us re-running our 1973 liveblogging of ABC's Nixon Family Thanksgiving Extravaganza.) And apparantly we're not the only ones: when we were reading the letters to the editor of The Examiner yesterday, we sensed an aura of deja vu around a letter from David Heller, the prez of a Geary Street merchants' association. What is it about his letter -- which argues against dedicated bus lines on Geary, despite the SPUR report's suggestion that they would actually be a huge improvement -- that's so strangely familiar, like the haunting melody of pain and love, drifting on a supple summer breeze? Oh, yeah, it's copied word-for-word from a letter he wrote back in September. Does it count as plagiarism if you're stealing material from yourself?
The always-vigilant Bay Area Transit News gets credit for pointing out the apparant Xeroxing. Only a few words were changed between his letter published on September 5th and the one published yesterday; that's a shame, because both versions could use a more vigorous proofreading. For example, David decries the "adverse impact ... on the community" of having dedicated bus lanes, but never says what that might be, probably because "faster service" and "less traffic" doesn't sound all that adverse. "Let's fix Muni before fixing what's not broken along the Geary corridor," he writes, twice, but has he ever freaking ridden a 38 from downtown to the beach? It takes nearly an hour during peak times. Not to mention, all that traffic makes Geary like a miserable unwalkable strip of Los Angeles. Yes, by all means, let's fix Muni; and since the Geary Merchants are apparantly so eager for attention, let's start by streamlining transit in their neighborhood.
After the jump: the two letters for comparison.
Published Monday, September 5, 2005, in the San Francisco Examiner
Geary bus plan
As a Geary corridor merchant and president of the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association, I am worried about the seeming disregard for the adverse impact that Muni's Bus Rapid Transit project will have on the community.
As was recently reported in The Examiner, and has been widely known for some time, Muni suffers from a wide range of problems that could and should be addressed before The City tackles a large-scale transportation reorganization like the BRT project.
If we can fix Muni, this would go a long way toward alleviating the challenges of traffic congestion and movement along the Geary corridor without the exorbitant cost of the BRT project. Further, as long as Muni continues to hemorrhage money it seems illogical to throw still more money into the transportation system.
The BRT project is putting the cart before the horse. Let's fix Muni before fixing what's not broken along the Geary corridor.
David Heller
San Francisco
[BATN notes that a good part of what is wrong with Muni is that buses and their operators are extremely unproductive -- spending too much of the day not moving or moving at very low speed. Which is what transit prioritization is supposed to fix ... or manages to fix in jurisdictions outside the Bay Area, at least.]
Published Monday, November 21, 2005, in the San Francisco Examiner
Buses on Geary
After reading recent articles regarding Muni and the bus rapid transit project I wish to express my concerns. As a Geary corridor merchant and president of the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association, I am worried about the seeming disregard for the adverse impact the BRT project will have on the community.
As was recently reported, and has been widely known for some time, Muni suffers from a wide range of problems that could and should be addressed before The City tackles large-scale transportation reorganization like the BRT project. If we can fix Muni, this would go a long way toward alleviating the challenges of traffic congestion and movement along the Geary corridor without the exorbitant cost of the BRT project.
Further, as long as Muni continues to hemorrhage money it seems illogical to throw still more money into the transportation system. Let's fix Muni before fixing what's not broken along the Geary Corridor.
David Heller
San Francisco