SFist: SFist Interviews: District 8 Candidate Alix Rosenthal

james

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 08:52:25 -0800

Bevan has my vote, he has character that Rosenthal could never hope to have.

n judah chronicles

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:32:58 -0800

Lighting a lighter for Jamison because his in depth knowledge rocks! Heck, he sure knows more than Alix does! She doesn't even ride Muni! And I'm sure she'd never even be seen dead on the N Judah since it takes you past her office and to the uncool parts of town!

rainah

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:44:35 -0800

I am very active in 3 different clubs and I sat in one candidate interview day and bevan knows the area and he lives in the area as does Alix .. Alix said she doesnt ride muni but she wants to fix it (you cant bitch about muni if you dont ride it).. Also look at the answer to this question "Favorite mode of transportation/favorite MUNI line: My favorite modes of transportation are my scooter, my bicycle, and BART." Why should I vote for someone who is not going to ride MUNI and as stated above MUNI has low floor buses for senior citizens and the disabled. Alix also admitted she doesnt know the area (wouldnt you like your district supervisor to know the exact cross-street your having the issue with) .. And if she doesnt know the are well then why should I vote for her ? I am out every weekend stumping for Bevan because he is the candidate who knows district 8 and when no one would listen that there was an error on the back of my insurance card. He helped me get my voice heard. (would you like to be reffered to a porn number everytime you dialed an 800 number on the back of your medi-cal card?, which is supposed to be a 1-888 number)

Adam

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:43:50 -0800

Small correction for Rut, Golden Gate Park is open every day of the week. Sundays is a special case where a small percentage of the park is dedicated to recreational use that normally is used for car traffic and parking. Golden Gate Parking sounds like a downtown garage to me. Golden Gate Park sounds like a place for people to play and relax. As for being in touch with the voters, I'm glad you bring it up again. Have you looked at the Deleon Progressive Voter index and analysis of Dufty's votes as a Supervisor? Here's the link again. Now you can clearly see that Dufty is way, way, way out of touch with the voters of District 8. Allow me to quote from that analysis on specific issues supported by D8 voters that Supervisor Dufty did not support... In particular, three of these issues stand out because Dufty was in clear opposition to District 8 voters presented with these issues. First, when the Board of Supervisors voted on the “Residential Housing Purchaser Protection Ordinance” Dufty opposed the legislation. Similar legislation was presented to voters as Prop B on the June 2006 ballot. Voters in District 8 came out in support of the ballot measure. Second, Saturday park closure in Golden Gate Park was presented to San Francisco voters in 2002 as two measures, Prop F and Prop J. Despite the confusion created by the two competing measures, District 8 voters supported Saturday park closure. Polls taken during 2002 and later in 2006 both concluded voters in District 8 are clearly behind Saturday park closure. However, in May 2006 Supervisor Dufty voted against a six-month trial closure of Golden Gate Park on Saturdays, and he later sustained the mayor’s veto on this issue. Third, Supervisor Dufty failed to sponsor the homicide prevention plan which appeared as Prop A on the June 2006 ballot. District 8 supported Prop A at the ballot. These key issues show where Supervisor Dufty acted in direct opposition to District 8 voters. Not abstract measures of political leaning, but specific issues that mattered to voters in District 8. Rut wrote "the park is already closed on sundays so why is the entire weekend necessary? maybe we need to put the vote to the people! oh yeah, the people already voted down the idea back in 2000. maybe bevan is actually in touch with the voters."

Jamison

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:16:21 -0800

Hi KWillets, There definitely needs to be a dedicated place where kids can ride bikes safely and one of the ideas rejected by the activists outright was to close off a different section of the park on saturday. I think even better would be to create some dedicated bike paths separated from traffic, but not cut off from the nearby attractions of the park. Anyway, why I'm responding is because just yesterday I posted a length piece I'd written about discouraging car use (a step to closure) in Golden Gate Park.

Jamison

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:58:28 -0800

I have to take issue with Alix Rosenthal's comments about Muni. Yes, Muni sucks much of the time and needs a lot of help which is why I was appointed as a commissioner by the Mayor on Bevan's recommendation to the MTA's Citizen Advisory Council. (The MTA runs Muni and the DPT) That puts me in a position to know more than most about what's going on behind the scenes to improve service and the projects that are on the way. Nothing Alix said in this interview, or on her web site is wrong per se, actually these are good improvements. My problem is she is talking about improvements that are all going to happen in the next year, in fact some are already happening. - Low-floor buses, and diesel-electric hybrids as a bonus are already in testing. They will replace the oldest and dirtiest of our busses next year. - Light tripping transponders on the busses aren't a problem, it is the intersection lights and computers that need to be replaced to work with the busses. Side note: In many cases this would be a waste of money when all we need is to better time the lights. A light was retimed along the J-Church recently and has reduced delays by several minutes. Here's what happens a lot of the time. A bus might take an average of 64-68 seconds to board at a stop, but that light is green for only 60 seconds. The bus will be caught for another 52-56 seconds waiting. Now repeat that over the entire course of the line and it adds up. - Two dedicated bus lane projects are currently in the works for Van Ness and Geary. The Octavia Plan includes a bit about dedicated Muni lanes along Church for several blocks. Potrero is in the early stages and the Planning Department just recently published a study on turning Folsom into a boulevard with dedicated lanes - The Translink smart card has been a long time coming, but nearly everything has been worked out it is about to launch. You have probably seen the Translink machines that have been installed in the downtown stations. It's a bit like the stored value cards BART uses, these more durable like credit cards, payable with cash and credit card (auto-billing with be available. It can be a combination of both your fast pass and some extra cash for other trips. If you were to take a trip on BART from Glen Park to the east bay, it will notice that if you have it credited with a FastPass and only start charging for BART from the stored cash value when you leave Embarcadero station. What Alix did not bring up... - The tunnel's computer control system is all fubar and causes those weekly, sometimes almost daily shutdowns. The tunnel had better on-time performance before it was installed. - About a third of the Muni Metro cars (151 total) are busted right now. There are supposed to be around 95 cars running for weekday service and sometimes only 70 get out. T-Third Street service is scheduled with the expectation we can get 112 out weekdays. These are the issues she should be discussing because it's easy to demand improvements that have already been funded.

KWillets

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:48:27 -0800

For me it was a simple matter of comparing park usage on the two weekend days. Sunday pedestrian/bike traffic on JFK is nearly twice as much as Saturday's. We also have two children, and outdoor areas for them to ride are rare in the city.

Jamison

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:11:14 -0800

To KWillets, What was your reason for supporting the saturday closure? I'm not going to try and talk you out voting based on this one issue, but I would like you to have some additional information was not brought up (I tried! I wrote several during the saturday closure debate. Unfortunately the injunction that fell out of the saturday closure attempt has derailed this for the moment, but there was a plan that had been in the works for several years which Bevan Dufty and the Bike Coalition were part of. The plan is to remove 200+ parking spaces, narrow the car lanes on JFK to add striped bike lanes and a median. The pedestrian path was to be widened. The corners would be rebuilt with those ADA ramps, possibly extended out like the corners in Duboce Triangle which reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians and force cars to slow down as they go through. I wouldn't think twice about choosing a saturday closure or this plan which would make a permanent improvement to the park, especially the cyclists who commute along JFK who wouldn't have received any benefit.

rut

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:57:30 -0800

the park is already closed on sundays so why is the entire weekend necessary? maybe we need to put the vote to the people! oh yeah, the people already voted down the idea back in 2000. maybe bevan is actually in touch with the voters. and how about this quote from ms. rosenthal "The Castro is becoming more and more straight every year, with all the condo conversions, and we have to be very careful about who we’re becoming." uh, is this an example of her progressive values? does she also think only hispanics should reside in the mission and italians in north beach. and her half baked ideas about affordable housing CLTs & COOPs...yeah, that may fly up at burning man but not in noe valley.

Adam

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:58:01 -0800

I think Bevan would make an outstanding D2 Supervisor. Or D4, perhaps. I don't think you have to restrict yourself to a single issue, look at the bare facts of his voting record, he is not in line with his district. Even if you saw the BeyondChron editorial, you may still have missed the PDF analysis. Take a look and then talk more about Dufty and his "all about the neighborhood" campaign motto.

KWillets

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:19:18 -0800

I'm going single-issue on Dufty. His vote against Healthy Saturdays showed that he has no brain.

rainah

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:25:54 -0800

You should of asked ALix how well she knows district 8 and if she plans to ride muni when she becomes supervisor .. if she is running for district 8 dont you think she should be riding it now?

Cliche

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:10:29 -0800

Can't we think of a better adjective than "vibrant" after all this time?

SFGary

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:57:22 -0800

To commenter Adam: for those of us who have lived in SF for a long time, the natural beauty part takes a back seat to real world problems such as third world like potholed streets, messy sidewalks, an embarrassing percentage of unsolved capital crimes, a public transit system in disarray etc. So we need city leaders who can solve these problems rather than trying to bring the Olympics (jeez!), wring their hands over Muni, the Police or the Fire department or pursue their personal agendas.

Adam

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:40:24 -0800

In reality, SF probably is not going to see a net decline in the number of artists. It's just that most will not be Masters of Fine Arts, but rather Masters of Financial Arts.

MattyMatt

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:25:22 -0800

Is SF really in any danger of a significant exodus of artists?

Adam

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:18:13 -0800

bobD- I'd be interested to know what attracted you to San Francisco. By many peoples' accounts, SF is attractive because of it's diversity and deviation from the mainstream. Coupled, of course, with amazing natural beauty. "Only in San Francisco" said in a tone of mild shock but certainly colored by a big dose of wonderment is a common refrain. In the hallowed confines of a museum, openness to new ideas and willing to take risks is called "creative". Outside on the sidewalk, not yet safe, one could easily label the same as "freaky". Ciaran - spend some time with artists and slip in the notion that a community of third, second and first rate artists be trimmed of the "bottom" performers. See how quickly the entire community exits stage left. Do you honestly think that truly brilliant artists want to live in a community where everyone around them is just ready to consume their art? Or do you suppose they feed off the energy of other creatives around them?

SFist Jer

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:03:51 -0800

I'm a dist. 8 resident. I'll be voting for Alix. I'd rather have someone with a few solid ideas in addition to her pie-in-the-sky stuff instead of a static bureaucrat with neither of the above. Alix shows up in the neighborhood. She talks to people at the Noe Farmers' Market. She's polite, and open to feedback. I've never seen Dufty in person, only his uninterested lackeys behind campaign tables in the 'hood that don't bother to talk to me, even when I look them straight in the eye. I think it's indicative of something.

Ciaran

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:50:42 -0800

...San Francisco lose its artists... Seriously, this city has enough second rate artists. I think we could afford to lose a few. Can I trade some for a rooftop garden?

bobD

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:21:52 -0800

I dont care if she promises me a check for $500 - she lost me a long time ago with all that "keep SF freaky" nonsense.