The Guardian Does Not Want You Driving, or Parking
Scene from Today's Pro-Life Protest On Van Ness
Fisher Pulls Museum Out of the Presidio
Why Are You at Work Today?
Sarah Palin Quits
So, this inane bus shelter, also known as a "living roof," is all a part of Newsom plan to get elected Governor of California. (Let's hear it for the amusement parkification of SF until he leave office! Wee!) The new shelters, you see, mimic the 2.5 acre "living roof" gracing the top of the new California Academy of Sciences building. Droll, yes?
The California Academy of Sciences, working with the SFMTA, the Department of Public Works, Clear Channel Outdoor [OMG, Oh noes!!! -- SFist] and the advertising agency, Heat, renovated the bus shelter on Larkin St. and McAllister (Civic Center) with a "living roof." This "living roof" is modeled after the 2.5 acre "living roof" on the California Academy of Sciences, and it is landscaped with a combination of beach strawberries and prunella, which are also planted on the roof of the Academy.
OK, it's actually kind of cool to look at. Would we prefer buses that arrive in a timely fashion over a sod sporting bus stop? Yes. But we like it. Because it's purdy.
Anyway, Mayor Newsom cut the ribbon at the "living roof" bus shelter at the Civic Center today. We give it a month before all the grass gets ripped off, or crack vapors kill this living ad for a museum.
At right: What the new Muni shelters should look like.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Who's going to water the bus shelters?
a month? i give it two weeks, tops.
This truly is just a poor man's copy for what they've been doing on Chicago rooftops for the past few years under Daley Jr. But hey -- a little airborn sod could help cool off this damned un-airconditioned office I'm in right now.
Not putting sod on the roof isn't going to make the buses arrive on time either.
that's just a red herring. the two things are unrelated.
Huh?
The sod, and maintenance thereof, costs money. Money is good for all sorts of things which can be used to make the buses arrive on time.
Use your imagination.
Ironic jokes fail to describe the hilarious absurdity of this idea. I'm at a loss.
I still want arugula while I wait for my bus. That, and walnuts and gorgonzola, and a lovely vinaigrette.
Hmm....I wonder what other wonderful plants could be grown surreptitiously in the sod.
The money for the shelter roof is unconnected to the money that makes the buses run on time. If the shelter roof wasn't sodded to match the science museum the sponsor (Clear Channel) would find something else "green" to do with the money and it would have nothing to do with making the buses run on time.
Maybe they won't have goats living on them, but I'm sure the city's rat population will sniff out any strawberries growing up there
let's harvest all the poo downtown to fertilize the bus shelters' roofs!
"The money for the shelter roof is unconnected to the money that makes the buses run on time."
Then connect it. Have Clear Channel pledge donations to those members of the Muni operators’ union whose routes are completed on time. Think it won't work? Try it.
It's money. It be can exchanged for anything. That's why they call it "money".
Tyler Manchuck, Richard Parker, Diane Loviglio and Jon Swae proposed a very similar living roof to be installed on a bus shelter in Civic Center in April of 2007 and for a year were in conversations with SFMTA and Clear Channel and they told us it was a bad idea and they wouldn't partner with us to make it happen. I wonder what made them change their minds?
Muni buses are late for a myriad of reasons, some are the operators fault, some are the system's fault, traffic, the passengers... everything. Not one traspo system in the country runs on time, and money isn't the thing that separates the good from the bad.
Clear Channel maintains the bus shelters in return for advertising rights. MUNI's late asses cause it's riders to stand in the bus shelters looking at Clear Channel's advertising for longer periods.
Generic, this is where you explain why Clear Channel wants MUNI to hurry up and pick up their riders.
Generic, also help us understand why Clear Channel would want to dive in head-first into some very heated and nasty politics by making the kind of statement you're suggesting.
That is aside from the fact it city HR/union won't allow the bribe/subsidy/incentive - an accounting nightmare that would cost far more than their donations in administrative costs. Imagine how many meetings alone just discussing the idea would take. Imagine the precedents it might set.
Clear channel is just doing some good PR by putting the money up. And it's a write-off. I say just keep it simple and either let them do it or deny them the effort.
It's a pretty inventive idea to help promote the Academy of Science. And even though from a marketing perspective it's a pretty eye-rolling idea it's already paid off because we're discussing it and likely will continue to do so until they're taken down. That's a win.
Indeed all shelters should come with adorable goats to play with while we wait for our bus. Perhaps we could have some sort of color-coding system to identify various routes as well.
"Is this a limited stop? Oh, of course it is. It has a brown goat."
"Where's the damn stop around here? Oh... there's the goat, it's halfway down the block for some reason."
Seriously, what's up with our terrible, cheap, and inconsistent marking of Muni stops? Sometimes it's just a half-assed bit of paint on a pole (not even a sign which could possibly have the bold lie that is the schedule) and other times it's that impossible to notice bit of pain in the street. Even better is the 7th and Irving N stop where there's a full shelter on the Inbound side, but absolutely nothing on the Outbound.
Please tell me the goat picture is from that awesome restaurant in Door County, WI, with the goats who live on its sod roof! It would really just be nice to meet someone else that knows this place exists and I'm not f*&^n' making things up (anymore)!
Generic, this is where you explain why Clear Channel wants MUNI to hurry up and pick up their riders.
You know, I hadn't thought of that. Spot on.
Generic, also help us understand why Clear Channel would want to dive in head-first into some very heated and nasty politics by making the kind of statement you're suggesting.
I'm not suggesting they would want to do that at all. Bribes/subsidies/incentives are messy. The danger isn't that they don't work. The danger is that they do.
My larger point is that Gavin Newsom is setting up twee, gimmicky little Potemkin villages for bus stops in order to distract from the fact that he still, still, STILL can't make the buses run on time.
Give us stools. Hell, scratch an "x" on the sidewalk -- we'll stand there. Just get the goddamn bus from point A to point B. Everything else is fluff.
Ever had your flight delayed? Ever been bumped off a flight? Ever had that same airline offer you complimentary miles? Wouldn't you just rather get to where you were going? That's what this is -- every day of our lives.
But, Generic, Muni's contracts probably require that drivers can only accept performance incentives if they are not based on performance.
Of course "performance" could mean just showing up on time and not drunk.
Actually, Prop E (1999) as amended by Prop A (2006) does require performance incentives in all contracts, including for operators. The incentives aren't a lot, but they are there.
Correction, Prop A was in 2007, the Mayor's re-election year.
post hoc ergo propter hoc