Results tagged “michaelburns”

BeyondChron.org is reporting that a group of advocates and union leaders are thinking about taking the whole Muni fare hike battle to the voters. Yep, another proposition. The proposed proposition would call for a five-year freeze on fare hikes and lay-offs. One of things to be considered on the proposal would be if the BoS votes for the fare increases, whether or not the freeze will be retroactive, meaning will the increased fares be decreased as it were.

Thanks to everyone who made it out in the rain to take pictures! "Small but spirited" is always our favorite description of a protest -- and by our count there were at least twenty people. Starting at Embarcadero, we took a series of trains, stopping first at Powell, then Civic Center, then finally the Castro. It's also so much fun to meet the people behind the blogs, and to get a chance to talk about photography, independent media, technology and constitutional law. Oh, and trade gossip about Matt Gonzalez. We love that guy.

We would like to sincerely thank everyone who has offered their stories, thoughts and support in this matter. We were honestly expecting maybe half a dozen people to show up tomorrow, but now we think that it's going to be a lot bigger, which is awesome. This story seems to have really touched a nerve! We notified local press and relevant city agencies through an official press release [PDF] yesterday. Once again, it's tomorrow, Saturday, at noon. Please assemble quietly at the Embarcadero Station Muni Fare Gate. We'll be catching a train at 12:30, and finishing around 2:00 at the Castro station if you miss us.

We've been a bit remiss in keeping up with all our blog reading, or we would have caught this story on BoingBoing ourselves. But it was big enough to have been forwarded to us by friends of SFist Ross and Jeff.

At the beginning of the year, our earnest Boy Wonder of a Mayor said that in the spirit of sharing the pain of the inevitable budget cuts, he would cut his own salary 15% percent. The total amount of his cut? $25,000 -- taking his salary down from the $168,867 being Mayor pays. Sure living on a salary around $140,000 isn't that difficult. And sure it's easy to give up money when you're already rich. Or the wife has a high-paying gig. Or you have the Gettys around in case you need a few bucks. But we appreciate the effort. He then called on other high-wage earners who worked for the City Government to do the same thinking that if others followed suit, that $25,000 the Mayor was saving could turn into much more, $10,000,000 more. Considering how bad the cuts are turning out to be, that little could still mean a lot.