Scores of justifiably livid transit riders and supporters crammed into City Hall today to voice their outage over Muni fare hikes and service cuts -- which, if you recall, will. help close the $16.9 million mid-year budget deficit.
Lots of media types are there too, scurrying about City Hall to report today's findings.
BCN, via SFAppeal, has a brief rundown on today's tense meeting. Folks, it seems, are particularly upset at fare increases for youth, seniors and disabled persons "There's nobody who wants to do this," said SFMTA board chair Tom Nolan, but he added that the SFMTA "has a serious budget problem." He also went on to suggest that "only concessions by Transport Workers Union Local 250-A could avert proposed cuts." However, since everyone in San Francisco fears unions like Mary Jones holding an analog TV, that's just never going to happen.
Over at Streetsblog, Bryan Goebel:and Michael Rhodes are liveblogging the meeting.
"I've never seen anything like this," SF MTA spokesman Judson True told SFBG Steve Jones who is wading among the transit activists right now. Speaking of which, one activist had the nerve to get all up in True's grill, saying, "I'm a person who doesn't appreciate this." Which: pipe down, lady. True has the extraordinarily difficult task of being SF MTA's mouth -- and a very good one at that -- so go fling wet poop in Nat Ford's direction instead.
Jones also goes on to say that many riders are giving passionate testimonial, with "regular calls to tax the rich and lay off the poor, and for more engaged leadership from the Mayor's Office."
And finally, on the Twitter side of things, zippy_monster reported one concerned citizen's desperate plea: "You are not treating people with dignity when they take the bus. People need to be treated with dignity when they take the bus."