SAN FRANCISCO
Mayor Newsom to tell how he'd shape up Muni
Transit directors will hear his plans for beleaguered agency
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Muni riders are plagued by overcrowding -- one said her bus or streetcar is so packed "there is no room to breathe."
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans today to outline his vision for the Municipal Railway, the city's struggling public transit agency that has been plagued by late arrivals and overcrowding.
The mayor is scheduled to address the Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors, which oversees Muni and the city's parking and traffic operation, at a special meeting intended to make the board appointed by the mayor more effective.
His comments will come at an important time in his political career. How well Muni performs -- or doesn't perform -- can have significant political consequences for Newsom, who will face voters again in November 2007.
"Muni is one of those things that's a litmus test for managing the city,'' said San Francisco pollster David Binder. "People feel that if Muni is failing, then the government is failing.''
He said the Municipal Railway is even more of a benchmark than homelessness or potholes -- other bread-and-butter issues that can help or hurt local politicians -- because it is used by poor, rich and middle-class people and cuts across all neighborhoods, races, political stripes and ages.
With about 618,000 boardings each weekday, Muni is the busiest public transit system in the Bay Area. By Muni's own accounts, service is slower, runs are regularly missed and vehicles are overcrowded.
Willie Brown, Newsom's predecessor at City Hall, felt the wrath of Muni. He initially said that Muni could be fixed within 100 days of taking office. That statement came back to haunt him when the promise couldn't be fulfilled.
"He had a reputation as a can-do guy, but he couldn't get Muni fixed,'' Binder said.
In 1998, during Brown's tenure, Muni suffered the infamous "meltdown,'' a series of computer and mechanical malfunctions that eroded service. A year later, San Francisco voters rebelled and passed Proposition E, a measure that assured a steady funding stream for Muni and set a series of performance measures, including on-time standards.
Prop. E set an on-time performance goal of 85 percent -- a mark that has yet to be realized. Instead, on-time performance has hovered around 70 percent for the past four years.
Muni chief Nathaniel Ford said that riders shouldn't expect to hit that 85 percent point anytime soon. Last week, he told the agency's board of directors that a target of 75 percent on-time performance by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year, would be more realistic for the time being.
He said improvements will come incrementally, given the problems Muni faces, including an aging fleet, a chronic staffing shortage and congested streets. He expects to meet the 85 percent on-time performance eventually.
"We must be candid about the fundamental causes and recognize that they cannot be solved overnight,'' he said.
For Linda Rothfield, a legal secretary who lives near the Castro neighborhood, the improvements can't come soon enough. She relies on Muni and finds it unreliable.
"I have to allow over an hour to go anywhere in the city,'' she said. And when her bus or streetcar finally does arrive, she added, it's usually jampacked "so there is no room to breathe.''
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