Muni: Taking You for a Ride

Any SFer knows that Muni sucks. And there's no alternative and nothing you can do about it. Well, two pissed off professional guys with no particular political acumen are trying to do something. One is a graphic designer and the other is a web guy, so their site is pretty awesome.

There is a March Against Muni tonight, and they are calling for a "don't buy a Fast Pass" boycott for the month of March. SF Weakly has some coverage of the "movement."

SF and is contract wit Muni is a clusterfucked quagmire steeped in the City charter and the irresponsible ridiculously powerful Muni union (why are they so strong? really?). By contract, Muni drivers must be the second-highest-paid in the nation. However their professionalism and competence seem to be lowest.

Just this week I had a driver show up on a bus on the N tracks, which means something is jacked on the N line, but could not give a straight answer as to why the bus was running and not the train, and where the bus was going other than "Market Street" or how it would get there. No two riders got the same explaination—in barely recognizable fractured English no less. I never support "English-only" legislation, but I do think Muni drivers should be absolutely required to be able to speak English, and not just marginally. At the very least that is a public safety and emergency issue. We, the riders, finally figured out he was just answering "yes" to anything asked. And were enraged upon turning off the tracks at Cole Street to see an actual N arrive headed downtown behind us at the corner. We had to scream to get the driver to stop and allow us to transfer to the train he had previously said wouldn't be coming.

The City is tightening its belt and has to cut most everything, but is doing so in a spirit of "we're all in this together" and let's try to do the best we can to help each other out. Because fo the budget crisis, Muni has to cut services significantly, and is increasing fares. More money for less services—and when it came time for the Union to vote to suspend their contractually mandated raises for one year, they overwhelmingly voted to screw the City (see also). Add to this their record of gaming the system to collect sick and overtime pay simultaneously, among other unethical practices, and I think these guys may be right that the populace has finally had it.

From the SF Weakly:

Yes, one can be righteously miffed that bus drivers are getting non-negotiable raises this year, even though they voted down wage concessions that could have eased the blow of service cuts and fare hikes. But you can't do away with automatic pay raises without altering the City Charter. You can't place a grass-roots charter amendment on the ballot without gathering 70,000-odd signatures. You can't do that without scads of money. And you can't do anything without running headlong into the Transit Workers Union. And they just hired political pit bull Eric Jaye to kill that charter amendment by any means necessary. And, guess what? Jaye does know politics, unions, the in-and-outs. He knows this stuff.

The Weakly has no faith in the March Against Muni movement, and their lack of faith is pretty well justified.

But I also think now may be the time to chuck the charter as citizens and riders may be willing to endure a public transit meltdown (like the other Muni meltdowns we've had to endure) for a month or two while the City fires all Muni drivers and staffers and starts from scratch under all new rules.