A Spoonful of SF Scooter Decisions, Bus Lane Battles & November Election Dramz
Week of August 27, 2018 — San Francisco by the municipal spoonful

SF Mayor points fingers about Muni problems
Service delays across Muni. Scooter permit holdups. Safety violations on construction contracts. SF city dwellers are all too familiar with recent San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) troubles. Giving our grievances a dose of high-level clout, Mayor London Breed sent a sharply-worded letter to SFMTA Director Ed Reskin demanding “more reliable and consistent service.” Delivered one day ahead of Reskin’s annual performance review, Mayor Breed’s note assured the SFMTA chief she’d be looking for notable improvements on the Controller’s Transportation City Scorecards, which measure things like on-time performance and congestion. Reskin promptly responded with promises to do better…conveniently after the Twin Peaks Tunnel reopened (the tunnel shutdown was one of the main culprits in the MUNIpocalypse, just fyi). In his “aggressive” 90-day plan, Reskin vowed to reduce gaps on Rapid lines, and step up on-time performance for routes with a frequency of 15 minutes or less, by 5%. Like Mayor Breed, many of us are keen to see (if) Reskin’s proposed improvements (will be) put into practice.
Scooter Update: The word on SF scooters is out
One of Mayor Breed’s points of criticism for the SFMTA Director was the long-delayed permitting process for electric scooters in SF, originally slated for the start of July. Nearly two months late, the SFMTA finally confirmed that e-scooters are coming back to SF…but only a select few. After initially promising to grant permits to up to five scooter companies, the SFMTA issued permits to just two companies: Scoot Networks and Skip. If you weren’t caught up in the SF scooter frenzy way back in May, you should know neither of these brands were among those that flooded SF streets and sidewalks with their electric steeds. Lime, Bird, and Spin were conspicuously scorned by the SFMTA, as were ride hailing companies Lyft and Uber, suggesting SF is punishing those who don’t play by SFMTA rules. Scoot is not new to SF — you’ve probably spotted the company’s red vespas weaving through traffic. This history of cooperation, along with offers to provide riders with scooters and removable batteries, gave Scoot an edge in the SF scooter race. What made Skip unique, meanwhile, was its proposition to create a community advisory board. Starting October 15, you can expect to see 1,250 red (Scoot) and yellow (Skip) scooters added to your menu of SF transit options.
Shuttles encroaching on Muni’s turf
How does Muni manage to maneuver its wide girth through downtown gridlock, you might wonder. Fire-hydrant red, Muni-only lanes are most likely the answer (also few cars want to play a game of chicken with the large buses and their stoic operators). One of the city’s most travelled transit corridors — Geary Boulevard — will soon be getting some more of those snazzy bus lanes. Here’s the catch: the new bus lanes will be open not just to Muni, but also to private shuttles. For any SF newcomers, this may seem like no big deal, but private shuttles — especially those delivering tech workers door-to-door — have long been a sore subject for our less tech-friendly residents. SFMTA Director Ed Reskin (and the star of this week’s SF Spoonful, apparently) claims the decision to open up access to transit-only lanes will alleviate Geary traffic. Supervisor Sandra Fewer, who oversees the district in which the new lanes will be added, however, scoffed at the idea of democratizing Muni reign over city bus lanes. For or against, you can be assured that this won’t be the last time you’ll hear of these new bus lanes and their shuttle users.
Drama brewing over Proposition C
If there’s one local ballot measure to watch in the November 2018 election, it’s Proposition C. The measure proposes an additional gross receipts tax increase of 0.175–0.69 percent on businesses with over $50 million in annual gross receipts to fund—practically double $$ for—homelessness services in SF. If you’re a vaguely well-meaning resident, this may seem like a no brainer, but arguments abound on each side — take a look below.
Arguments against
- Those opposing Prop C keep coming back to a single stat, and that is the $300+ million the city already spends on homelessness with dubious results (the number of homeless individuals in SF has remained more or less the same since 2013). Lt. Governor of California Gavin Newsom pretty much summed it up when he said, “Put another $400 million in the homeless problem and I promise you this: Your problem is going to get a lot worse.” He went on to emphasize that homelessness is a regional problem and can’t be solved by SF alone. Still others worry that companies, when faced with higher taxes, will start moving middle-income roles to less tax-heavy cities.
Arguments in favor
- Let’s not get carried away with that $300 mil number, say those supporting Prop C. A closer look at the budget breakdown by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing reveals that a good chunk of homelessness spending goes toward preventing homelessness (or repeated homelessness) via rental subsidies, supporting housing, etc. Once you’ve subtracted all that and administrative costs, the number going for actual homeless individuals looks more like $57 million. With that in mind, supporters feel a 0.5% tax increase on the likes of Twitter, Salesforce, and Visa is not too much to ask from companies profiteering big in SF.
As for our city’s Mayor, she’s kind of like, “Let’s wait and see.”
A Spoonful of *Gasp* Not the Most Expensive Rents Ever
As much as we gripe about outlandish rents here in SF, turns out that at least some parts of the city are practically affordable compared to other U.S. zip codes. What tops the list of most expensive places to live if not our dear SF? The prestigious title of #1 most expensive place to rent goes our east coast sista Manhattan.
