More Parking Or Transit?

"San Francisco voters will be faced with an important choice in November: Continue the city's decades-old policy that favors public transit over the private automobile, or reverse course and promote the interests of motorists.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors put a measure on the ballot that supporters say would help fix Muni, the troubled but popular system with almost 700,000 riders a day. A separate measure, which qualified through the signature-gathering process, would increase the city's parking. But voters can't have it both ways. Even if both measures receive a majority of the vote, only one can take effect.

It's an election year battle for a city obsessed with its transportation issues, whether it's the safety of bike riders and their monthly Critical Mass rides, banning cars from Golden Gate Park, tearing down the Central Freeway or Muni's reliability.

"This election is going to be the moment of truth for San Francisco," said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, a civic think tank that endorses pro-transit policy. "It's so philosophically rich, a real fork in the road."

Gap founder and billionaire Don Fisher and neighborhood merchant groups are pushing the measure to change existing local law and allow more off-street parking in San Francisco, where finding a legal place to park can be a challenge.

The other measure is touted as an effort to provide more money for Muni and give the transit system's administrators and directors financial and management tools to help turn around the troubled operation. Service delays and crowding are among the top passenger complaints.

In a last-minute move aimed at securing needed support from the more liberal supervisors, the Muni measure was amended to preserve the city's current restrictions on the creation of new parking -- a direct hit against the parking initiative."