[TLC News & Alerts] 3 actions for a more livable city...

[Jeremy Nelson]

Dear livable city advocates-

Happy New Year from the TLC board, staff, and volunteer interns.

Below are 3 actions you can take to get our City on a more sustainable
course for 2005, as well as updates, upcoming events, and job postings.

Don't forget to help TLC become more effective by forwarding this message to
like-minded friends and colleagues.

As always, thanks for your continued advocacy and support- Jeremy

=======================

1) URGENT ACTION:  THURSDAY (1/13), 1:30pm: Oppose Excessive Parking in new
Transbay Terminal neighborhood!

2) TUESDAY, (1/18), 4pm:  Tell the MTA Board 'No Muni Fare Increase or
Service Cuts without Raising the Cost of Driving!'

3) Tell the Mayor to Drop the "Worst Idea of 2005" (thus far):  Free Parking
for Hybrids?!

4) TLC in the News

5) TLC Recommends:  Cool events, happenings, and clippings for urbanists,
enviros, and sustainable transport junkies...

6) Job openings:  Exceptional candidates needed to head Planning Dept. & MTA
Multimodal Planning Division

=======================

1) URGENT ACTION:  THURSDAY (1/13), 1:30pm: Oppose Excessive Parking in new
Transbay Terminal neighborhood!

WHAT'S AT STAKE: This Thursday, approval of the Transbay Redevelopment Plan
will be before the Planning Commission.  The redevelopment plan calls for
redeveloping the neighborhood around the new Transbay Transit Terminal at
First and Mission streets into a dense, mixed use neighborhood, with
housing, offices, hotels, and retail development in high-rise and mid rise
buildings.  The new terminal will be San Francisco's equivalent of NYC's
"Grand Central Station," with access to local and regional bus service, an
extended Caltrain service, pedestrian walkways to BART, and high speed
intercity rail all under one roof.

The Transbay Plan got many things right, but the glaring flaw in the
Transbay Plan is a parking maximum that is too high and that allows to one
space per unit.  This parking ratio assumes that every new resident of the
most transit-accessible neighborhood of the city will have a car despite the
fact that 28% of current residents (and 38% of renters) don't own cars.

Allowing excessive parking also means higher construction costs and more
auto congestion, which leads to greater pedestrian and bike safety impacts,
and greater delays to Muni service downtown.  Transbay is our best
opportunity to build a mostly or entirely car-free neighborhood in San
Francisco, but the current plan falls far short.

TAKE ACTION:  TLC has vigorously been advocating for lowering the parking
maximum in Transbay, and the Transbay Citizen Advisory Committee and
Redevelopment Agency staff agreed to reexamine the parking maximum in
Transbay area if the parking maximums in the surrounding area are lowered.

- ATTEND THURSDAY'S PLANNING COMMISSION HEARING at 1:30pm in Room 400 City
Hall, and tell the Commission:

"I don't believe it makes any sense to allow LA-style parking requirements
to be built in the area surrounding San Francisco's "Grand Central Station"
nor do I believe that the most transit-rich area in San Francisco, the
region, and the entire West Coast should be zoned for parking ratios that
are more appropriate to the suburbs. I urge you to do the following:

1) Amend the Transbay controls to automatically lower the parking maximum if
parking maximums are lowered in the surrounding downtown blocks.

2) Amend the existing downtown zoning controls (called the "C-3 zone" in
plannerese) to establish a sensible parking maximum (0.5 spaces per unit, at
most) and including the exemplary parts of Transbay (no parking minimum,
unbundled parking, minimize garage entrances, lost of parking for bicycles
and car share vehicles).

3) Establish a comprehensive, Better Neighborhoods-style community planning
process for the downtown, to address all the elements that make up a good
neighborhood (including open space, urban greening, traffic calming,
neighborhood-serving retail, etc.) that would make downtown a better place
for people who want to live car-free."

- E-MAIL THE PLANNING COMMISSION if you can't attend the hearing. E-mail
your comments to the Commission Secretary (mailto:linda.avery at sfgov.org) and
cc the Planning and Redevelopment staff (mailto:Mike.Grisso at sfgov.org and
mailto:Joshua.Switzky at sfgov.org) and TLC (mailto:jeremy at livablecity.org).
In your comments, please reference Agenda Item 11: Transbay Redevelopment
Plan (Case # 2004.0055Z).

More info on this campaign is available at
www.livablecity.org/campaigns/transbayplan.html

=======================

2) TUESDAY, (1/18), 4pm:  Tell the MTA Board "No Muni Fare Increase or
Service Cuts without Raising the Cost of Driving!"

WHAT'S AT STAKE:  The MTA is facing a $20 million dollar budget deficit this
year and a $50 million deficit next year.  After raising fares to $1.25 in
2003 and proposing service cuts in 2004, the MTA is now considering
additional service cuts and another across-the-board fare increase:  as high
as $1.75 for a single ride and $63 for a monthly Fast Pass.

After months of advocacy last year by TLC and it's partner groups, this year
the MTA is wisely considering several alternative revenue measures that ask
motorists to pay their fair share of the social, environmental, and public
health costs that they impose on everybody else, including air and water
pollution, reduced ped and bike safety, and increased congestion and delays
to transit riders.

TAKE ACTION:  Rather than balancing the MTA budget exclusively on the backs
of transit riders, it's time that the MTA ask motorists to pay their fair
share.  Here's how you can help:

- ATTEND TUESDAY'S HEARING:  The hearing starts at 4pm (Room 400 of City
Hall).  If you can't attend the hearing, e-mail the Directors c/o Board
Secretary Roberta Boomer (mailto:Roberta_Boomer at ci.sf.ca.us) and please cc
MTA ED Michael Burns (mailto:Joe_Speaks at ci.sf.ca.us) and TLC
(mailto:jeremy at livablecity.org).  Sample language you can use is below:

"Instead of balancing the MTA budget deficit exclusively on the backs of
transit riders as has been done in recent years, it's time the MTA ask
motorists to pay the full social, environmental, and public health costs
that they impose on the rest of us.

For example, auto congestion results in increased delays and operating costs
for Muni, but drivers don't pay these costs.  Using Muni's own numbers,
Transportation for a Livable City calculated that if every run of the
#14-Mission bus could save 5 minutes from reduced auto congestion, Muni
would save $214K a year on just that one route.

The MTA should ask drivers to pay for the congestion costs they impose on
others, instead of asking people who are doing the right thing by taking
transit to subsidize all the solo drivers in front of them that are holding
up the buses.

I urge you to increase revenues by increasing the cost of driving rather
than cutting Muni service and increasing fares."

More info on this campaign is available at
www.livablecity.org/campaigns/muni.html. For a list of revenue proposals
that TLC supports, see
http://www.livablecity.org/campaigns/munifunding.html.

=======================

3) Tell the Mayor to Drop the "Worst Idea of 2005" (thus far): Free Parking
for Hybrids?!

WHAT'S AT STAKE:  Mayor Newsom has proposed offering free meter parking to
hybrids and a 25% parking discount for hybrids at city-owned parking
garages.  Even if one ignores the $2000 federal income tax break that hybrid
buyers already get, the already burgeoning demand for hybrids (there's a
six-month waiting list for most models), and the fact that the Bay Area is
already the third largest market in the nation for sales of new hybrids,
there are still plenty of good reasons to oppose the Mayor's proposal to
give free/discounted parking for hybrids:

- It's not enough of an incentive to cause more people to buy hybrids (it's
like offering a free toaster if you buy a new house).

- It will only encourage more car trips by existing hybrid owners.

- It will take money from Muni in order to give a public subsidy to drivers
of $20,000 cars.

Encouraging more vehicle trips at the expense of transit riders and
essential city services is certainly not a "transit-first" policy,
especially since the Mayor has done little during his first term to promote
the most fuel-efficient and low polluting modes of travel:  transit,
bicycling, and walking.  And as the MTA is currently considering cutting
service and raising transit fares to $1.75, giving away free parking is not
only unfair to transit riders, it's insulting.

TAKE ACTION: Please e-mail Mayor Newsom c/o his Liaison to the Board of
Supervisors (mailto:Wade.Crowfoot at sfgov.org) and cc TLC
(mailto:jeremy at livablecity.org) and urge him to drop this proposal.  Sample
language you can use is below:

"I urge you to drop the proposal to give free or discounted parking to
hybrid vehicles.

This proposal will be ineffective at encouraging hybrid purchases, is
inequitable for car-free residents who choose not to or can't afford to
purchase $20,000 hybrid, and does nothing for residents who already travel
by sustainable modes like transit, bicycles, and on foot.  Rather than
subsidizing driving, we should be rewarding users of these sustainable modes
which are not only fuel-efficient and low-emitting, but also reduce auto
congestion, make our streets safer, and increase mobility for all San
Franciscans.

To truly incentivize cleaner, more fuel-efficient transportation in San
Francisco, I urge you to pursue policies that will actually accomplish these
laudable goals without penalizing non-drivers.  Examples include:  1) a
local gas tax that would fund transit, bike and pedestrian improvements, 2)
an expanded vehicle buyback program for low-income drivers of older more
polluting vehicles, or 3) a vehicle registration surcharge on heaviest, most
fuel inefficient SUVs."

=======================

4) TLC in the News

- BeyondChron.org gives props to Bike Coalition's super-advocate Josh Hart
(who gives props to TLC):
http://www.beyondchron.org/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=110&twindow=&mad=&sde
tail=1193&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption
=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=

- Bay Guardian on the growing coalition opposed to widening MLK in Golden
Gate Park:
http://www.sfbg.com/39/10/news_ggpark.html

- BeyondChron.org on MTA budget, revenue ideas, and Muni fare
increases/service cuts:
http://www.beyondchron.org/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=110&twindow=&mad=&sde
tail=1204&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption
=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=

- BeyondChron.org shoots the breeze with TLC staffer:
http://www.beyondchron.org/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=110&twindow=&mad=&sde
tail=1319&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption
=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=


=======================

5) TLC Recommends:  Cool events, happenings, and clippings for urbanists,
enviros, and sustainable transport junkies...

- Wed., 1/19, 12:30pm: SPUR Forum on "Transportation and Sustainability: A
European Perspective"
312 Sutter St. (at Grant), Fifth Floor, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Powell St.
BART/Muni station.  Free for SPUR members and $5 for non-members.  More info
at: http://www.spur.org/Calendar_Detail.asp?EventID=725

- February 17-21: 41st International Making Cities Livable Conference on
"True Urbanism and the Healthy City"
Organized with the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, Carmel,
CA.  More info at: http://www.livablecities.org/41ConfCarmel.html

- March 19-23: American Planning Association's National Conference
San Francisco.  More info at: http://www.planning.org/2005conference

- April 21-22:  Healthy Cities and Smart Growth Conference: "Planning for
Healthier Communities"
Berkeley, CA.  More info at:
http://www.civicpartnerships.org/default.asp?id=315

- June 2-5: Planners Network Conference on Design: "Justice by Design?"
Twin Cities, MN.  More info at:
http://www.designcenter.umn.edu/reference_ctr/planNetConf.html


=======================

6) Job openings:  Exceptional candidates needed to head Planning Dept. and
MTA Multimodal Planning Division

TLC believes it is critical that a world-class city like San Francisco have
a world-class Planning Director and Director of Multimodal Transportation
Planning, a newly-created position at MTA.

For example, the New York Times
(http://www.planetizen.com/news/item.php?id=15378&rf=e) recently profiled
NYC's Planning Director Amanda Burden, who had some extremely sensible
things to say on what makes for a more livable city:

"I believe that by raising expectations, higher standards will become the
norm [...] You can measure the health of the city in the vitality of the
street life."

Of course, sound bites are one thing and effective implementation is
another, but TLC believes it's critical to the future livability of our City
that we get candidates for these two positions that have a coherent vision
for a more livable, sustainable, equitable, and urbane San Francisco.

You can help by forwarding the job announcements below to, exceptional
candidates you know personally, fellow activists and colleagues around the
world, any relevant print or electronic outlets that you are aware of.

- Director, San Francisco Planning Department:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/planning/Other/directorjob.pdf

- Director, San Francisco MTA Multimodal Planning Division:
www.sfmuni.com/jobs (Direct link:
http://agency.governmentjobs.com/sfmuni/default.cfm?action=viewjob&JobID=192
47&hit_count=Yes&headerfooter=1&WDDXJobSearchParams=%3CwddxPacket%20version%
3D%271%2E0%27%3E%3Cheader%3E%3C%2Fheader%3E%3Cdata%3E%3Cstruct%3E%3Cvar%20na
me%3D%27FIND%5FKEYWORD%27%3E%3Cstring%3E%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3Cvar%20
name%3D%27PROMOTIONALJOBS%27%3E%3Cstring%3E0%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3Cva
r%20name%3D%27TRANSFER%27%3E%3Cstring%3E0%3C%2Fstring%3E%3C%2Fvar%3E%3C%2Fst
ruct%3E%3C%2Fdata%3E%3C%2FwddxPacket%3E)