San Francisco Supervisors Kneecap Parking Initiative

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

A petition-based initiative to allow more off-street parking in San Francisco has made it onto the ballot for the next local election. City Supervisors countermanded the move by amending a funding provision for the city's public transport (MUNI) that would insert the city's current parking restrictions into the City Charter. As The San Francisco Chronicle points out, if voters approve BOTH measures, the Muni measure would take precedence. Jim Ross, campaign manager for the parking measure, expressed his dismayed that it's become an either-or choice between additional parking and mass transit. "There's room for people to have parking and room for the city to have a good transit system. This doesn't have to be black or white." The chief sponsor of the MUNI measure disagrees: "This is about San Francisco's destiny," Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin asserted. "Voters will have to ask themselves: Do you want San Francisco to be more like Paris or Los Angeles?"

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Aug 06, 2007

    How much money does BART lose every year? I had heard it was in the hundreds of millions.

  • Charleywhiskey Charleywhiskey on Aug 06, 2007

    The traffic in Paris is much worse than that in Los Angeles because Paris has virtually no off street parking - unlike Los Angeles. Mr. Peskin needs to get out more.

  • Jabdalmalik Jabdalmalik on Aug 06, 2007

    "The traffic in Paris is much worse than that in Los Angeles because Paris has virtually no off street parking - unlike Los Angeles. Mr. Peskin needs to get out more." The traffic in Paris is irrelevant. No one needs to own a car in Paris. In Los Angeles cars are obligatory and traffic is terrible.

  • Geeber Geeber on Aug 06, 2007
    jabdalmalik: The traffic in Paris is irrelevant. No one needs to own a car in Paris. In Los Angeles cars are obligatory and traffic is terrible. Whether one needs to own a car in any city is irrelevant if the residents of said city still want to own one. Traffic is terrible in both Paris and Los Angeles, even though Paris apparently hasn't planned too well for it.
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