San Francisco news briefs

Muni fare increase

The San Francisco Group is not sure that the fare increase proposed for Muni is really required, but it may be better than severe service cuts. The good news is that the Muni is seriously considering many of the alternative funding sources long recommended by the Sierra Club, other environmental groups, and now concerned riders.

We have long supported an increase in the parking tax, and expect to get such an increase on the ballot later this year. We also support raising city garage parking fees and meter rates. The city is also considering other measures, such as increasing vehicle registration fees, to reduce the huge subsidies to driving partially paid for by those who can't afford a car, and thereby encourage people to drive less, but these are longer-term and need state action. For more information about such subsidies, see www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/articles/subsidies.asp

Increasing the parking tax will be a major work item for the Group. To help create this sustainable increase in funds for Muni and other city services, contact Howard Strassner at (415) 661-8786.

Parking

The San Francisco Group opposes providing free parking in city garages or at meters for hybrid automobiles. We do support providing hybrids with preferential access to conveniently located spaces in city garages.

The Club wants people not only to drive cleaner but to drive less. For this we need an adequately funded Muni that can provide good service. Most of the revenue from city garages goes to Muni, and Muni can not afford to loose any revenue. (Muni is also threatened with losing $16 million in state funds if the governor's proposed budget should pass.) The city also gets a share of the city garage parking tax and most of the money from the meters. The city needs this money more than hybrid drivers.

Preferred parking spaces would be a way to reward drivers who produce less pollution without undermining Muni funding.

Golden Gate Park

The Sierra Club has signed on to a neighborhood and merchant resolution to oppose the widening of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the building of a second entrance to the garage in Golden Gate Park. We are also working to create the pedestrian oasis that was promised as part of the ballot initiative to build a garage. Reducing auto traffic would benefit the rebuilt Museum of Fine Arts and Academy of Sciences by enhancing the ambience of the park.

Howard Strassner

Bag charges

The San Francisco Group supports the city's proposed user fee on plastic grocery bags. The fee will promote more sustainable consumer behavior.

Plastic bags are a petroleum product. They litter our streets, beaches, sewer system, and ocean and are a common cause of marine-animal deaths. Approximately 50 million shopping bags are handed out in San Francisco each year, costing taxpayers an estimated $8.5 million in collection, disposal, recycling, and landfill costs. A similar policy was adopted in Ireland just two years ago and resulted in a 90% reduction in plastic-bag waste.

The city has goals of reducing its diversion of wastes to landfills by 75% by 2010 and by 100%, that is - zero waste, by 2020. The bag fee is a valuable step towards that goal.

We applaud the city's consideration of this precedent-setting waste-prevention measure. We look forward to the results of a thorough study authorized by the Board of Supervisors to assess the true costs and impacts of the policy to low-income citizens, to be released this spring. San Franciscans are encouraged to voice their support for this small step down the path of sustainability. This will certainly be a battle.

Cathleen Sullivan