Matthew Roth
Recent Posts
Reporters, Upset Over Bridge Toll Increase, Get Weird And Whiny
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Photo: Mrs. Gemstone The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area’s transportation planning body and the administrator of bridge tolls, managed a feat very nearly impossible today: They got the Bay Guardian and the Chronicle to agree on something. Namely, writers for both papers hate the idea of increased tolls on the region’s bridges starting […]
High Speed Rail Authority Addresses Alignment Concerns in SF
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Possible high speed rail alignment options for San Francisco. Image: HSRA. Peninsula communities have made all the news with their public outcry against the alignment of the California High Speed Rail train, but today some San Franciscans got into the mix. Now that details have emerged about a possible alignment choice through the eastern portion […]
Bernal and Glen Park Neighbors Seek Traffic Calming in “The Cut”
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Looking south on San Jose Avenue from Randall Street. The southbound direction narrows to two lanes, but the northbound direction remains three. Photos: Matthew Roth By the time the political tides had turned against ripping up neighborhoods to make way for freeways in the late 1950s, the result of the San Francisco freeway revolt, many […]
Social Justice Leader Condemns BART for Proceeding with OAC Funding
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Image: BART. While BART will soon take a funding plan to its Board of Directors for the Oakland Airport Connector, Carl Anthony, the founder of Urban Habitat and a fellow in the Department of Geography at Berkeley, has called on the agency to wait to proceed with funding the OAC until the Federal Transit Administration […]
Battle Lines Drawn Over AB 32 As Oil Companies Qualify Ballot Measure
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Photo: Thomas Hawk. Though California Secretary of State Debra Bowen yesterday certified a November ballot measure asking voters to suspend AB 32, a landmark state law requiring a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions, AB 32 supporters have been organizing for months and have formed a significant coalition to fight the initiative. In a move […]
Mayor Newsom Slams Muni Union Leaders Again, Decries Work Rules
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Photo: Myleen Hollero/Orange Photography. Keeping with his public recriminations of TWU Local 250-A, the union representing Muni operators, Mayor Gavin Newsom launched into a tirade today after a press conference, decrying the leadership of the union for "misleading" the rank-and-file. Newsom called the second rejection of wage concessions a mistake and said the entire workforce […]
UCSF Parking Garage Will Add 230 Spaces in Lower Pacific Heights
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2420, site of the future garage and right next door to 1701 Divisadero, which has 150 parking spaces for UCSF permit holders. Photos: Matthew Roth. When the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) counted all the publicly available parking spaces in San Francisco, city planners argued one of the more significant benefits of such a […]
UCSF to Hold Public Meeting About Parking Garage Proposal on Sutter
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Streetsblog tipsters have been sending numerous emails about a public meeting tonight at UCSF’s Mt. Zion campus auditorium, concerned that a proposed 6-story building with 7 levels of parking that will add 230 new parking spaces. According to UCSF spokesperson Barbara Bagot Lopez, the meeting is the first step in the public outreach process to […]
BART Moves Ahead With OAK Connecter Despite Civil Rights Violations
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Image: BART. Even though BART is not in compliance with the Federal Transportation Administration’s (FTA) Title VI civil rights regulations, the agency has sought funding from numerous local, regional, state and federal outlets to continue the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project, a three-mile elevated tramway that would connect the Oakland Airport with the Oakland Coliseum […]
Did You Know There’s No Department of Parking and Traffic Anymore in SF?
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Out with the old, in with the new. Even the curbs are showing signs of the transition to more sustainable streets in San Francisco. Photo: Matthew Roth. Though most San Franciscans probably don’t realize it, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) recently phased out its Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) as part of […]
Mission Sunday Streets Sees Huge Turnout, Lots of Families
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The view down 24th Street from Valencia at 1 pm. Photos: Matthew Roth. The first 2010 Sunday Streets in the Mission drew huge crowds for five hours yesterday, with countless young kids learning to ride and enjoying the car-free space. Organizers estimated approximately 25,000 people came out, though I could have been convinced attendance was […]
Emotional Debate Over New Parking Meters at Marathon SFMTA Hearing
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Oh how San Francisco hates thee, wretched meter. Photo: loop oh Very little is as emotional in city-government policy making as parking and today’s San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency hearing on the addition of 1310 new meters was no exception. For two and a half hours, the public by-and-large lambasted the proposals to add new […]