Oppose Muni Fare Increases

The Battle of the Budget is in full swing in San Francisco, and fascist thug "mayor" Willie Brown and his anti-labor gang are attacking our public transportation system, the Municipal Railway or Muni.

The pro-privatizing Brown had his appointed Municipal Transit Agency approve fare increases from $1 to $1.25 for a bus or train ride for most of us, $35 to $45 to a monthly fast pass for most of us, $8 to $10 Fast Pass for youth, seniors and disabled, and $2 to $3 for the cable car, starting September 1, 2003 .

In addition, at the MTA hearing of February 26, 2003, Willie Brown's appointed Muni general manager, Michael Burns, engaged in anti-labor threats against Muni workers, demanding give-backs and a threat of 101 layoffs. His whole approach is union-busting, with the approval of anti-labor Willie Brown. See the Examiner, 2/27/03, "Muni Fare War" by Frank Gallagher, at:
http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.muni.0227w

This same lickspittle MTA approved cuts in service on the workhorse 38 Geary line, the 21 Hayes, the 5 Fulton, the 2 Clement, the 3 Jackson and the 4 Sutter lines. It is absolutely insane to cut the 38 Geary line; in fact, there should be more buses on that line since it is the workhorse line from downtown to the Richmond District. All of the other named buses have lots of riders, and are often packed during rush hour, as is the 38 Geary.

This writer has observed from riding the buses and trains daily that there are still lots of jam-packed buses and trains, and west of Van Ness and South of Market, the bus service is not frequent during non-rush hour times and days. We need all our buses and trains, plus a few more.

The Board of Supervisors can and must veto all fare increases, cuts in service and all attacks on labor. They must instead set up a transit profits tax district consisting of the Financial District, where the profits of the large corporations are taxed to pay for Muni, which is only reasonable, since Muni provides public transit for its labor force, and of course, the large corporations have the money and must pay their fair share.

PLEASE CALL, WRITE, FAX AND/OR E-MAIL THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO PROTEST THIS FARE INCREASE, THE SERVICE CUTBACKS AND THE ATTACKS ON THE UNION CONTRACT. The economy is worse for the workingclass, who must have that bus and train service and are the majority of people in San Francisco. We do not have the money to pay fare increases and there are no pay raises for many of us. Our compact, crowded city cannot and should not handle more cars and we need affordable and frequent bus and train service. The cutbacks must be done in such worthless, parasitical departments such as the police department and the mayor's office, especially among the mayor's special assistants, also known as his election fraud team

The Board of Supervisors may be reached at:.
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=7271
Their phones all have voice mail so you can leave a message at any time. All 11 should be called, no matter where you live, since they call make decisions about the budget, which affect all of us.
Their phones and E-mails are:

Tom Ammiano
District 9
(415) 554-5144
Tom.Ammiano [at] sfgov.org

Chris Daly
District 6
(415) 554-7970
Chris.Daly [at] sfgov.org

Bevan Dufty
District 8
(415) 554-6968
Bevan.Dufty [at] sfgov.org

Matt Gonzalez , Board President
District 5
(415) 554-7630
Matt.Gonzalez [at] sfgov.org

Tony Hall
District 7
(415) 554-6516
Tony.Hall [at] sfgov.org

Fiona Ma
District 4
(415) 554-7460
Fiona.Ma [at] sfgov.org

Sophie Maxwell
District 10
(415) 554-7670
Sophie.Maxwell [at] sfgov.org

Jake McGoldrick
District 1
(415) 554-7410
Jake.McGoldrick [at] sfgov.org

Gavin Newsom
District 2
(415) 554-5942
Gavin.Newsom [at] sfgov.org

Aaron Peskin
District 3
(415) 554-7450
Aaron.Peskin [at] sfgov.org

Gerardo Sandoval
District 11
(415) 554-6975
Gerardo.Sandoval [at] sfgov.org