Latest news with #Muni
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: What the Yosemite reservation system tells us about our dependency on cars and traffic
Regarding 'Here's how it went on the first day of Yosemite's controversial reservation system' (Outdoors, May 24): The Yosemite reservation system should be a nonstory but, unfortunately, it has become one. I am an annual-ish visitor to Yosemite National Park and have visited multiple times during the COVID-era reservation system. I've been before and after that iteration of the reservation system. It was significantly easier to enjoy the park without having to deal with delays and traffic. Going back to the reservation system seems like a no-brainer. I hoped that the reservation system and the ease of transport in Yosemite Valley could have translated into some moving opinions about our over-reliance on automobiles in San Francisco and elsewhere. With BART, Muni and other public transportation agencies facing financial uncertainty, a system that is already over-reliant on private automobiles will face the traffic and lack of parking that Yosemite had without reservations. We must rethink the place cars have in our society. Brian Hoang, San Francisco Photos too graphic But the pictures of a tattooed shirtless male kneeling over a depressed woman on the street and a tent with a woman surrounded by three San Francisco police officers are troubling. Other photos are of two guys smoking fentanyl and a couple out of a Dickens novel on the street. This hardly invites sympathetic appreciation. The story talks about a woman defecating at a bus stop and rendering it unusable. Another woman is quoted as saying she wished she had never started fentanyl and details how she spends most of her days trying to score the drug with her husband. How is the average reader to see these individuals as worthy of care and treatment? Treatment is available, and I commend Mayor Daniel Lurie for his focus on the problem. These are real and needy people. Mel Blaustein, San Francisco Bill discriminates Regarding 'California anti-discrimination bill faces blowback' (Politics, May 21): The story underrepresents the opposition to AB715 and fails to recognize the fallacies in the arguments about antisemitism in our schools. At the Assembly's Education Committee's hearing, over 140 people opposed the bill to 70 in support. Many organizations not listed also filed letters in opposition. AB715 was rushed, requiring a waiver of legislative rules — an abrogation of the democratic process. The voices of BIPOC communities were never included in the process, and that constitutes racism. The bill would allow for anonymous complaints against teachers accused of antisemitism. It is important to allow time for teachers and the California Teachers Union to discuss the bill. Studying Palestine and the politics of Israel has led to the censorship and reprimanding of teachers. This creates an environment of fear and silencing. Criticism of Israel, studying and critiquing the genocide against Palestinians — as it has been named by several human rights organizations — should not be conflated with antisemitism. If AB715 passes, it will set a dangerous precedent for attacking teachers for curriculum that only a small and specific group of parents don't like. Carla Schick, Oakland No free lunch But I have to respond to her comment, 'Everyone in this country deserves to live a life of ease, and so do we.' Sorry, Carolyn, but no one deserves a life of ease. Here in the U.S., you have to earn it. Give the people of East Oakland the opportunity of education, good jobs and affordable housing, and your mission will succeed. Kevin Hangman, Yountville
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Suspect held in deadly Muni stabbing in Bayview
The Brief A witness told KTVU the suspect had gotten into an argument with an older and younger man on the bus, took out a knife and stabbed the older man. The suspect got off the bus but was arrested by police on suspicion of murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. The San Francisoc District Attorney's Office will review case. San Francisco - A man was stabbed to death while riding a Muni bus in San Francisco's Bayview, the second stabbing on the transit system in the same neighborhood in two months. The latest incident happened on a 9 San Bruno bus at Bayshore Boulevard and Cortland Avenue at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. A witness who didn't want to go on camera told KTVU the suspect had gotten into an argument with an older and younger man on the bus and took out a knife. Both men tried to stop him. "And they held him down, hitting him with a belt buckle. The Latino guy happened to manage to get them both off, and from there that's when the knife came out," the witness said. The younger man got off the bus, but the suspect realized the older man was still on board. "And that's when the Latino (man), seeing that he was still sitting down when he actually grabbed the knife, just stabbed him right in his chest," he said. The victim died at a hospital. The suspect, Daniel Mendoza Garcia, 51, got off the bus but was arrested by police on suspicion of murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. "It's nonsense. It's a waste of life. And it's just at a hair's trigger," the witness said. In a statement, Muni described the stabbing as a tragic and senseless act of violence. "Our hearts are with the victim and their loved ones," the statement said in part. "Criminal activity of any kind will never be tolerated on Muni, and we are committed to keeping the safety of our riders and staff as our top priority." Residents and Muni riders were shocked by the violence. "Obviously it's sad," said Mike Minardi, who lives nearby. "We've had our issues in this area, but I feel like, you know, it has gotten a little better in some regards." Temesghen Gebrezghi often takes two Muni lines to get to a recycling center near the crime scene. "I feel worried because it's very sad for this guy, you know? We don't need that," Gebrezghi said. Lydia Patubo is general manager of a garden center in the area. She said she's had issues with the proximity of the Muni bus shelter to her business, from public drunkenness to intruders. "They come in and we've had to chase them out," Patubo said. About seven or eight years ago, Patubo said she tried unsuccessfully to fight Muni's efforts to move the bus stop from a different corner to its current location. "This bus stop is a hub for homeless people, it's a urinal, it attracts criminals. When this bus stop was across the street, it's perfect. We had no trouble," she said. This is the second stabbing on Muni in the Bayview since March, when a teenage girl was stabbed on a Third Street light-rail vehicle. Two suspects were arrested in that case. Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and The Source KTVU reporting, San Francisco police, Muni
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Elderly person fatally stabbed in SF, 1 arrested
(KRON) – A man accused of fatally stabbing an elderly person on a Muni vehicle is facing murder charges, said the San Francisco Police Department. San Francisco police responded to a report of an assault near Bayshore Boulevard and Cortland Avenue at 4:35 p.m. on Sunday. Arriving officers located a man suffering from a stab wound. The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased. Novato authorities investigating death of elderly man found on the ground Police obtained a description of the suspect in their investigation. Officers detained a suspect who matched the description and was later identified as 51-year-old Daniel Garcia. Garcia was arrested and booked into the San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of homicide, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. Muni posted on its social media that the transportation company is willing to assist SFPD and the San Francisco District Attorney's Office in arresting and prosecuting the assailant. 'Yesterday's senseless act of violence is tragic, and our hearts are with the victim and their loved ones. Criminal activity of any kind will never be tolerated on Muni & we are committed to keeping the safety of our riders & staff as our top priority,' Muni posted on its social media. Anyone with information regarding this homicide is asked to contact the SFPD at 1-415-575-4444. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
N.Y. is using this controversial idea to fight traffic, fund transit and bring life back downtown. S.F. can, too
Five years after the lockdown, San Francisco is still sick with the lingering symptoms of COVID-19. The city has a hollowed-out downtown and a bloody streak of traffic violence that has yet to abate. To make matters worse, BART, Muni and Caltrain — like many other transit operators across the country — are facing major budget shortfalls that could result in devastating service cuts. The only thing fully back to normal, it seems, is vehicle traffic — making life miserable for commuters. No single policy reform will turn things around, but members of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, who are also on the Board of Supervisors, recently revisited one idea that could come close: congestion pricing. The case for congestion pricing is simple. When people drive into a highly trafficked area, they impose costs on the people around them. Each additional car adds to congestion, degrades noise and air quality, and worsens the risk of harm for pedestrians and cyclists. Congestion pricing forces drivers to mitigate these costs by paying a fee to the public that compensates for the added nuisance, pollution and risk. Proposals for congestion pricing have popped up in San Francisco every few years for decades. But this time is different for two reasons. First: Bay Area transit operators desperately need a cash infusion, and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently spurned transit advocates' pleas for assistance in his May budget revision. Congestion charges could potentially keep the buses and trains running. The second reason is that we have new, real-world evidence of congestion pricing's efficacy; San Francisco policymakers can now look to New York's program for inspiration. New York is much larger than San Francisco, but it's still a useful test case. Like in San Francisco, New York's transit system has been slow to recover from a pandemic-era crash in ridership. As in downtown San Francisco, storefront vacancy rates in Manhattan remain elevated. And like the Bay Bridge, car entrance points into Manhattan, like the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, were highly congested — despite the availability of transit options for commuters. New York's congestion pricing program was approved in 2019, but it remained tied up in public bickering and environmental review for years. Then, when the switch was finally ready to flip last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a legally dubious move, imposed a last-minute delay on the program. Hochul and other critics argued that congestion pricing would effectively erect an economic barrier around the city, locking out middle-class motorists at a time when the central city was already starved of foot traffic and patronage. Hochul eventually allowed the program to move forward. New York is now five months into the experiment, and we can see that the critics were wrong. Since New York began charging a $9 fee for private vehicles to enter Midtown and lower Manhattan, that part of the city has rapidly become less congested, safer and more vibrant. The New York Times recently tabulated all of the high-level data on the city's congestion pricing program thus far, and the benefits have been astounding. To start, the program is reducing congestion: compared to the historical baseline, there are now 2 million fewer car trips per month into the city's central business district. But people aren't simply staying home; transit ridership is up on city buses, subways and regional commuter rail. Reduced vehicle traffic and greater transit ridership, in turn, are making the city safer. Subway crime was down 36% in January 2025, compared to the same month last year, and the tolled congestion zone had fewer than half as many crashes in early January 2025 as it did during the same period in 2024. Despite the predictions that fewer cars would lead to less commercial activity, business seems to have improved in the relief zone. Broadway attendance, restaurant reservations and retail sales have all risen in the central business district since congestion pricing was implemented. Meanwhile, New York's congestion fee raised $159 million in the first three months since its implementation. The city's transit agency projects half a billion dollars in revenue over its first year. That money will largely go toward shoring up the city's struggling public transit network and closing its $3 billion deficit. San Francisco needs a similar program to jumpstart its long recovery from the pandemic. Getting people out of their cars could boost foot traffic in commercial areas and help tame the city's spike in traffic violence. And the revenue could go toward supporting Bay Area transit systems. In fact, congestion pricing revenue could do even more than just save Bay Area transit. New York is using congestion price revenue to implement sorely needed transit improvements: bus electrification, subway station renovations and the extension of the Second Avenue Subway into Harlem and East Harlem. Imagine what a similar funding stream could do for San Francisco. No doubt, congestion pricing would face fierce resistance in San Francisco, just as it did in New York. But even drivers who revolt against the program would ultimately benefit from less traffic on the road and a quicker, safer commute. Despite the fears of some local businesses, they too would end up better off thanks to increased pedestrianism and the new customers that would come with it. Every so often, policymakers are lucky enough to find a rare win-win that makes everyone better off. Congestion pricing is one of those ideas. Few American cities stand to gain more from its implementation than post-pandemic San Francisco.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
SF Muni stations between Embarcadero and Van Ness closed due to technical issues
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Muni stations between Embarcadero and Van Ness are closed Wednesday afternoon due to maintenance issues. According to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, maintenance personnel are currently enroute to Embarcadero to fix the problem. BART is providing mutual assistance between Embarcadero and Balboa Park stations. Bus shuttles are also offering service between Church Street Muni station and Caltrain. Dead & Company Golden Gate Park show opening bands, ticket info announced There was no immediate word on what caused the technical issue, which occurred in the area of Embarcadero Station. As of just after 3 p.m., Muni officials said maintenance personnel is now on the scene at Embarcadero Station and that repair work is underway. The Muni disruption comes one day after a fire near the San Leandro BART Station disrupted the Bay Area-wide transit system for hours Tuesday. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
