Mayor Lee Favors Parking Meter Plan for Potrero Hill/Dogpatch

From the SFGate City Insider,

Mayor Ed Lee backed the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s plan to install thousands of new meters in the northeast Mission, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and Mission Bay neighborhoods — a proposal recently put on hold amid strong opposition from residents and business owners in those neighborhoods.

But Lee said that if he has any say in the matter, the proposal is not dead.

“It really is not so much whether they roll it out or not, it’s really how they roll it out,” Lee said.

City transportation officials say the meter expansion, part of the experimental SFpark program, is needed to better manage parking in those neighborhoods where finding a curbside parking space is now difficult and expected to get worse. The meters can be used to force turnover of the spaces and to get more people out of their cars and onto Muni and BART, or to bike or walk.

But many in the targeted neighborhoods lament the prospect of having to feed meters, saying that will be inconvenient and costly.

Supervisor Malia Cohen, who represents Potrero Hill and Dogpatch, asked Lee during his monthly Question Time appearance before the Board of Supervisors whether he would support an alternative to the meters, such as implementation of a parking permit program for workers in the area.

“I am concerned that the implementation and expansion of the SFpark program is not considering the unique transit and parking enforcement challenges of some of these neighborhoods and the unique nature” of some of the businesses there, Cohen said.

Lee sidestepped the issue of the parking permit idea, but said he has directed his Office of Economic Development to work with businesses on finding ways to alleviate the financial burden that the meter charges may have on low-income employees.

But in noting “the world is watching our efforts in parking management,” Lee said SFpark deserves a chance to succeed. And while the roll-out in the neighborhoods targeted for meter expansion has been delayed, he said he doesn’t want to see it killed.

“I also want to make sure that the process includes buy-in from neighborhoods, … make sure we talk to everyone,” Lee said.

Potrero Hill neighbors have vowed to continue to fight this, with one writing on Nextdoor Potrero Hill:

We are working to develop a survey and plan to collect information from neighbors on their parking needs and views of MTA's plan. MTA is holding off any further action for the next couple of months. During that time it is up to us (and I mean all of us who are concerned about having parking meters in our neighborhood) to tell the MTA what we want and what our needs are. Of course, they could ignore us, but I think they do so at their political peril. We will have another organizational meeting to recruit people to help in this effort next week. It will be somewhere in Potrero Hill; maybe at the library. I will post beforehand. On another note, Malia Cohen spoke to the mayor at today's Supervisors meeting about the issue. She has been very supportive of our efforts.

 Neighbors are encouraged to keep up to date with the parking plan by joining Nextdoor Potrero Hill and following the discussion.

SFPark Plan for Potrero Hill & Dogpatch on hold, Mission Bay OK

Updated Mission Bay SFPark plan

The Potrero Hill Boosters and the Dogpatch Neighborhood  Association have rallied residents and forced the SFMTA to drop plans, for the moment, to install parking meters throughout these two areas.  However, there is still a large swath of city that will become metered, as shown in this graphic from SFGate.

Tonight, the Coalition of Residents and Businesses in San Francisco's Eastern Neighborhoods will be meeting to discuss the plan.  Supervisors Jane Kim and David Campos will attend today's meeting, as well as SFMTA officials. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Project Artaud (Z-Space) at 450 Florida St.

The SFMTA, like many agencies throughout the city and beyond, miscalculated the resistance that they'd receive, didn't do the amount of outreach necessary to get people on-board, and ended up losing - or at least delaying - receiving funds that the agency says it needs, all while further alienating the citizenry. 

It seems these agencies make a cost-benefit analysis on their outreach.  Last year, SFWater seemed to think it could do very little outreach to the Portola and change plans midstream without anyone noticing that they were not going to reopen Bacon St over their reservoir.  They didn't count on a few dedicated neighbors catching wind of the plan (which wasn't a 'plan', according to the agency, but rather a 'proposal') and pushing back, getting hundreds of neighbors out to a public meeting that ended up forcing the agency to reverse course, much like what happened in Potrero Hill.

Why can't these agencies just do the actual work or engaging neighbors, laying out their case, showing the whole picture and being honest throughout, and coming to an amenable solution for the majority of people.  The minute you try to go behind someone's back, they'll mistrust you forever.

I just wish these agencies would follow one simple rule: engage, don't enrage!

SFMTA Mission Bay Parking Management Plan Rescinded

From Tony Kelly, President of the Potrero Boosters,

Hi everyone,

As you know, the Potrero Boosters and the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association filed an appeal with the Board of Supervisors, seeking to overturn the Categorical Exemption from Environmental Review for MTA Order 4005 - the SFPark program expansion adding parking meters to our neighborhoods. This was in response to the MTA hearing on January 13, where Hearing Officer John Newlin approved the order with slight modifications (over the objections of hundreds of residents and businesses) and sent it to the MTA Board.

The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and the City Attorney have just informed us that the MTA Hearing Officer has rescinded his approval of MTA Order 4005 in its entirety. Because of that rescission, there is no approval for us to appeal to the Board of Supervisors, and our appeal is being returned to us. Any new parking meter plan will have to go back to the Hearing Officer before going to the MTA Board.

Clearly this is great news for community advocates and stakeholders, who are happy to work together on a better program of parking management for our neighborhoods. We look forward to MTA joining us in that work.

Tony Kelly
President, Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association

Rational Pricing: The Mission Bay Parking Plan

As most of the news of late has been about how pissed off the residents and businesses of Potrero Hill are about SFMTA's new parking meter plan, one might get the impression that this opinion is universal.  So why, then, is SFMTA pushing ahead and forcing this down people's throats without taking into consideration anything that anyone is telling them?  Well, maybe it's because they feel like they've done the required outreach, have gotten a good deal of feedback, and not everyone, it turns out, is against them.

Back in November, a SF Streets Blog commentary discussed the issue of free parking and the dysfunction that it causes.  Thursday, they wrote again about "the plan to put a rational price on car parking around the developing Mission Bay area."  According to the article,

Among the organizations supporting the plan are Livable City and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, who sent letters to the SFMTA this week encouraging staff to move it forward.

“The expansion of metered spaces will provide the parking turnover that neighborhood-serving businesses need,” wrote Livable City Executive Director Tom Radulovich in his letter. “SFPark metering and pricing will also reduce cruising for parking in these neighborhoods. Cruising for parking generates traffic which delays Muni, produces greenhouse gas emissions, and distracted drivers making multiple turns endanger pedestrians and cyclists in these increasingly pedestrian- and cycling-oriented neighborhoods.”

The fight will continue, to be sure, but unless SFMTA backs down, it looks like meters will be coming whether some residents and business owners like it or not.


h/t A. Lantsberg

SFMTA Mission Bay Parking Plan

In a follow up to the Potrero Hill parking meter situation, Supervisor Cohen has written the following to the SFMTA:

If you can make it, please let your voice be heard at the SFMTA meeting Friday, January 13 at 10AM, City Hall!

SFMTA Mission Bay Parking Management Plan Meeting

Map of MB Parking Management Strategy

The Sustainable Streets Division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will hold a public hearing on Friday, January 13, 2012, at 10:00 AM, in Room 416 (Hearing Room 4), City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102, to consider the Mission Bay Parking Management Plan.

The plan itself can be found here at the SFPark website.

There is a petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop-parking-meter-installation-in-potrero-hill/ that reads:

Stop Parking Meter Installation in Potrero Hill

Installation of parking meters in residential areas such as Potrero Hill makes no sense, especially on streets that are highly residential. Many car owners have no choice but to park on the street. MTA's proposed plan would install parking meters directly in front of large apartment buildings giving residents no options.

The proposed plan includes the following (from the SFMTA Hearing Notice):

Farley's Parklet being installed today

Farley's, at 1315 18th St in Potrero Hill, is getting its parklet installed today, according to a neighbor in the know.

This from Farley's website:

Please park your Aztek elsewhere

Good things come to those who wait. We know you've all been waiting patiently for the new "Parklet" to appear on 18th Street and we are happy to announce that the install will take place the beginning of August. For those unfamiliar with parklet's, you can read-up on the program here: http://sfpavementtoparks.sfplanning.org. We look forward to creating more usable urban space!