BONUS MATERIAL: Check out Eve Batey's excellent take on the meeting here. N Judah here. City Insider here. Muni Diaries here. And StreetsBlog here.
Constant Readers,
I am on the newsletter list for a number of Supervisors. As a general rule, these hopelessly lame publications contain notices for events like Spaghetti and Fingerpainting night with Supervisor So-and-so at Somedogooder Community Center.
Yawn aaaaaand Delete.
But yesterday, I got Supervisor Dufty's newsletter. Imagine my glee at seeing that he's hosting a hearing on the Muni Bus Inspection Program. According to the email:
"I'm inviting anyone who has been a victim of crime on Muni to testify in the board Chambers (Room 250 of City Hall) and we will take public testimony at the very beginning so speakers are not inconvenienced."
Are you shitting me? Can I bring popcorn? I will NOT miss this.
Details:
City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee
11:00 am - Monday, November 23, 2009
City Hall Room 250
If there's a god, one (or both!!) of these ladies will be there. Nope. That expulsion of pent up frustration in "Fuck you!" never, ever gets old.
-Melissa
Better hope that no Muni crime victims have the kinds of jobs where they might have to be at work at 11am on a Monday.
Posted by: Erik | November 21, 2009 at 14:42
Erik - Excellent point. That pretty much all City Hall meetings held during the daytime is a serious problem. Not only does it prevent most people from participating in the meetings, but constituencies who can be present dominate that hearings.
Posted by: Melissa Griffin | November 21, 2009 at 14:46
I posted this at the Chron's site at 8:16 this morning. " Holding the hearing at 11:00 AM makes sure most victims and witnesses can't attend because they are working. Hearings like this should be held at 6:30 - 7:00 PM." After a little more thought I would add a Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, or both would be better.
Posted by: Howard Epstein | November 21, 2009 at 17:19
What happened to the Fridday Videos?
Posted by: Howard Epstein | November 21, 2009 at 17:28
How soon they forget. Dufty's predecessor as would be Mayor of Cloud Cuckoo Land, Tom Ammiano, bought a Fast Pass in 1999 and waved it around blathering, "This is my ticket to the Mayor's Office!" And Rescue Muni/SPUR/SFBC got everything they wanted in their Proposition/Charter Amendment that year (except Ammiano as mayor, thank god), everything: the DPT and all the parking fine money, autonomy, everything. According to the Prop, by July 2004, "Muni would have to prove that it is actually delivering 98.5 percent of the service that is scheduled, and that 85 percent of all buses and trains are running on time." OK!
The Muni video that one would really like to see is the one that Willie Brown had made of the 800 Muni passenger complaints against drivers (only the beady mind of a lawyer could come up with that ploy) as noted here: Willie's Book (the Muni section begins about halfway through the article).
You can just imagine a driver watching some talking head then responding: "I remember her! Bitch always complaining, say I don't stop close enough, I let someone get on ahead of her. She always drunk, harassing the other passengers, ask anybody, she just trouble." So he's exonerated.
Further on in the article Willie proudly claims: "we terminated abusive operators." Yeah right, how many? Let's see, he mentions one employee that was terminated while he was in prison because he didn't show up for work! OK!
Posted by: kwk | November 21, 2009 at 17:59
Man, I have been wasting my Fuck Yous. I could have been saying them like that all along. From now on, that's the only way I'm gonna say Fuck You. Moment of furious silence, followed by a short, barking scream.
Posted by: Alek | November 21, 2009 at 20:27
Alek - Agreed. I'll be practicing in front of the mirror!
Posted by: Melissa Griffin | November 22, 2009 at 11:14
You can always submit written comments to a committee if you can't make the meeting. I agree, though they should try and do the more popular ones at a time when people can attend who have a real job. Not everyone can take 3 hours off for lunch like at City Hall.
Posted by: gdewar | November 22, 2009 at 11:37