sullidotinfo

[sullidotinfo]

Total eclipse from Indian Lake, Ohio

Almost four minutes of totality! Totally worth the trip.

[sullidotinfo]

My comment to the SFMTA on the Geary project.

Director Tumlin, and MTA Directors, thank you for listening to us today.  I’m Andrew, I live in the Haight Ashbury, and I’m speaking in favor of building the Geary transit lanes now.  But today, I’d like you to think of someone else: the babies.

In particular, think if you will of a baby, conceived in joy and celebration of the passage of Prop K in 2003.  Their parents would surely have expected to take her on the Geary Bus Rapid Transit project that voters approved. And yet, two full decades later, we are still debating it - and debating a pathetic, watered-down side-running design instead of the center lanes we approved.

That baby is now in college.  She’ll turn 21 in August of 2025.  She’ll want to take the 38 Rapid to Tommy’s for her first official margarita, all the way from Montgomery in red lanes.  Does anyone honestly think that if we delay now, she’ll have that chance?

I urge you to approve the Quick-Build with NO FURTHER DELAY.  Do it for the Prop K babies, so they can turn 21 in style.  Thank you.

[sullidotinfo]

We put that up!

The Twin Peaks Pink Triangle from above

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to the SFMTA Board on the long-delayed, watered-down Geary Improvement Project.

To the SFMTA Board, Supervisor Chan, and Supervisor Preston:

I support the proposed changes that SFMTA has developed for Geary Boulevard in District 1, which also benefit residents and visitors to District 5 (especially the Western Addition, Japantown and the Tenderloin). It is vital we make the 38 and 38R accessible and work for all residents, workers, and visitors to this part of San Francisco.

As you well know, while the proposed side-running transit lanes are an improvement over the status quo, they are a pathetic watering-down of the center-running, rail-ready bus rapid transit project (comparable to Van Ness) that the voters approved with Prop K twenty years ago, thanks in no small part to interference by the same people who are trying to preserve a few parking spaces today, aided and abetted by SFMTA leadership unwilling to prioritize transit riders and the climate over auto drivers.

Nonetheless, the first phase of the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project resulted in 18% faster bus service and 81% reduction in excessive speeding by private vehicles, and this means real time savings for riders and cost savings for the agency. It is critical that these benefits be extended to the stretch of Geary between Stanyan and 34th Avenue without further delay.  38,000 daily riders on the 38/R deserve efficient transit, and everyone deserves to use our streets without risking severe injury or death.

Please reject the NIMBY opposition led by a few naysayers who only care about parking, and approve the current iteration of the Geary Improvement Project without delay.  Following this, I urge you to bring back the center-running design that we never should have thrown in the garbage in the first place.  Van Ness is a huge success, and Geary could be too, with a little courageous action on your part.

Thank you.

(h/t Richmond Family SF)

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to the SFMTA on the Valencia bike lanes.

To: SFMTA Board Members CC: SF Board of Supervisors; SF Bike Coalition; Walk SF; Better Valencia

Center-Running "Pennsylvania-on-Valencia" Bike Lanes - OPPOSE Curbside, Parking-Protected "Better Valencia" Bike Lanes - SUPPORT

To the MTA Board of Directors:

I am writing to OPPOSE the proposed center-running bike lanes on Valencia between Fifteenth and Twenty-third Streets, and SUPPORT the "Better Valencia" alternative which would instead continue the curbside, parking-protected bike lanes that already work well between Market and Fifteenth all the way to Cesar Chavez.

Quite simply, the center-running design is far too dangerous. Although it's been tried in places like Washington, DC on Pennsylvania Avenue, this design will needlessly put cyclists at risk, especially on Valencia where there is a large amount of cross traffic, deliveries, police activity, red light running, and illegal turns.

In particular, in San Francisco, where speeding, illegal turns and red-light running are epidemic and SFPD shows zero interest in enforcement, we can be sure that cyclists will be killed or injured by negligent drivers. All we need to do is look at Third Street, where cars and trucks routinely turn in front of Muni LRVs. The LRVs can and do take the hit - but cyclists can't! This will be especially dangerous at night, when drivers are more reckless and cyclists are less visible.

Also, despite claims made by Valencia merchants, center-running lanes will make it much harder for cyclists to visit. Who wants to cut across moving traffic midblock to go to a restaurant or a shop, especially with kids in tow? This design strongly favors through traffic over local traffic and will surely lead cyclists to ride right by places like Manny's without stopping.

In contrast, the already well-tested parking-protected design that exists from Market to Fifteenth works well and can easily be extended. If this means it needs to go around parklets, with fewer parking spaces, so be it! Spaces can and should be dedicated to loading, so restaurants can still support delivery. And in fact, Little Star on Valencia has no problem delivering in as little as 30 minutes despite having a protected lane right in front of it.

I am a frequent rider on Valencia and a 20+ year member of the San Francisco Bike Coalition (and a frequent visitor to Manny's, Director Yekutiel's cafe), and I strongly disagree with the SFBC and its allies on this topic. I know that I am not alone among SFBC members. Later, we can work on improving this organization's responsiveness to its members, but this week, the SFMTA must not follow its guidance.

Instead, SFMTA should move immediately to approve the parking-protected Better Valencia design, which will be safer for pedestrians and cyclists (and motorists), and also approve the proposed "placemaking" effort to further improve the streetscape and expand outdoor dining to make Valencia an even nicer place for neighbors and merchants, and a greater destination for people from all over the Bay to visit and shop.

Thank you very much.

[sullidotinfo]

find me on the 'don

That's right, on Mastodon.

Hopefully this gets me the little green textbox!

[sullidotinfo]

More social, less media

It’s Thursday and apparently all the journalists, banned by the new boss of the Former Site, are heading over to Mastodon.  Good for them, and I wish them the best of luck!  But most of them I won’t follow, and I’ll probably mute them, even if they were a key part of my Twitter feed.

Why?

I’m not the first one to say it, but “social media” sucks.  It conflates two completely unrelated things - making friends, and reading and reacting to the news - in a way that inevitably leads to toxicity.   I know I’ve been part of that - the little endorphin hit you get from a really good dunk and a post doing numbers is great, I won’t lie - but over time it’s made not just Twitter but every other site that has tried to share news and commentary a trash pit.

Remember when Microsoft, fresh off the success of Windows 95, decided to merge the file system with the web browser?  Before Internet Explorer, there was Windows Explorer, which was (and remains) the way to find documents on your system.  But Gates and Ballmer wanted to make that the “default browser” for the web, and then added ActiveX, and billions of malware infections later, Google Chrome ate their lunch.  (Remember those spyware “toolbars”?  Yuck.)  Now you would not think of combining the browser with the file system!  But for several years in the 1990s, Microsoft insisted it was the right thing to do.

So also “social media.”  Social networks are awesome and I have met hundreds, perhaps thousands, of friends that way.  I still remember how nice it was to find long-lost friends on Facebook, and post “endorsements'' on Friendster, and create Circles on G+, not to mention the many communities I’ve joined and lifelong friends (maybe you!) I’ve made on Slashdot, Plastic, Livejournal, Multiply, Discord, Flickr, Tumblr, and Reddit.  And media are great too - I read a lot of newspapers and blogs, and I subscribe to many of them (even the ones that don’t charge a standard monthly rate), and it’s nice to hear from journalists, artists, and musicians first-hand.  

But combining them together just doesn’t work for me anymore.  When I want to chat with friends, or share cute dog and bird pix, or share a darth meme, or talk about what’s happening in San Francisco, I just don’t need to have that conversation (Discourse?) polluted with Brands sharing whatever they want to share, Breaking News of whatever TFG did, or even the most correct Housing Twitter hot take.  It’s just not fun and it doesn’t build connections. Instead it leads to stupid arguments, echo chambers, and all the other crap that turns something nice into “the hellsite.”

And - sorry, content creators - we don’t owe you an audience.  Or, rather, it’s better to be an audience or join a conversation in a nicer way.  Let us enjoy and interact with your media in a way that doesn’t lead to dunks and harassment and feeling like we pissed away the time we should have enjoyed when we were reading what you created.  Maybe this is via blogs, or RSS, or YouTube, or Patreon, or email newsletters, or some kind of pay-per-view site for news (Post?), or some other service - but social it ain’t, at least for me.

So that’s why my approach on mastodon is: more social, less media.  There are hundreds of ways to read news, commentary, and Hot Takes.  I’ll read the news and blogs I care about on the web (I still have that Inoreader account!), but here?  No thanks.  Here I’m here to connect with people and build community, in SF and the world.  I want to share stories and music and photos and make friends along the way.  Follow me and be part of it!

[sullidotinfo]

Masto-do's and masto-don'ts

I recently started spending more time on mastodon, due to the ... unpleasantries ... happening over at Tenth and Market. (My main account is @suldrew@xoxo.zone.)

I have noticed that a lot of people have run into trouble setting up a useful experience. So let me tell you what I did! It might help you.

Find an instance that is relevant for you. If you're in the Bay, or if you just love San Francisco, SFBA.Social is a good one. (I joined xoxo because it was set up for participants in that event a few years ago.)

Create an account with a familiar name, so people can find you! (I matched my twitter handle.)

Tell your friends where you are on all the old websites. (Like I'm doing.) Channel your inner Follow-Back Girl when they follow you.

Check out the Local Timeline for interesting people to follow in your instance. Don't waste your time with the Federated Timeline, it's way too noisy.

Cross-post, but only one way. Use the Crossposter to post from Mastodon to Twitter ONLY. Don't pollute your feed with tweets and ESPECIALLY not retweets. (This is a good way to get muted.) [Update!] Use a hashtag to specify which posts to crosspost, if you want to reduce your Twitter usage. I add #birdxp to the ones I DO want to post over there (and created a filter on the Crossposter to only post those.)

Use the Mute, Filter, Hide Boosts, and Unfollow buttons liberally. You want a feed that is fun to hang out in, not a ton of birdsite-like spam. I have gotten into the habit of immediately turning off boosts when following back, especially for high-follower-count (>1k) users.

Use the CW as you like. I like to hide politics behind a CW but also other stuff that would be better with a preview. It's a nice feature.

More social, less media. The 'don is not, for me anyway, the place for breaking news, reply-guy spam, Hot Takes, podcast promotions, or influencers. Share real stuff and be part of a community! Think of it as the old-school internet, but updated. Like retro-New Wave, or Nineties swing.

[New!] Want to migrate your Twitter following list? Check out Movetodon - it's super easy. I just mute the annoying ones later. (Not you, someone else, definitely.). Make sure to logout when done.

Have fun and tag me if you want to chat or need help!

[sullidotinfo]

My comment to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

I made this comment to the board of FAMSF today until I was cut off when I mentioned the chairman (haha). They must take accountability.

Good afternoon, Directors!  I’m Andrew, a De Young neighbor and former member of the Fine Arts Museums.  Like many of my neighbors, I was delighted at the amazing news today that Prop J has passed overwhelmingly, preserving the JFK Promenade forever, and Prop I was soundly defeated by San Francisco voters.

Unfortunately, I won’t be back at the De Young until there is accountability for the museum, and in particular Chair Wilsey, spending over $700K to try to destroy this beautiful car-free space.  I know I speak for thousands of San Franciscans who walk by the museum multiple times per week, but have been thoroughly alienated by Chair Wilsey’s behavior and the appalling message this sends to our park users and on the climate.  Fortunately the voters thought otherwise, and we are celebrating this victory at Skatin’ Place today, but the museum must take action to repair this damage.

There’s a lot that the de Young and Fine Arts Museums can do, but three things in particular come to mind.

First, the museums must reach out to visitors who arrive by bike and on foot.  We walk by every day, and it’s time to make us feel welcome.  The museum is not just accessible by the garage, but rather by a 1.5 mile car-free route open to all!  Please make it know that we are first class visitors to the museum.

Second, we strongly urge this board to take action to prevent any museum or tax dollars being spent on this sort of measure in the future.  We spend $17 million in tax dollars per year on the Fine Arts Museums, and it’s an insult to every user of the park that it was spent trying to destroy this beautiful car-free space.

Third, there must be accountability for this behavior by the Chair and this board.  Dede Wilsey in particular has permanently and irreparably alienated the public from ever supporting this museum. I would strongly urge this board to permanently bar Ms. Wilsey from serving in any capacity for the Fine Arts Museums, or barring that, Ms. Wilsey herself to resign.  The public trust depends on it.

[sullidotinfo]

Bike event for Prop J, Sunday October 30!

Friends!

We're having a bike event!

JOIN US TO GET OUT THE VOTE for PROP J!

BIKE! DROP CARDS! CHALK SIDEWALKS! HANG OUT WITH NICE PEOPLE!

Sign up on this web form to join us at noon on Sunday, October 30.

2. Meet at Scenic Routes in the Inner Richmond.

Scenic Routes is at 521 Balboa at Sixth.

We'll roll out no later than 12:30 pm.

We have a schedule of meetup spots throughout the afternoon! We will text the schedule to everyone who fills out the form!

UPDATE! Here are some time points for tomorrow. If you run late, join us at one of these spots! We'll drop lit and chalk in the area around each, and en route to the next.

12:00 - Scenic Routes, 6th and Balboa - roll out 12:30

1:30 - Cafe Reveille, Waller and Steiner

2:30 - Manny's, 16th and Valencia

4:00 - The Willows, 12th and Folsom

5:30 - Madrone, Fell and Divisadero - we will finish here!

Vote vote vote!

YES ON J!

Thanks to Becka for organizing!

See you there!!

HALLOWEEN NOTE: if you're going to the Great Hauntway, join us first, then head west!

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to the Elections Commission on the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force.

Commissioners:

I am a resident of the Haight-Ashbury (District 5) and am writing to OPPOSE any attempt to remove any members from the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force.

The volunteer members of this Task Force have been working diligently for close to a year to develop fair maps representing both communities of interest and the real distribution of population in San Francisco, which has changed dramatically on the east side, particularly in D6. In order to ensure that all voters get fair representation and comply with the Fourteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act, San Francisco must draw districts of equal size.

Like many of my neighbors, I would strongly prefer that the Haight-Ashbury and North of Panhandle neighborhoods stay in District 5. HOWEVER, I do not support any attempt to remove members from the Task Force, particularly on the grounds of being "recent transplants" to San Francisco as if that has any meaning whatsoever concerning their right to vote or their judgment.

San Francisco and California voters have chosen nonpartisan redistricting commissions precisely to prevent this kind of interference. Please let the Task Force do its job and take no action tomorrow.

And adjourn quickly, so your members and the public can watch Opening Day. Go Giants!

Thank you.

—-

Submitted to martha.delgadillo@sfgov.org. Send your letter also!

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to Supervisor Preston on the proposed Vacancy Tax.

Dear Supervisor Preston and all Board Members:

I am a resident of the Haight Ashbury and a homeowner, and I am writing in support of the proposed vacancy tax introduced today by Supervisor Preston. San Francisco's housing shortage is too severe for, as the Supervisor has said, tens of thousands of homes to sit vacant while hard-working San Franciscans pay too much in rent.

However, I do not support the exemptions of single-family homes and duplexes proposed in Supervisor Preston's measure.  These exemptions unfairly favor wealthy homeowners and investors who own some of San Francisco's most valuable property, including myself and the Supervisor himself, for no legitimate policy reason.  Instead of the 40,000 homes mentioned in recent surveys, Supervisor Preston's bill instead would impose a vacancy tax on less than five thousand - a pittance compared to San Francisco's well-documented need to build new homes (82,069 to be specific, as required by RHNA, page 26).  While any vacancies converted to active sale or rental are welcome, surely this Board would prefer a much greater impact than one-ninth of the problem.

Instead, I urge Supervisor Preston, or the Board, to match exactly Oakland's vacancy tax, passed in 2018.  This tax makes NO exemptions for single-family homes and duplexes, instead only considering exceptions such as very low income, disability, documented hardship, and active construction.  With single-family homes and duplexes included, we can expect this tax to have a much broader impact all across the City, especially in rich neighborhoods like the Richmond, Sunset, St. Francis Wood, Pacific Heights, and Alamo Square.

As I understand it, bringing this measure to the ballot by signatures makes it possible to pass a special tax with a 50%+1 vote.  While this is acceptable, it would be preferable for the Board to pass a general tax on vacancies like that in Oakland, which would again require only a 50%+1 vote.  Or Supervisor Preston could update the measure on the street to remove the exemptions.  Either way, it will bring many more homes onto the market and help, along with building tens of thousands of new homes citywide, to reduce our skyrocketing housing costs.  

Please take immediate action to propose an Oakland style measure with no exemptions.

Thank you.

[sullidotinfo]

Songs for the Quarantine Top 5+1

I posted about this on the bff.fm blog, take a look!

[sullidotinfo]

Happy holidays!! 🌲❤️🐦🐕

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to SF Planning, SFMTA, SFCTA and Caltrain on the Southeast Rail Stations study.

To SF Planning et al:

Thank you for studying the possibility of adding Caltrain stations in the southeast portion of San Francisco.  This area has long been underserved by this critical transit line, and with the addition of electrified service, it will be possible to add many more trains serving the area, as well as easy connections to BART and High Speed Rail.  I am a frequent Caltrain rider and often used the 22nd Street station to commute to the South Bay a few years ago.

While the proposal to extend the DTX tunnel down Pennsylvania is an interesting one, I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to improve service on the current line.  There is no reason to wait the 10+ years that the Pennsylvania tunnels will take to add service in the Bayview and improve access to the Bayshore and 22nd Street Stations.  Please do not wait to do the following:

1. Build the Oakdale station now.  This has been promised to the Bayview community and San Francisco commuters ever since the Paul Avenue station closed sixteen years ago.  Oakdale will provide easy access to the Bayview commercial core and City College, and will give downtown and Peninsula riders in the neighborhood an excellent car-free alternative to Highway 101.  It can be built easily along the right-of-way with side platforms and stair/ramp access from Oakdale.

2. Add ADA/bicycle ramps to 22nd Street Station immediately.  There is no excuse for this station, the tenth most used in the system as of 2019, not to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ramps from each side can and should be added at very low cost, as should have been done when the stairs were replaced in 2007.  Caltrain should act now to install temporary ramps using scaffolding, as is commonly done at construction sites, and then install permanent ramps as soon as they can be ordered.

While it’s true that this station might be replaced at some time in the future, it’s inaccessible now.  Please fix it.

3. Build a sidewalk and roadway to enable easy access to Bayshore Caltrain.  Before the T-Third was built in the early 2000s, riders were promised that it would provide easy southbound connections, but in a short-sighted value-engineering move, it was cut off at Sunnydale.  While many studies have been done of possible extensions of the T line, including one nine years ago, no action has been taken to improve what is now an unsigned, circuitous path from the Arleta stop on the T to this station.

A simple solution would be to build a short roadway and sidewalk, dedicated to buses, pedestrians and bikes, across the Baylands property, connecting the T-Third Bayshore terminal to the Caltrain station.  This would also make it possible to extend Muni service to the Bayshore station, for example a shuttle from Balboa Park BART.  Again, this can be done at extremely low cost, though it would require agreement by the Baylands developer.

Please take action to prioritize these low-cost improvements as soon as possible.  Don’t wait for the Pennsylvania tunnel to get them done!

Thanks.

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to the SFCTA on Prop K renewal and project delivery reform.

To: SFCTA Expenditure Plan Advisory Committee SFCTA Board and Staff SFMTA Board and Director

I am writing to urge you not to renew the 2003 Prop K sales tax without taking action to reform project delivery by the agencies that we trust to build and maintain critical mass transit infrastructure.  This includes SFMTA, BART, DPW, TJPA, Caltrain, and any other agencies that might get grants from the SFCTA as part of the proposed sales tax extension.

As you well know, San Francisco and the Bay Area have an appalling record of high costs, budget overruns, huge delays, and "value engineering" that removes useful features when building major capital projects.  Major projects funded by Proposition K, with one major exception, have been years to decades late, and have delivered dubious value.  Just looking at the "Prop K" signature projects listed on the SFCTA website, five of six are late or incomplete:

- The Central Subway is now projected to open in 2022, nineteen years after Proposition K, four years late and $600 million over budget, and with a cost per mile more than ten times international best practice.

- Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit is also projected to open in 2022, again nineteen years after Proposition K, and three years late and over $40 million over budget.

- Geary Bus Rapid Transit, initially proposed as a major investment that could be upgraded in the future to light rail has been descoped to side-running transit lanes and a few bulbouts, and does not yet have a plan for completion.

- Caltrain Electrification is now on track for completion in 2024, two years late and 21 years after Proposition K, and over $300 million over budget.

- Caltrain Downtown Extension is not even under construction, though the $2 billion bus station that sits over the train box is complete.

Only the Presidio Parkway - a highway project that should never have been funded by sales taxes at all, given that it serves as an access ramp to a toll bridge, was completed close to on schedule and budget.

This problem is by no means unique to San Francisco - witness recent estimates of BART to Downtown San Jose costing $9 billion to complete - but it is a problem that we must not allow to continue.

For this reason, I urge you to insist that San Francisco commit to project delivery reform as a condition of sales tax renewal.  This means establishing international best practices for speed and cost control, so that we get our money's worth as taxpayers and transit riders.  SPUR has proposed some very interesting ideas  which the SFCTA should study, and alongside the Board of Supervisors, SFMTA Board, and regional agencies, must evaluate them and implement the ones that make sense.  In particular, a strong statement by the SFCTA in favor of a regional construction agency as proposed by SPUR alongside CEQA reform, along with enabling legislation by the Board of Supervisors, would help build public confidence that we are serious about controlling costs.

Please do not just roll over the tax and fund new projects the same way we did it last time.  I was on the 2003 EPAC and very much regret not taking more decisive action then to demand cost controls.  Don't repeat that mistake!

Thanks!

[sullidotinfo]

My letter to the SFCTA / Board of Supervisors on Car Free JFK.

Subject: Car-Free JFK Drive now and forever - SUPPORT

Supervisors / SFCTA Directors (cc SF Bike Coalition, Kid Safe JFK, and Mayor Breed):

I am a resident of the Haight Ashbury and a frequent user of Car-Free JFK, as a cyclist and a pedestrian.  

I am writing to urge you to take action immediately to make JFK Drive car-free permanently.  

If for some reason this is not possible, I urge you to keep car-free JFK Drive in place 24/7 while any outreach or study takes place around concerns such as disabled accessibility, parking for visitors, and access from parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area that are harder to reach, such as the southeast neighborhoods of San Francisco.  

In addition, I urge you to immediately demand that the Museum Concourse Community Partnership and the Concourse Garage board negotiate in good faith with the city and the museums to reduce the cost of employee parking and expand disabled parking.  While normally we would not want to expand parking under the Transit-First Policy that has been repeatedly and overwhelmingly approved by the voters, we have an 800-space garage directly under the museums that is underutilized, so it makes no sense not to take advantage of it to reduce the demand for parking on our streets in the park.

Finally, I would like to express my concern about the recent report published about community input into the future of JFK Drive.  I was frankly shocked to see no mention whatsoever of safety for families, pedestrians, cyclists, and kids in the "park access needs" discussion, though the report correctly pointed out the high number of injury crashes that has occurred along JFK and other streets in the park.  Isn't a safe and welcoming street the highest priority, far more important than wayfinding?  Perhaps one or more parents of small children who currently use JFK Drive should be included in future working groups.

Car-Free JFK and the associated Golden Gate Park Slow Streets, along with the Great Walkway, are among the amazing silver linings that have appeared during Covid.  It would be completely unacceptable to give them up for any length of time.  Please take all necessary action to keep JFK Drive car-free permanently and never reopen it to cars again.

Thank you.