Sunday, September 8, 2013

Crisis in San Francisco - "There's Only Parking, Everywhere"

There's a real crisis in San Francisco and you see it every day.  There's only parking, everywhere.  Look around and you'll see people's home/apartment garages, private garages, city owned parking garages, street parking and once and a while, metered parking.  While it may appear that there's parking on virtually every street in San Francisco and in every dwelling in upwards of a million spaces, the city desperately needs more.

Crisis at Polk Street where there's only parking on each side of the street, and in parking garages, and all the side streets.
Image found here
While some will argue that parking is a net loss for a city, Dearest District 5 knows better than those fools, even if I don't have any relevant degree or training in urban planning.  San Francisco's 40% vehicle infrastructure simply isn't enough!  And the disgustingly small amount of parking (1.5 square miles of San Francisco's 7 square miles of land).  Parking, as everyone knows, is a renewable resource and needs to continue to grow in a city that is not expanding.


There's only THIS much space devoted to parking in San Francisco, and at some point, there could be less!
Picture found here.  
The SFMTA has been relentless in it's assault on parking, and instead of installing MORE parking spaces, they try to manage supply and demands with metered parking!  Everyone knows it's our god-given right to only pay for where we live, eat, purchase goods, be entertained, but NOT to park on the streets!  And even while prices increase on virtually everything in the city, an annual fee of 100 dollars for a parking permit seems like a sensible approach to mitigating a god given right to store a car in a city.

This is it?!? More More More!!!
picture found here.
Randy McNitty cried, "I heard the MTA is considering spaces on the streets that don't have car parking, and that's absolutely insane!  Where am I going to find the space to park my two cars for free?  If you think I'm going to start biking, taking MUNI, or paying 80,000 dollars for the value of a parking spot, you're sadly mistaken."  Ed Baskly exclaimed, "we really need to fight these idiots in city hall and let the people of this city know that we're not giving away our subsidized parking without a fight.  You're paying to house my idled car if you like it or not and the hell with using it to move traffic or allow anyone else to enjoy this space!"  Neighbors are nervous, because .000000001 percent of the streets right now don't have parking, and that could go even higher.   It's only a matter of time until there isn't parking, everywhere.

2 comments:

  1. Tell your Supervisors how you feel. If you can't call them, write them. Here are some links:
    http://metermadness.wordpress.com/district-supervisors/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Mari! Let's work on making transit better, but keep all the cars and parking!

    ReplyDelete