RTP Submission by TAM
TRANSDEF’s Comments to the
Transportation Authority of Marin
Regional Transportation Plan Discussion, 10-27-11
You have the authority to set a
very new direction for transportation in this county.
But you would never know it by reading the staff
report. Judging by the report, this agenda item
appears to be just another routine item.
The whole point of this agenda item last month had
been to ask you what weight to give to each of the
RTP candidate priority criteria. But that focus has
been buried. It isn't at all clear what you are
expected to do with this item. If you had been
properly briefed by staff, you would recognize this
item as the ultimate transportation policy setting
discussion.
In my view, this is yet another in a long history of
presentations shaped to maintain the status quo.
TAM's predecessor agency had an ugly practice of
keeping decision makers in the dark, so as to have
staff positions
rubber-stamped.
Testimony on Central Subway
Testimony Before the S. F. Supes
Audit Comm.
10/27/11 Hearing on Civil Grand Jury Report on
Central Subway
Supervisors,
We are transit advocates, working primarily at the
regional and statewide level. We have opposed the
Central Subway for years, because instead of being a
well- designed cost-effective transportation project,
it is primarily a political payoff.
The Grand Jury deserves the thanks of all San
Franciscans for their willingness to dive into an
incredibly dense thicket of details and their courage
to call a spade a spade. Their report is a proud
addition to the long tradition of speaking truth to
power.
The fundamental project design problems raised in the
report are so serious that they necessitate a
response from the Board on recommendations 16 - 20,
even though you weren't specifically asked to. If the
Board ignores these recommendations, it will send a
strong message of “hear no evil, see no evil, speak
no evil.”
As Mr. Reskin, the MTA head said, the questions about
this project were asked and answered. However, the
answers were so steeped in politics as to be
worthless. The Grand Jury is telling your Board that
the Emperor has no clothes. Future generations will
remember you as the Board members that ignored their
message and put Muni into an extended fiscal
crisis.