Aaron747 From Japan, joined Aug 2003, 7737 posts, RR: 27 Posted (2 years 7 months 2 weeks 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1067 times:
Great little piece from the SF press regarding the more moderate streak that is running through SF voters these days, particularly where local issues are concerned. Just trying to maintain the balance as a Bay Area native who sees conservatives take swipes at the city a little more often than it deserves. There are certainly stereotypes that are in part true, as all stereotypes derive from an original observation, but the unabashedly liberal label does not *always* apply. The Board of Supervisors is full of frothing at the mouth morons for sure, but that's not an excuse to paint the entire populace as such.
I wasn't in town for it, but there's even a mention of the ballot measure a couple years back to name a sewage plant after President GWB that was struck down by voters.
After election day, homeless people can no longer sit or lie down on sidewalks anywhere in the city. Muni bus drivers, long the second-best paid transit workers in the nation, lost their sweetheart deal.
Same-day voter registration won't happen, and neither will noncitizen voting for school board races. Tourists and conventioneers won't face higher hotel taxes, and the city won't be spending bond money to seismically retrofit wood buildings.
Aaron747 From Japan, joined Aug 2003, 7737 posts, RR: 27 Reply 2, posted (2 years 7 months 2 weeks 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1046 times:
Quoting greasespot (Reply 1): What deal can be taken away from the bus drivers by voters..Don't most unions have contracts that cannot be taken away by a vote?
There has been a ridiculous baseline formula in use by the city for determining base salaries for transit operators. That has been done away with by passage of Proposition G - which also amends the city charter to force binding arbitration on the transit union if collective bargaining fails:
DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 16936 posts, RR: 57 Reply 3, posted (2 years 7 months 2 weeks 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 968 times:
Quoting greasespot (Reply 1): What deal can be taken away from the bus drivers by voters..Don't most unions have contracts that cannot be taken away by a vote?
The contract was basically written into the city charter. And it was absurd. 5% pay raises per year. There were some senior bus drivers making more money than I do as a physician (in excess of $200K). And call me elitist, but I went to school for 11 years for this job.
But not only that, they could call in sick basically an unlimited number of times. They could completely AWOL without even calling in four days per year. And there were other work rules that just sucked for the rest of us. And the bitch was that it was all written into the city charter.
Well, with the budget crisis, the city went to them and asked if they would take some TEMPORARY pay concessions, which would be paid back later. They said "screw you; we want our pay raise." So to try to balance the MUNI budget, service was slashed. there is essentially no service after midnight. Some buses that used to come every 15-20 minutes came once per hour. They were sometimes so crowded that after waiting your hour for the bus, you couldn't get on.
And so Prop G happened. SF voters loved it. People were literally signing the petition with red ink, writing flowers and hearts next to their signatures. And it passed 64-36.
Rumor is that MUNI drivers have been intentionally running pedestrians down... But that's just a rumor.
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