The following statement was issued Oct. 22 following a board meeting of the city’s Metropolitan Transit Agency at which ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) activists and others protested the agency’s proposal to extend parking meter hours. ANSWER’s intervention was noted in a Nov. 1 Associated Press story, “San Fran’s latest battle royale: parking meters,” which was picked up by many media outlets around the country.
The ANSWER Coalition-SF Bay Area strongly opposes the proposal to extend parking meter hours in San Francisco. The SFMTA, the Metropolitan Transit Agency, is proposing to have parking meters in most of SF run until midnight, Monday-Saturday, and from 11 am-6 pm on Sundays!
This is another attempt by the politicians to solve the city’s budget crisis by squeezing every last dollar they can out of working people. They have outrageously jacked up MUNI fares, other city fees and parking fines. At the same time they have let the big banks, developers and other wealthy corporate interests—the ones who have created the current economic and budget crisis—off the hook.
The Department of Parking and Traffic has already begun a policy of “enhanced enforcement,” super-aggressively ticketing vehicles from 9:01 am to 5:59 pm, Monday-Saturday. Every day, in every working class neighborhood of SF, you can see the booted cars and trucks. On top of the $53, $63 and higher parking tickets, it costs over $200 just to get a boot removed! If your car gets towed, you have to pay $400 or more to get it back. This is causing many low-income people to lose their vehicles.
City officials are trying to mislead people by falsely claiming that the reason for extending meter hours is to collect more quarters and “open up more parking spaces.” What they really want is to hit us with thousands more high-priced tickets, and then collect the ransom for booted and towed cars.
This is a class issue. The rich and the well-to-do don’t have to worry about where to park in this small and crowded city. They have garages or can afford to pay for parking. It is overwhelmingly working class people who are being hit and who will be hit much, much harder if the new policy goes into effect. Many residents in neighborhoods with meters have no choice but to park at meters after 6 pm and move their vehicles before 9 the next morning. There just aren’t enough spaces otherwise.
As Cristina Gutierrez of Barrio Unido, an immigrant rights group opposed to the plan, asked: “What are we supposed to do, run out of our homes every hour at night to feed the meter?”
But the MTA board and some misguided individuals are trying to pose the issue as MUNI riders vs. car drivers. Some have even ignorantly asserted that if you own a car, you can’t possibly be poor. Really? Tell that to the growing number of people forced to LIVE in their cars due to the depression!
The reality is that many people in SF both ride MUNI and own cars (some ride bikes, too). For a lot of people getting to work, shopping, medical appointments, etc. requires a car. That’s especially true for families and for people whose jobs are outside SF or not easily accessible by mass transit. Posing the issue as bus riders vs. car riders is false and reactionary.
Does MUNI need more funding? Of course it does. Should MUNI fares be cut and service increased? No question about it. The issue is: Who should pay?
While taxes, fees, fines, fares, etc., etc, have been constantly increased for us, the taxes on corporate profits have been going down. Many big banks and corporations have been able to avoid paying income taxes altogether. While we’re told that there’s no money for people’s needs, $500,000,000 is spent every day on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trillions of dollars have been handed over to the biggest banks in just the last year.
It’s time to say: Enough is Enough! It’s time for the politicians to stop trying to make working people pay for the economic crisis that the rich created. It’s time to make those who can afford it—big business—pay for the services that the people of the city, state and country need.
