It’s been a full year now that parking meters have been in effect on Sundays between 12noon and 6pm. When the SFMTA put the new policy in place, they claimed it was “to make sure that motorists can easily find a place to park in commercial areas, which is currently very hard on Sundays.”
At the time, their FAQ about the new policy didn’t say anything about increased revenues for the SFMTA, but we all knew that was really the reason.
And yesterday, Mayor Ed Lee confirmed that, but at the same time said he wants to eliminate the year old program.
“I’ve always felt uncomfortable with it, but Muni was suffering and we needed the money,” Lee said.
The SFMTA estimated that charging for meters on Sunday would bring in a little under $2 million which would help fund a struggling MUNI system. But how much did they really pull in during the first year?
Closer to $6 million according to Matier & Ross.
That’s because about half of the revenue on Sundays is coming from tickets when people forget to pay their meters or let them expire. The ticket for an expired meter can run as high as $72.
Now Lee says they’ve found other ways to finance MUNI so he’s gun-ho to rollback Sunday meter parking (he’s planning to ask voters to approve a $500 million bond in November to fund transportation).
I bet his colleagues at the SFMTA are thrilled with Lee’s desire to rollback the program and strip $6M out of their annual budget!
When we posted about Sunday parking last year, comments were mixed. A lot of people liked the idea because they would be able to park more easily when visiting commercial districts in the city on Sundays. But others were tired of the city’s nickel and diming.
What do you think? Should Sunday meter parking stay as is, or be eliminated again? Take the poll below and leave us a comment with your thoughts. Merchants, we especially want to hear from you!
Sarah B.
It would be interesting to see the revenue vs the enforcement costs broken down – is SFMTA actually making a profit on this, or just covering their costs & driving everyone crazy?
I don’t really understand why enabling motorists to find an open parking spot and raising money for Muni are viewed as competing or contradictory policies? That’s simply how markets work for a supply-limited product (in other words, something you can’t immediately make more of) – the price should rise to a level where some is always available for those who want it.
I have LOVE, LOVE, LOVED Sunday metered parking, as it has meant that I’ve been able to find a spot.
That said, I do hate city budget bloat. My ideal solution would be to leave metered parking in place (and please move all meters into the SF Park market price program) and give everyone a tax break of another type, like a lowered sales tax.
As near as I can tell, Lee’s “plan” is to issue bonds, basically adding more debt, in order to replace this revenue. The emperor’s clothes are the same as they ever were.
The real question is whether there is any data on Sunday metered commercial district turnover comparing before and after. Has the program been successful at allowing more customers into these commercial districts this past year.
Apologies in advance for this long post and I hope you will read it through and think about the bigger picture and SF history.
Metered parking was originally introduced in commercial districts to ensure turnover of spaces and the hours covered precisely matched those in the Retail Clerks Union agreements. When it took effect the only retail establishments open on Sundays were gas stations (all full serve), movie theaters, restaurants and bars. If one ventured onto Clement, Woolworth and King Norman’s Kingdom of Toys were shuttered and so was See’s but one could get a burger. Lick and Lincoln Market were also closed. So was Larraburu. If there was no milk or bread in the house some of the family owned corner markets might be open for a couple of hours and they cost a lot more than Lick or Safeway over on Fulton. I don’t remember if Lincoln Bowl (Sixth Avenue between Geary & Clement, now a Chinese Bank) was open on Sundays as I was usually there on weekday afternoons.
The only establishment open in San Francisco’s first shopping mall, Stonestown, on Sundays back when it opened in the 1950s and until the very late 1960s was the Red Roof lounge. It was not unusual back then to do a Sunday family drive and go by acres of empty parking lots surrounding all the new malls in suburbia.
The City is schizophrenic with regard to its past. When I was a youngster, this was a union town and business hours were governed by union rules. Almost every lower and middle class occupation was tied to a union. There were chain stores and all were unionized. Going to the Retail Clerks Union office on Mission was a rite of passage for teenagers before they went to Driver Training for a learner permit. Government employees, except police, fire and *skilled* crafts and trades, were all under civil service rules not unions. While Chavez was busy unionizing farmworkers the reverse happened here. Sears and Penneys left San Francisco due to union wage and benefit demands and many of the smaller retailers broke with the unions as did the restaurants and bars as well as some hotels. There was also considerable development of warehouses just outside city limits on Bayshore while the Port crumbled to Oakland. When Jerry Brown allowed government workers to unionize in the mid 1970s, the SEIU embarked on its journey to become bigger and stronger than the UAW and Teamsters. Take a good look at the SF voter’s pamphlet and your ballots the next election. I haven’t been able to see a union bee on any of them in this century. Something very odd about that.
The net result is our cost of SF government has exploded while wages and benefits for non-government workers have shrunk considerably. The City’s annual budget exceeds $8 Billion, which is greater than the national budget of many countries. The bulk of these billions goes to Debt Service, Payroll, Health Plans for government employees, retirees and their families, and Pensions. It is income from the likes of Modesto’s Water District and our airport that keeps us afloat.
I don’t have a dog in the parking meter matter because I don’t drive but I am very concerned about the City taking on more debt. I’m also concerned about the street tree parcel tax being proposed. I have a street tree, planted by the predecessor of FUF in the mid 1970s Earth Day doings. It and the sidewalk were to be City maintained. One of the first actions City Hall took after the passage of Prop 13 was to renege on tree and sidewalk maintenance so I have been taking care of both on my own dime for decades. As with many parcel taxes it is unclear whether this one will be restricted from passthrough to renters (I am NOT a landlord) but it is clear the City intends to use “tree trimmers” and not Arborists who have more education on tree species, growth and diseases. As we have a lot of street trees out here, a goodly number that have been stubbed for feng shui, some attention to details on this matter would be appreciated. Will this become another jobs program filled with poorly-trained temporary summer hires performing work in the wrong season? Will it end up like Park Presidio’s sporadic attention like Geary’s median not touched since a Papal visit in the 1980s?
As to Muni, the last good year on Muni was 1967. It has not been effectively managed since then. I believe the only reason we have a “local” heading up the agency now after a nationwide search to replace Ford (who removed all daily statistics from reports that used to be publicly available online violating Sunshine Laws) is because nobody with decent experience and qualifications will touch the mess. The strike in ’74 resulted in voter approval of changes to the City Charter in ’75 that gave away the store while prohibiting Muni operator strikes. I got by fine hitchhiking in ’74 but that was before the State Mental Hospitals were closed.
I frankly do not know how to address these issues but feel that District Elections have complicated city governance by giving too much power to vocal special interests and those having lots of free time during the day while diminishing attention to the city as a whole. Some may want to blame Prop 13, but as a homeowner I see a longer list of parcel taxes every time I get the bill in April and October as well as annual increased assessments. Further, the City should be swimming in property taxes because the average house sold for around $40,000 out here when it passed; the average now has a doubled first digit and an extra zero. My assessment has doubled in the past decade and has been into the 6 digits for at least that long because I get permits for any improvement greater than a light switch.
Even though I am a captive to Muni, I will be voting No on any Bonds until they demonstrate better management of the resources under their control.
To be honest, I have never been able to find parking when meters are enforced on the weekend (Clement St). They make it sound like the spots miraculously appear because people have to pay. Well they don’t magically appear because I would circle the block a few times until I catch someone vacating a metered spot.
Lee is changing this because Chinatown merchants have been bellyaching that no one is going to Chinatown on the weekends anymore since they can’t park for free. This was followed exclusively in the Chinese press.
To be honest, I wouldn’t go to Chinatown if they had all the free parking in the world. It is very difficult to travel by car in Chinatown.
I say no on the bonds too. Since Ed Reiskin instituted limited service during the holidays and summer (his claim is that nobody takes the bus during Christmas and in the summers – hello, we still work) he is only giving us sub par service (this was done when metered parking is still in effect!).
metered parking ticket is $72!!! but a clipper card citation is $106?!?!? that is ridiculous. You get punished more for riding MUNI than for driving a car. i’d like to see a comparison on how much metered parking citations vs clipper card citations made. (though this is a whole other story besides the one here).
I’ve been loving the meters on Geary on Sunday. I hope they keep charging
As a resident and merchant I’m all for parking meters working on Sundays. It encourages parking turnover which makes it easier for shoppers to find parking.
sfresident, Thanks for the update on what has not been discussed in English. My Chinese neighbors stopped having family events in Chinatown in the 1990s and prefer to go out of the City for the more available parking because there is no turnover of spaces due to the proliferation of disabled placards. When not including some of the more senior friends and relatives, they have walk to Clement and back gatherings. I was sick for the Autumn Moon dimsum party but an looking forward to New Year.
4th Gen-Thanks for taking the time to give us some history. Very interesting post (though I must say I don’t think we see eye to eye on the merits–or not–of Prop 13).
I hate paying on Sundays! I think people stay away from city knowing they have to pay. I’m wondering who really wins? The city pockets! Merchants loose money when people don’t come into the city to spend. We hire more meter maids. That cost money! When we get 6 million, does anybody look at the other side of lost of business, more money to pay government employee, more tickets, means more unpaid tickets, and more community service to clean our streets to pay off their tickets. Why does people always blame Chinatown. People are so racist. Why doesn’t anybody think about Bayview or the Marina district? Always blaming. Stop blaming! You see empty meter spaces all over the city, anyone look at that. Suburb’s people feel unwelcome. Big sign: Stay away, keep away. Go somewhere else. Keep this city for the rich! The people who can afford paying meters or paying tickets. Have you ever gone to SFMTA office to pay your ticket. Those agents behind protected windows are the meanest employees of the city! What happen to customer service? Does people really ride the buses on Sunday to save money? I even drive out of the city to shop now! Go to San Mateo, free parking on Sundays! People are nicer down there. This city has become an unwelcome city! We literally tell people stay away. Don’t even bother! You will get a hefty ticket. How can you explore the city with having to pay one hour at a time! Bring back free Sunday meters!
I am so happy to see so many comments in support of Sunday metering. Philosophically I am opposed to free parking — unless it’s parking near a hospital emergency room. Free parking encourages people to drive, when we need to be finding ways to encourage people to walk, bicycle, and take mass transit instead. I also share the same concerns about bonds because of the debt they incur and the transfer of wealth to bond holders. I would much prefer direct taxes and fees — such as metered parking and bus fare — as opposed to bonds to raise money for Muni (although, realistically, fees cannot fill the $10 billion hole identified by the recent task force).
Meters are roulette wheels. “Will I be able to finish shopping, stand in line, pay and get back to my car in time?”
That uncertainty, not the price of parking, is what keeps me from shopping locally. Before Sunday meters I used to drive from the way-outer Richmond to more-inner Richmond to shop. No more. Now I’m only shopping at bigger stores that have free parking lots. There I can feel comfortable to take the time to read ingredient labels, etc., picking out items I want, rather than running away with a smaller purchase, just to beat the meter.
Weighing the odds of $0.75 vs. $72, I’ll take the option of $0 elsewhere.
renee, The City should be swimming in residential property tax as well as transfer fees (the big bucks they charge when property is sold), eight houses on my block sold over the summer. There hasn’t been a sales volume like that since the 1960s when many of the original purchasers in the 1910s and 1920s passed on. As to corporate property tax, they appear to skate past reassessment whenever there are mergers and acquisitions but if that loophole is closed and tax is raised too much more businesses will leave San Francisco. We lost the shipping industry in the 1960s which caused Port servicing industries and South of Market’s many warehouses and factories to close up and later many financial institutions (banks, insurance and stock brokerages) in the 1980s and 1990s as they merged, consolidated and moved HQ out of town. We lost the military in the 1970s and 1980s and that was a ton of local jobs and businesses gone; mid Market was where many spent on shore leave and family entertainment and for items not available at the PX. Their banishment from the Bay Area really hurt Woolworth as the flagship store with lunch counter was at Powell and Market. With the loss of the Navy, there are no facilities for foreign navies to use and we lose the tourism (sans hotel taxes) from their crews. It was interesting to see all the different uniforms while I waited for the Balboa Limited on Market Street to come home from my low pay and no benefits clerical job after a short time in retail. The schedules given to retail union newcomers in department stores generally took about four years of part time to accrue enough hours to qualify for enrollment with a small monthly premium in the old school Blue Cross Health Plan that covered 80% of doctor, hospital and Rx (but not cancer or a long list of other expensive ailments for which separate individual insurance could be purchased). This is a boom and bust town with the only stable long-term industries being government and tourism, meddle too much with business taxes and we will have a lot more foot massage establishments in the neighborhood filling just a few of the empty storefronts.
I reviewed some relatives property tax bills from before Prop 13 that I found in a trunk in the basement many years ago. Median gross incomes back then were a little over $10,000 and the taxes easily ate between 30 and 40 percent of that. The owner of the business I worked for earned just over $20,000 and had to support a non-working spouse and two daughters in college. Wages in that industry were around $6,000/year then and average around $40,000/year nationwide today. My aunt’s home on 22nd Avenue near Lake sold for just over $40,000 in the early 1970s and the final year’s property tax bill was over $3,000.
Oh, and bonds: thumbs down.
Smart credit card holders knows that the best deal is to pay their bill in its entirety every month to avoid interest charges.
As a city, we need to build up a savings account so that when we need to make major purchases / expenditures, we can do it without high-interest loans / bonds.
Bonds vs. cash roughly doubles the cost of projects. As a one-off for something REALLY big and important once or twice a decade, that’s reasonable. But when public transit starts to ask for bond funding to cover day-to-day business-as-usual operating costs, we’re going to pay twice as much as we should have to for an ongoing cost that will never end.
If it costs Muni $1 to move me from point A to point B, don’t charge me $2 because public transit was “assisted” by bonds.
Same goes for schools, infrastructure etc. – I DO want to pay for schools and infrastructure. I do NOT want to pay for the interest on all of the bonds piled up on top of each other because we have no money due to the interest payments on the bonds that were issued before them.
Pay as you go. That’s how I manage MY wallet. Why would I want to pay extra to let The City do otherwise???
misfeasance will only turn to malfeasance towards the state (CCSF is the “state” in question) long before the progressive elements (admittedly) that are found in a policy such as Meter “enforcement” on Sunday. As with most of the posts in here, you’re clearly either merchant biased or seemingly nothing more than the (strident) vocal minority representing the anti automobile groupuscule inherent to SF neighborhoods.
my post deals purely with Sunday Meter enforcement —
People are fed up (cf. had enough of the blatant abuse of power in a multitude of realms, contexts, ) with the SFMTA and the one sure way to snuff out a nascent, angry voter base is to ameliorate their circumstances.
Say goodbye to Sunday Meter enforcement and known that it will be severed from the bonds. If you think not then don’t count on this Mayor walking to re-election. And knowing that most CCSF residents have been duped by this smiling, centrist Ed Lee, you’ll likely see a much different electorate if the wave of establishment, nouveau riche policies does not crest.
goodnight. And like my screen name indicates long time richmond district resident so spare me any subjective gobbledygook, empirical nonsense about Sunday parking being inevitable. Fascism is inevitable FWIAS!
edit for clarity:
“misfeasance will only turn to malfeasance towards the state (CCSF is the “state” in question) long before the progressive elements (admittedly) that are found in a policy such as Meter “enforcement” on Sunday…”
Should read ;
“misfeasance will only turn to malfeasance towards the state (CCSF is the “state” in question) long before the progressive elements (admittedly) that are found in a policy such as Meter “enforcement” on Sunday are realized.”
This Sunday parking switcheroo is a conspiracy to benefit those that manufacture and install stickers and signs that are posted on every meter and on every block with meters that advise of parking restrictions. It’s another angle on the conspiracy where the curb cutouts on the corners seem to get redone every couple of years.
Toby- no one is blaming Chinatown but you have to admit that they got Ed’s ear. Chinatown businesses have been complaining in the press for the past year about how business suffered because of the Sunday meters. Ed’s decision was definitely influenced by the save Chinatown group.
As for Prop 13, 4thGenRichmond is right. My folks bought their house for $20K in the early 70’s (a really unheard of amount nowadays in SF). A lot of the people in their neighborhood have either died off or left for the burbs. Houses on their block goes for $1M and up (outer Richmond). Don’t tell me the government is hampered by Prop 13 when they are making so much money over the turnover of property.
A lot of people want to blame Prop 13 (I don’t, I pay more property taxes than my folks simply because I bought my house now instead of the 70s) for the sad state of the schools and govt but has anyone ever considered that the govt doesn’t know how to reign in spending? Take for instance, in the good old days, the supervisors were part time jobs making a low salary (Now they earn $100K+ and get insurance, pension and all the good stuff). Also, the govt likes to play move the money around a lot! They like to use money for whatever pet projects that are not necessarily infrastructure and schools. Case in point, remember how CA govt sold the Lotto as a way to finance education? Well it was report years ago when CA was in dire financial straits that although the Lotto made money, it didn’t add onto the education pot per se. What the politicians in Sacto were doing was lopping off an equivalent amount from the education budget because the Lotto brought in money (ex: If the Lotto brought in 1M, then the policiticans will move $1M from the education budget and use it for their pet projects. Education doesn’t get $2M, they basically got $1M).
A lot of Dems like to demonize Prop 13 (I’m an independent btw) but without it, a lot of people, like my folks, would have to give up their houses because they can’t pay for the property taxes. Who’s for kicking grandpa and grandma out of their houses due to delinquent and unsustainable property taxes?
Oh yeah, I also don’t enjoy going to the movies or eating at a restaurant with one eye on my watch – don’t want to miss the meter expiration. Sundays should be relaxing. I get stressed out enough on the weekdays. I don’t need to be all antsy over the expired meter.
sfresident, Thanks for describing the three card monte played by government with taxpayer money. I voted no on the State Lottery when it was introduced because a schoolteacher friend pointed out the fine print that allowed taking away school funding in the exact amount the Lottery produced. Ever since then I have made a personal commitment to read every word of the legal document and ignore the paid political advertising toward the front, except to note names of those buying space. The inherent problem is many voters do not have the college level reading comprehension to parse the tedious legal script at the back of ballots, nor do they wish to invest the time to comprehend what exactly is being traded (almost always money, power or pet projects). Further, many voters have little knowledge of the history of an issue and are fed only media and political spin by both sides. The same happened in 74 when the City Charter was modified to prohibit Muni Operator strikes. We are seeing more of the same with the Sunday Parking trade for decades of debt. My take is that if businesses are open, meters should be used. This is neither pro merchant nor pro driver. There used to be a lot more available parking when the Bay Area population was smaller and when residential garages were primarily used for parking cars instead of being converted into storage, rec rooms, family rooms and legal and illegal in-law units. Huffington Post has a 20+ minute long 1954 home video of the City posted, you will note population is not much less than today but there are far fewer cars everywhere. Meanwhile the population of surrounding counties has geometrically increased and the city’s supply centers are all outside the City leading to a lot more trucks and semis on the road.
Our politicians are very crafty as they are the only ones who can introduce amendments to the City Charter or introduce debt and they choose when to place these items on a ballot as well as which other similar matters to compete for our attention. Many fundamental governance issues lie in the Charter but we voters are only shown bits of it piecemeal so we can’t see the bigger picture.
Yikes. A half-billion dollar bond!
Keep the Sunday meters.
Figure out how to charge the Google buses.
Loosen the purse strings that are holding all the new property and payroll taxes from all the Tech-sters.
Can’t for the life of me understand the complaints over paying for parking on Sunday. With the price of gas could it really be cost effective to drive to San Mateo to shop? And, btw, download the PayByPhone app and pay for the meter without digging for change. Your phone texts you when you are running low and you can replenish from your phone from dinner, the movies, the doctors office etc. As long as meters provide enough of a time limit to do what you need to do paying a couple of bucks doesn’t seem like a hardship to me. Otherwise, hop on the bus (also a couple of bucks) barely any other neighborhood in town has as many bus options as ours!
Streetsblog published details of an SFMTA study (http://sf.streetsblog.org/2014/01/16/mayor-lees-spineless-sunday-meter-reversal-bad-for-business-bad-for-sf/) noting a significant reduction in open space search time during Sunday metering. Continuing this policy should be a no brainer as it allows more customers closer and less frustrating access to park near the stores at which they wish to shop.
As a secular humanist, I think we should have free entry into museums and national parks on every Thursday, that on Saturdays casinos should be required to pay people to go into their venues, and that on Sundays no sales taxes should be extracted from retail sales. In addition, on Wednesdays, all payroll taxes should be eliminated. Same logic behind the elimination of Sunday meters applies to the arbitrary elimination of fees and taxes on arbitrary days.
Sue,
Free parking on Sundays is normal nearly everywhere. Your other suggestions are not. Mayor Lee notes that the funds raised are disproportionately raised from parking tickets. I have to assume that all those tickets are issued because nobody else expects meter enforcement on Sundays either.
If San Francisco wants to chase away shoppers and reduce its tax income, then I can’t think of too many ways better than surprising them with a $72 Sunday parking ticket.
This is just Ed “Puppet” Lee kicking one part of the city revenue can down the road, all the while kneeling at the throne of his overlords – i.e. Rose Pak and her Chinatown patrons. Lee is a POLITICIAN; he is not an altruist. Follow the money and the votes, folks.
On to metered parking: I drive in the Richmond (live here, too), but I support metered parking because it might help to get people out of their cars. If Lee wants to help the Richmond, lets see some serious mass transport upgrades out here. Anything else is just a blip.
Jon, free parking on Sunday is NOT normal nearly everywhere. With the passing of blue laws and the proliferation of Sunday shopping, many, many cities have instituted charges for Sunday parking just like on any other shopping day. Free parking was normal many decades ago, but it is no longer and with both Sunday shopping and climate change, there is no more logic for free meters on Sunday than there is for no collection of sales tax on Sunday or no collection of payroll taxes on Wednesday. Tradition is not logic. It is just tradition, and no more sensible or right than female genital mutilation or vast purchasing and consumption up to and on December 25.
Sunday parking is just a tiny piece of the massive, multidimensional chess board that operates in City and Area Government. Keep in mind that the mid-range regional plan is to increase the City’s population to over one million (200,000 more people) and the Bay Area in general about another seven million.
BART is approaching the half century mark. I remember the original plan for a loop around the Bay, with the route coming out Geary then turning north and going on a lower deck to be built onto the Golden Gate Bridge (which is why the track is not a standard gauge) and widening the Richmond – San Rafael Bridge. When Marin voters nixed the sales tax increase to fund BART (not many years after the railroad was ripped out in order to widen the Redwood Highway into US101) the next plan was Muni Metro our Geary (which was not many years after the streetcar tracks were ripped off of Geary and Fulton; Balboa and Clement were paved over first). There has to be some plan to keep people and merchandise moving to their respective destinations. Don’t get me started on CalTrain, there should be one regional transit agency like New York and other major urban areas. The separate transit agencies and their respective fiefdoms end up costing taxpayers much more than integrated systems.
Also keep in mind that Willie Brown wanted to re-zone Fulton Street and Lincoln Way so that highrises could border both sides of Golden Gate Park to support this planned population when he was Mayor. Even then I could not wrap my head around the traffic this would generate and how dangerous getting to and from the Park would be for a walk in our neighborhood.
While you’re thinking about the $500 million Bond to be repaid over 30 years, do keep in mind that the City’s annual budget is just over $8 Billion and that according to Mayor Lee, $2.7 Billion has been spent every year for the past decade on social programs for the less fortunate. That’s less than 20% of annual social spending that is supposed to help Muni operate for 30 years. Also according to Lee, this $27 Billion has helped 11,000 people get housed in the past decade while the 38 Geary moves over 100,000 people a day.
@Adriana Have you ever considered that some people do not own a smart phone or cannot afford one that is attached to an expensive yearly contract? I own a pay as you go phone with no internet connection or wifi capability (I can’t afford to!) so this pay by phone and phone reminder thing ain’t gonna work for me!
After the Target fiasco, do you really think I want to pay by credit card? Someone can also be smart enough to doctor those meters to scam your information. Sorry, it’s a bag of coins for me.
If you have to take care of the young and elderly, it’s simply also not that easy to hop of unreliable Muni. You try hauling 10 lbs of rice via bus and watching your toddler and minding your elderly parents at the same time via bus.
No wonder why the city is losing families! It’s because of this mindset that people have decided to live in the burbs.
Just saw in the Examiner that City Hall is also putting a $400 Million Bond on November’s Ballot called Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response, much will go to jails and Firehouse 1 (which is the busiest firehouse in USA and does primarily ambulance runs of uninsured to SFGH). There will also be some shuffling of city departments from central locations into city properties out in the Bayview. Read carefully and watch your wallets.
richmond_og said
[…Say goodbye to Sunday Meter enforcement and known that it will be severed from the bonds…]
and indeed this has come to pass, effective July 1st!
richmond residents rejoice, onward we go…