Another Patronage Program

redistribution

San Francisco wants you to buy them a new subway. Not the people who live there, mind you…

“Measuring only cost and how fast a project can move the most people the greatest distance simply misses the boat,” Mr. LaHood wrote in January 2010 on his Fast Lane blog. “Look, everywhere I go, people tell me they want better transportation in their communities. They want the opportunity to leave their cars behind . . . And to enjoy clean, green neighborhoods. The old way of doing things just doesn’t value what people want.”

…The FTA has given the Chinatown subway one of its highest project ratings, which virtually assures a full funding grant agreement. …means that any project can get federal funding as long as its sponsors claim they’re moving cars off the road.

Cost-effectiveness and Efficiency = Old And Un-Kewl
Cars Off The Road [even where there *are* no cars on the road. or roads] = Teh Point

Former Mayor Willie Brown sold a half-cent sales tax hike to voters in 2003 to pay for the 1.7-mile line on the pretext that the subway would ease congestion on Chinatown’s crowded buses, but he was more interested in obtaining the political support of Chinatown’s power brokers. In 2003, the city estimated the line would cost $647 million, but the latest prediction is $1.6 billion, or nearly $100 million for each tenth of a mile. [for a mile of subway and a half mile of surface line]

OR spend $1m on a few new busses?

The subway misses connections with 25 of the 30 light-rail and bus lines that it crosses, and there’s no direct connection to the 104-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit line or to the ferry.

Commuters will have to travel eight stories underground [in prime earthquake country -- on landfill] to catch the train and walk nearly a quarter of a mile to connect to the Market Street light-rail lines—after riding the subway for only a half mile. …taking the bus would be five to 10 minutes faster along every segment.

But thee bus might be croooowded!!

…the subway’s costs “could stretch the existing maintenance environment [of the metro system] to the breaking point” …

So not only does it not hook up with existing mass transit systems [including the CA Half-Fast Train bwaaahahahahaha], increase travel times and make people go 95 feet underground to do so; it will break the local transport system’s budget and force taxpayers all over the nation to go even further into debt to pay for the privilege of screwing San FranFreakshow…

almost worth it.

[The Wall Street Journal:] The subway is a case study in government incompetence and wasted taxpayer money.

aaaaaaaaand here’s your key:

*Central Subway Fact Sheet: English PDF, Chinese PDF

[see? No "Spanish PDF"]
[that's raaaacist, yanno]

13 Comments!

  1. SondraK, Queen of my domain
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 10:18 am |

    ♫ We’re on the road to no-where……… ♪

  2. mojo
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 10:38 am |

    A subway under SF’s Chinatown?

    Won’t they have problems with Lo Pan? Not to mention the “black blood of the earth”?

  3. mojo
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 10:46 am |

    PS: a “congenial disease“?

    Is that anything like “assault with a friendly weapon”?

  4. Caged Insanity
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 11:03 am |

    This is why I’ve given up the dream of ever owning the car I have wanted for a very long time.

    By the time I will be able to buy one, it will be illegal to own a car, or, at best, the roads will be in such shitty condition that I won’t be able to drive it.

  5. Colonel Jerry USMC
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 11:50 am |

    Using my MBA knowledge of the Laffer Curve Laughter Curve, I calculate that Friso can purchase 1000 rickshaws for $3000 dollars, reduce unemployment to zilch AND hire the defacating bums to (cough)run(cough) the rickshaws on all the downhill segments. Like the Pony Express, they could swap the rickshaw power sources with “Stanford U. Freshman” for the uphill portions and the city would pay their *student loans* off with a 30 year Bond issue, purchaseable only by residents of Marin County and addresses along Haight-Ashbury. AND, we know the bond buyers would *fucking leap* at the opportunity to accept the bond risks, just knowing that San Francisco was doing its part to reduce teh “deadly CO2 margin” that the ENTIRE FUCKING STATE OF CALIFORNIA is doing for the ENTIRE FUCKING PLANET EARTH and certain to please MoonBeam Brown!!!!!!

    {…I see: WIN, WIN, WIN here, Dudes…..}

  6. dick, not quite dead white guy
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

    By the time they walk down 95′ and back up, they may as well walk the the half mile. That should take about 7-10 minutes fer petesake. What is the matter with these assholes?
    All they’ll use that fucking hole in the ground for is shooting dope and grabbing strange peters in the restrooms. Oh, yeah, and boondoggle payoffs to local contractors and unions in return for votes. I wish that shithole would fall into the sea and get it over with, esp. if Lucretia Pelosi is home.

  7. TimO
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 2:40 pm |

    They can build underground subways in areas prone to devastating earthquakes???

    Who passed THAT code?

  8. PatrickP
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 4:33 pm |

    They can build underground subways in areas prone to devastating earthquakes???

    Who passed THAT code?

    Not unusual at all. In fact, where do you think there was the least damage in the most recent earthquakes?

    In SoCal, the Red Line subway opened one year before the Northridge quake and there was no significant damage. All the damage was above ground.

    Tokyo has subways.

  9. rickn8or
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 5:00 pm |

    dick, nqdwg, now that the son, d-i-l and grandson are in Oakland, you’re perfectly welcome to have your wish come true.

  10. ZZMike
    Posted June 29, 2012 at 5:05 pm |

    “[The Wall Street Journal:] The subway is a case study in government incompetence and wasted taxpayer money.”

    Government incompetence? But they repeat themselves.

    COL Jerry: You’re real close to a great solution. Follow China’s lead: they have the cleanest streets on the planet. This is because they have billions of people and millions of jobs. So they have millions of people sweeping streets.

    Frisco has large numbers of people with lots of time on their hands. They cold provide useful services, like street-sweeping, pulling ricksaws, &c.

  11. Posted June 29, 2012 at 6:38 pm |

    Bloated, dead eyed politician asking for another “…just a little bit more. It won’t hurt.”

    I’m about ready to barf.

  12. Posted June 29, 2012 at 8:15 pm |

    I remember seeing a program on PBS about 20 years ago, about public transportation. A woman relayed a tale about being on a SF city bus one day when a Filopene (I know, sp) woman got on the bus with a live chicken under her arm, and the bus driver told her that live animals weren’t allowed on the bus. So she wrung its neck on the spot and then went and took her seat.

  13. mech
    Posted June 30, 2012 at 10:56 am |

    The egyptians used to build their pyramids and other monuments of ego above ground. But I forget, this is san fran freakshow where up is down, right is wrong and, well, you get the idea. . .

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