Muni board approves summer service cuts, parking meter hikes

Public comment before Tuesday’s vote was otherwise paltry, but dozens of people spoke against the bus service cuts at the board’s April 1 meeting. Many urged the SFMTA to instead dip into reserve funds.

Terry Adams, who recently moved from Austin to San Francisco, said the city should easily be able to scrape together enough money to fill the hole. He’s afraid the cuts will hurt ridership.

“Seven million is like the salary of a tech vice president,” Adams said. “It’s not a lot of money. It can be found.”

Chris Arvin, vice chair of the SFMTA Citizens’ Advisory Council, said the cuts could erode the public’s trust in the agency, pointing out that it raised bus fares by 25 cents in January and is now butchering the 6 line after making a fuss about its post-Covid restoration.

“What does it say to riders when you raise fares and won’t use them to fund service?” Arvin said.

Transit advocate Scott Feeney noted that diminished trust could make it harder to convince voters to pass future taxes and bonds. Next year, voters will decide on a $300 million bond to fund local transit under the city’s bond schedule. Another bill, spearheaded by State Sen. Scott Weiner, would ask voters in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties to approve a new sales tax to fund BART and Muni.

“When service is cut, people don’t want to fund Muni, and you’re going to be going to voters next year,” Feeney said. “Do the right thing, and don’t make the cuts.”

During the discussion before Tuesday’s vote, director Stephanie Cajina, in particular, criticized the cuts to the 9 bus line, pointing to SFMTA staff’s report showing that of the lines facing cuts, that route has the highest percentages of low-income riders, people of color, and disabled people.