Ah, I caught this in time to post it before this meeting actually takes place this evening!

From Greg Dewar at the N-Judah Chronicles:

Tonight! MUNI Town Hall Meeting with Sup. Mirkarimi and MTA Director Nate Ford!

This week has been quite a week for all things transit talk. First, we had Our Mayor go all Fidel Castro on us with a 7 1/2 hour speech on YouTube, which included this 41 minute piece on transportation issues. At the suggestion of a reporter from the Examiner, I watched it and it was kinda boring, with the usual “yeah things are not perfect but yeah things are great” spin you get out of City Hall.

Continue reading San Franciso Muni town hall meeting tonight


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Central Subway map. Image: SFMTA.
Central Subway map. Image: SFMTA.
From the Chronicle:

The proposed Central Subway project that calls for running light-rail service into San Francisco’s Chinatown has received federal environmental clearance, city officials said Tuesday. On the same day, the Municipal Railway’s governing board approved a $147 million-plus contract for program and construction management of the project.

“These developments are significant milestones for a project that is crucial to the future of transportation in San Francisco,” said Municipal Transportation Agency chief Nathaniel Ford.

The $1.3 billion Central Subway, which would extend the new T-Third line from the South of Market into Chinatown, must still secure federal funding. City officials hope to start construction on the 1.7-mile rail project in 2010 and open for service six years later. Planners envision a surface boarding platform at Fourth and Brannan streets and subway stations serving Moscone Center, Union Square and Chinatown.

The project management contract was awarded to Central Subways Partners, a joint venture of AECOM USA Inc. and EPC Consultants, and is not to exceed $147,375,171. The Board of Supervisors must still sign off on the agreement.

Central Subway given feds green light

For more about the Central Subway, see the SFMTA’s Central Subway Overview page: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mcentral/centralover.htm


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I was walking to the SF Main Library today (yes, more DVDs) and I came across this:

Green roof bus shelter at Larkin and McAllister.
Green roof bus shelter at Larkin and McAllister.

A bus shelter with a living green roof (like the big one at the Academy of Science)!

How awesome! I hadn’t heard anything about this program prior to seeing the bus shelter, so I looked around and found the “Green Roof Bus Shelter Group” page on the San Francisco Parks Trust website.

From their page:

The Green Roof Bus Shelter Group is a collaborative of architects and green roof enthusiasts who propose to install a living green roof on the top of a bus shelter in San Francisco for a three month pilot program. Their mission is to educate the public about the many environmental benefits of green roofs, as well as improve urban air quality and provide attractive waiting spaces for public transit users. The group will be tracking public comments through MTA”™s website.

Benefits of green roofs:

  • filtering air pollution and particulates from vehicle exhaust
  • managing storm water by slowing the runoff rate
  • adding an extra layer of insulation to roofs
  • providing wildlife habitat opportunities in a dense urban area

I’m excited to see living roofs catching on and gaining in prominence. I’m looking to find more information.

Green Roof Bus Shelter Group at San Francisco Parks Trust


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Okay, I’ve been doing all kinds of work on this site, including going through the tags and categories, cleaning up comments, updating plugins and switching to a new theme (with much easier to manage widget support); you may notice some little differences here and there, but by and large things should look pretty much the same.

There’s a new tag tree at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar, and new drop-downs to find posts by category and by date (and yes, there are some entries going back to 2001/2002-ish).


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  • Day-after-Thanksgiving vegetarian/vegan Thanksgiving dinner with new friends was fantastic.
  • Emails and text messages received today have been making me smile.
  • Horatio Hornblower DVD borrowed from the Library was fun and I’m going to borrow more.
  • Chilly with crisp sunlight outside, cozy with steam heat inside.
  • Helped comfort a dear friend last night who’s going through a breakup.
  • Dinner plans with rockstar friend “Southern French” tonight.
  • Upgraded this blog software and updated the spam comment filtering system.
  • Checked backups and tweaked settings.
  • Had some turkey meatballs for lunch (I’m about 65% vegetarian right now)

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TreeHugger highlights several programs underway at SoCal colleges to encourage less driving and more eco-friendly transportation:

Universities in southern California are implementing several green commuting programs and incentives to encourage carpooling and biking to campus, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. While southern California is known for loving its autos, its also known for year round near-perfect weather. If there is any place in the US to encourage biking and hiking, this is it, but unfortunately public transit is not “mass” transit, yet. If there was just a way to flip the trend away from single-person auto use, it would change the entire culture and environment of southern California and several universities are working to do just that.

Progress, progress, progress…

Read more about the programs being implemented…


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