Yes, indeed.
We actually lost our chance when Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) financing was being discussed.
Trains raise land values considerably around stations - which revenue now goes into private hands.
It should have been used to build and run the subway.
As it was, they turned down a land-value tax and chose (you can see it coming) a sales tax.
Now the wealthy people of San Mateo can walk across the county line and board a train financed in part by the poor people of San Francisco.
Frustrating!
Harry
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Arthur wrote:
What strange way to support the common infrastructure. (A graduated land tax " a la" Henry George for lets say about a square mile at either end might have brought a different outcome. Harry, what do you think???) arthur============================================== DOWN AND OUT, GOLDEN GATE IS PLANNING TO PASS THE HAT 29 November 2002 New York Times SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28 -- The Golden Gate Bridge is down on its luck and grateful for any loose change you can spare. The transit agency that runs the 65-year-old bridge is so short of cash, not unlike many transit agencies around the country, that in September it raised tolls by $2, to $5. That was not enough, so last week the agency began slashing commuter bus routes and ferry services. Now, still hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole because of a troubled economy and unexpected expenses after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the agency is asking for public handouts to keep it afloat. Big bridge. No money. Please help. ''If someone wants to drop $2 in a box to enjoy that beautiful bridge, we'll take it,'' said Maureen Middlebrook, a vice president of the bridge's board of directors. ''We will take money wherever we can get it.'' Contribution boxes will be erected near the sidewalk entrances to the main 1.2-mile suspension span once the winter rains end and tourism picks up. The solicitations will be modeled after those at some museums and national parks and might include a suggested minimum donation, an amount not yet determined. ''We will have a sign with information about the bridge, saying, 'Leave us your dollar or yen, or whatever, we appreciate it,' '' said Mary Currie, director of public information for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, the agency that operates the bridge. For the last three decades, the district has also run ferries between San Francisco and Marin County and bus services in Marin, Sonoma, Contra Costa and San Francisco Counties. Ms. Middlebrook described the plan for donations, which has not yet been widely promoted, as ''an opportunity for people to share their caring'' for the bridge. But not everyone is as charitable. Joseph V. Blue, another of the district's 19 directors, likened the effort to panhandling. ''That is humiliating,'' he said. Mr. Blue, a real estate investor and newcomer to the board, said the handouts were ''like putting a Band-Aid on cancer.'' He also criticized another idea under consideration: charging pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the bridge. That proposal was shelved last month, at least for the time being, after an outcry from the city's formidable bicycle lobby. ''We are not talking about just any bridge, we are talking about the greatest bridge in the world,'' Mr. Blue said. ''I am dumbfounded that we got to this point.'' While the financial crisis has been hard for some San Franciscans to fathom, the bridge's problems are unusual only in their severity and notoriety. Transit agencies nationwide are having tough times. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, BART train ridership has declined for 15 months, leading to fare increases and new parking fees. The Valley Transportation Agency in Santa Clara County is cutting jobs and services because of a drop in state sales taxes and a $167 million deficit. Across the country, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is projecting a $50 million deficit next year, with cuts in services and fare increases under consideration. Ridership, which had been growing 8 percent a year, rose 3 percent last year, said Steven Taubenkibel, a spokesman for the authority. ''We are reviewing everything under the sun to reduce costs,'' Mr. Taubenkibel said. In New York City, tunnel and bridge traffic across the Hudson River began to fall last year even before Sept. 11, with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reporting 4.4 million fewer eastbound vehicles than in 2000. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, meanwhile, which runs buses, subways and railroads in New York and its suburbs, expects a budget deficit of $1 billion next year. ''Every transit agency in the country is facing some loss of riders,'' said Prof. Elizabeth A. Deakin, director of the University of California Transportation Research Center in Berkeley. ''You have a confluence of security costs and a bad economy that makes it tough for these agencies to keep their commitments.'' Though no one keeps an exact count, tourism surveys in San Francisco consistently rank the Golden Gate Bridge among the city's top attractions. Last year about 15.7 million people visited the city, but Mr. Blue and other skeptics expect few of them to dig deeply into their pockets. ''If after six months we get $100, I would be glad to give it to you,'' Mr. Blue said. Practical or not, the bid for donations reflects a worsening financial crisis that district officials said threatened maintenance of the bridge's two main cables and the deck floor's beams and trusses, and the final phase of a seismic strengthening that began in 1997. The two maintenance projects would cost $84 million combined and the seismic work $160 million. ''They are on the got-to-do list, but we don't have the money,'' Ms. Currie said. ''We got to the edge of the cliff faster than we predicted. When you take a straight hit across your organization, your budget is going to hurt.'' With fewer cars crossing the bridge, ridership down on buses and ferries, and security and insurance bills mounting, the district faces a $296 million deficit over the next five years. The projected shortfall had been $441 million, but was lowered after the toll increase in September. The expenses include $700,000 a year for 11 new security employees. Insurance premiums jumped to $1.2 million, about double the amount of last year. The district raised the toll for most motorists to $5 from $3, the first increase in 11 years. Though the toll remains lower than some in other parts of the country, it is more than double the amount charged at the Bay Area's seven state-run bridges. Reaction was swift and negative, with motorists complaining in public hearings, in e-mail messages to the board and on radio talk shows. Last week, the cost-cutting extended to the agency's bus service when the board voted to eliminate 14 routes with low ridership, including eight shuttles to ferry terminals. More cuts are planned; officials estimate a quarter of the district's bus and ferry services may be eliminated over the next year. ''It is taking a certain level of courage to be honest and make the decisions we have to make,'' said Ms. Middlebrook, a public affairs consultant in Sonoma County. ''We have a lot of elected officials on the board, making it very difficult to vote for toll and fare increases.'' Meanwhile, in the quest for new sources of cash, the district is considering issuing Golden Gate Bridge credit cards and vanity license plates. More fare increases for buses and ferries are being studied, as are salary freezes and benefits caps for the district's 1,000 employees. This week, many administrative employees were encouraged to stay home and take their accrued vacation time or lose it because there was no money left to reimburse them for unused days. District officials estimate that if the financial situation does not improve soon, they will be unable to meet payroll obligations in about 17 months. ''Managing a bridge right now is not a lot of fun,'' Professor Deakin said. ==========================================
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
