Term limits, street takeovers, and a cable car fare hike — San Francisco is figuring out who's in charge, who's getting out of the way, and who's picking up the tab. Welcome to The San Francisco Daily Fix — today it's power, enforcement, and transit math all hitting at once. Voters get to decide whether politicians overstay their welcome, cops are finally cracking down on Bay Bridge sideshows, and Muni wants more of your money — busy Wednesday. Let's get into it. From Gia Vang at NBC Bay Area:
Measure B targets term limits for the mayor and board of supervisors. If passed, they would be limited to two consecutive four-year terms. Right now, they can serve two terms, step away for four years, and then run again. The proposal needs a simple majority to pass.
Measure B on today's ballot would make term limits for the mayor and supervisors truly lifetime — two four-year terms, full stop. Right now the rule has a revolving door: serve two terms, sit out four years, come back. Only one person has ever actually done that — Aaron Peskin — but the question is whether you close the loophole anyway. Willie Brown calling it a 'horrible idea' is basically the best endorsement Measure B could get. He's exhibit A for why San Francisco needs this — decades of machine politics, the same networks recycling the same people. Fresh voices don't stand a chance when incumbents have a permanent fundraising head start. Opponents do have a fair point though — one person in history has used the comeback clause. If the problem is that rare, are lifetime limits fixing anything structural, or is this just a good-governance talking point? That's the whole chill effect right there — nobody's abusing it because everybody knows the threat is there. I'd rather close the door now than wait for the next Peskin to waltz back in after a coffee break. From ABC7 San Francisco:
More than 100 officers from Oakland police, San Francisco police and the California Highway Patrol took part in stopping a sideshow Sunday afternoon after tracking the group for hours. Police said the group started in East Oakland, traveled into San Francisco and then turned back around.
Yesterday we were tracking the regional sideshow bust — today the agencies are dropping the Bay Bridge takeover video and, according to Oakland's interim police chief, the knock-on-your-door phase has officially started. Over a hundred officers, three agencies, drones, nine arrests, 77 ATVs and dirt bikes seized — that's what actual cross-jurisdictional enforcement looks like when everyone stops guarding turf and just works the problem. One person jumped off the Bay Bridge into the water to escape, which tells you something about the desperation — or the planning, or the lack of it — on the sideshow side of this. These sideshows aren't spontaneous fun — they're organized, they cross city lines on purpose to exploit jurisdictional gaps, and that's exactly why SFPD, OPD, and CHP coordinating in real time is the only thing that actually works. From Rachel Swan at San Francisco Chronicle:
In their effort to balance a two-year budget, officials at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency had to squeeze revenue from every conceivable resource, including parking meters and cable cars. The price of both will go up next year. Tickets for single cable car rides will increase from $9 to $12 in January, and the agency will phase out three- and seven-day tickets.
Yesterday we were talking about why BART and Muni are in the red — today we're seeing exactly how SFMTA plans to claw its way to a balanced budget: parking meters go up, cable car single rides jump from nine bucks to twelve starting in January, and those three- and seven-day cable car passes disappear entirely. Hiking the cable car fare is fine — that's basically a tourist amenity at this point, not a commuter lifeline. But I want to see those parking meter revenues actually go back into transit operations, not disappear into SFMTA overhead. The new combo pass — eighteen dollars, covers all Muni for a day plus the cable car, and adults can bring two kids free — is at least a smarter product than a standalone cable car ticket. Squeezing every conceivable revenue source is what you do when you've run out of structural fixes. Until SFMTA gets its labor costs and its bloated contractor overhead under control, we're going to be back here next budget cycle doing this all over again. You'll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, take a minute and read more there.
That's The San Francisco Daily Fix for this Wednesday. This is a Lantern Podcast.