Don’t sign the parking petition
I have a post I will be publishing about the 4th of July soon, but in the meantime I thought I would suggest to San Francisco readers that they refrain from signing the petitions circulating right now to support the “Parking for Neighborhoods” ballot initiative. It would undo decades of urban planning work and create significant traffic problems in the most dense parts of the city as developers would be allowed to build 3x as much parking in residential buildings as is currently allowed in the downtown district. In addition, the city would be required to allow building owners to put in driveways even in places that conflict with existing bus stops, street furniture or pedestrian crossings. The petition is being circulated by paid signature gatherers who don’t care one way or the other about the issue (but want you to sign it so they get paid), and don’t actually know anything about it. They usually don’t explain what you are signing in more than a sentence so read carefully. Read more about it at the Guardian.