My suggestion is that while it is vital that action be based on
understanding how MUNI, and transportation policy generally, work,
RescueMUNI as a *political* organization had best look at encouraging
democratic (small d) accountability in the City.
I will again state my belief that the primary problem MUNI has is that
the political leadership of San Francisco has choosen to allow MUNI to
run in a way that has only tangential relation to the goal of providing public
transportation to our city. Whether one looks at planning decisions,
management decisions, capital investments, or labor contracts it is always
clear that some interest other than effective transportation is leading
the decision making process.
Unfortunately the voting population of San Francisco has not been
organized to resist this process - which is of course why the political
leadership gets away with it. It is my firm belief that whatever
activities RescueMUNI might undertake to educate itself, its members, and
the public at large about MUNI operation, the goal of our activism has to
be to reorient the political leadership to take the position that MUNI
should have as its goal maximizing public transportation for the people
of the City of San Francisco.
In this light I heartily support the "Phone Willie" campaign that first
brought RescueMUNI to my attention. But I think that there has to be
more work done on organizing people around the premise that our
politicians CAN be made accountable on this issue.