Hall Monitor

Going off the rails ... With the economy in the doldrums – to put it politely – most Bay Area mass transit systems are reporting declining ridership and fiscal woes. Now we're starting to see a budgetary domino effect.

Case in point: Back when times were good and county coffers were bulging, Santa Clara agreed to chip in to improve Caltrain service in Silicon Valley. Among other things, the improvement project would electrify Caltrain routes in the valley – which would reduce noise and air pollution. Under the terms of the deal, the Valley Transportation Authority – Santa Clara's bus-and-train people – is supposed to turn over millions of dollars in annual tax revenue to Caltrain for the project. But at this point, Silicon Valley doesn't have any tax revenue, and the VTA, which is laying off 10 percent of its staff and slashing bus routes, is on the brink of receivership.

So, unsurprisingly, Santa Clara is planning to stiff Caltrain out of $2.8 million in funding this year – and the next year, and the next year, and the next year, and the next year ... and all the way up until 2012.

"We've been hit harder than most of the transit systems," VTA spokesperson John Pilger said. "We've got a severe budgetary issue." (By the way, don't confuse this John Pilger with the muckraking reporter of the same name who produces BBC documentaries.)

Meanwhile Caltrain has other issues. The commuter train system is embarking on a different, unrelated $110 million, 22-month improvement project, laying down new tracks and rebuilding aging bridges. But the masses will soon be screaming: Caltrain is suspending all weekend service starting July 6. (Uh, honey, why don't we just drive to the Giants game.)

Apparently girding for an onslaught of public complaints, Caltrain has posted a message on its Web site (www.caltrain.com) proclaiming that "during the past decade, a number of North American railroads have initiated long-term service interruptions for purposes of capital construction" and citing three such "service interruptions."

"I don't think this was particularly well-orchestrated," griped Bruce Balshone, a member of Caltrain's citizen advisory board.

A quick call to Caltrain – which, FYI, is about to raise fares by 10 percent – seemed to confirm Balshone's suspicion. "We are providing alternate bus service," spokesperson Jayme Maltbie said. "It's limited. Our goal was not to replace [train service] stop by stop." (A.C. Thompson)

Runaway runways: San Francisco International Airport has been the subject of innumerable newspaper essays. General theme: the airport seems to be blowing millions, possibly billions, in taxpayer dollars.

Sup. Aaron Peskin is leading the charge to regain control of the airport – and even take back some of the funding the Board of Supervisors has already approved. On June 10 Peskin introduced legislation that would keep the airport from spending almost half of the $1 billion it has hoarded for capital projects. If Peskin's bill passes, airport officials will have to come back and grovel for the rest of the loot.

So how does this affect the much-discussed runway expansion scheme? The supervisor says the airport should get the dough only for environmental-impact studies – and not for the kind of high-dollar P.R. firms and lobbyists it is becoming infamous for hiring. "We tire of giving them money so they can go sell the [runway] project," Peskin told us.

City hall insiders figure he has a tough fight on his hands – in part because Mayor Willie Brown may view the airport project as a key piece of his legacy. (Tali Woodward)

Haste makes waste: The ever-industrious Peskin was joined by Sups. Leland Yee, Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, and Mark Leno this week in asking the city attorney to consider legal options to stop Hastings College of the Law from erecting a seven-story, 885-spot parking garage [see "A Lot of Problems," 3/6/02].

Although Hastings can skirt certain city laws because of its affiliation with the University of California, a state institution, Peskin pointed out that the exemption applies only to academic purposes, and building a revenue-generating garage simply doesn't count. "The whole thing is really very wrong and very upsetting," he said at the meeting.

Hastings's board approved the garage on June 7 despite objections from dozens of community groups and Daly's much-publicized arrest. Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner reported that Daly threatened to fire San Francisco Police Department officer Jim Riordan, the cop who tried to remove him from the scene. Daly has a different version of the events, saying he never threatened the officer's job.

Either way, Daly's antics did exactly what they were intended to do: they garnered media attention for a worthy cause. Community activists hope a city attorney suit would encourage Hastings to adopt an alternative proposal that includes affordable housing as well as parking spots.

The community plan got a boost June 10 when state senate president pro tem John Burton wrote the following in a letter to Eugene Freeland, chair of the Hastings board: "As a state institution, Hastings has the responsibility to be an integral part of its community.... I am asking that you immediately call a special meeting of the Board to rescind the approval of the parking garage.... Not everything in the world should be measured strictly in terms of dollars and cents." (Cassi Feldman)