Hi all, I've gotten a handful of emails about participating in a Muni fare strike starting September 1st (when the fare hike goes into effect). My concern about this plan is two fold; 1) All of us as organizers, groups and coalitions simply haven't done the broad and deep ground work needed to light up the whole community on this issue. If we had done, we would have likely succeeded in blocking the Muni budget out right. If we are going to prevail, we need to make Muni reform one of San Francisco's top two or three campaigns and do a lot more grassroots outreach on it. (A great organizing focal point for such an effort will be Ammiano's Charter amendment to reform the MTA appointment process.) 2) Largely because of point one, I don't get the sense that nearly enough people know about the fare strike to make it effective and city wide in scope. The Coalition for Transit Justice should have an organizing meeting soon to hammer out a plan of action, and perhaps kick a good fare strike into motion. As to the Blue Angels, by all means, let's get rid of them. We gained some traction when the Supervisors rejected the USS Iowa berthing in SF; many of them citing either SF's anti-war climate, and the military's lack of equal respect for the entire gender spectrum as reasons for the rejection. Perhaps someone could contact Ammiano, McGoldrick, et al, about the obvious connection to ending the Blue Angels displays for the same reasons. Peace, Eric chrismcclintock@hotmail.com wrote:

Hi, Fellow Transpo Folks!

First - does anyone know about the "Social Strike" that Mark is talking about on the staff list? Did I nod off at a Transpo meeting? I don't remember him asking the transpo group about it - but I might have missed something. I'm not even really clear on what it is - is it MUNI workers striking or MUNI riders striking. If it's either of these options, I really don't see how it would be effective - the people with the option will just drive and the rest of us might just be screwed. But this might not be the case at all... can someone clarify?

Also, I really want to do something about the Blue Angels. Namely, I want them to go away. To do this, though, I know I need to do research, but I have no idea where to start. Does anyone know how I would go about finding out about the contract the city has with them? Specifically - how long is this contract? I remember reading something last year about it when they decided to bring them back. How much is the city getting out of this, and why is it so essential that they fly over the actual city? I'd also like to see the contract to see what it has in there about the practice that they do that week before. Mostly I think there three reasons that we could/should get them out of San Francisco 1) The waste of gas, fuel, energy in general 2) The unnessecary danger to the city 3) The militarism of the event. I know that the defense is the old "It bring additional revenue into the city" - but does it really? And to whom does this go? At the very least, why aren't they doing these little tricks out over the ocean where they can't hurt the population?

Ok - so seriously - any help is greatly appreciated. I really don't know where to start, but I really think they need to go. On a related note - is there any way to find out if any San Jose greens are working to get rid of the Grand Prix ridiculousness that's going on now and for the next five years?

Thanks! Christine _______________________________________________ Transpo mailing list Transpo@sfgreens.org https://list.sfgreens.org/mailman/listinfo/transpo