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Geary Boulevard Merchants Launch
Website to Derail Bus Rapid Transit Lawsuit - Possible Ballot Fight
Contemplated
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: David Heller 415.387.1477
SAN FRANCISCO The Committee to Save Geary Boulevard
announced today that it has launched a website www.savegearyblvd.com
to help rally opposition to the city’s plans to create a Bus Rapid
Transit (BRT) system along Geary Boulevard.
“There is so much anxiety about the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan
from our members and others that we felt a website had to be created
to provide people with central place to get information,” said David
Heller, president of the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants Association
and a member of the Save Geary Boulevard Committee. “The city is
forcing us to accept a plan that we never voted for; many of us
fear Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) will mean the end of our businesses.”
The Committee is made up of members of the Greater Geary Boulevard
Merchants Association, a group of more than 1,400 businesses along
Geary Boulevard in the Richmond, as well as members of other nearby
merchant associations, members of the Coalition of San Francisco
Neighborhoods and other business owners.
Bus Rapid Transit would dedicate two lanes for MUNI buses to travel
one in each direction. The decision to create a Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT) system was never approved by San Francisco voters or nearby
merchants, said Heller. Instead, authorization for the bus system
was buried in the renewal 2003 of a sales tax measure (Proposition
K) whose revenue is dedicated to public transit projects in San
Francisco.
In the coming weeks the Committee to Save Geary Boulevard will be
reviewing its options, including forcing the city to complete a
thorough economic impact study To Be Undertaken of any Bus Rapid
Transit (BRT) system, including hardship costs to business during
years of construction and congestion. If the city fails to complete
such a study, other alternatives, including going to the ballot
or filing a lawsuit will be seriously considered.
“The fact is the Transportation Authority and MUNI are taking residents
for a ride,” said Heller. “No one voting for Proposition K knew
they were approving Bus Rapid (BRT). To do that voters would need
to have been asked if they supported years of construction on Geary
Boulevard and the eventual loss of a traffic lanes, and street parking.
The sponsors of Proposition K did not want that level of debate.”
“Based on the feedback our association has received from hundreds
of businesses and residents who live nearby I can tell you what
the answer would have been: a resounding NO,” Heller said.
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