ucsd to mts: you kind of suck

that was the general feeling from the folks who put on the public transportation meeting at ucsd on thursday. "badly managed", "desperate to reduce service", and "the only company that want less people to use their services" were some of the quotes. clearly, there's a high level of frustration with the san diego metropolitan transit system on the part of ucsd transportation.

considering that mts couldn't be bothered to send a representative when asked, cuts routes/lines wherever ucsd adds them, and has to be begged to keep other lines that serve campus, the impatience was understandable. and it's really beyond the control of mts - they're losing money on each rider and suffering under big budget cuts and soaring fuel prices. while half of the questions at the forum involved improving mts service, there's not much to do except appeal directly to our elected representatives - the ones who allegedly said that "bus riders don't vote" before they transferred millions from mts to freeway construction. that's looking pretty stupid now with drivers switching en masse to public transportation, or what's left of it in san diego.

ok, enough mts bashing. ucsd is moving forward with innovative transportation solutions. here's a summary of the rest of the meeting, probably only of interest to the ucsd readers of this blog, all 1 of them:


- MTS is facing a major budget shortfall and can not provide any
service improvements. They are "combining" the 48/49/30 routes in
late August - not sure what that means in terms of service. If you
want improvements, write to MTS and/or your local representatives.

- UCSD is building a new transit center at Myers/Gilman which will include a bus pullout area and shaded seating.

- UCSD may offer a $20 monthly pass that will allow unlimited use
of all MTS services (including Coaster). SANDAG is rolling out the
new Compass Card for all SD County transit. No more fumbling for bills when you get on the bus!

- Main UCSD campus shuttle routes that did not run this summer will run
next summer. Additional evening lines will be added soon to the
Hillcrest shuttle route, which currently only has a 7 and 9 pm run. Not too convenient after those post-work gym visits.

- Larger bike racks (3 instead of 2) are being installed on UCSD
buses. Rear-mounting of racks was tried and caused problems. They
are looking into bike racks for vans, like the SIO shuttle.

- The SIO shuttle will be better coordinated with the Mesa shuttle
so that no waiting will be required when transferring at
Revelle/Scholars intersection.

- I may have misunderstood this, but after the meeting I was told
there may be UCSD Coaster shuttle service that runs closer to
SIO.

- Peak hour passenger load can not be accommodated on the current
express MTS bus from Downtown/Old Town to UCSD; Brian (head of
Transportation) felt that rail is the only solution, and this is
still scheduled for 2014. more details...

- The next meeting will concern bike issues. Brian was
non-committal about bike lockers (expensive).

- Brian reminded us that UCSD Transportation is self-funded via
permits and tickets. I suggested consistent enforcement of the SIO
beach lot every summer weekend, lots of infraction money there.

adios san diego starbucks

the list is finally out and there's 10 san diego starbucks closing, with an additional two in chula vista. here are the san diego closings:

9450 Mira Mesa Blvd. (near Black Mountain Road)

6171 Mission Gorge Road (near Vandever Avenue) - this kind of sucks for me, it's where i go for the 2 hours it takes to get my tires rotated next door at "express" tire.

101 Market St. (at 1st Avenue) - fond memories of this one - our friend visiting from new york vomited on the sidewalk after we got coffee there. it wasn't the coffee, rather the ridiculous amount of alcohol she consumed on the flight out here.

5131 College Ave. (at Lindo Paseo)

1722 Euclid Ave. (at Federal Boulevard)

6511 University Ave. (near Rolando Boulevard)

2990 El Cajon Blvd. (at 30th Street) - the one inside renaissuck condos; the patio always seemed desolate when i biked by.

3582 National Ave. (at 36th Street)

3830 Park Blvd. (at University Avenue) - the egyptian loses its starbucks. there's always urban grind across the street. plus i'm not a big fan of northeast-facing patios, no sun.

1122 Broadway Ave. (at 11th Avenue) - first smart corner goes rental, angering its condo-owners. now you can't even cure your caffeine headache there anymore? time to sell.

so long starbucks. for many, you won't be missed, but i'm not a militant anti-sbux person. while i prefer to support independent cafes, any place that attracts people to hang out in a casual setting is a bonus for its neighborhood.

universal being sold to abbey owners?

rumor has it that the universal in hillcrest may be sold to the owners of the abbey in west hollywood. that would be in line with what out.com says - that part-owner david cooley is scouting for locations in san diego and other cities to open abbeys across the country. i wonder what tweaks he would make - considering it was recently built, there's no need to start from scratch, but the unimpressive dance floor interior could probably use a few adjustments.

la raza and sand castle fest

we attended the obama rally outside the convention center sunday, where he was speaking to the la raza convention. turnout was pretty good, probably 150 people, along with a caravan of obama supporters that kept driving by. their horns helped to drown out the incessant hate speech coming over the loudspeaker across the street from the minutemen group. i can understand their motivations, but the way they present their message, including signs showing calvin from calvin and hobbes peeing on the words "la raza", and "la raza and obama hate america", make them come off as completely nuts. my favorite line was when they yelled at us, "where's your american flags?!" patriotism is clearly the last refuge of these scoundrels.


after an hour or so and no sign of obama coming out to meet us (understandable given the security concerns) we walked over to sultan s. shawarma on 4th for a great lunch of falafel and chicken shawarma. the place is owned by a former iraqi translator, so i'm guessing drunken gaslamp revelers are no match for what he had to put up with in iraq.



later sunday we went to the sand castle competition in imperial beach to do voter registration with the obama campaign. it was my first time in IB, which was completely packed both on the beach and the main drag next to it. most of the sand castles were pretty weak, but the one showing gas hoses strangling car owners (see photo below) was timely. the registration was based out of state senator denise ducheny's house just off the main street; booths on the main drag were going for $900/day. that didn't stop the mccain folks from buying a booth, and they were nice enough to yell "higher taxes" at us as we walked by. there's nothing more important to a republican than contributing as little as possible to pay for the services they expect, so i made sure to tell them they were typical selfish conservatives. nevertheless, we managed to register a few voters during a fun, warm day at the beach.

downtown doings

555 6th avenue was awarded a citation by the american institute of architects last month, and i finally got a picture of it when i was downtown friday (after missing out on one of the mere 20 3g iphones at the at&t store on broadway). i like the panels on the exterior, which are supposed to change over time, but it is kind of strange that they have such a stark, wintry graphic on them during summertime.



this picture doesn't do the new bayfront hilton justice, but it's really not that bad compared to some of the architecture that's gone up recently (or the dreadful ballpark village marriott that's planned). i like the clean white lines and geometry of the building.

after my iphone letdown i came across delta nove playing behind the nbc building in their concerts on the square concert series. too bad not many other folks were there, they were actually pretty tight. it's a shame san diego still lacks a real civic gathering point downtown. there was plenty of foot traffic but everyone was racing to get lunch or hit the mall it seemed. the harborfront areas will be nice when they're completed, but that's mostly tourist foot traffic over that way.

protest against papa bigot

there's a protest planned at the san diego grand hyatt this friday, july 18 at 1 pm. march on manchester has the details of this event, which will protest papa doug manchester's huge $125K contribution to the anti-equal rights folks backing proposition 8; this ballot initiative would overturn the california state supreme court's ruling making gay marriages legal. there's more info about papa doug's contribution on the boycott manchester hotels website, and i wrote on this shortly after it was announced.

note that there will be plenty of folks purposely staying at the hotel to support manchester and to combat us militant homo-fundamentalists. funny what supporting equal rights will get you called sometimes; i thought militant fundamentalists were folks who forced their beliefs onto others, telling them who can and can't get married.

don't forget that papa doug manchester represents the worst of san diego in several ways: a powerful developer who seeks little public input on his projects (see the recent naval broadway complex ruling); serves his own interests over the public by walling off much of the harbor next to the convention center; a business owner who welcomes gays to spend money at his businesses and then uses it against them; and the good-old-boy conservative gang that has run this city for far too long.

unsustainable communities; commuting challenges

the herald tribune has an article about the financial challenges of driving 50 miles to your job each day, and heating a 4000-square foot house - otherwise known as living in exurbia, the fringe of the suburbs. was there anything more representative of the early years of the bush administration than a tax-incentive purchased hummer in the driveway of a mcmansion an hour from the city, its conservative homeowners soaking up the wisdom of dick cheney ("conservation is not... sound energy policy") or ari fleischer's statement below:


Q Is one of the problems with this, and the entire energy field, American lifestyles? Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?

MR. FLEISCHER: That’s a big no. The President believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one. And we have a bounty of resources in this country.


so that didn't work out too well, much like the rest of the bush administration's policies. yet even as their chosen lifestyle becomes unsustainable, the excuses for not taking action pile up. in the article above, one woman says that the tank of gas for her minivan has only gone up to $50 (she must fill up when the tank's only half empty), and that she combines trips to the store with other errands... all while ignoring the fact that her gains are wiped out by hubby's 80 miles a day of driving to/from work.

driving through riverside county on i-15 (not recently with these gas prices), i always wondered if some of the more distant 'burbs would someday become low-density ghettos. and now some analysts are saying just that. some of the trends are already there - faster price decreases than core neighborhoods, and greater foreclosure rates in these outlying communities. meanwhile, the la times describes ghost towns in new home subdivisions in the "undesirable and remote" locations of corona and ontario well outside of LA.

it feels like a pivotal time for this country, as the car-oriented lifestyle we've built becomes unsustainable for many. while some are still in denial about it (the woman above, u.s. automakers, homebuilders, offshore drilling proponents), $2/gallon gas probably isn't coming back, ever. on the bright side, americans are pretty adept at changing their lives as necessary to survive economically. to help them out, it would be great to see some state and federal highway funding diverted to public transit, now that those changes include fewer total miles driven.

speaking of public transit, this would be a good time for companies to consider how they can subsidize it, and encourage workers to use it, while encouraging other ways of reducing gas use. if conservative utah can embrace a four-day work week, why can't other states and businesses? why should every worker have to be at the office from 9 to 5, monday to friday, when "presentism" doesn't correlate to productivity? employers should promote telecommuting where possible, and if they're concerned about productivity, simply set employee benchmarks and make sure they're met.

i'm impressed with the variety of public transit options available at ucsd, which includes free san diego mts service for employees (on lines serving ucsd, thanks to subsidies), the hillcrest/ucsd shuttle that i've started taking, and various campus shuttles. yet even as gas has doubled in the past year, i don't recall a single email from campus encouraging workers to use these options, or encouraging telecommuting. i've asked my boss if i can telecommute one day a week, but he's hesitant to allow this, citing distractions. yet he works from home most of the week due to medical issues, and has an employee who already telecommutes nearly 100% of the time. neither has productivity issues.

one problem with working at sio is its poor public transit service. sio had to fight to retain its single MTS bus line last year, which is great if you live in la jolla, but that's about it. it can be taken to the main ucsd campus (and has a bike rack), but often runs ridiculously late due to traffic leaving la jolla. a web tracking program like ucsd's would be a big help in that regard, especially with the proliferation of cell phones with web browsers.
getting to the main ucsd campus via the sio shuttle, which runs on time, requires boarding a cramped van that's nearly impossible to get to the back seats of. simply adding a bike rack to the van would allow folks to bike down the steep hill from ucsd to sio (and take the van back up), reducing passenger load. kudos to ucsd for its triton bikes program btw, allowing people to use abandoned bikes for their campus bicycling needs. one useful idea would be bike lockers for people who don't want to leave their bikes locked on campus overnight.

sio could also benefit from allowing workers to use office space on main campus or satellite locations like hillcrest medical center. unfortunately these don't exist, but the new price center on campus does have some work areas that could be useful.

at any rate, it's good to see some positive first steps being taken to address high gas costs, but there's a lot more that could be done. time will tell how employers and homeowners respond to what's clearly a crisis in how we get to and from work.