San Francisco Citizens: Did You Vote for This Extravagant Wi-Fi Installation at SF Bus Stops? (UPDATED: Clear Channel, Bus Stops, & Bike-Share)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 18, 2009
UPDATE, August 19, 2009:
Clear Channel is reportedly paying for the high-tech, $30,000 bus stops and the expensive Wi-Fi installation… before breathing a sigh of relief that taxpayers won’t be stuck with a bill, there’s more to this story, per the linked article from SF Streetsblog about San Francisco’s bike program and the readers’ comments beneath… looks like the city’s bike-share program is part of the deal with Clear Channel:
Read The Impending Failure of San Francisco’s Pilot Bike Share Program, and then read this from the blog’s comments:
BTW, to those worried about clear channel…the bike program was supposed to be part of any winning bid to rebuild all the MUNI bus shelters. Clear Channel won the bid for whatever reason, and will pay for the rebuilding of all MUNI bus shelters and a bike program. I don’t know that the bid said how many bikes they had to provide, and different vendors offered different ideas about what that would look like.
However what we’re seeing here is clearly just a showy thing Green Gavin can talk about in Paris on the way to Davros to hang out with the financial sector boys, but not really DO anything that would benefit the average citizen. Shocking, I know. If he wants to run for governor, fine. But he should step down as Mayor so someone who wants to do the hard work of running City government can step in and make some tough choices.
And this comment:
As far as corporations go, they will act how they are structured to act, but Clear Channel has shown itself to be particularly anti-democratic. Montreal’s Bixi program might be better – we’ll see. A privately-controlled corporation running SF’s bike-sharing program? It’s outrageous on its face. How did that happen?
I guess, as those articles pointed out, bike sharing was thought of as only a gimmick – not to be taken seriously. But then JC Ducky overpromised in order to win the Paris contract from Clear Channel. That overpromise unintentionally put bike-sharing on the map as a serious transportation option.
So we should revise ClearChannelRush’s contract with the City (SF) and have the bike-sharing portions stripped from the contract. We’ll open up bike-sharing to a full field of potential contractors. All proposals will submitted for review to the public for scrutiny, and eventually voted on by the Board of Supes.
And this one:
As far as I know, Clear Channel has no incentive to do the program right or even at all. In fact, it seems they have a tremendous incentive to spend as little money as possible on the bike-share program. I could definitely use more info on how the money is supposed to flow, though.
I’m hoping Clear Channel refuses the offer. Or maybe some good citizens will sue the city to stop Clear Channel – the media giant who suppressed dissent in the run-up to the Iraq Slaughter – from running the program. I really don’t want some criminal corporation running our public transit system. The bike share program should be publicly-controlled, so we can hold some people accountable.
It just gets odder and odder…
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Original post August 18, 2009
Was I dreaming… I thought California was pretty much bankrupt? I thought San Francisco was really hurting in a bad, bad financial way. Last time I looked, California’s unemployment numbers were among the worst in the entire nation. The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area unemployment rate was 10.3 percent in June, whereas the national average for unemployment was 9.7 percent.
Call me a wacky conservative, but when a city is operating on the edge, in the red, and with high unemployment, it means that the city should not impetuously spend millions of dollars on a hyped technology during a recession that claims it will “save” money and “be green.”
“Save,” as in “you will recoup your installation and maintenance costs after several decades, if ever.” “Be green” as in using more efficient LED lighting (which I agree with) and installing horrifically expensive “electronic goodies” (which I do not agree with). Especially when a city is in financial turmoil.
I can hear the liberal dissenters grousing, And don’t even think about raining on our parade by asking about the cost of replacements needed because of vandalism, you conservative cur! We want it because it’s COOL, so there!
San Francisco solar bus stop with Wi-Fi
Techno-blurb from Gizmodo: San Francisco Bus Stops to Offer Free Solar-Powered Wi-Fi
By 2013, San Francisco is planning to construct 360 new Muni bus stops that’ll further the causes of both solar power and blanketed Wi-Fi at the same time.
The stops, which should cost around $30,000, may seem expensive, but they’ll be pretty energy-efficient. The energy not used by the stops will be fed into the city’s power grid, and the stops themselves will use LED lighting, nearly four and a half times more efficient than the current fluorescent. Is it shameful to admit that I’m way more excited about blanketed Wi-Fi coverage than energy efficiency? Because I am.
I love the author’s breezy “The stops, which should cost around $30,000, may seem expensive…” because, HELLOOO, they ARE INDEED expensive. The city (MUNI) is planning on installing 360 of them at $30 grand a pop. Do the math. That’s $10.8 MILLION dollars, from a state that is handing out IOUs to state vendors and selling off beloved state landmarks and making people work for free for a few hours a week, or a few days a month, to stay afloat.
Another write up on this Wi-Fi project at Alternative Energy stated that 1,100 such solar-powered bus shelters would be installed throughout San Francisco, a huge increase from the 360 that were cited in the Gizmodo piece. If 1,100 is indeed correct, the cost to taxpayers jumps from $10.8 million to $33 million as a starting point (never forget the cost of repairs and replacements, which adds significantly to the amount of money that must be generated to just break even and then “recoup” the taxpayers’ initial investment). An additional article at DVICE (not a typo) stated that much of the bus stop will be built using recycled materials. It wasn’t stated what exactly was being recycled, how much the recycled materials cost (sometimes recycled materials cost significantly more than non-recycled because of the man-hours and technology used to recycle them), and how they’d be used at the bus stop.
So, yeah… I have a lot of questions about this venture. I love new technology and recycling, but I loath waste and capricious overspending. I realize I have little information to base solid conclusions on, but that has me troubled. Why does this feel like the foxes are guarding the hen house?
Who’s paying for this… the Wi-Fi bunny? And, c’mon, when did ANY government project meet or cost less than originally projected? How much service will the Wi-Fi offer in the term of years? Technology is usually outdated within a few weeks to 18 months of release. Wi-Fi could be dead in the water the first year its installed. Who wants to make a $10.8 million (minimum) investment in 8-track players or Betamax VCRs? And, don’t forget, there’s that pesky replacement/repair obligation (yeppers, I’m a kill-joy), because you know how vandals love to, well, vandalize.
I asked this in the title: San Francisco citizens, did you vote for this extravagant Wi-Fi installation at SF bus stops? If you did, then hey, none of my business. And, because it goes against my fiscal conservative nature, you get no sympathy from me about your over-extended economy being in the toilet. I love California, my original home state, but this is too much for me to swallow without retching.
If you didn’t vote for this, on the other hand, you need to find out WHO approved this and where in the heck the money is coming from. If you’re told, “From the city coffers, but then, the revenues produced by the city selling the solar power we don’t use will replace it,” get mad. REAL mad… this type of fiscal irresponsibility and gambling must stop until San Francisco is more financially stable.
Spending money like a thoughtless, spoiled-brat teenager, during one of the worst recessions in years and at a height of state and city unemployment, is childish. Yep, childish.
I don’t care how “cool” this technology sounds, YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT. Not right now, that’s for sure. If Pres. Obama has the audacity to stop air conditioning the tents of our military serving in Iraq in order to save some money and BTUs (they spray foam on the outside of the tents), San Francisco politicians can bloody well not jump into this during economic turmoil. If the city is prospering, that’s different. But it’s still a grotesquely expensive venture. How many people over the age of 30 or 40 will actually use it? How many over the age of 30 or 40 will be paying for it? It looks like this bus stop Wi-Fi “cool techie toy” will disproportionately be used by liberal college students, who typically have not paid much, if any, income taxes towards it.
Spending money that California didn’t have is what led to the state’s economic catastrophe in the first place. San Francisco, ask questions and demand answers from your elected officials.
Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, I’m sure, would love to hear from you.
Other pieces on San Francisco, town hall protests, ObamaCare, and other government waste:
GayPatriot: Ma’am Boxer has time for a book signing, but “nothing scheduled” on health care reform and Easily Debunking Villaraigosa’s Claim of CA’s Broken Budget System
Bob’s Bites: Go Ahead, Laugh at California. You Are Next
The Lonely Conservative: California Needs a Bailout, Gee I Wonder Why
The American Spectator: Gallup Finds Independents Sympathize With Protesters
Goodtimepolitics: List of Healthcare Town Hall Meetings Nationwide
Scared Monkeys: Nancy Pelosi – Hypocrite … In 2006 Pelosi was a fan of Disruptors when it was against the Iraq War
American Elephants: The Democrats Really, Really Don’t Want to Hear From You About Nationalized Health Care
Alberto de la Cruz, Babalú Blog, an island on the net without a bearded dictator: That was then, this is now…
NewsBusters: Harry Reid Will Only Do Town Halls By Telephone, Media Mum
Real Clear Politics: Dem Congressman: Town Hall Protesters Are “Political Terrorist[s]”
Frugal Café Blgo Zone: “You Can Bet Our Astro-Turf…” San Francisco Tea Party Against Health Care (video) and I Left My Wallet… in San Francisco”: Huge Gov’t Salaries in “City of Pelosi” Adds to California’s Disastrous Debt
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Town hall time for Obama and ‘the mob’
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: California bankrupt – yet a “special nurse” makes $350,000
Scott’s Slant on Politics: There’s Absolutely No Waste in California Government*
Iowahawk, Big Hollywood: Fans Flock to Mourn California, 1849-2009
San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate: State cuts tax exemptions for kids
Michelle Malkin: Time to ration health care for illegal aliens and Caution: Lindsay Grahamnesty at work; Update: Obama says wait until next year and Catching up with Obama’s illegal alien auntie and Obamacare for illegal aliens and Nice “work” if you can get it
Tom O’Neil, Gold Derby, Los Angeles Times: Blame Michael Jackson? L.A. may force Oscars to pay for its own security
James Hudnall, Big Hollywood: So Goes California, So Goes the Nation
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Hey, Arnold, we are not your ATM!
California Chronicle: Garamendi Says the Coast of California is Now Up for Sale to Big Oil
Maggie M. Thornton, Right Pundits: California Voter Revolt: Schwarzenegger Budget Propositions Defeated
Dave’s World: Democrats Produce Poverty—Period!
The Hoosierpundit: Baron Hill Repeats “Political Terrorists” Line
Moe Lane: Rep. Bishop, Boswell having health care meetings allllll the way over *there*
Ztower: The President’s Model – California – Losing Manufacturing Jobs And Increasing Government Jobs
Jim Blazsik: Breitbart.tv » ‘06 Flashback: Pelosi Tells Anti-War Protesters ‘I’m a Fan of Disruptors’
Sharp Right Turn: White House tries to intimidate on healthcare opposition
Hot Air: Obama: Government health care will be like, um, the post office
Michelle Malkin: Profile in congressional cowardice and Winds of change in San Francisco and Obamacare/OFA stage props in Houston: “One is a Che Guevara fan and the other lies about being a doctor.” and Hey, Rep. Betsy Markey: You’re invited to a town hall meeting you refuse to hold! and Breaking: Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision and Selective outrage of the MSM and Billie Jean King: Obama’s distortions are “cute” and Obama’s town hall performance and Democrats now taking refuge at SEIU offices and Little girl at Obama town hall has not-so-random political connections and What’s the SEIU up to now?; Another Democrat calls Obamacare protesters “political terrorists” and Help out the Internet snitch brigade: Report on fishy health czar office and The smell of desperation: White House unleashes on Internet critics and Video: No, you can’t just ram Obamacare through “fast” and Yes, they are talking about a government takeover of health care
Frugal Café Blog Zone: San Francisco’s Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer Refuse to Host ObamaCare Town Hall Meetings… Citizens Will Hold Their Own Mock Town Hall Meeting and Candle Vigil (UPDATE: Boxer’s Book Tour) and San José, California Protest… Protest Outside Sen. Barbara “Don’t Call Me Ma’am” Boxer’s Book Signing at Barnes & Noble and Rush Limbaugh: Town Hall ObamaCare Protests, “All Statist” Insurance, and “Obama The Joker” Posters and Fake Democrat Astro-turf Protesting: Is Code Pink “Too-Well Dressed”? Or Just “Too Pink”? Only Sen. Babs Boxer Knows for Sure…
About the author
No problem!
Boxer and Pelosi will divert money from the rest of U.S. to accomplish whatever the great state of California wants or needs.
These people need to be cleaned out in 2010.
If they’re not up for re-election, at least we can reduce their power.
They have have diverted water from farmers because of a minnow !
They will not drill off-shore, when oil is leaking from the ocean bottom.
They will not cut the scrub out of forests to reduce the intensity of wild fires, that have plagued them for years.
The idiots are in control !
There is no common sense existing in the California government.
The terminator has either conceded or he has bowed down to the liberal dominance thru pressure from the demoncratic party. (no misspelling), say Kennedys.
I would love to see Sarah Palin take on that debacle, however she is much more intelligent than that.
With her knowledge of energy, business, governance, it would be amazing to see what she could do. Hey Reagan did it.
Great post,…always making us think.
The cost of bus stops is entirely paid for by Clear Channel Media, which is in charge of building and maintaining all the stations. The job was competitively bid by several companies, who by law must maintain them at their cost (not the City’s) and do so over many years.
MUNI has many problems with over-spending and foolish choices, but in this case they pay not a penny for these goofball stops. However, they also don’t have rain gutters so when it rains, you can expect to be soaked if you walk past one. (That was a cost cutting move).
For once, taxpayers may not be taken to the cleaners on this one. However, contracts CAN be re-negotiated, so time will tell. I’ve also been reading about Clear Channel’s responsibility to the city’s bike-share program. This apparently was part of the Wi-Fi bus stop deal. How’s that working out?
No rain gutters? I didn’t know that. Seems like a terrible decision. Ah, well, it NEVER rains in San Francisco, so no worries, eh?
I am sorry, this may not be related to the current topics discussed on this blog, but my main concern after reading the police blotter, and actually experiencing the violent altercation of two men in the MUNI street car- or was it a bus… and that lead to a fist fight spilling upon me since I was sitting in the rear seat, directly behind them which was something I will never forget. I might even be more inclined than ever to take the car unless changes are being made to make MUNI safer for passengers who must board the bus and use it for transportation to wherever destination they wish to go. I live not too far from the 45 bus line(41 runs during business rush hours only) and I am very disturbed by the unpleasantry of the MUNI bus atmosphere which tends to be smelly, full of garbage discarded, rude passengers or transits they are called, some of them are so smelly enough that it is extremely revolting. And of course, graffitis. They make even the newest bus look shabby and dirty. Not to mention spilt food and drinks abound. Having trouble taking it all up? Maybe a long walk to City Hall to complain might suffice. How about installing armed security guards at every bus to detour unpleasant people who like to make trouble?