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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Is Muni Losing Millions on its Fare-Evasion Program?

Posted By on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 2:42 PM

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"You're busted, pal. And if you could pay that fine 5.5 times, we'd break even on this deal."

By Joe Eskenazi

A glowing article in the Chronicle boldly states that Muni's beefed-up efforts to nab fare evaders have resulted in far more scofflaws being cited in 2008 than the previous year.

And yet, while the article bandies about many facts and figures, it fails to add them up and ask the most basic question: Is Muni actually losing money due to this effort? Our calls to the agency haven't yet been returned, but the answer appears to be "almost certainly."

According to the story, Muni now has 50 fare inspectors -- as well as seven supervisors -- working the fare-evasion beat. And while these inspectors handed out 26,737 tickets last year, they brought in only $492,232 in revenue and penalty money.

That'll buy a lot of pretzels, but it's not a lot of cash when you consider that fare inspectors earn between $52,858 and $64,272 a year. According to according to Tom DiSanto, the budget manager at the city controller's office, the average inspector's salary is around $54,240. Multiply that by 50 and you've got $2,712,000.

That's five-and-a-half times the ticket revenue right there -- and we haven't even factored in the supervisors. 


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Worst Place in San Francisco to Have Spent New Years?

Posted By on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 1:01 PM

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By Ashley Harrell

A. Anywhere in the Marina.

B. Passed out on 6th and Market in a pool of your own vomit.

C. Passed out on 6th and Market in a pool of someone else's vomit.

D. Standing in a line outside Sea of Dreams, $70 tickets in hand. 

We're going with D.

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Gavin's Catholic Bashing

Posted By on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 10:48 AM

By Lauren Smiley

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Is Mayor Newsom a self-hating Catholic? The Catholic League said this week that the Mayor (and the Board of Supervisors) should be blamed for vandals scrawling the names of the pope and the San Francisco archbishop next to a Nazi symbol on Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the Castro. Why? Because he doesn't do anything to stop such Catholic-offending acts like naked dudes running amok at the Folsom Street Fair, of course.


Here's the statement of Catholic League president Bill Donahue:

"Part of the blame for the latest attack goes to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Both Newsom and the Board have shown nothing but contempt for the First Amendment rights of Catholics. When crucifixes are sold as sex toys and Catholic sensibilities are assaulted by naked men in the street at the annual Folsom Street Fair, they say nothing. When gay men dressed as nuns show up at Mass--at the same church--they say nothing."

The statement included Newsom's city e-mail address, and asked Catholics nationwide to contact him.

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Separated at Birth? Possible Future Spymaster and Current E-Street Drummer

Posted By on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 7:42 AM

Call us crazy, but does quasi-local congressman-turned-CIA head nominee Leon Panetta look more than a little like former Conan O'Brien and current Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg?

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Got a better suggestion? How about "Luis" (center) from Sesame Street?

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-- Joe Eskenazi

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