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When asked how hard MTA will be pushing this plan, however, Ford did not sound like a man willing to go to the mattresses and answered noncommittally. When further queried about what allies MTA had to help sell a complicated plan that will ask city drivers to shell out tangible funds to obtain intangible benefits such as allegedly more plentiful parking and safety, Ford would only note "transit-first advocates" whom he did not deign to name. Many of these transit-first advocates would support the vaporization of each and every car in the city - and, as SF Weekly has noted before, if these people were the constituency the MTA and other organizations catered to, the city would never have been forced to accept its draconian MTA budget. Simply put, without the support of business and neighborhood groups, this plan is going nowhere - and the Oakland debacle makes it an uphill battle.
Incidentally, if nothing is done regarding extended meter hours, MTA faces a $1 million shortfall that must be made up somewhere.
Ford looked forward to a "debate" regarding this proposal. No doubt he'll get one.
