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EEd Reiskin, the boss of Muni, announced today that he was going to retire after eight years at the helm, following the expiration of his contract in August. The mayor of London Breed, who became openly critical of Reiskin as Muni's performance increasingly resembled a disaster film montage, simultaneously published a letter to the board of directors of the transit agency, marking the start of the national search for Reiskin's replacement – and announced a press conference early in the afternoon. the same.
So the only way to do a choreography is to have a song and dance number that goes with it. Who knows: maybe at the press conference today, There will be.
The announcement of Reiskin was greeted by virtual votes on the Internet. But that should not have been. Muni's performance since last summer has secretly undermined his own system, causing a stealth transit nightmare (you remember it?) was abominable. Witness it, it all happened just last week, resulting in the shutdown of the rail service for 10 hours Friday.
It's literally no way to run a railroad.
As such, the big attempts to circumvent the rules by carpool companies or venture-backed scooter sets – which are often identical – have been overly credible, as the San Francisco public transportation system has become so unpleasant and unreliable.
MSince the summer, the university has had such a terrible time that many of you may have forgotten the collapse of last year's clandestine service. Well, Mayor Breed has not.
In summary, although our public transportation service has diligently announced the closure of the Twin Peaks tunnel for necessary upgrades, it has not announced that it would stir up the affected service by closing the tunnel by secretly siphoning Buses and drivers of other lines – some of the busiest of Muni lines, in fact. Statistics obtained by Local Mission This has resulted in a de facto reduction of 33% or more of services on some of the busiest and most congested bus lines in the city.
These lines were often miles from the Twin Peaks tunnel and runners were blinded. Without an explanation, they had to grind their teeth, to moan "Muni is bad" and to ride in a scooter or to summon an Uber. It is incredibly cynical and prejudicial not only to protect you with Muni's bad name, but also to strengthen and strengthen him.
But wait! There is more! In one surprisingly cavalier movementMuni did not inform the mayor's office that he was considering undermining his own service, leaving Mayor Mark Farrell and then Mayor Breed upside down. You would think that in a normal city, this combination of presumption, insubordination, and self-destructive self-destruction would long ago lead to a mass of free layoffs.
The data obtained by Mission Local revealed a huge increase in the number of hours of service missed after the closure of the Twin Peaks tunnel last summer. Although this move was planned by Muni, it was not announced.
BBut it's not a normal city. The former head of the Muni Transit Service, John Haley, did not open the door to this act, nor to other questionable proceedings, but after young girls filed a lawsuit, claiming that he had discriminated against them and had laid hands on them. And Reiskin, his boss, was not released before a week of evil Muni public and macabre this has increased in intensity as the closing stanza of a pyrotechnic show.
Namely, last week and change: a second woman sued Haley and the agency; reports revealed that Muni's new and costly fleet of tailor-made trains came with bum gates (and video showing a woman dragged); a broken history that the agency is hauling potentially unskilled drivers into these trains; he come to light that the braking problems have the effect of flattening the wheels of the Siemens trains, which put many of them out of service prematurely; and the service went to the toilet because Muni was counting on drivers who worked during their free time to make the trips and they refused.
And then a electrical failure knocked out service Friday in the metropolitan tunnel for 10 hours, resulting in transit scenes similar to those expected in a city where rebel armies drop barrels of explosives or the mayor's son-in-law diverted from the energy of the central to make a personal profit. People seemed way This infrastructure failure is more upsetting than the system intentionally put in place by Muni's management – like Mayor Breed – but, as baseball players say, that's what he's saying. .
All this happened, by chance, after Reiskin had promised to show Mayor Breed that everything was going well. she wrote him a very clear letter in August.
So that must have happened to Ed Reiskin to lose his job; he was more likely than Steve Howe.
But everything was not bad. Muni has earned billions of dollars of new vehicles. But even that came with caveats. In 2013, its new green hybrid buses were bought through a strange agreement with the manufacturer, under which the city's supervisory board has made vote to finance the purchase A fleet of buses that they had no idea of was already paid for and, in fact, sat on the other side of the bay in an Alameda warehouse. In addition, this order has advantageously undermined Muni's own internal study on the type of hybrid engine in which to invest, yielding the contracts to an ostensibly favored supplier.
And, as noted above, the billions of dollars and spending on new Siemens cars have been, in many ways, a drag.
These are difficult moments for Muni. Photo of Joe Eskenazi.
HHow did Reiskin last so long? Well, on the one hand, the city would have been forced to collect a six-month termination indemnity if it left before the end of its contract. It's about $ 150,000, which is a lot of money, but also about a tenth of what the city spends on toilet paper each year.
Breed, who is virtually unopposed to be re-elected in November, has not yet decided to dismiss the department heads (former health department director Barbara Garcia accused of leading contracts with his wife , has voluntarily resigned). The mayor keeps fairness on the state's ship until this winter's election.
But after Muni's recent theatrical failures, something had to be given. And, with the search for Reiskin's successor underway this afternoon, an interesting dynamic will be played out. Even among the progressive politicians who, like many in this city, criticized Muni's current collapse, Reiskin's dislike of Uber and Lyft and the fast moving scooter companies was considered a major asset. He demonstrated the opposite reaction of Mayor Breed, however.
And now, Reiskin is about to go out. Throughout all of this, and during his eight years at Muni's summit, he never seemed less than compassionate, decent, hard-working and committed. Nat Ford, predecessor of Reiskin, actually issued a verbal directive informing Muni's staff not to talk to him unless he spoke to them. Reiskin did not do it. He traveled the city by bike and chatted individually with front-line staff and Muni's daily users.
He was well liked. Everyone thought that he was a good guy and, more than that, a well guys. But he was not a transit specialist. The transit specialists of its staff seem to have taken liberties that a more expert boss might have noticed and not encouraged.
So, Muni is on track. It remains to be seen who, if any, can get it back on track.
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