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June 2, 2007
Mr. Mayor,
Imagine that after a long, tiring and stressful week you and your family, including your small children, are subjected to the unrelenting pounding and rumbling of trucks and heavy equipment, as well as the continual blaring of construction signals right on your doorstep. The noise begins on Friday evening around 9:00 pm and continues all night long for two full days. Come Sunday evening or early Monday morning, the incessant noise stops. It stops just in time for you to begin yet another work week, and for your children to begin their week at school.
Mr. Mayor, I am a resident of the West Portal area between Ulloa and Taraval streets. City living is not foreign to me. I¹ve spent my whole life in some of the largest cities in the world. Unlike so many of my peers, who have fled "the city" for more quiet suburban alternatives in which to raise their families, my husband and I choose to stay here and raise our children in an urban environment. I don’t regret the decision; I have only begun to regret the decision to live so close to a Muni subway station, particularly this year.
In the four times over the past 12 months that come to memory, where we here in the West Portal area have suffered through the continuous nocturnal disruption brought on by the Muni track replacement project, we were notified in advance only once through flyers posted in the area and distributed to individual residences that project work would begin at designated times and continue throughout the weekend. This weekend, without warning using methods of direct communication to the residents affected by the work, the construction area was once again right in our front yard, causing considerable distress to my five and two year-old children.
The noise is truly deafening, only seconded by the unrelenting shaking of the very walls of our home. It¹s obvious that the decision made by the Board of Directors of the SFMTA was to avoid the greatest impact on local businesses, weekday commuters and traffic in the area. The problem is that we who live within the city blocks affected have virtually no recourse in the evening. Unlike during the day, when we’re away at our jobs, schools and other activities, we’re forced to suffer the onslaught of construction at a time when we need repose the most at the end of the day!
Beyond the lack of advance notice through direct communication to area residents, which might possibly allow us to make alternate sleeping arrangements elsewhere, there’ve been no offers of compensation to families wishing to stay in a hotel while construction is taking place. If I thought I had any legal recourse that would provide some restitution for the extreme inconvenience foisted upon us, I would follow such a path. As it turns out, my neighbors, both partners in respected San Francisco firms, informed me that they have also presented their grievances to both your office and to the office of Supervisor Elsbernd, to no avail. While they had received responses from you expressing sympathy for the situation, nothing was proposed as redress. The obvious conclusion to many in this neighborhood is that you can¹t fight City Hall.
Perhaps that’s true. Nevertheless, I’m frustrated and angry and want my grievance heard. Regrettably, a letter to the Board of Directors of the SFMTA or to Supervisor Elsbernd will likely not suffice because I’m not confident anything will be done about it. That’s why I am writing to you, Mayor Newsom. In the absence of any effect I may be able to exact on the current board of the municipal transit authority, I feel that the only thing I really can do is vote with my feet, which I intend to do at the next mayoral election. It’s quite a shame to cast a vote based on one single instance in all the myriad issues that affect our city, particularly because I find you to be a competent and efficient leader. But in our current era where there seems to be no accountability for the actions of representatives of government, I have no choice but to sanction the one elected official on whom I can have a direct impact.
Sincerely,
C.J.
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