Milestones
Walking the Walk for CCSF.
Opposing the SFMTA Frida Kahlo Quick-Build Project Spring 2024
A Message from CCSF HEAT (Higher Education Action Team)
Subject: Save Access for City College SF Students – Stop Quick-Build Project
URGENT! The SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) is rapidly moving forward with its Quick-Build Project on Frida Kahlo Way, right in front of City College. The project removes parking; creates traffic management problems on Frida Kahlo Way; disregards the dangerous intersection at Frida Kahlo Way and Ocean Avenue; and will create unpleasant traffic congestion and toxic greenhouse gasses throughout the neighborhood as cars search for parking. The plan also does not take into account the fact that there is major construction planned on both sides of Frida Kahlo Way. You can learn more about the project here: https://www.sfmta.com/projects/frida-kahlo-way-quick-build-project.
If the City wanted to kill City College, they could not be doing a better job. The loss of parking may seem nominal but combined with eliminating 1,000 parking spaces in the lower Balboa Reservoir, the changes will limit educational access for many students who rely on private vehicles in order to juggle work, childcare, and other responsibilities.
SFMTA is undertaking this project even though Frida Kahlo Way is not designated as a high-injury street. There’s little evidence that the proposed changes will actually improve bike safety.
The Agency created this project with minimal study and input from CCSF and the surrounding neighborhoods. As with other SFMTA Quick-Build projects that created serious negative impacts, this is another example of SFMTA making false promises of transparency, ignoring community input, and overlooking impacts.
SFMTA has scheduled this project for quick implementation. The project may move to the SFMTA Board of Directors for approval as soon as April.
We need your help now to stop this nightmare on Frida Kahlo Way!
Sign our petition
Copy/paste/sign and send the email below to SFMTA, the SF Board of Supervisors, and the CCSF Board of Trustees and Chancellor
And, please share this message with your San Francisco and Bay Area friends.
cc: Alan Wong <alanwong@ccsf.edu>; Aliya Chisti <achisti@ccsf.edu>; Murrell Green <murrellgreen@ccsf.edu>; Anita Martinez <anitamartinez@ccsf.edu>; Susan Solomon <ssolomon@ccsf.edu>; Vick Chung <vchung@ccsf.edu>; Shanell Williams <swilliams@ccsf.edu>; studenttrustee@mail.ccsf.edu; dmartin@ccsf.edu; Board.of.Supervisors@sfgov.org; MayorLondonBreed@sfgov.org; ChanStaff@sfgov.org; DorseyStaff@sfgov.org; EngardioStaff@sfgov.org; MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org; MelgarStaff@sfgov.org; Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org; Dean.Preston@sfgov.org; Hillary.Ronen@sfgov.org; Ahsha.Safai@sfgov.org; Catherine.Stefani@sfgov.org; Shamann.Walton@sfgov.org; Jeffrey.Tumlin@SFMTA.com; ricardo.olea@sfmta.com; pallavi.panyam@sfmta.com; elliot.goodrich@sfmta.com; casey.hildreth@sfmta.com; kimberly.leung@sfmta.com
Subject: Stop the Frida-Kahlo Way Quick-Build
Dear President Eaken and Members of the MTA Board of Directors:
I urge you to cancel the Frida Kahlo Way Quick Build Project.
This project has been planned by SFMTA with inadequate input from the CCSF community and the surrounding neighborhoods. SFMTA has provided no safety data that justifies the redesign of Frida Kahlo Way. Instead, SFMTA mentions vague "prevention" of undefined "future problems". SFMTA’s lack of transparency raises concerns.
The most significant impact of this project is the loss of crucial parking for CCSF students, faculty, and staff. The project must be postponed until new parking for CCSF is in place.
The loss of parking will:
Reduce educational opportunities for hundreds of CCSF students, many of whom need a car to get to class and other destinations on time
Impact the College as it is coming out of COVID and working hard to increase enrollment
Increase competition for very limited parking on the quiet narrow streets surrounding the College
Create congestion and increase greenhouse gas emissions throughout the neighborhood as cars search for scarce parking
But loss of parking is not the only reason this project should not be approved at this time.
It is unclear whether the Project would improve or hinder traffic flow on Frida Kahlo Way. For example, under this plan buses stop in the vehicle lane as passengers get on and off the buses. Cars behind the buses will have to stop during pick-up and drop-off, causing traffic jams that would extend into nearby neighborhoods.
The Project has no plans for increasing public transit in the community.
There is no evidence the Project improves bicycle safety, nor is there data that supports the need to increase or alter the current bicycle lanes.
I call on you to reject this Quick Build.
Thank you for your efforts to improve transportation throughout the city and for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
( name )
Stop the Destruction of Our Working Class College
City College of San Francisco (CCSF) Board of Trustees is Set to Vote on Pinkslips to Hundreds of Teachers in Early May
CCSF, San Francisco’s working class public college is being dramatically downsized. Educational opportunities for its students are vanishing. Mass unemployment in San Francisco and the US requires more public education not less.
The downsizing of CCSF is a racist attack. Most of the college’s students are people of color from the working and lower middle class--your family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
At CCSF, plans have been put in place to greatly reduce class offerings and the number of faculty despite the college receiving some $50 million in Covid relief money and will soon be getting more money from the state.
When classes are cut, fewer students enroll. The decline in the number of students is then used as an excuse for more cuts and to justify making the college’s real estate available for private interests.
As an engine for its Post Pandemic Recovery, San Francisco needs City College more than ever to put people back to work.
Proposed cuts include an unbelievable 50% cut in the nursing program that puts the health of all of us at risk. Devastating cuts are planned in job training classes that workers take to learn new skills. English as a Second Language, Older Adult Education, and Services to Students with Disabilities are all on the chopping block.
The unions at CCSF are also under attack. When union workers are cut, the unions representing them are weakened. Additionally, taxpayer funds for the college are being used to benefit private interests—consultants and contractors—none of whom teach classes.
City College offers tuition-free classes for San Francisco residents. You might not know this because the overpaid administration does not see fit to produce a printed class schedule and distribute it throughout the city.
We join with education workers, students and supporters of public education here and. around the world against the dismantling of public education.
Find steps to STOP THE LAYOFFS AND CUTS on the FLIP SIDE
TAKE ACTION to stop the layoffs and cuts to COMMUNITY COLLEGES
HAVE YOUR UNION PASS RESOLUTIONS AGAINST THE CUTS
Tell: The CCSF Board of Trustees not to lay off teachers and cut classes
https://www.ccsf.edu/about-ccsf/board-trustees
and
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor to provide emergency city funding to CCSF to stop the cuts.
MayorLondonBreed@sfgov.org and https://sfbos.org/roster-members
Sign:
HEAT’s (Higher Education Action Team) petition expressing no confidence in CCSF’s administration at HEAT’s website at CCSFHeat.org or http://chng.it/mkNrg8nx
HEAT will be holding a panel on May 15 at 11 AM on what is happening to our community colleges Zoom information for meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85810173991?pwd=dExvZVBWbnZPZUd6WkgwNEJwYnJFQT09
And on May 24 at 12:00 noon rally at the State Community College Board of Trustees on May 24th State Community College Board of Trustees 1102 Q Street, 6th Floor Sacramento