People wait to ride San Francisco’s beloved cable cars at the Powell Street turnaround in 2024.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Regarding “Muni’s new budget will raise parking fees and cable car fares” (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, May 5): San Francisco’s cable cars are a treasure, and pricing them as such could meaningfully offset operating costs for the Muni system and ensure these magnificent machines are properly maintained for generations to come.
Raising the fare to $12 is the right move.
The cable car fare has not kept pace with the reality of who actually rides it. You will not find nurses heading to UCSF, teachers commuting to the Mission or office workers bound for the Financial District. You will find visitors from around the world eager to experience a San Francisco tradition.
Article continues below this ad
And there is nothing wrong with that. The cable cars are extraordinary — a rolling piece of 19th-century engineering that still climbs our hills with grace. But they deserve to be funded accordingly.
At $12 per ride, the fare aligns with what the experience truly is: a world-class novelty attraction.
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
San Francisco residents deserve a strong Muni system. Tourists can afford to help pay for it.
Sheila M. Krotz, San Francisco
Article continues below this ad
Shades of Jim Crow
Regarding “SCOTUS just struck another blow to the Voting Rights Act. What it means for California” (Politics, SFChronicle.com, April 29): The Supreme Court ruling prohibits drawing legislative district lines that would favor the election of a member of a racial minority group. However, a decision a few years ago allowed gerrymandering that favors one political party. Some people might wonder, what’s next? The return of Jim Crow and separate drinking fountains?
Entirely possible. If a state or local legislature were to order construction of separate drinking fountains in a public park, one reserved “For Republicans only” and another reserved “For Democrats only,” that arrangement would be upheld by the Supreme Court, following the reasoning in the recent decisions.
To be safe and to avoid any suggestion of improper intentional racial segregation, there should be no photos nearby of the party leadership, which might suggest the predominant racial composition of the two parties.
Article continues below this ad
Fund the greater good
Regarding “A billionaire is quietly funding hundreds of S.F. college dreams. His reason is deeply personal” (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, May 6): Billionaire Michael Moritz is to be commended for giving hundreds of scholarships to students who desperately needed a boost. His philanthropic endeavors, funded by venture capital that helped launch Google, are noteworthy.
However, a big question in my mind is, does Moritz pay his fair share of taxes? Those taxes that help fund even more programs to help millions of other less fortunate people to get a leg up on a better future, not just his chosen few.
Invest in electric
Regarding “Replacing a broken water heater in the Bay Area is about to get vastly more expensive” (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, May 6): How disappointing that the Chronicle chose to emphasize the cost of replacing an old gas water heater with an electric one without citing any study that shows how the harmful emissions from gas appliances contribute to climate change.
Article continues below this ad
Changing from gas to electric is ultimately an investment in our society’s future. How sad that wasn’t mentioned.
Carol Cross, Redwood City
Posey on hot seat?
I lived through the era of notoriously light-hitting shortstop Johnny LeMaster and some really bad San Francisco Giants teams in the 1970s and 1980s. However, this year is the worst I can recall.
The Giants are last or almost last in all hitting statistical categories. Baseball Operations President Buster Posey’s master plan of bringing in veteran stars is blowing up in his face. The veterans are performing abysmally. The team is slow, not fun to watch and shows no energy.
Article continues below this ad
Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.
Read more about our transparency and ethics policies
Posey’s choice to hire a top college coach as manager, while innovative, looks bad because of the performances so far.
The real question is: Will management blow everything up midseason and rebuild? Does this decision impact Posey’s job as the master planner of all this?
Steve Roditti, San Francisco