I'm about to leave to participate in this "Invest in Transit Accessibility" rally.  I'm wearing my SF Transit Rider tee shirt, but I'm bringing along CARA and Mothers Out Front.  (Couldn't find my OWL tee-shirt!) I'm using CARA for my note card on Mayor Breed's mid-May announcement that the city will invest $6 million to get the area of Powell from Market to Union Square to rise, and still we have an elevator that won't rise, not a very good symbol and very hard on people in wheelchairs and parents with kids in strollers.

Today I want to introduce myself as someone who's ridden Muni since 1966, when I was a student at SFState, going from an apartment in the Richmond to my classes five miles away and babysitting all over the city (for $1.00 an hour) and then as a mother with an infant and then a toddler.  Now in my old age I'm riding Muni for recreational and political activities all over the city, and it's working for me.  But I'm not in a wheelchair YET, and I want to emphasize that word YET.  Muni does well in getting riders in wheel chairs on and off their buses and streetcars, but once people get off at 5th and Market, they can't get down to Hallidie Plaza without an elevator, and this elevator hasn't worked for years. 

We've contacted departments, but no one has ever explained why this huge elevator has never been fixed.  

Then I'll talk about Mayor Breed and Supervisor Peskin's mid-May announcement that they would pour $6 million into the three-block stretch between Union Square and Market Street.  What about Hallidie Plaza itself?  It was a Winter Wonderland this past December.  What kind of wonderland is it for the people who can't get down to the plaza from Market Street?  There's a small, badly-ventilated elevator on 4th Street, but why not have this much larger, conveniently located elevator in working order?  Fix it, and we'd have a good symbol of San Francisco rising once again.