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San Francisco County, CA June 8, 2010 Election
Proposition G
Transbay Transit Center
San Francisco County

declaration of policy - Majority Approval Required

Pass: 120788 / 83.76% Yes votes ...... 23421 / 16.24% No votes

See Also: Index of all Propositions

Information shown below: Fiscal Impact | Yes/No Meaning | Impartial Analysis | Arguments |

Shall it be City policy that the northern end of the planned San Francisco-to- Los Angeles high-speed rail line be located at the Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets?

Fiscal Impact from the City Controller:
City Controller Ben Rosenfield has issued the following statement on the fiscal impact of Proposition G:

Should the proposed declaration of policy be approved by the voters, in my opinion, it would not affect the cost of government.

Meaning of Voting Yes/No
A YES vote on this measure means:
If you vote "yes," you want to make it City policy that the Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets be the northern end of the San Francisco to Los Angeles high-speed rail line.

A NO vote on this measure means:
If you vote "no," you do not want to adopt this City policy.

Impartial Analysis from the Ballot Simplification Committee
The Way It Is Now: In November 2008, California voters approved a state ballot measure to issue bonds to build a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles. That measure stated that the Transbay Terminal would be the San Francisco station.

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), a local government agency, is replacing the Transbay Terminal with a new Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets. The new Transbay Transit Center would be used by AC Transit, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit, Muni, and SamTrans. The TJPA also plans that the Transbay Transit Center would be the northern end of the high-speed rail line running between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) is a state agency overseeing the construction of the highspeed rail line. The CHSRA is considering an alternative to locate the San Francisco station for the highspeed rail line on a site between Beale, Main, Mission, and Harrison streets, not at First and Mission streets.

In November 1999 and November 2003, San Francisco voters approved measures that provided that the City pursue and use sales tax proceeds to pay for an extension of Caltrain to a new or rebuilt Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets.

The Proposal: Proposition G would make it City policy that the Transbay Transit Center, located at First and Mission streets, serve as the northern end of the San Francisco to Los Angeles high-speed rail line.

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Arguments For Proposition G Arguments Against Proposition G
Vote Yes on Prop. G!

The new Transbay Transit Center, under construction at First and Mission Streets, should be the Northern California terminus for California High Speed Rail.

The California High Speed Rail Authority should abandon consideration of an alternate site for High Speed Rail at Main and Beale Streets and focus on bringing High Speed Rail to the Transbay Transit Center. A train station at Main and Beale would result in unnecessary duplication and delay and cause undue disruption to the residents of San Francisco, especially in the South of Market neighborhood, where 1800 existing and planned units of housing would be lost.

Planning for a new Transbay Terminal with an extension of Caltrain to downtown San Francisco began more than 2 decades ago. A full public process to receive community input and develop a locally preferred site for the new Transbay Terminal resulted in the selection of First and Mission Streets. During this process and after much study, the Main and Beale Streets site was rejected as infeasible and technically inferior to the Transbay Terminal site.

San Francisco residents voted in favor of Proposition H in November 1999 to bring rail to downtown San Francisco and for Proposition K in November 2003 to provide funding for the Transbay Project. Both measures specified that the Transbay Terminal be built on its current site at First and Mission. Considerable time and resources have been put into the First and Mission site, which will bring together rail, MUNI, BART, AC Transit and other public transit options in a convenient downtown location for San Francisco and regional travelers. In addition, the voters of California approved Proposition 1A in 2008 to provide funding for High Speed Rail with the specific condition that the northern terminus be located at the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco.

Supervisor Chris Daly

Rebuttal to Arguments For
As a native San Franciscan, former Congressional candidate, 3rd Senate appointed official who held offices in the former Pacific Heights Republican Women Federated, I drove by our "East Bay Terminal" or so-called Transbay Transit Center and fortunately - It was not under construction.

Though part of my focus recently has been on the loss of our rights to due process starting with a case I won in the lower court + my interest in reliable, affordable transportation continues + the California high speed rail ?Authority? is not concerned about safe and affordable transportation or a comfortable, already remodeled bus station. The conflict regarding Main/ Beale or our 1st and Mission locations seems to be between Democrats in Sacramento and those here at City Hall who are the majority party in the state legislature with a few disloyal Republicans including the Governor of the minority party here in S.F. and California. Currently, representing our forum, I started, 2002 + I am thoroughly against rail that ruins the tracks, that's not faster and certainly not safe and affordable + we remain against Prop G.

Eve Del Castello
Chair, Rep. Forum of S.F.
(415) 282-0894

Regardless of the press and precious ballot propositions, we are against ruining our landmark, the Transbay Terminal. And, furthermore with the state currently in a huge deficit + the unsafe high speed rail construction is not a priority. I-5 is fun and we would not sell our cars because we could be late taking a faded BART + never engineered properly or wait 2 hours in the rain for a street car here. If anything, we still enjoy a bus trip + Greyhound and AC Transit are very efficient and would not profit as well without our Transbay Terminal.

Eve Del Castello
Chair, Republican Forum of San Francisco
(415) 282-0894

Rebuttal to Arguments Against
Vote Yes on Prop. G!

The Transbay Transit Center is an approved project, endorsed by the voters, currently under construction.

We should be proud of our visionary project that will transform downtown San Francisco and the region's transportation system by creating a multi-modal station in the heart of a new transit-friendly neighborhood. The Transbay Transit Center will connect Caltrain, BART, and MUNI metro with buses from AC Transit, SamTrans, Golden Gate Transit, MUNI, and Greyhound. The Center is also designed to be the northern terminus of High Speed Rail from Los Angeles/Anaheim.

High Speed Rail is incredibly important to the future of our state. With capacity issues on our freeways and airports, along with the looming issue of climate change, we simply cannot responsibly build our state with the existing infrastructure. High Speed Rail is essential to the future of California. That's why we passed Proposition 1A to bring High Speed Rail to California.

And that is also why the California High Speed Rail Authority should immediately abandon consideration of an alternate site for High Speed Rail at Main and Beale Streets --so they can focus on bringing High Speed Rail to the Transbay Transit Center. A train station at Main and Beale would result in unnecessary duplication and delay and cause undue disruption to the residents of San Francisco, especially in the South of Market neighborhood, where 1800 existing and planned units of housing would be lost.

Let's keep San Francisco and California moving. Vote Yes on Prop G!

Chris Daly


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Created: August 20, 2010 21:43 PDT
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