Manny’s: A New Era of Transit? How Will We Get Around Post Pandemic with SFMTA Leadership

We’re so excited to begin to bring back in-person civic events in this new series we’re calling Manny’s @ Curio dinner and a conversation series – The Future of San Francisco. We’ve got four evenings over the next month, each addressing four aspects of the future life of our City: politics, art, work, and transportation.
On May 5th we are discussing transportation. Learn more below:
With almost no warning or real preparation our streets went quiet last year. The cable cars stopped. The entrance to the underground stations were covered. And those of us that could, waited.
Over a year later we have seen a ton of rethinking of what happens on our streets and how we use our public transportation in response to the physical needs of the pandemic.
From prioritizing bus corridors with essential workers to closing major thoroughfares to cars including the Great Highway and parts of JFK Dr as well as local residential streets to let neighbors spread out., to replacing parking spaces with dining and retail spaces, to letting small businesses spread our onto commercial streets and closing them to cars to increase capacity, so much of what we saw happen on our streets and with our transportation over the last year was new.
But what will and should remain once the pandemic is over? What lessons have we learned about the core infrastructure of our public transportation system over the last year that may inform the future?
How do we predict people will be getting around in the coming months and years and how can we be ready? What have we and can we learn by what other cities have done with their systems and how can we lead? It’s been a year of emergencies – will it now be a year of change?
Here to discuss is the Chair of the SFMTA Board Gwyneth Borden and the Director of the SFMTA Jeffrey Tumlin.
About Gwyneth and Jeff:
Gwyneth Borden was appointed to the SFMTA Board of Directors in 2014. Prior to appointment to the SFMTA Board, she served six years as a Planning Commissioner for San Francisco. Ms. Borden has a history of transportation advocacy, having served on Mayor Ed Lee’s 2030 Transportation Task Force, and in 2003, she was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to be Vice-Chair of the Expenditure Plan Advisory Committee that authored the half-cent sales tax for transportation which today funds the city’s transportation projects
Jeffrey Tumlin was named Director of Transportation of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in December 2019. He oversees the Municipal Railway (Muni), parking, traffic engineering, bicycle and pedestrian safety, transportation accessibility, and taxi regulation for the City & County of San Francisco. Jeffrey is the former director of strategy at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, a San Francisco-based transportation planning and engineering firm that focuses on sustainable mobility. Previously he served as Interim Director of the new Oakland Department of Transportation.
Note: The host Manny Yekutiel is also a member of the SFMTA board. This is NOT an official SFMTA event and views expressed do not represent the views of the SFMTA board. The event is being hosted in Manny’s personal capacity and there will be no monies brought in to Manny’s as a result of the event.