L ocal Teamsters are playing the "transit first" card on 7,000 downtown parking spots that are owned by Caltrans. According to the union president, the daily cost of one of those spots is less than a roundtrip BART ticket, which ends up encouraging driving - so those parking lots should be used for tree farms or public art instead. [1]

The Teamsters Union is calling for the closure of more than a dozen downtown parking lots it claims have cost the city $7 million in lost revenue that is supposed to support Muni. "When you're skimming money out of that revenue, you're skimming it out of services that could be helping the elderly in our city," he said at a news conference on Monday. The low prices go counter to San Francisco's Transit First policy by cutting into Muni funding and encouraging driving, Gleason said. [2]