The Boondoggle Chronicles III
Vitality vs. Wastefulness
Work that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value:
I always knew that’s what a boondoggle is but since writing on this and related subjects I have acquired so many examples… so many.
Today, we are going to examine, in brief, the June 2026 Earthquake Safety & Emergency Response Bond allocation to Muni (SFMTA), ostensibly for the repair and seismic retrofit of the Potrero Bus Facility.
Wait, Muni? Muni is in the June 2026 ESER Bond? For $200 million?
Wasteful?
The knee-jerk response that I hear on the streets and in the coffee shops of San Francisco is, “$200 million of earthquake-safety money for Muni? Hell yes that’s wasteful!”
I am trying, however, to be as fair in this analysis as I can be. By the way, I always try to be as fair in my analyses as I can be here at Though the Heavens Fall.
In order to be fair, I must admit that Muni is in trouble. A lot of trouble. A whole barrel full of fiscal trouble. Muni is beyond broke, which has the city looking desperately for cash for operations as well as money for Muni infrastructure.
I could examine lots of numbers from the book on Muni, and perhaps at a later date we will do that here. But for today I am willing to posit that Muni needs money, the Potrero Bus Facility needs repairs, and $200 million is likely not even enough to fix Muni’s ailing infrastructure, let alone the operational deficits.
But while considering wastefulness I must insist that this analysis also consider what will be displaced by a 40% diversion of ESER bond money. And don’t even start with me about how it isn’t a diversion, because it is. The SF Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Capital Planning Committee (CPC) both state that high-pressure, emergency firefighting water supply infrastructure is “vital for protecting against the loss of life, homes and businesses from fire following an earthquake.”
[see DPW ESER 2026 report excerpt immediately below]
Allowing, for the moment, that the City is earnest in this statement, and considering that — after 16 years, 3 ESER bonds (2010, 2014, 2020) and $312.5 million earmarked for expansion of the high-pressure, post-earthquake firefighting water infrastructure (e.g. AWSS) into more than 15 unprotected SF neighborhoods, prior ESER bonds have resulted in ZERO high-pressure AWSS hydrants and ZERO miles of AWSS pipe laid in those unprotected neighborhoods — how can the city consider diverting nearly 40% of the proposed June 2026 ESER bond for Muni and the Potrero Bus Facility?
If expansion of high-pressure, emergency firefighting water infrastructure is VITAL, which the city clearly espouses and I believe wholeheartedly, then why has the expenditure of $312.5 million for emergency firefighting water expansion to date resulted in ZERO high-pressure AWSS hydrants being placed in unprotected neighborhoods?
If expansion of high-pressure, emergency firefighting water supply is VITAL, then why wasn’t 100% of prior ESER bond money — $1.44 billion — spent to get that system in place before spending money on other projects? Or 50%? Or at least something greater than 22% ($312.5 million/$1.44 billion)?
If expansion is VITAL — and no one, not me, not the city, no one — will argue that it is not, then how does it make any sense to divert nearly 40% ($200 million/$535 million) of the June 2026 Earthquake Safety & Emergency Response Bond to Muni and, ostensibly, the Potrero Bus Facility while high-pressure, post-earthquake firefighting water supply is allocated a pittance — $130 million or 24% of total bond revenues.
If expansion of high-pressure, emergency firefighting water supply is VITAL, which it most definitely is, why won’t the City put its bond money where its mouth is?
Because, while it is VITAL, and the City calls it VITAL, they would rather spend your money, our money, our taxpayer dollars on something else (a.k.a. Muni). And that, my dear readers, answers the wastefulness question. As my friends in the coffee shops have told me, “Hell yes it’s wasteful!
Like I have said before… Boondoggle.
p.s. “Ostensibly” is going to be the topic of my Boondoggle Chronicle IV
