Furor Over Proposed San Francisco Treasure Island Toll Upends Assembly Race
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- On April 19, voters will choose a new Assembly member to represent about half of San Francisco residents. A proposed toll for Treasure Island is turning former political friends into political foes.
The toll has twice been scheduled for a vote and has twice been pulled from the agenda. It now sits in a kind of political limbo.
The development plan on Yerba Buena island is for 8,000 new housing units and 20,000 new residents. To prevent gridlock, the city is proposing a $5 toll to enter and exit the island as a way to discourage private vehicles and pay for ferries and public transit. That's a $10 charge to visitors -- $17 if they have to pay a bridge toll as well. It's an idea that Treasure Island's supervisor, Matt Haney, seemed to support.
"That's to manage congestion on an island that would otherwise be entirely gridlocked," he said. "People who want to go to Treasure Island are going to overwhelmingly take other methods than driving once there are tens of thousands of people that live there."
He said only new residents with presumedly higher incomes will pay the toll, while those who already live there will be exempt. Hope Williams, a long-time resident and toll opponent, said that's only half the problem.
"We don't have a store, we don't have a school, we don't have resources," she said. "All of our services rely on coming to the island or for us to come off the island. But, all of our services, all of our support people would have to pay this toll."
The islanders say supervisor Haney used to oppose the toll before he began running for Assembly District 17. Now, they say, he won't even take their phone calls. On Sunday, they invited David Campos, Haney's opponent in the Assembly race, to speak to the group.
"I think they invited me because they feel betrayed by their current supervisor," said Campos. "Here we have a community that has been struggling for years and the city is looking to impose a toll that would be a devastating thing for the community."
Haney doesn't think that's fair.
"The state, by law, requires us to have a toll. It's not something I even have control over," he said. He denied that he was ever totally opposed to the idea. "I've always supported some form of congestion management of a toll that had no impact on the current residents," Haney said.
"He said as long as he's our supervisor he would not allow a toll to come to Treasure Island," said Hope Williams. "And then he said that the toll is required. And now, it's 'We're making exemptions.'"
The toll was set to take effect in 2024, long before most of the new housing is finished. Haney says the vote has been tabled while a new economic-impact study is completed. Toll opponents don't seem willing to wait until then to pick a new ally in the fight.