The first major change of leadership at a city agency ahead of Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie taking office January 8 is coming at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Jeffrey Tumlin is stepping down, ending a controversial five-year helm of the agency that oversees everything from the city's bus and subway service to streetscape designs and parking restrictions.
The Bay Area Reporter had been told under embargo Thursday that Tumlin would announce his departure at Tuesday's meeting of the SFMTA board and could publish a story shortly thereafter. Director of Transit Julie Kirschbaum, who first joined the SFMTA in 2007, is stepping in to lead the agency on an interim basis as of January 1.
But Tumlin let the news slip early himself in an interview with the SF Standard, telling the news site, "The opportunity to serve the city is the greatest honor in my life. We have made great progress and achieved more than we expected, including a more frequent and reliable Muni."
A December 13 press release from the SFMTA noted that Tumlin's five-year contract is set to expire at the end of the year. Tumlin acknowledged the "many challenges" the agency experienced since his hiring and also pointed to the "historic progress" it has made.
"Muni is better than it's ever been and is experiencing record-high customer satisfaction. San Francisco is one of the safest larger cities in the U.S. for walking and biking. And we have one of the strongest paratransit programs in the country," he noted. "There is still far more to be done but I have full faith that our talented and highly motivated staff and leadership, working alongside city and state partners, will shepherd the agency into a successful new chapter."
Tumlin, a gay man who resides with his husband in Noe Valley, was named by Mayor London Breed in 2019 as the city's director of transportation, overseeing the SFMTA. He started in mid-December that year just months prior to the start of the COVID pandemic that would upend the SMFTA's operations and budget.
Ever since, his tenure has been rocky, with Tumlin and his agency enmeshed in one controversy after another. He came under attack for how the SFMTA handled its response to the global health pandemic, facing criticism over everything from safety protocols for Muni operators to the cancellation of bus routes.
Its decision to turn streets in certain neighborhoods into outdoor spaces for pedestrians and cyclists — dubbed Slow Streets due to restricting vehicle usage of the thoroughfares — to use as a safe way to get exercise and fresh air during the pandemic inflamed heated debates throughout the city. A number of the Slow Streets remain to this day, beloved by some and derided by others who contend they are no longer needed.
As COVID waned, Tumlin came under attack by several supervisors who complained about the slow return of bus service in their districts. Residents also harangued SFMTA leaders for rerouting certain Muni lines, cutting off service they had relied on for decades, with riders in one hilly section of Noe Valley particularly upset with being cut out of the service area for the 48-Quintara/24th Street line.
Tumlin had defended his agency and staff for being upfront about the need to rethink Muni service due to the crash in ridership brought about by the global health crisis and people no longer commuting to their offices on a daily basis. It was only this past September that Muni saw its average weekday ridership surpass 500,000 riders for the first time since the start of COVID in February 2020.
Nonetheless, Tumlin last month warned that the SFMTA's fiscal picture was in such dire straits that it could lead to shuttering the city's famous Cable Cars next summer. It prompted Lurie to say the beloved tourist attraction would remain running on his mayoral watch.
Despite receiving majority support from voters, Proposition L on the November 5 ballot that would have generated an estimated $25 million for transit service via a tax on ride-hailing services failed due to receiving fewer total votes than a competing measure that will take effect and change how the city taxes all businesses. Muni, with an annual budget of $1.4 billion, is projecting it could have a deficit of $239 million to $322 million by fiscal year 2026-2027.
On the positive side, Tumlin has been credited with improving customer satisfaction with Muni's performance. The agency reported in August that 72% of passengers rated Muni as "excellent" or "good," the highest score it has received since it began surveying riders in 2001.
And Tumlin won praise for his being direct about the issues confronting the SFMTA and the decisions it took. He acknowledged that the SFMTA "can't be all to all people," as one transit leader noted to the B.A.R.
"Change can be hard, but Jeff was not afraid to make those decisions necessary to allow people to move safely and efficiently across this city," stated Breed. "The SFMTA is a challenging department to run, and I want to thank Jeff for leading this Department and serving our city through the difficult years of the pandemic and after to get us where we are today."
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), often seen riding Muni, credited Tumlin for making Muni service the best he has seen in over 27 years of using the system.
"Service is faster and more reliable due to Jeff's focus on making Muni work, and as a result Muni rider satisfaction surveys are at historic highs," stated Wiener. "Jeff has also focused like a laser on making our streets safer, which saves lives. Jeff's leadership for San Francisco has been extraordinary, and I wish him only the best going forward."
Valencia bike lane
Perhaps no issue has bedeviled Tumlin and the SFMTA more than its decision to install a center bike lane along Valencia Street in the Mission District. While meant to better protect bicyclists, it has been derided by bike riders and drivers for its confusing design and resulted in a public campaign by merchants along the commercial corridor to see it be ripped out.
Store and restaurant owners blame the center bike lane and the loss in parking spaces it resulted in for decimating their businesses. They created the group Valencia Association of Merchants, Artists, Neighbors and Organizations, which in May had called for Tumlin to resign and continues to object to the SFMTA's latest bike lane proposal.
After defending the center bike lane for months, contending it improved safety on the street, Tumlin relented earlier this year and announced it would be replaced with a bike lane on the side of the road; the SFMTA board signed off on it last month and construction is slated to begin early in 2025.
Last year, it was bike advocates who were disgruntled with Tumlin after a video surfaced of comments he made at a neighborhood meeting in the Richmond district in which he said, "Part of the rise in incivility is absolutely people on bikes who are behaving like arrogant, horrible people." The influential Streetsblog SF in a headline () about it accused Tumlin of stereotyping cyclists and fanning "anti-bike hate."
When former mayor Mark Farrell entered the mayoral race to return to Room 200 at City Hall, he pledged to replace Tumlin at the SFMTA. When asked by the B.A.R.'s editorial board if he would do so as mayor, Lurie was noncommittal about keeping Tumlin in charge of the agency but didn't refrain from expressing his dismal view of the agency's leadership.
"Too often in the city, things are done to communities instead of being done with communities. Muni is one of the most notorious agencies for failing to adequately communicate with residents and small businesses to design solutions that work for everyone," Lurie stated in his B.A.R. questionnaire. "SFMTA leadership has failed to adequately communicate with and listen to community concerns throughout our city. As I've said before, on day one of my transition I will interview every major department head and they will need to justify why they should stay in the job."
As of 2023, Tumlin's salary with the city agency was $400,725. Prior to coming to the SFMTA, Tumlin was director of strategy at Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, a San Francisco-based transportation planning and engineering firm that focuses on sustainable mobility. Before that, he served as interim director at the Oakland Department of Transportation.
The news release announcing Tumlin's appointment to lead the SFMTA noted he came to the position with 25 years of experience working in cities around the world. His predecessor, Ed Reiskin, had resigned amid criticism from Breed over Muni's poor performance, plagued by slow service on its bus and rail lines and hammered by critics for the yearslong delays in opening the new Central Subway with a terminus in Chinatown.
Tumlin earned a bachelor's degree in urban studies from Stanford University. He has been with his artist husband, Huib Petersen, an immigrant from Holland, for 25 years.
It remains to be seen if several other out department heads in the city will also depart or remain as part of the Lurie administration. Dr. Grant Colfax, a gay man, is the health director; Shireen McSpadden, a bi woman, is executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing; Carol Isen, a lesbian, heads the Department of Human Resources; Mawuli Tugbenyoh, a gay man, is acting director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission; and Elaine Forbes, a lesbian, is port director. Honey Mahogany, a trans person who heads the Office of Transgender Initiatives, has told the B.A.R. she looks forward to working with the Lurie administration.
UPDATED 12/13/2024 with additional comments from Tumlin and city leaders.
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