Chinese community demands SFMTA returning two high ridership express buses, 8AX and 8BX

(SAN FRANCISCO) 8 Bayshore is one of the City's most crowded bus lines which connects Visitacion Valley and Chinatown. Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, two express bus lines, 8AX and 8BX, have been suspended that make the local route Line 8 buses more packed than before. The Chinese community demands the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to bring back both express services.

In an estimate, at least one third of the workforce in Chinatown live in the south east sector including Visitacion Valley and Portola. Due to the suspension of both 8AX and 8BX express bus services, riders who live in the region have to take Line 8 to go to Chinatown and downtown.

A number of the riders have reached out to Wind Newspaper about the SFMTA bus services in the City. One rider who did not want to be named told us she was very alert when she was waiting at the bus stops for too long, in particular related to the anti-Asian hate and violence. She has friends who were robbed or attacked at the bus stops in Visitacion Valley.

Marlene Tran, a community leader in Visitacion Valley, has been a regular muni rider for four decades. She also demands SFMTA to return two express bus services to the community.

Tran has learned about the SFMTA 2022 muni service survey. "What I heard is for the riders to fill out the survey online,” Tran continued, "Chinese and Asian riders have made up 40% of the City's ridership. If the survey results show that only very low percent of the respondents are Chinese and Asian, for example only 5%. It indicates that SFMTA has not done its job to reach out to the Asian community to collect real feedback from the riders. They should try all different ways to reflect the needs of the rider."

"Line 8 is the second highest ridership among all bus lines in the City. SFMTA should bring back two express lines for safety and service reasons . The Line buses are always so crowded," said Tran.

There were yellow zone parking spaces in front of AA Bakery and Cafe, 1068 Stockton Street in Chinatown, prior to the Central Subway construction. Since the construction began 10 years ago, it became a 24/7 red zone up to the present.

Henry Chen, owner of the AA Bakery and Cafe, was repeatedly cited lately for parking violations by a motorcycle police officer when Chen was loading in the morning. There were arguments and disputes between Chen and the officer. Chen has filed a complaint against the officer to the Police Department via Wind Newspaper.

"The same Chinese American officer also yelled loudly at me. I was intimidated by the officer. I have no other choice than to have loading in front of my bakery store, since it is a red zone to be in effect 24 hours, 7 days a week. I need to do my business," said Chen.

The parking citations would also hurt the Chinatown small businesses as a whole. Ding Lee, a Chinatown leader, is a customer of AA Bakery. "I have seen in recent years SFMTA eliminating more and more parking spaces all over the city to make more rooms for the muni buses to stop. SFMTA needs to look at their policy changes more broadly than only for the bus service. Businesses, customers and the community will be profoundly affected as well," said Lee.

Lee demanded SFMTA to restore the parking spaces in front of AA Bakery on Stockton Street and other areas. Lee added, "It will also reduce the confrontations between the merchants and the police officers as well as the parking control officers."

Police Department Deputy Chief David Lazar responded to Wind Newspaper on the complaint against the officer that he would refer the complaint to the Department of Police Accountability for further investigation.

In respect to the red zone in front of the AA Bakery and Cafe, Erica Kato, spokeswoman of the SFMTA, responded that the staff of SFMTA has been looking into it. No further information can be provided.

" Over 4,500 survey responses were received in English, Chinese, Spanish, Filipino, Vietnamese, Russian and Arabic September 3 through October 4, including over 300 paper surveys. 156 of the paper surveys were completed in Chinese, as well as 34 online, about 4% of survey respondents completed the survey in Chinese. Posters promoting the survey in Chinese were posted at 650 locations citywide, and an email in Chinese was sent out promoting the survey, open houses, and office hours with interpretation provided. We talk about the difficult choices we must make in light of our budget situation extensively at sfmta.com/2022network," said Kato about the 2022 service survey.

Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton supports returning the express bus service. "Our office has heard from many constituents in Visitacion Valley who would like to see the 8AX and 8BX lines come back and we are advocating this to the MTA as well as pushing MTA to restore full service. We know many of our residents rely on these lines to get from Visitacion Valley to Downtown and Chinatown during rush hour in the mornings and to go home in the evenings. We are also working with the MTA on community ambassadors to make sure our riders feel safe," said Walton.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin who represents Chinatown told us he had met with SFMTA about the 2022 plan last week and expressed his disappointment with their lack of culturally-competent outreach to Chinatown and the Chinese-speaking community. Peskin assured he would monitor SFMTA's next phase of outreach supposedly in November.

Peskin added, “It’s deeply disconcerting that Chinatown’s concerns continue to be ignored, especially when the city promises equity during the course of this pandemic. Chinatown’s immigrant-owned businesses and low-income residents rely heavily on a safe and reliable public transit system to sustain the economic competitiveness of the neighborhood and connect working families and seniors to the world outside.”

“Now that the city is slowly coming out of the pandemic, it’s more important than ever for the city to rebuild the public infrastructure that caters to this community’s needs. Four years ago, I fought for a mitigation program for Chinatown businesses affected by the Central Subway construction – something that the City has never done in the past – and I will continue to fight for resources that this community deserves," said Peskin.