Here are three Streetsblog news nuggets to start your weekend.

Muni starts bus route cutbacks Saturday/tomorrow

As previously reported, SFMTA is facing a $50 million budget shortfall in its upcoming budget. Some of that shortfall is going to fall on the heads of Muni riders. As seen in the map above, starting Saturday/tomorrow, some Muni routes will turn back at Market Street. From SFMTA’s web page:

Riders will then be able to transfer at Market Street to get to their destination where Muni buses will provide service about every three to four minutes. Additionally, on the subway along Market Street, the five Muni Metro lines together provide service every two minutes on weekdays. Once you board a Muni bus or train, you have two hours to make free transfers to any other Muni vehicle.

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There will also be several route changes which the agency says are not related to cutbacks. Be sure to check SFMTA’s full list of changes before heading to your bus stop tomorrow.

Oakland to get speed cameras

The deployment of San Francisco’s 33 speed cameras confirmed what all Streetsblog readers already knew: the Bay Area’s reckless driving is out of control. Now Oakland is getting 18 of its own speed cameras to further efforts to get drivers to stop speeding. From a post by the advocates at Transform, which helped get the speed-camera law passed:

Early data from speed cameras installed in San Francisco show thousands of drivers exceeding safe speeds on city streets; we need traffic calming and better biking, walking, and transit infrastructure to shift our shared streets from speedways to safe, human-scale spaces. That’s why Transform continues to fight for more funding for the Active Transportation Program, which helps communities complete biking and walking improvements.

Transform is also pointing people towards an interview with KTVU with Transform Board Member Warren Logan about why this speed-camera deployment is so crucial for safety. Be sure to check it out.

Oakland and San Francisco are two of only seven cities allowed to use speed cameras under a pilot program approved by the state in 2023. Only one other city, Malibu, has a program that is operational.

Caltrans 980 study and survey

Caltrans is starting a second round of outreach about the future of I-980, which, it is hoped, will one day be removed. The goal is to rectify some of the injustice done to West Oakland when it was constructed and restore the connection to downtown.

From a Caltrans release on its “Vision 980” study:

The Vision 980 Study aims to improve the quality of life for impacted residents by exploring how the corridor could be transformed into new opportunities for housing, businesses, open space, recreational, and cultural facilities. This second round of outreach will focus on presenting scenarios and strategies for reconnection that were developed based on community input gathered during the first round of engagement in 2024, which included nearly 2,800 surveys and dozens of events.

The Vision 980 team will have a booth at the West Oakland Juneteenth Festival Saturday/tomorrow, June 21 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at 3233 Market Street, Oakland. There will be an additional open house Wednesday, June 25, from 6-8 p.m., at the Oakland Unified School District Central Kitchen, 2850 West Street.

Readers can also take an online Vision 980 survey. One Streetsblog quip: would it be too much for Caltrans District 4 to stop widening freeways that divide Oakland with one hand while it conducts surveys on removing freeways with the other?

After nearly 50 years delivering fiery sermons bearing messages of empathy, equality and salvation from the pulpit of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, Dr. Amos Brown is retiring as head pastor.

This weekend, the church will celebrate Brown’s near half-century as head of the church, though he still plans to play a robust role in the church’s programs.

“I know traditionally we have called one’s moving from position of service as being retirement,” said Brown, sitting in the pews of the church’s sanctuary where he’s delivered thousands of sermons. “But for me, I will never retire. I’m just repositioning myself.”

Brown took over the role of Third Baptist’s pastor in 1976 after heading up the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church of St. Paul, Minnesota. It wasn’t his first time in San Francisco, though.

He first traveled to San Francisco in 1956, driving from his home state of Mississippi with civil rights activist Medgar Evers for the 47th NAACP National Convention. It was at that convention he first met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would later teach a class on social philosophy Brown attended in seminary college.

“From that day forward I stayed with him, marched with him,” Brown said.

Brown presided over the Third Baptist congregation with the fiery oratory of a Southern preacher, infused with the emotional grit and fortitude of his lifelong battle in the civil rights movement. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, he was arrested numerous times for challenging segregation, defiantly riding busses as a freedom rider and battling racism at every opportunity.

“I was even locked up two nights in jail down in Jackson, Mississippi, when I wouldn’t let a white intern call my 85-year-old neighbor ‘boy,’” Brown said.

Brown was 14 years old when the lynching of another 14-year-old in Mississippi, Emmett Till, would shake his world. Brown sought out Evers to vent his frustration after two men accused in the lynching were exonerated.

“Mr. Evers said, ‘I understand how upset you are and hurt and angry,’” Brown remembered. “He said, ‘Don’t get stuck there. Let’s be smart.‘”

Inspired by Evers’ council, Brown went on to found the NAACP Youth Council. He would later serve as president of the San Francisco NAACP and with the national organization.

After moving to San Francisco, Brown waded deep into the city’s political waters. In 1996, then-Mayor Willie Brown appointed Brown to the board of supervisors, where he remained until 2001. Among his controversial ideas was a proposal to move the homeless population to barges in the Bay and another calling on the city to issue fines for loitering.

Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area

Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area

His service extended beyond the borders of San Francisco’s 49 square miles. In 2001, he accompanied Jesse Jackson to South Africa to meet with Nelson Mandela in discussing issues of African development.

Since 1964, he traveled to Africa 27 times, sponsoring African refugees through his church and helping dozens of children receive heart surgery in the U.S.

“In the words of Charles Wesley,” Brown recited, “the world has always been my pulpit.”

In stepping back from the pulpit he’s occupied since 1976, Brown theorizes he’ll have more time to read books, travel and listen to music, especially Mozart.

He may also on occasion stroll down Dr. Amos Brown Way, a block of Pierce Street adjacent to Third Baptist which the city will rename this coming Saturday in a ceremony. Though he may not be in the pulpit, Brown figures he will stay plenty busy. When asked about his future, he recited a poem about the tedium of sailing a small boat near the shore when there are great ships to encounter further out.

“I’m still going to be out on the sea of life trying to show someone else to find the way to the shore,” Brown said.

While there was heavy opposition, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to implement one of the strictest fire safety regulations in the state.

The EMBER proposal would force residents to clear any vegetation within 5 feet of a home, and it would go into effect at the end of this year.

But a group of Berkeley hills residents said they are contemplating pursuing legal action.

The talk high above Grizzly Peak in the Berkeley Hills is all about the EMBER proposal. George Perez Velez with the Alliance for Practical Fire Solutions was disappointed with the council’s vote.

“I was not surprised,” said Perez Velez. “I was heartbroken. I knew that the city had already made its mind up.”

Perez Velez feels the proposal is overreaching and puts a financial burden on homeowners who can’t afford to comply with the new regulations. He said the alliance is talking about what the next steps should be.

“I think that some members within the alliance are exploring the possibility of taking legal action in certain aspects of the proposal,” he said.

The public comment on the EMBER agenda item took hours. Some commend the council for taking action before the state announces its regulations in 2029.

“We cannot wait for the state because fires don’t wait,” said resident Dara Schur.

The council promised to review and make changes to EMBER as it gets ready to roll out the ordinance in the next year. Some residents said the tougher regulations couldn’t come soon enough.

“This ordinance may not be perfect,” said Schur. “It might need some tweaking, but it is better to act now to protect our homes and preserve insurance than it is to wait.”

Some fellow neighbors disagree. They feel like there’s too much ambiguity with EMBER, making it difficult to comply with all the rules.

“I think it’s a flawed, ineffectual, incomplete action,” said resident Fred Bamber.

The Alliance for Practical Fire Solutions has 30 days to decide whether to take legal action. Perez Velez said the entire community is committed to keeping the area safe from the next big fire. The question is, what’s the best way to make that happen.

“Is this really necessary,” said Perez Velez. “Is this proposal going to accomplish what they say it is going to accomplish.”