This is a city where police do not care if your bike is stolen. A complaint about a bike lane violation that might clear up 15 minutes after I call won't carry much water. The cops parking in the bike lanes know what they are doing. The trash people leaving cans know what they are doing, and sanitation is probably the most corrupt department in this city. My councilmember isn't going to care what I have to say unless I have cash to donate/bribe, I have written plenty of emails and received plenty of canned responses about a variety of things in this city and operates autonomously. I don't have the free time to start a grass roots effort on trash cans in bike lanes of all things. The status quo contains an amazing amount of inertia, that's why little seems to get done in the name of public works. Such is life in American municipalities.
It is a statistic which they have to collect. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Though it might be time to vote for someone else. If your council member doesn't care what you think, then vote for someone else. SF is big, but it is still small enough for votes to matter. You have already rejected grass roots, but that is the real answer. And it need not be you doing much, just make sure the ones who are doing something get noticed by your peers.
