Photo Diary: We Have Our Things 06.30.09
Photo by sflovestory from the Muni Photos Flickr group pool
Start sharing your Muni photos and Muni stories today. Why wait?
Hot tea comin’ through on the 22 06.30.09
Allan at Mission Mission was nice enough to flag this Flickr gem for us:
Image from Flickr user eviloars
Help us win Best of the Bay 2009! 06.30.09
Hold on, hold on! This ain’t no solicitation for money. We don’t have any either, and we’ve managed to run this site for next to nothing.
No, this is a simple notice that today at noon 5 p.m., voting in the SF Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay 2009 poll will close. Today will be your (and all your friends’ and family’s) last chance to tell the Guardian (and the world) how awesome this site is by choosing us as Best local blog.
The incentive? Here’s our imagined scenario: We win (shameless? okay …) and Jerry Brown just happens to read the Best of the Bay awards issue. He wins the Democratic nomination for governor of California, he wins the governor’s seat, he solves all the problems of the state and becomes, yet again, nationally recognized. But he never forgets that Muni Diaries is the best blog in the Bay Area, and by God, he takes that knowledge with him … all the way to the White House in 2016! At the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, Muni Diaries is mentioned, as a shining example of an outstanding …
Or not. Maybe we just win. Or place. Either way, we’re humbled by your votes. All several thousand of them.
Have a great day, and check back later as we return to our normal programming.
xoxo
Muni Diaries
Bloody Footprints on the 19th St BART 06.29.09
Um, yeah. Wow. This email arrived in our inbox last night. Anyone know anything more about this? Were you there? With a possible BART union strike looming, this doesn’t provide much comfort. And plus, bodily fluids are Muni’s realm, right?
100% saw fresh bloody footprints going down into the 19th St Bart in Oakland around 6:30pm Sunday. Told the lady at the window, she nodded like it wasn’t a big deal. Everyone around me saw them too, absolutely not fake! I was too scared to go down, ended up taking a cab back to the city!
Are the Red House Painters on the loose again?
No photos were attached, sadly.
Seen potential police situations on Bay Area transit? Let us (and the authorities) know …
Sex God on the 38L 06.29.09
Photo by Flickr user Nitniziv
From Muni rider Karoline …
It was a lazy day – so I took the bus instead of walking. I got lucky, an aisle seat on the 38L near the back door.
Or so I thought.
As we stop near Union square, a child is about one foot away from me. I see her take a big wipe at her runny nose with her hand and then immediately grab the pole. Gross! I remind myself that this is exactly why I wash my hands as soon as I get home.
Then, from the back of the bus I hear a young man is talking to his friend about a sexual encounter. Yes, the snot-child near me could hear it, too. He’s talking very loudly about the AMAZING blow job he got. “She sucked me so good,” he says. “It felt so good” and “her booty was bangin’!”
Cable Car Confessions #11: Top 10 Manners 06.29.09
Time for the June 2009 edition of Cable Car Confessions. This month, Laura shares 10 common-sense etiquette rules for the cable car, some of which apply to all Muni vehicles. Pay attention, riders!
Ding ding all aboard. “Next stop Powell Street Chinatown. Tickets please show me your tickets please.” The locals know the following 10 ten list of manners and etiquette on the cable car. Some I agree with and others I try to remember to follow. Either way, riding the cable car is my favorite method of public transportation. Wouldn’t it be yours if you lived in San Francisco?
I have some questions for the woman I saw applying her mascara the other day, during rush hour on the cable car. Does she know that there are some spoken and unspoken manners and etiquette rules? My cable car confession to you is that I wish I knew some of the items on this list before I started riding the cable car. It was a lot of fun learning them though. (Click here to get all caught up with the other cable car confessions.)
Weekend Photo Diary: Working Hands 06.26.09
Photo by natecardozo from the Muni Photos Flickr pool
So yeah, pretty much everywhere it’s gonna be hot. Please don’t melt, enjoy yourselves, celebrate Pride, and come out of the weekend in one piece. Or at least in easily re-assembleable pieces, eh?
xoxo
Muni Diaries
Click here for MTA weekend advisories.
Why I Will Never Ride the 27 Bryant Again (or at least for a while) 06.26.09
So I am boarding the 27 Bryant bus at Union Square heading home about 20 minutes ago. I should have learned my lesson after the incident of a crack head spit fight contest on that bus while my childhood friend was in town. But hey, that was an isolated incident, right?
Back to the story. This homeless guy gets on the bus and sits down and starts eating some foul smelling Chinese food. I mean, this stuff smelled like it should have been refrigerated three days ago and discarded two days ago. So he is slopping this stuff down when an older lady asked the homeless man for a seat stating, ” The bus is full and your bag is in the seat next to you. Do you mind giving up the seat you bag is in?”
He states, ” Sure, if you want but I have killer lice that I can’t get rid of.”
Everyone on the bus began to simultaneously itch. The elder woman naturally decided to stand. As we travel he is slopping down this stuff and everyone is turning green. He finishes and then starts asking everyone on the bus if they have a bottle of water because he’s damn thirsty. Everyone is like, “No.”
The elder lady then says, “You know, I am sure you can get some water if you get off the bus.”
Bullet hole on the J-Church 06.25.09
This arrived in the ol’ email bag this evening from Devin:
I’m not clear exactly what happened, but I was on the second of two outbound J trains when something went on aboard the first. Our driver tried to explain in his very limited English that we were “blocked” and there were “police.” SFPD was all over the first train, now largely free of passengers, and it had what looked (from a distance) like a bullet hole in one window. Didn’t have time to stay around to find out any more, but it fouled the J line for a while, and held up a 22 and a 7 in the traffic.
You, too, can be a citizen intrepid Muni reporter. Send us your stories and photos, newsworthy or not.
Twirlwind on the 21 06.25.09
I used to ride the 5-Fulton every morning and afternoon to and from work. I’d hop on the bus either at Clayton or Masonic, hang on for dear life, and thirty minutes later, arrive (slightly windblown and disheveled) at either my fantastic place of employment or within a half-block of my abode. From June through early August, San Francisco Ballet’s summer school students take the 5 to and from USF. The good thing is these students are very well behaved. They keep an eye out for the elderly and parents with young children, move their large dance bags filled with pointe shoes, iPods, and breakfast (bagels and bananas), stay mostly quiet in the early mornings, and travel in small groups.
And I stress this last part because a few years ago, two new dance summer programs started housing their students at USF, and they traveled in packs. And by packs, I mean 30+ students at a time, on their cell phones constantly, and heaving their bags to and fro like boulders. These new kids made riding Muni during rush hour a living nightmare. And it’s not just the sheer mass of them now 60 dance students at a bus stop is just crazy in and of itself… But that combined with the attitude of the newbies is a lot to handle at 8AM.
So what’s an intelligent, city-minded girl to do? Switch bus lines, right? Oh, wrong. Two years ago, I switched to the 21-Hayes bus line. It’s an extra few blocks walk south from the Fulton line. It’s a quieter, more local bus line. Neighbors are friendly, most people are pleasant, and the drivers, if they see a regular hobbling in three inch heels and frantically waving her bus pass while dragging her gym bag behind her, will hold the bus and say, “It’s good to see you!” as she climbs aboard. Who can’t heart the 21-line? Well, right now, me!
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