Ew de Muni: Fried chicken and formaldehyde 07.21.09
Photo by Flickr user adotjdotsmith
This olfactory delight by Mary Stream arrived in our inbox the other day:
Here’s a smell vignette from last night’s (July 14) 71L ride home:
At Fillmore and Haight, a senior Asian man gets on with two large containers of Popeye’s chicken. The chicken smell fills the bus causing one man in the back to yell “Hey, who’s serving chicken up front. Remember us back here.”
When the bus turns on Lincoln by UCSF Medical Center, an intern (name tag so indicated) got on and sat beside me. He smelled of formaldehyde.
What a great combination of smells (gag): Fried chicken and formaldehyde!
Got a story to tell? Funny, gross, gripe? Send it our way.
From a West Portal resident: ‘Wrong Solution to Saturday’s Tragedy’ 07.21.09
Photo by Flickr user Jamison Weiser
Media attention has turned to the manual controls of the Muni trains in the West Portal accident. We received the following email from rider and West Portal resident Mark:
Let me first say that my heart goes out to all of those who were injured Saturday afternoon in the Muni accident at West Portal. That said, I feel like it is necessary to speak my mind on what happened because I feel that I have a unique opinion which I have not yet seen expressed by anyone in the media.
As of Monday, the media has finally drawn its attention to the procedure of taking trains off control of the ATC [editor's note: Automatic Train Control] prior to entering West Portal Station. As a long-time resident of the West Portal area, I know that this has been going on almost ever since the ATC went online; any regular Muni patron knows this as well. If there is no train currently in the station, the ATC brings the train in. If there is already a train in the station, especially if it’s only a one-car train, as it was on Saturday, once the ATC has stopped the train outside of the station, drivers usually switch off the computer and take the train in manually so two trains can load/unload at the same time. This is a very efficient procedure because West Portal is both a bottleneck inbound and outbound, as only one train can enter/exit at a time, so often during commute hours trains will be waiting to enter/exit West Portal Station. By allowing the driver to bring in the train in manual mode, the driver takes full advantage of the three-car length platform and speeds things up a bit, which in my experience makes a big difference.
Homeless man and his luggage 07.20.09
Photo by Flickr user roijoy (cropped from the original)
(from Friday, April 3, 2009)
While on the bus ride home today, a seemingly homeless man boarded the bus with several pieces of luggage. He had a band-aid across his nostrils and he kept getting in the way of others since his luggage was quite cumbersome. I was sitting in a window seat and trying to read to distract myself from his presence near me. I feared that the woman beside me would leave and then the man would sit down beside me since I was sitting in one of the “wider” seats, i.e., there was more space between my row and the row in front.
My fear came true as I watched my bus mate stand up and exit through the back door of the bus. The man took that opportunity to stake the claim on the seat (well, he asked others first if they wanted to sit); he proceeded to box me into my window seat with his luggage and then he sat down beside me. I scooted closer to the window and attempted to stay as far away from him as possible. I was feeling slightly paranoid since we had been talking at work about strange characters in the city, so I held my guard up in case the guy would try to swipe my belongings.
Weekend Photo Diary: Deeper Concentration 07.17.09
Photo by Troy Holden
Dude, Plug 1 just won’t let up, will he? He’s all over, everywhere, all the time, taking amazing photos, dropping them into various group pools on Flickr, and even doing us the favor of sending us Muni-related news tips. We swear, he must be two or three people, or be able to bend the time/space continuum curve to be able to do as much as he does.
This photo is so cool, so real, we almost feel like we’re on the train with this guy, not our day-job desks putting together a Weekend Photo Diary.
Alas …
Weather this weekend should continue to feel not-quite-like-July-in-San-Francisco, meaning warm weather and mostly clear skies. Weather Underground sees highs in the upper-60s, while our mobile app tells us low-70s. You can interpret both to mean: GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND HAVE SOME OUTSIDE FUN, PEOPLE!
Cheerio!
xoxo
Muni Diaries
Muni Mind Reader: The Happenstance Rider 07.17.09
Every Friday, we are the benefactors of mind-reading genius here at Muni Diaries. You see, we are lucky enough to employ the telepathic talents of one Tiffany Maleshefski, aka, Muni Mind Reader. This week, Tiffany explores the mindset of yet another familiar fellow Muni rider: those who ride unwittingly. Those who’d really (no, we mean really) not be on this stinkin’ bus.
Ugh. Where’s the bus?
Could it be any colder out here? I mean, so much for my good hair day. Why did I even bother trying to do my hair this morning if it was going to get blown to hell and back? I cannot believe my car is in the shop. I looooooooove my car. I can’t believe she’s going to be gone for a whole week. It gives me a massive headache just thinking about it.
WHERE IS THE BUS?! GAWD! It’s been like 5 minutes!! I am freezing! Oh wait, what’s this? N-e-x-t-b-u-s. NextBus. 5-Fulton in…6 MINUTES. My god! I would’ve been at work by now. Why is there never a bus when I need it? At least my car is available whenever, wherever. And check it, I got parking so I don’t need any pitiful looks from all you transit champions who just gloat at the thought that it hopefully takes me HOURS to find parking.
Nope. I just slide right into my space at any time of the day. So ha! FINALLY! The bus is here!
Not the good kind of nudity 07.17.09
Photo submitted by author
In high school, we were broke. So we had to find cheap ways to entertain ourselves, and one of those ways was to take the 38 in from the Richmond and take the now-defunct 42 Downtown Loop to the old Tower Records and the Wharf.
One fateful day, my friend Bob and I were on the 42, sitting in the second-to-back row on the driver’s side. It was fairly crowded, but not uncomfortably so. We were minding our own business, talking about Man of La Mancha or whatever the hell it is we talked about in high school.
Eventually, we noticed some kind of commotion near the front of the bus, and a handful of people getting off. We tried to see what was going on, but there were too many people. Eventually, more people got off and we saw a totally naked middle-aged woman ambling around the front of the bus.
Muni Promises Another Crackdown on Fare-Evasion 07.16.09
Photo by Plug1
Muni wants your two dollars. Seriously.
The city is losing “tens of millions of dollars a year” due to fare evasion, and the agency is going to step up in collecting fare, says Transportation chief Nathaniel Ford.
Well, duh.
As SFist wisely pointed out, you can probably figure out that fare evasion is a big problem if you’ve ever been on any Muni line. However, the agency had placed a team of Muni employees and interns on buses and Metro stations to track the fare-evasion problem, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Ford told the Chronicle that 35,000 observations have been logged, but no word on the exact analysis of this data and how this supposed crackdown will proceed.
One of the hurdles in enforcing fare is that Muni operators can’t actually physically make fare evaders get off the bus, SFWeekly‘s Joe Eskenazi points out. And who wants to stay on the bus while the driver spends time arguing with riders who either won’t get off or pay up?
UPDATE: SFPD Nabs Alleged Muni Humper 07.16.09
Photo by Flickr user sirchuckles
Update: Detective Jim Serna of the SFPD is asking more victims and witnesses to speak with the police, in the hopes of building a stronger case against the suspect. Serna asks that you call the SFPD Sex Offender Unit at 415.553.9203 if you’ve been a victim or witness of the Muni Humper.
Original post: You remember him. You first told us about him in a colorful diary. He tormented your dreams and bus rides. He made the evening news. He even made it onto the stage in the form of a haiku “tribute” at Riders With Drinks.
Well, earlier this afternoon, we received word from Plug1 that the San Francisco Police Department has arrested a man who they believe to be the Muni Humper. He is being processed down at the Hall of Justice. Here are the details Plug1 told us:
back in June, i was mentioning the Muni Diaries coverage of the “Muni Humper” to a friend one day; who in return mentioned that she had not only seen this guy all the time on the N, but had been victim herself. her story was the same: the Muni Humper boards a middle/back door on a crowded N during rush hour, proceeds to hover over an unsuspecting female victim, and grinds/rubs himself on her shoulder — and when discovered, gets off at the next stop.
she saw him most recently in early July, which is when i reached out to Muni Diaries in hopes of a contact at the SFMTA or SFPD. My friend, who was noticeably weirded out by the whole situation, agreed to speak with Tim Gibson of the Muni Investigations Unit. Officer Gibson filed her original report and then referred her to Detective Jim Serna (sp?) of the SFPD. Detective Serna met personally with my friend that same day and showed her a multi-faced lineup of potential suspects. my friend was easily able to identify the suspect from the pool of photos, and agreed to file a detailed report with the SFPD. she was also able to use her Twitter feed to give exact dates and times she encountered him over the past 2 months to help police identify the suspect via the onboard surveillence on the N.
today she got a call from Detective Serna: they had caught the suspect and were processing him at 850 Bryant for sexual battery. he mentioned that the suspect was under the age of 18, and that he couldn’t comment much beyond that. i later called Officer Gibson of the SFMTA, but he was unavailable to comment on the matter.
Tip of the hat to all the victims and witnesses who helped SFPD get this sorry excuse for a transit-lover off our buses and trains.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program …
Late-night OWL drunk strip-tease 07.16.09
Back in September 2008 a few of my friends and I decided to explore the Downtown and Chinatown area late at night. Having just moved to the city to attend SFSU, we really didn’t know what to expect on our first OWL ride on the way home.
My group of friends boarded the OWL L from the Downtown area along with a large group of college students coming home from partying at the clubs. The bus was practically filled to the brim with young adults and late night stragglers. One lone rider in particular did not want the party to end and publicly announced it by yelling from the back of the bus platform. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you look at it), I was front row for the shenanigans to come.
Revenge of the Nerds 07.14.09
Photo by Flickr user bayat
I braved the crowds of tourists and shoppers in Union Square to take advantage of the July 4th holiday sales and scored a terrific deal on a new comforter. I live fairly close to downtown SF and try to walk everywhere I can within reason but catching the 45 Union back home seemed reasonable now that I was lugging this large, unwieldy bag around with me. I walked a few blocks to 3rd and Market to catch the bus, ensuring that I’d get on before the crowds destined for Chinatown boarded. I snagged the perfect seat in the last row of double seats before the final row along the back, with plenty of legroom for me to balance my bedding-bag on my feet in front of me.
Sure enough, the bus started to fill up at the very next stop. One of the passengers towered above the usual contingent of Asian women with produce bags, a tall white guy who lumbered towards the back, glassy-eyed, open-mouthed, his significant gut leading the way. My Muni-attuned spidey senses were tingling—something about this guy was a bit off. He carried himself with the awkward air of those who don’t have a good grasp on the rules of social interaction. (His sci-fi convention-style t-shirt blaring “NEXT STOP: MARS!” helped complete the impression.) As he surveyed the open seats I silently projected my intentions. Don’t you f*ing sit here, dude. Don’t even think about it. Swayed by my venomous mental force-field (or more likely by the expanse of open seats along the back row), he plunked himself down behind me. He immediately started questioning one of the people seated by the windows about an item he carried, further confirming my snap assessment that this guy did not observe the Rule of the Bus.
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