Photo diary: SF Pride 2010 06.29.10
Photo by angryf
Castro near Divisadero. I’m taking the pic thru the glass on the back of the Muni stop. It was taken Saturday night after Pride and the police where clearing out Market because of the shooting.
Here are a few more cool photos we scrounged up:
Photo by creativeholly.com
Creative Holly says: “saw this and said nevermind…i’ll walk.”
Photo by creativeholly.com
Photo by LiveSoMa
If you have more Muni photos from Pride weekend, email them to us or submit them to our Flickr Muni Photos group.
Muni Shell Game in the News, Again 06.15.10
A gang of thieves has been running a three-cup shuffle game to strong-arm Muni passengers of their money. Sound familiar? The reports just keep coming in. Back in March, rider Adam sent us an account of the shell game con he saw the 24. A few weeks later we got a video of the con. Last night, ABC7 aired another video of the shell game in action.
The scam itself isn’t new, but the intimidation factor and targeting non-touristy bus lines make this seem more menacing than before.
A rider wrote us after seeing the segment and told us she’s seen this game before. You won’t believe when she first witnessed this, though.
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Photo diary: Cleanup on aisle 24-Divisadero 06.09.10
As photog justvisiting says, “the city has laid off a lot of janitors.”
Muni Rider Roasting on the 24 06.02.10
Photo by Rick Audet
As I was riding the 24 home from work last week, two young men boarded the bus and immediately started sizing up the other riders in the back of the bus for potential roastability. Not finding enough meat for their roast they declared the bus “dry” as opposed to this morning’s selection which had been “wet.” This was a fairly incredible assessment, seeing as how the 24 is (always) stuffed to the gills with riders.
The roasters, doing their best with the available material, declared that “that dude there has a potato-head” (he didn’t). They then moved on to a young man who was listening to his ipod and had the luxury of pretending not to hear “look at this dude, he look like something out of mario brothers” (he didn’t). They then went on to mock his plain white t-shirt, cap and less than manicured fingers.
Meanwhile I’m feeling less and less comfortable, for the obvious reason that if unkempt nails were grounds for harassment, I could well be next. But mostly because I felt this was completely inappropriate. I mean, who does that? And why?
My stop was still three blocks away when I felt I could not handle it anymore. They had moved on to fresh meat, an older gentleman whose ear hair was somehow offending them (it wasn’t), when I vacated my seat. Clumsily and apologetically, I made my way to the front of the bus through the sea of fellow-riders. When I reached the front I reported to the driver that there were two young men harassing people in the back of the bus. The driver stood up and called to the back of the bus that they needed to “show some respect.” Feeling useless and edgy I then exited the 24, two stops early.
On my long walk home I thought of all the other ways the situation could have been handled. I had fantasies of rallying the other riders and declaring that we’re not going to take it! We’re all on the same bus here! We all have the right to a peaceful ride! Some of my less mature fantasies included roasting the aggressors: “your hair looks like bubble wrap!” and “if you’re lucky you might grow into those pants someday, son!” I digress.
Has anyone else witnessed a rider roasting? There must be a more effective way to handle it than to hassle the bus driver who is 20 ft and 30 people away….
Copenhageners wish their bus driver a happy birthday 05.17.10
From smallerdemon, just another of the 1,000s of ways Europe kicks our asses.
This reminds us of Muni operator Tammy, who showed her appreciation for her 33-Stanyan passengers by throwing bus parties her last couple of days driving that route. Any 24-Divisadero riders out there get to meet Tammy yet?
Thx, Neatorama
A Party on the Delayed 33-Stanyan Outbound 05.05.10
NextMuni.com says my bus arrives in 18 minutes and the next one comes in 32 minutes. Next I check it’s 9 minutes and 23. Then the ETA jumps up to 12/18…then 13/16…and finally 4/4. By the time I get to my stop, both buses are pulling in together. Just another typical morning waiting for the 33 in Upper Haight.
I hop on the first one, frustrated that yet again it would have been faster to drive. The bus driver apologizes, saying the two buses that were supposed to be in front of hers aren’t running today. Then she offers me my choice of wrapped candy from a dish by the fare machine and for the first time I actually look around at bus 2442 driven by Tammy.
It’s like a Fourth of July party inside Tammy’s bus. There are red white and blue streamers, balloons, coils that say “happy,” banners and party lanterns hanging from the railings. Large handwritten posters adorn the windows thanking her riders and spouting truths such as “Until Muni realizes that without our passengers there’s no Muni!” and pretty much everyone has a smile on their face.
As I sit in the bus watching new passengers board, I witness a Muni miracle: a sea of frowns turn into big grins as people enter and see what awaits them. I overhear nearly every newcomer commenting on the scene to either Tammy or their fellow straphangers. “How cool is this,” they ponder aloud. “Is this for Mother’s day?” “Is someone retiring?” “I can’t believe I got candy.” Even the woman on her cell phone discussing how her doctor just found a lump in her breast seemed upbeat, enjoying her Tootsie-Roll lollipop with her lips curled up from ear to ear.
Three Cup Shuffle Scam on Muni 03.30.10
Photo by Flickr user photine
Muni rider Adam saw a group of people scamming Muni passengers on the 24 recently with the infamous “three cup shuffle” scam. I’ve heard about this scam being carried out on tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf and in some other tourist-heavy cities, but Adam’s description of what happened seems more threatening:
Today a friend witnessed a group of people gambling/scaming passengers on Muni. One guy would do the ‘which cup is the bottlecap under’ and bug nearby passengers about money, while flashing cash. A nearby passenger refused to pay attention so two other guys came up and threatened the guy into giving up his cash on hand. This was on a 24-inbound. They jumped off in the Haight. Not 10 minutes later another friend texts me that this same group of guys (whom he sees all the time) are on the 71-inbound doing the same thing. They intimidated a guy out of $40.
Adam said he called 311 and was transferred to SFPD, who then transferred him back to Muni. Adam also reports that the 311 operator would not take an anonymous report, but on the 311 site I found that you can indeed file an anonymous report about Muni.
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How could there possibly be less service? 02.05.10
Muni rider Anthony sends this screenshot, along with the following observation:
I was watching Nextbus.com for arrival times on the 24 line, and I couldn’t help but realize that our muni service is running pretty thin already. where will these cuts come from?
We all probably run into similar conundrums every day. It’s not exactly inspiring, let us say.
Here’s a full list of the latest proposal (still not adopted by the SFMTA board of directors). The proposed transit cuts are broad. See how they might affect you. Let your voice be heard at MTA town hall meetings on Feb. 6 and 9.
Namaste on the 24-Divisadero 01.26.10
Photo by Flickr user Jeff Howard
Sarah of I’m writing, you’re reading sent us the following remarkable little slice of life on the 24-Divisadero.
I sat down on the bus (ran to catch it again thankyouverymuch) after my second 3-hour yoga session of the weekend. Yoga mat and eco-friendly water bottle in hands. Glance across the isle and spot the exact same eco-friendly water bottle in the hands of another girl.
Oh and what do you know, she’s holding a yoga mat too.
Well aren’t we just two identical San Francisco stereotypes. In the flesh. On the bus.
So we make eye contact and I first point at my water bottle, then to hers. Then to my mat, and to hers. Laughter.
Janet’s class?, she asks.
No, Dina’s workshop, I answer.
YogaTree junkies. Shoulda known.
We bond over our mutual love of Janet Stone’s flow classes at the Castro studio, and she knew exactly which workshop I was taking because she thought of taking it too. And is going to take it later.
What’s your name?, she asks.
I’m Sarah, I answer.She just shakes her head and laughs.
I’m Sarah too, she says.When Sarah got off the bus, the girl next to me confirmed what I was just thinking, “I’m sorry, but that was really cute.”
Now it’s your turn — tell us what happened to you on Muni today.
The Day of the Muni Fails 06.04.09
Today seems to be the day of the Muni Fails. We have a taxi running into 2 cable cars, a Muni driver talking on the cell phone, an old guy driving on the J-Church tracks, and the streetcar stall at Van Ness Inbound that delayed for 15 minutes. Oh yeah, how can anyone forget about the Muni Humper and the racist douchebag?
I’ll comment on one of them since there wasn’t much media coverage on this one. I was riding the L to Van Ness Station when all of a sudden we slowed down. At first, I thought it was a regular stop and go, because that’s what usually happens during rush hour. Then, the operator made an announcement, saying, “There appears to be some delay, we should be moving in a couple of minutes.”
…a couple of minutes later, she said, “There appears to be a stuck train, so they’re working on it, we should hopefully be moving very soon…”
But, eventually, the passengers were told to disembark the broken train as they were “trying to get the train out of there. We hopefully should be moving in a minute or two, maybe three or four.”
As we finally approached Van Ness Station, she thanked everyone for being patient, and, as I got off, there was this guy who thanked the operator for making regular announcements.
Personally, I think this problem could have been avoided if trains were single-tracked around the station, but hey, it’s Muni, powered by shoddy OS/2 run ATC and sometimes patient, frequent-announcer operators, and fare inspectors.
