Muni Diaries » 24-Divisadero

‘Sorry Baby, My Tomato’

Kristee Kimball — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:45:21 +0000

Beware of all fluids on the bus. As Kristee tells us:

I was riding a 24-Divisadero around 8 a.m. It was crowded and I was on one of the center facing-front seats reading a book. It was an embarrassing old-lady romance novel that I didn’t want anyone to see the cover of so I had it flat in my lap. At one point, a droplet fell from above me onto the page. It was too red to be water, but too diluted to be blood. Startled, I look up and there on the hand railing was a gnarled old fist tightly gripping a half-eaten ripe tomato. I loudly cleared my throat to express my irritation. In the smoothest Isaac Hayes voice, he calmly said, ‘Awww… sorry baby, my tomato,’ and casually stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans.

Head’s up?

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Photo Diary: Serious Face

eugenia — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:45:30 +0000

Instagram photographer karolinecollins saw this serious man on the bus the other day and found something really unexpected.

Inbound 24 Divisadero. This man had a fantastic smile, but I only saw it when the bus window flapped open and banged shut as we were chugging up Cortland. It startled me and we both laughed. Of course, I had already put my phone away. Bummed I missed a more relaxed shot of him. Public transpo = Never a dull moment! SF, CA

Yup, we can attest to the “never a dull moment” aspect of public transit.

Who else did you spy on your bus today? We wanna know.

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Martial arts champion rides Muni

jeff — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:55:55 +0000

Jim shared this photo and says, “I met this woman on the 24 the other night. She’s a martial arts champion from Siberia. She’s riding the bus home with a lap full of trophies!”

Amazing. Look at all them trophies, y’all!

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Why You Haven’t Seen Muni Driver Tammy

eugenia — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:39:18 +0000

Readers of Muni Diaries might remember a Muni driver named Tammy, who warmed all of our hearts when she threw a surprise party for her passengers on the 33-Stanyan last May. If you’re a regular rider of Tammy’s new line, the 24-Divisadero, you’ve probably also noticed that Tammy has been absent for quite some time.

A few months ago we got an email from Tammy, who told us why we haven’t seen her smiling face on Muni for so many months. In November 2010, Tammy’s 19-year-old son, Deante Fuller, was killed in a car accident near Antioch. Deante’s friend, Steavean Taylor, was arrested and charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run causing death, Paul Burgarino of the Contra Costa Times reported last year. Taylor had left Fuller trapped and dying in the car when they crashed into a tree, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Tammy has been on leave ever since the accident — she said that she did not want to put her passengers in danger while she coped with the trauma of her son’s death. We met with Tammy this month to talk more about her life since her son’s death.

At our meeting, Tammy brought framed photos of Deante, his girlfriend, and their baby daughter Myonie to show me. She and Deante were particularly close because he had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and struggled in school, she told me. The day before his death, Deante helped a woman whose husband had threatened to dump her off the Antioch Bridge, Tammy said. Deante was driving and saw a woman running along the freeway. The woman told him that her husband had been threatening her and Deante drove her to the police station, Tammy said.

Tammy has been working on forming a support group in the Antioch area for parents who have lost their children to violence, she said. She’s made hundreds of fliers with pictures of Deante and her address and phone number, encouraging parents to contact her if they need someone to talk to. Other Muni drivers have been extremely supportive of her family, she said, and many of them were at Deante’s memorial service. She is also working on writing a book and creating a not-for-profit organization called Heavenly Bound Angels in Deante’s memory.

(Tammy and other parents were interviewed in this Contra Costa Times story about mothers of slain children.)

When we first learned about Tammy last year, we knew that she was someone who made living in San Francisco extraordinary. Hands down, running Muni Diaries is a worthwhile experience if only for stories like Greg’s:

I hop on the first bus, 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.

Tammy told us that she is working on a website for her support group, but needs someone with more tech experience to set up a basic site. If you want to get in touch with Tammy, you can contact her here.

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Caption This Muni Cartoon

eugenia — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000

What’s happening in this Muni cartoon?

Michael Capozzola, who draws “Surveillance Caricatures” in the San Francisco Chronicle’s 96 Hours section, contributed two cartoons for gallery-goers to caption at the I Live Here: SF exhibit at SOMArts last month. Lots of you joined in on the fun and posted your own caption. Like this one, from someone who called himself “BOSS”:

“WAIT!!! My wife will kill me if I forget the baby on the bus again!!!”

Or, from an anonymous gallery goer:

“Hey wait! The next bus isn’t coming for 78 minutes!”

If you missed the chance to caption this carton in person last month, here’s your chance. Caption this Muni cartoon in the comments section: what’s happening on the 24-Divisadero here?

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24-Divisadero Birthday Party

Paul Supawanich — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:00:53 +0000

What a gem of a submitted post to return back to. I mean, seriously, someone celebrating their own or someone else’s birthday with cardboard numbers of their bus line, adorned with “We <3 the bus.” Paul shares:

I spotted this little gem while I was waiting for the 24 at the corner of Divis and Oak. I think it was someone’s 24th birthday — but they thoughtfully paid tribute to their neighborhood bus as well.

You know what I love? San Francisco. As wonderful as my honeymoon was, it’s good to be back.

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Photo diary: SF Pride 2010

jeff — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:00:02 +0000

Photo by angryf

Now that life is returning to “normal” (whatever that is), we have some great photos from SF Pride weekend 2010 to share. The first, above, was taken 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.

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Muni Shell Game in the News, Again

eugenia — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:00:47 +0000

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.

Rider Eve remembers this con…back in 1974:

This has been going on for years

I was just watching the news and saw that they are still using the same “game” to steal money on muni, that they got me with when I was in the 6th grade, in 1974. I got on the bus at 7th Avenue and Geary, they were already on the bus

It was Christmas time, and I was going downtown on the 38 Geary with money I had saved up all year from allowances, birthdays.

I had about $70.00, remember this was 1974, so that was a great deal of money for me. I was so excited to go buy presents for my sister, my father and my mother for Christmas with this money.

3 black men were sitting in the back of the bus playing a card game, 2 Kings and a Queen. Same game as the 3 nut shells.

I was facinated. I watched and in my head kept guessing the right card.
They asked if I wanted to play, and it seemed like a sure thing.

Little by little, dollar by dollar, they took all the money I had. I think I was stupid enough to tell them, too, I was 12 years old.

To this day, I think about it sometimes and wonder what kind of people can do this, and steal from a child, and I will never forget what he said to me as he took my last few dollars, so I had no more Christmas money, no more gifts to buy for my family.

He said, as he knew he was cleaning me out: “You aint gonna cry if you loose, are you?” Of course, being a tough young girl (I was raised by a father who wouldn’t allow me to cry “those crockodile tears”), I said, “no”, holding back the tears. I knew what was coming.

They took my money, and I got off the bus, I didn’t want them to see my cry. I cried, as I got off the bus, difficult to see the stairs as I went down to the street, and stood there, empty, lonley, scared, humiliated, violated, used, and broke at Christmas.

They didn’t just steal my money, they stole my Christmas that year, and I never trusted anyone on any bus again.

Some of you commented that this game is so old that anyone who falls for it kind of “deserved” it, but others commented about the intimidation from this group of people — even reportedly punching someone who called them out on the scam. What do you think — a scam as old as 1974 — can it be stopped?

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Photo diary: Cleanup on aisle 24-Divisadero

jeff — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:00:15 +0000

As photog justvisiting says, “the city has laid off a lot of janitors.”

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Muni Rider Roasting on the 24

Megan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:00:54 +0000

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….

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