Photographer Kristen Holden: Love Stories on Muni 04.26.10
Photographer, poet, and model Kristen Holden‘s pictures of Muni riders have caught our eye for a while. We found her on Flickr as “SFLoveStory” and tracked her down to find out what makes Muni such a great subject. Holden grew up in Chicago and has lived in San Francisco for almost seven years. She lives in Russian Hill with her musician boyfriend and their “talentless dog.”
What is it about Muni that inspires you to take photos there?
This simple answer is: I ride a lot and I shoot my surroundings more than I do anything else. But what makes Muni rife for photographic capture is that the exterior environment is always changing around the same structure or, like, bones of the scene. There are endless characters to make up stories about.
What’s it like taking pictures on Muni?
I think people generally assume I’m a tourist. Once in a while someone will ask me about my camera and why I shoot film (I’m currently shooting with a second-hand Canon EOS Elan II SLR with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.)
Got a favorite Muni line?
I ride the 45 and 30 to get from Russian Hill, where I live, to downtown and vice versa. I take the 47 and 49 quite a bit. Oh, and I’m one of those weird people who actually rides the 19…it gets the closest to the film-processing center I go to in SoMa. I love the cable cars and streetcars too. The mint-green colored streetcar from Brooklyn (Car 1059?) is my favorite.
You can see more of Holden’s photographs on her website, Kristen-Holden.com.
Suspected Animal Cruelty on the 43 08.05.09
Photo by Flickr user Corgi_T
After the failed mob that I had planned last Saturday, I decided to go to the Aloha festival. I took the F, 30, and the 43 there, although the F I rode was a bus. But what was more interesting was when I was on the 43.
Anyway, this guy with a skateboard and a dog gets on at Divisadero at around 2:10-ish. His dog figures out on how to take off his muzzle, and when his owner finds out the muzzle was out, he screamed at the dog and forced the muzzle back on the dog. He then proceeded to literally pick up the dog on his back, as if a person was getting a wedgie. After that, they both proceeded to the back, the dog went and took up two seats first – and this was the most shocking thing I have ever seen done on an animal – the owner literally shoves the dog into the window seat on the very back of the bus. The owner takes the aisle seat, with a skateboard.
Sad. If you’ve got Muni stories, whether they’re uplifting or depressing, send them to us …
A short, angry discussion of taxes on the 30-Stockton 07.06.09
Photo by Flickr user happy bachelor
This delightful tale came to our inbox from Muni rider Andrew …
It wasn’t so fun at the time, now that I think of it, but it’s funny in retrospect.
My girlfriend and I are regular 30-Stockton riders, from North Point & Hyde to Sutter & Stockton. As you may know, the 30-Stockton is a risk-life-and-limb kind of line (especially around 8:30am) but we were lucky enough after work last week to find ourselves on a relatively empty outbound 30 where we could safely sit in the far-back facing-inward seats without worrying about cans shuffling or random bowel movements.
Boarding with us were two young gentlemen, one of fifteen years (or so he later said) and one in his mid-twenties. The younger sat in the set of facing-inward seats across the aisle, while the other sat close to the back door. And no sooner had we cleared the tunnel when the fifteen-year-old pulls a quarter out of his pocket and begins scrawling Heaven-knows-what into his plastic seat back.
My girlfriend, not one to take vandalism figuratively sitting down, shouts, “Hey, kid, cut that out!”
No response.
“Hey! STOP.”
Now he looks up. “Hey, I can do what I want.” (yes, this is the most stereotypical teenager phrase ever. I wanted to say, “really? So I can rip your ass a second hole because I WANT to?” But he was a minor, and should a police report get filed, I wanted to keep my mentions of his ass to a minimum.)
About the Chicken Story (and Perils of Running a User-Generated Site) 06.16.09
I was standing on the side of the stage at the Make-Out Room last Friday at Riders with Drinks when our emcee Suzanne brought up four members of the audience to tell their own Muni story. As one of the audience members began to tell a story about an Asian (Chinese?) woman bringing a live chicken on the bus, I cringed. The story sounded uncomfortably familiar.
In the story, the bus driver tells the woman that live animals are not allowed on board. NonplussedUnaffected, she snaps the chicken’s neck and boards the bus.
Minutes later another writer in the audience approached us and echoed my discomfort: This story sounded remarkably like an urban legend she had heard before. When it was time to give away a prize to the best storyteller, the audience chanted, “Chicken! Chicken!” I felt even more uncomfortable. In the chaos of running an event, we did not have a chance to intervene on stage, but the “chicken story” stayed in my mind all weekend.
A little internet search showed that various forms of the “chicken story” has been circulating the city for a few years. But if an audience member said that she witnessed the story first-hand, isn’t that the end of story?
Not for us.
What are your feelings about the Central Subway project? 05.09.09
Maybe you live along the existing T-Third route and would like to see the line extended farther north. Maybe you live in Chinatown, and would love an easier way than the 30 or 45 to hop over to SOMA or Mission Bay. Maybe you don’t live in either area, and are concerned about the costs and/or environmental impacts inherent in this estimated $1.57 billion, massive-construction project. Or maybe you’re just a transit geek, like us, and love all things rail.
Give Rachel Gordon’s post on the City Insider a quick read, and let us know your thoughts about the Central Subway project.
Muni Blockage Causing Accidents? 03.31.09
I was in a car accident at Laguna & Chestnut earlier today, and I think Muni may have been the cause. Heading South on Laguna, after entering the intersection, a car heading east on Chestnut hit my car. As the bus pulled away, everyone on it stared at me and the other driver. I think it was the 30. The driver of the other vehicle said the stop sign was not visible and admitted fault, but I can’t help but wonder if Muni buses stopping in front of stop signs to load and unload passengers have caused more accidents like this. It was stopped there for a good minute or two. Thoughts?
Next stop, Washington Square? 06.27.08
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s definitely an oncoming train. The question is, is it a good thing for North Beach or not?
Locals, at least those who are members of the District 3 Democratic Club, seemed divided on the subject of the Central Subway, which was the featured topic at Thursday night’s special meeting of the D3DC at the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center. A well-chosen panel — representing both Muni (or, if you must, MTA) and grassroots interests — tossed the subject around, both among themselves and with the lively audience.
If you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, the Central Subway (known sarcastically to its detractors as the Rose Pak Memorial Tunnel) is Muni’s planned extension of the T-Third rail line across Market Street and up Stockton into the very belly of Chinatown.
North Beach Examiner on Proposed Muni Changes Afoot in North Beach 06.06.08
The Examiner takes a close look at the proposed cuts on a couple of linnes with paltry ridership.
A little teaser from the story:
These cuts are two of many proposals being studied by Muni as part of its Transit Effectiveness Project, which, if implemented, would result in the most comprehensive bus rerouting done in my memory. And I’ve been here a long time. There isn’t a single line passing through or near North Beach (save the cable cars) that wouldn’t be affected in some way.
Tales From Olden Days 4 04.08.08
By Shannon
At the time I was living in Russian Hill and every morning would take the 30 to the Caltrain station downtown.
I was seated in the back of the bus, across from a severely pregnant woman accompanied by her younger brother. Her crop top left her swollen midriff exposed, a canvass displaying an array of stretch marks. She carried a cloud of tension with her onto the bus; her disposition was that of dynamite with a lit fuse. She swore and gesticulated so loudly that within no time she had commandeered the apprehensive attention of everyone on the bus. No one else dared speak in the shadow of such a volatile person.
The Evolution of a Single Ride 04.08.08
I can almost see this becoming a recurring theme here on Muni Diaries: Rides that are so long, and traverse so many neighborhoods and socio-economic levels, they have time to … not mature, per se, but to change course dramatically in their demographic makeup.
Case in point: Yesterday, around 6 p.m., I boarded the 30 on Third and Harrison. There was a Giants game earlier in the day, but it ended around 4. Still, there was one couple sitting toward the back of the bus who had clearly left the game a little late, he borderline passed out, she leaning over his lap. The only coherent thing I heard from them the entire time was a plea from him: “No, PG-13, baby, PG-13.” I didn’t dare look.
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