Month: May 2009

Bronstein looks into cable car bell-ringing boycott

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This just arrived in our inbox from Zoe Stagg:

Good morning,

Phil Bronstein just put up a new story today with an exclusive video [above] and story on Muni operators skipping out on the annual bell ringing competition
after what they think is shoddy treatment of a retiring operator by Muni higher-ups. The story is here in case you’re interested.

Thanks for the tip, Zoe!

If you’ve got Muni or BART news tips, stories, photos, or videos, please email us or use our Diary Submission form.

Category: News Tags: ,

Photo Diary: Early Morning Brewski (w/update)

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From Muni rider Blake:

So I’ve seen cans, tall boys, 40’s, and even handles of booze on the bus before… but you hafta hand it to this guy for really steppin’ up the game.  Yes, that’s two kegs, and yes, this was at 7 a.m. this morning.  God bless San Francisco.

UPDATE: This came in from Blake later in the day Thursday:

I would have followed him off had his terrible stench not deterred me! This occurred on the 43 — outbound this morning. He was just hanging casually in the back when I got on at California and Presidio. I snapped the pic, sat down and was promptly drawn into my book. A few stops down the line a nasty funk crept up my nostrils and almost pushed my Clif bar back out the wrong way. I looked up and watched him lumber towards me, and then out the door at Haight and Masonic. Looks like the bum/punks had a great day!

What did you see on Muni today? Send us your pics at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Category: diaries, Funny: Muni LOLs, Photos Tags:

What Does It Take to Ride All the Muni Lines?

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san-francisco-muni-system-mapmediumthumbThat’s the question that Adrian at adrian is rad asked himself one day and decided to actually start doing just that. He has been documenting his “SF Muni Project” on his blog with some cool photos to boot.

Several other Muni enthusiasts have also set out the same goal: Kathleen at No Line Left Behind has faithfully recorded her rides, complete with timestamp. A few years back, a group of young people managed to ride every Muni line in three days.

I’ve probably only taken about one-third of the lines in the 10+ years I have lived here! It’s so easy to just get stuck in taking the familiar lines and never actually leave my ZIP code. Has anyone else attempted this feat of riding all the lines or almost?

Category: News

Poll time: Worst Muni line

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caution: MUNIAt Muni Diaries, we don’t particularly like to quote-unquote go negative. But perhaps it’s just the nature of the beast — a site meant to reflect the goings on of a public-transit system in a major metropolitan city will, at least from time to time, contain nuggets of negativity like this one.

Last night around 11 p.m., an Examiner story caught my eye. The headline “J-Church line called worst performer in City” is kind of hard to ignore, no matter how much wine you’ve had throughout the evening. (Our friend Greg Dewar of N-Judah Chronicles gets a quote in the article.) So I threw it up on Twitter. Of course, I was looking for reaction from the community, as I am with this post. People definitely have their opinions of which line performs worse than the others, and are quick to defend some lines from the verbal spears of other riders.

In your opinion, what’s the slowest, least-on-time line in the city? Let everyone know in the comments. And let’s try to be constructive here and offer the agency some solutions as well.

Below the fold are the responses we’ve received so far on Twitter, in the order they were received (we’ll update the post if we get more).

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Post of the Month – Justice on the M

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Animals have taken over the month of April here at Muni Diaries – a wayward pigeon was saved by a goth man, a box full of rats was almost unleashed by a mystery woman, and  a gorilla rode the 49. Our most popular post this month, though, involves a flock of teenagers who reminded Muni rider Denise Cho of a different animal altogether. Here’s a snippet from Denise’s post, Justice on the M:

The drunk pubescent boy sways in the seat next to me: “blah, you and everyone has an iphone!” I turn my eyes into slits and ignore. Then the girl with the tiara starts screaming like a banshee, but several pitches lower – I dunno, like a manshee? banhe? She runs up and down the train, drunk and muffin toppy.

Read the rest of Denise’s post to see if the rowdy kids got their comeuppance.

Check out other popular posts this month: Tiffany’s hilarious clairvoyance into the mind of Guy Who Takes Up Two Seats and Tara’s interview with SFMTA spokesperson Judson True.

Got your own Muni story to tell? Submit it to us so your story can be in the running for the post of the month for May!

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Don’t Do My Beloved 49 That Way

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smokeshopEverything was going more or less as we had planned. We had a short wait at 20th and Mission, nothing out of the ordinary. Our inbound 49 arrived, and with ample seating. We plopped down on the back row, Tara and I, sitting on and surrounded by so much tagging, I remarked that it was so hideous, it almost came back to beautiful (the so-called Saturn effect). Sadly, I didn’t take a photo.

All the windows were closed, which didn’t sit well with my needs as an oxygen-consuming being. I cracked the one nearest me a subtle 1.5 inches. All was well.

(An odd interlude, if I may — and because I don’t feel like writing it out, I point you to this Muni Diaries Twitter update.)

It was the ride back to the Mission, again on the 49, that has me writing this diary on an otherwise lovely, dreary Sunday morning.

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Category: diaries, reflection, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags:
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