Month: April 2010

Weekend Photos: Here’s Lookin’ At You

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MUNI Ballons
Photo by Flickr user chainsmokingbluemonkey

This week’s rainy weather netted us some lovely photos, and also a scary hit-and-run crash. In other news:

– Sweeping Changes Await Muni (Examiner)
– Fort Mason Streetcar Extension: Questions Answered (Market Street Railway)
– Woman waiting for bus injured at 21-Hayes stop (investigation continues – SFAppeal)
– Muni Chief Argues Upcoming Service Frequency Cut is Targeted (Streetsblog)
– F-Market and Wharves extension to Fort Mason gets put on back burner (Curbed, Examiner)
– SF police adds patrols following attacks on Asians at transit stops (San Jose Mercury)
– Muni Gets $7 Million from TA for Budget Balancing Act — With Conditions (Streetsblog)
– The Geary BRT Citizens Advisory Committee needs more folks (SFCTA)

We’re celebrating some milestones here at Muni Diaries this week — we’ve just published our 1,000th post, and we’ve got a spiffy new look for the site coming to you in the next couple of weeks. You know what else really made my week? This photo below from the third Muni Diaries Live! event last Friday at the Make-Out Room. Lookin’ good, everyone.

Enjoy the rest of the photos and come back for more stories on Monday!


Photo by Troy Holden


Photo by Diana Wong

MUNI Bends 1
Photo by Flickr user chainsmokingbluemonkey

triple trouble at the transbay terminal
Photo by Flickr user Captin_nod

Category: diaries, Photos Tags:

My Love Affair With San Francisco Cable Cars

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Image by Omar Lee

Ed. note: To read this story with a prettier layout, please visit it on The Bold Italic. BTW, pure coincidence, but this guy, featured a few weeks ago here on Muni Diaries, makes an appearance in this story (his name is Freeman).

I was born and bred in the Bay Area, which means I grew up ignoring San Francisco’s cable cars. I don’t even remember my first and only time on the trolley. Even though riding the carousel at Pier 39 is an indelible childhood memory, the cable car is not. That’s right: Pier 39 trumps the cable car for as long as I can remember. Ouch.

And I’m not the only local who feels this way. We can rattle off bus lines, poppin’ neighborhoods, and new restaurants and bars in the blink of an eye. But ask us where the Powell-Hyde cable car goes, exactly, and you’re likely to get a blank stare and a raised eyebrow in response. We’ll ride the cable cars when friends or family visit, sure. But it doesn’t stop us from dramatically sighing and complaining for weeks about the northeast part of town.

It’s sad, really. But admittedly, there are some very good reasons for this. Cable cars are limited in where they go and also in the diversity of its riders. They’re arguably kitschy, something urban people hate unless it comes with a heaping dose of irony. The cars’ relative slowness could shame even the pokiest crosstown bus line and, to add insult to injury, it’s $5 a pop if you don’t have a pass.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. I took my first memorable ride in 2008, the first year I had my own Fast Pass and therefore got “free” rides on the world’s only operating cable car system. I rode one because, well, why not?

Immediately, I was hooked, but no one else seemed to understand. These charming transit vehicles are too good for tourists’ use only. This story is my attempt to shed some light on the most misunderstood of SF icons, the trolley.

Read more

Category: diaries Tags:

Love is too much in the air

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Rider Joey sent in this warm and fuzzy picture:

I really think PDA should be banned at bus stops. It’s not like I can wait somewhere else.

Ah, young love. I mean, I’m all for happiness and everything.

Actually, bus stop PDA is not on my list of PDA Don’ts: babytalking is at the top. You know what I mean, Schmoopykissypoo?

Category: diaries, Photos Tags:

Good Cheer Delivered at Fillmore and O’Farrell

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Photo by prawnpie

100 Muni StoriesEd. Note: This is the 1,000th post on Muni Diaries! Hooray! We’re working on a brand-new look for the site in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! And keep sending us your stories, photos, videos, and comments, because your life on Muni makes the site what it is. Now, without further interruption, here’s Rachel’s story.

I was on an early morning 22-Fillmore, the same bus and same driver I have most days. This driver is usually quiet and serious, barely acknowledging passengers (regulars and otherwise). This guy is infamous for not stopping at the Fillmore and Geary stop to take on passengers, and all the regulars would tell you the same thing, as we’ve all been passed by at least once or twice.

Our bus stopped at O’Farrell and a woman got on. She had several bags with her, and she handed them one by one to the driver. Then she leaned over the plexiglass partition and gave him a hug and a kiss.

“You have a good day now,” she told him.

“All right, you too, see you later,” he replied.

She got off the bus and stood on the sidewalk, waved to him, then crossed the street.

I don’t know what was in the bags but I like to think they were full of snacks for him to enjoy throughout the day, and some bottles of water or juice, and a thermos of coffee, maybe some magazines or the newspaper for him to read on his break. I hope the visit by his wife (or girlfriend) made his day.

Category: 100 Muni Stories, diaries, reflection Tags:

Caltrain Candy Man and the Best Compliment

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Photo by Julie Michelle of i live here: SF

Ed. note: Silvi Alcivar of The Poetry Store told this story on stage at Muni Diaries Live! last Friday. If you missed her and her beautiful typewriter at the show, here is her story. She was also featured on SFGate this week. Oh, and yes, we take Caltrain and BART stories, too! You can find the rest of Caltrain stories on this page and on our @caltraindiaries Twitter feed.

I was having a terrible morning. Not only did I have to get up at 6:30am after about a week of way too little sleep, I had to get up and get on my bike, to get to Caltrain, to go to Menlo Park to get my boobs squished in a machine. Why did I have to go all the way to Menlo Park for my annual mammogram? Because I’m a poet, and poet’s don’t have health insurance, at least I don’t, and the free breast screening program I’m enrolled in meant I had to venture out of the city if I wanted to make sure my boobs were cancer free.

Not only did this feel like a hassle, I was also so broke that I almost couldn’t justify paying $12 for a day pass. I thought maybe I could get by without one, but I didn’t want to chance it, so I dished out $12 I felt like I didn’t have.

Thanks to the timeliness of Caltrain, I arrived at my appointment proud of myself for being half an hour early. I’m never early. Ever. When I went to lock up my bike, crap! I didn’t have my lock. I walked in, bike in tow, and a man appeared out of nowhere and started ushering me and my bike out. “No, no bikes in here, just leave it out there.” He pointed to a far away space not within easy eyeshot of anyone, let alone me, who was going to be in another room, getting her boobs squished in a machine. “Look,” I told him, “this bike is worth more money than I have right now. I can’t risk anything happening to it.” He gave me a look that told me he obviously was not a bike commuter, or even a bike commute appreciator. I begged the receptionist and finally she let me leave my bike right outside the door.

When I went to check in, sure enough, they had no record of my appointment. In fact, the receptionist informed me, “But we don’t do mammograms here.” A phone call or two later it turned out I was sent the wrong paper work and sent to the wrong place. A woman on the phone told me, “Your appointment is actually in San Mateo in 10 minutes.” “I’m on my bike,” I told her, “and on Caltrain, there’s no way I can’t make it.” She offered to pay for a cab. I was so frustrated and disappointed I couldn’t even talk because if I talked I was going to cry. She asked if I wanted to reschedule and I choked out, “Not. Right. Now.” Then I retrieved my bike from the place it remained perfectly safe and I headed back to Caltrain.

Of course, when I got there, I had just missed the SF train and had to wait. When finally I got on, all I wanted to do was close my eyes and disappear. Lucky for me, no such thing happened. It was about 10 a.m. or so and the bike car was virtually empty, but of course, some guy decided to sit right in front of me. Read more

Category: Caltrain, Muni Diaries Live Tags:

Woman waiting for bus injured at 21-Hayes stop (w/update)

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Update (7:31 a.m., Thursday): The Examiner has more — a driver was already fleeing a hit-and-run with another vehicle. The woman at the shelter sustained broken bones, but her injuries aren’t life-threatening. From The Examiner:

The suspect, a 35-year-old man, rear-ended a vehicle while headed westbound on Hayes Street near Baker Street at 6:40 p.m., Lt. Liam Frost said.

Fleeing the collision, the driver threw his Ford truck into reverse, but ended up jumping the curb going backward, striking a woman and taking out the bus stop, Frost said.

The woman, said to be in her late 30s, sustained broken bones, but her injuries were not life-threatening, he said

Original post: This report comes via @theSusyness:

I saw the photo on facebook. The bus stop was plowed into by a car, a woman was sitting in the bus shelter waiting for the 21 bus. I’m hearing that the driver has fled, believed hit & run. Originally I was told the pedestrian was killed, but now I am hearing the woman is alive. It happened today, just an hour or two ago.

We’ll update this post when/if we learn more. We really hope the victim is okay.

Category: News Tags:
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