The San Francisco we’re thankful for


This year we celebrated 10 years of telling your Muni tales, and one whole year of sharing more San Francisco stories that happen off the bus. Your stories have a way of reminding everyone why San Francisco is still alright after all.

Because of you, our listeners, readers, and supporters, we hosted two of our local bookstore heroes in studio: Alan Beatts of Borderlands Books and Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books (look out for his episode in the coming weeks!) And we got Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight in front of a live audience to preview their epic, around-the-world-in-one-day-style trip on Muni.

Because more than 4,000 of you submitted stories to us every day for the last 10 years, we were able to celebrate our 10th birthday exactly how we wanted: with a packed room filled with friendly faces—shouts out to our artist and photographer friends who, until then, we had never met in real life but came bearing birthday presents of Muni art and photos. We even learned from the door staff at Elbo Room that some of you insisted on paying for your ticket even as someone donated their extra. These kindnesses are not lost on us even in the busy shuffle of show night.

This year, we’re so, so thankful for those of you that took out your wallets and supported us on Patreon: we know it’s expensive to live here, and your willingness to help us keep the lights on (and replace those microphone cables that the cats chewed up) is appreciated.

We were able to have one more evening at the Elbo Room, where Nuala Sawyer shared a story of one small moment that made a big difference—encapsulating why we do what we do.

And let’s not kid ourselves: because of you, all of our Muni rides are a little better, or at least a little funnier. Without this comMUNIty, we wouldn’t know that the trending hashtag for the N is #NJudas, and the correct way to haul your new cat tree is on an LRV, with a kitten on a leash eating out of a little bowl perched on said cat tree (true story).

So, from the Muni Diaries headquarters, thank you for sharing, riding, listening, reading, and contributing in your own way to life in the best city in the world.

Photo by @gurpreetz

Muni Diaries is now a podcast!

mic-podcast

We have some very exciting news to share: Muni Diaries is now a podcast! For awhile now, we’ve wanted to create a podcast from all the great stories that riders like you have submitted to us. Well, we did it!

On the Muni Diaries Podcast, you’ll also hear great Muni stories you might not have heard before. The show features stories from Muni Diaries Live, stories from our archives, and some other great content in the future. To subscribe, find us on iTunes, Google Play, or use this RSS link.

On MuniDiaries.com/podcast, you’ll find the latest episode and episode extras. For this week’s episode (which you should totally listen to), we have a photo of Chris O’s record collection.

We’d like to thank our awesome podcast producer Peter Clarke and J. W. Friedman for writing, playing, and recording the music in the show.

We hope you’ll subscribe to the Muni Diaries Podcast. New episodes will drop every Tuesday, so be sure to subscribe. If you like what you hear, share it with all your podcast-listening friends.
Photo by Right Angle Images

Video: A Day In The Life of a Muni Transfer

The life of a Muni transfer ain’t easy, especially if you’re bigger than everybody else. Mike Torchia and John Espey blew up a Muni transfer to take it around town, and fellow passengers acted like it’s no big deal. Which is why I love San Francisco, really.

But will station agents let these filmmakers catch a ride using their life-size transfer? One way to find out, if you’ve got 10 minutes handy for this ode to the humble transfer.

To Muni-Bubble or Not to Muni-Bubble?

Aw, such an adorable message, innit?

May Be
Its Time To Take Thoes
Things Out of Our Ears
&
Look Up From Our
I-PHONS
{By The Way Its Givin People
Double Chins}
&
Say Helloo To The
Person Next To
You
What DO You Think?

[sic the whole damn thing]

If I had to guess, I’d say that Muni riders are pretty evenly split on whether to hide themselves away from fellow passengers. We don’t so much do the 100-yard stare as just immerse ourselves in music, podcasts, reading, porn, whatever. About half of us do, anyway. 48-52, if I had to guess.

How do you ride Muni?

Via Tweets From the T.

The Kids Are All Right

Kids. They do the damnedest things.

A group of 11-17-year-old youth media producers from BAYCAT shot, edited, and produced the movie above. It’s all about SFMTA/Muni.

There’s some fun history from a cable car gripman, and then the movie takes a closer look at the business of getting around San Francisco, for better and for worse.

Kids. These are some of the same kids whose laptops were pathetically stolen last month. BAYCAT, the nonprofit that serves these kids, is hosting a fundraiser to help replace the lost equipment, tonight at Cigar Bar. Help out if you can. RSVP here.

Via Ariel at Mission Mission.

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