SFWeekly Web Awards Tonight

Best Viewed Large
Photo by Troy Holden of CaliberSF, winner of SF’s Best Art Blog in SFWeekly 2010 Web Awards

Thanks to all of you who voted for us for the SFWeekly Web Awards! Alas, we didn’t win, and had no idea we were going up against Golaiths like Twitter and Digg’s Kevin Rose, but we appreciate your votes! We saw how much you loved us in the leaked web tally page, so thank you, everyone!

A big congratulations is in order for our friends on the winners list: Broke Ass Stuart, Thomas Hawk, MissionMission, FunCheapSF (come see the man himself at our event later this month), Laughing Squid (who generously hosts us), and the wonderful CaliberSF.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…and don’t forget to send us your Muni stories and photos.

F-Market, 10-Townsend Crash on Market St.

Market Street, San Francisco
Photo by Flickr user b00nj

Update (8:25 p.m.): MTA says that the operators of the Muni vehicles were also taken to hospitals.

Update (7:10 p.m.): MTA reports that five people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and 10 were treated at the scene of the accident.

Update (6:26 p.m.): The Examiner reports that 13 were injured, and that an automobile was also involved.

Original post: SF Appeal has the story; unknown injured. MTA reports injuries, but number and nature are unknown as of yet. We’ll update this post when we get more info.

Body Found on Muni Bus After Shift Ended (w/updates)

Update (12:00 p.m., April 5, 2010):

SF Weekly reports that the S.F. Medical Examiner has determined Christopher Feasel’s cause of death: cocaine and methadone overdose. Still, as the Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi points out, many questions remain.

Update (1:40 p.m.):

The ex-wife of the man found dead on the Muni bus told the SF Examiner that she had not seen him for over a decade and that addiction was the reason they separated, according to the Examiner’s update story. Feasel had a record of mostly petty crimes in San Francisco and San Mateo counties over the last 12 years, according to the Examiner. He did not have a fixed address at the time he was found on the 5-Fulton.

Read the rest of the Examiner’s update.

Original post:

My apologies for starting off your Monday morning this way: a man’s body was found on the 5-Fulton hours after the bus was parked in the Muni yard on Presidio and Bush, the SF Examiner reports.

More from the Examiner:

The deceased was identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as 37-year-old Christopher Feasel of San Francisco. Investigators have not determined the cause of death and police said the body showed no obvious signs of trauma.

Workers discovered Feasel around midnight Friday at the bus yard at Presidio Avenue and Bush Street. The bus had been in the lot since 6:30 p.m., police Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said.

Read the rest of the story.

We’ll keep you updated with more information as we find out.

Vote for Muni Diaries in the SF Weekly Web Awards

Make that “the revenge of the nerdy Muni riders”!

Please vote for us at the SF Weekly 2010 Web Awards. We’re gunning for these categories: 1. Best SF Twitterer and 28. SF’s Best Social News/Aggregator Site. I mean, this is a democracy and I am not trying to influence you on how you vote, but if you find yourself wondering who you should vote for, the answer starts with Muni and rhymes with Diaries…

Oh, what am I saying? Please vote for us! Winners will be announced on Wednesday, April 7.

Vote for Muni Diaries for Best SF Twitterer and SF’s Best Social News/Aggregator Site here.

Third Group Attack on T-Third Line

T-Third pulling into the Sunnydale Station
Photo by Flickr user sfistrita

Last weekend saw another violent group attack at a T-Third station in Bayview SFGate reports. This is the third of such attack since January:

The latest attack happened at 7:45 p.m. Saturday at Third Street and Williams Avenue. The victim, a 29-year-old man, was riding home on the T-Third line when a group of five youths, all about 14 to 16 years old, started to punch him, police say. The youths got off the train but the victim stayed on and reported the attack to the operator, said police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza.

The man was treated at San Francisco General Hospital and released, according to the police spokeman. As SFist and ABC7 pointed out, a woman was attacked by a group of teens last week on a Muni platform on Third Street. The surveillance camera recorded what appears to be a teenager grabbing her by the neck and throwing her on to the rails. A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with that attack, ABC7 reports. The woman is recovering.

Another man, who was 83, was attacked by a group of teens from behind after he left a bus stop on Third; he died in March.

We’ve heard our share of Muni violence, ranging from some fisty fracas to a really touchy situation involving guns (and let’s not even mention the fights caught on YouTube). But this group situation seems like a scary new thing. Police are stepping up patrols in the Third Street corridor, according to CBS5.

We hope police are able to bring the situation under control soon, and we can return to regular, nonviolent, non-criminal Muni coverage.

Three Cup Shuffle Scam on Muni


Photo by Flickr user photine

Muni rider Adam saw a group of people scamming Muni passengers on the 24 recently with the infamous “three cup shuffle” scam. I’ve heard about this scam being carried out on tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf and in some other tourist-heavy cities, but Adam’s description of what happened seems more threatening:

Today a friend witnessed a group of people gambling/scaming passengers on Muni. One guy would do the ‘which cup is the bottlecap under’ and bug nearby passengers about money, while flashing cash. A nearby passenger refused to pay attention so two other guys came up and threatened the guy into giving up his cash on hand. This was on a 24-inbound. They jumped off in the Haight. Not 10 minutes later another friend texts me that this same group of guys (whom he sees all the time) are on the 71-inbound doing the same thing. They intimidated a guy out of $40.

Adam said he called 311 and was transferred to SFPD, who then transferred him back to Muni. Adam also reports that the 311 operator would not take an anonymous report, but on the 311 site I found that you can indeed file an anonymous report about Muni.
Read more

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