Category: News

What? Muni Diaries Editor Named Broke-Ass of the Week?

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stuart

Hells yeah! And guess what? I’m still broke! But please, don’t take that as a solicitation of money (or underpants). Just keep reading and contributing to this site, and you’ll make this broke-ass’s life that much more enriched.

Big thanks to Stuart for featuring my broke-ass, and showing all sorts of kindness toward the not-so-well-off.

Broke-Ass of the Week — Jeff Hunt from Muni Diaries

This time around our Broke-Ass of the Week is Jeff Hunt from Muni Diaries. When I asked him what he wanted people to know about his site, he had this to say:

We want Muni Diaries to be the place people go to tell and read stories of the crazy and sometimes-poignant shit that happens on Muni and BART. We’ve all got stories and we’ve all heard friends and coworkers spin yarns of their own. Muni is too much a part of life in SF not to be a treasure trove of great stories. Stranger than fiction, often.

Read the rest of the story here.

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Woman Abused by Teen on the J

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Note: See our update from an alleged witness who told SFist that the teen was provoked. Thank you, SFist, for spreading the word and reporting this story.

This shocking letter from the Noe Valley Voice (via reader Randy) had us thinking, “Has it really come to this?” The Muni incident began when a 60-year-old woman asked a teenage girl not to take up three seats on a packed J-Church train headed toward Mission High School. When the teenager refused after being asked repeatedly, things turned ugly. The woman recounts the incident to the Voice:

I very politely asked her if she would move her bag so two people could sit down. She said, “No.” I asked her again and she told me, “F- -k off.” I asked her a third time and told her that I would remove her bag if she didn’t do it herself. I reminded her that this was public transportation and that everyone on the streetcar had paid the same fare to enter and that she didn’t have the right to take three seats. I reminded her that these seats were reserved for seniors and people with disabilities. She told me to “f- -k off” again. I reached down to move her bag and when I did so, she stood up and very forcefully slapped me in the face, knocking off my glasses. I’m 60 years old and the surprise and force of her slap knocked me down. She then proceeded to curse at me, calling me a “f- -king bitch” and several other things.

As if that weren’t enough, the abuse allegedly continued until the teenager got off the streetcar at Church and 18th Street. You can read the rest of the incident in her letter here in Voice‘s May Letters to the Editor (scroll down to “Incident on Muni”).

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Where’s Gavin?

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wheresgavinsticker2Good question, indeed. More broadly, where’s the leadership on Muni, outside of Supervisor Chiu and a few others?

This nugget arrived in our inbox today. It’s basically a contest for any of us to enter. Snap a photo of Gavin Newsom riding a non-cable-car Muni vehicle, and this group, Where’s Gavin, will buy your next (and the last $45) Fast Pass:

Dear Sir or Madam,

As riders of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (buses and trains), we were very disappointed that Mayor Newsom decided to push through a Muni budget that will cut routes and balance the budget on the backs of transit riders instead of making everyone share the burden.  We don’t think that Gavin actually gets it on transit or gets on transit, contrary to the comment in the Chronicle that said he goes incognito.  We’d like him to ride more, perhaps to get a feeling for what riders go through even on days when the budget hasn’t been cut.  As kind of a push to get him to take more transit, incognito or otherwise we started this page.  It’s basically a contest: be the first to get a picture of Mayor Newsom on Muni incognito (other than a cable car) and we’ll buy that person’s fast pass for the month after they win.  We think its a pretty good incentive, especially in these tough economic times.  We’re also going to buy some beers for everyone else that brings in a photo at the end of the run.  We hope you can help us in our quest.

Where’s Gavin?
http://wheresgavin.com

PS: We wish to remain anonymous as long as Gavin remains incognito on Muni vehicles

So dust off your cellphone’s lens and keep your eyes peeled. This type of mysterious-beast sighting could net you a sweet prize. We’ll keep our ears to the ground and report back when there’s a winner.

Category: News

Muni Diaries iPhone App Review: iCommute

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img_0010The way I see it, there are two basic methods of attacking the problem of getting around San Francisco on public transit: chance and control. Chance, I believe, speaks for itself. Control is what the rest of us attempt in neurotic fashion, day in, day out. We use NextBus, iPhones, BlackBerrys, crystal balls, bat droppings … whatever it will take to inform us when the freakin’ bus will be there.

It’s a crowded field, to be sure. But what if, just what if, some augur of reliability emerged from the crop to solve [most of] your woes? Here’s a first look at a series of apps that we’ll review here at Muni Diaries. Today, we’ll look at iCommute.

The first thing I noticed about iCommute was its groupings of routes (1-10, 11-20, etc.) on the right side of a list of all the routes, much the way iPhone apps like Contacts and iPod use “index-scrolling” (my term) for quick access to far-off parts of your list. It was then that I realized iCommute might just turn out to be a must-have app.

Like many GPS-enabled apps, iCommute asks your permission to use your location. Yes, please. Every subsequent use sensibly uses your location without being prompted. After you drill down to the route you want, it automatically highlights the nearest stop on that line, and tells you how far away it is.

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What are your feelings about the Central Subway project?

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fourth-stockton-modified-lpa-alignmentMaybe 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.

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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.

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