How do you take up personal space on public transit

Editor’s note 6/30/22: Rawiyah has updated their name and pronouns since we recorded this podcast in 2016. We’re reposting the updated blog post and old audio with their permission.

Storyteller Rawiyah Tariq has often experienced the invasion of personal space on public transit, but this one time they decided enough was enough, and they were going to take up the space they deserve.

Rawiyah is a Black, gender non-binary, fat, disabled and neurodivergent artist and kink aware professional. Their roots are in queer, poly-amorous, fat community. Their tone is reflective of these roots and their work is informed by how these intersect with their Blackness. Magic, massage, storytelling and performance art are tools they use to liberate, heal, and reclaim space for marginalized communities. They believe in cohesive and somatic healing and holding practices that align body, mind and spirit.

Rawiyah is 2022s Modern Witches’ Witch in Residence as well as the Queer Cat Productions 2022 artist grant recipient. You can also catch them in the films Fattitude and Heavenly Brown Bodies. Currently, they are living in the Bay Area while working on their book and their wellness and holding practice (A Sovereign Embodiment) where they provide ritual creation, divination, heart holding and coaching.

Read their first Muni Diaries entry involving a burrito as deterrent for pickup artists.

Listen to their story:

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If Taco Bell Built BART

Every transit system starts with a dream, and over there in Reddit-land, the catalyst for the dream was the Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme. Reader Kini S. sent over this tip: A super fan of the fast food chain created a Taco Bell transit map on Reddit to visualize what it’d be like if we had a transit system that connected all the Taco Bell locations in the Bay Area.

This map includes the Most Beautiful Taco Bell location in the country in Pacifica just off of the Linda Mar stop, where rumor has it that you can get a beer or a slushy fortified with booze along with your Taco Bell Chalupa or Gordita. Reddit commenters noted the lack of Taco Bell locations in poor, poor Marin, with only three locations before you get up to Petaluma. Though, as one commenter says, just seeing BART up in the North Bay is indeed enough to bring tears to your eyes.

BART maps seem to inspire all kinds of day dreaming. Once upon a time someone mashed up Mario Kart with BART, dreamed up a complete North Bay BART system, and renamed BART stations based on Hamilton, the musical. If you’re still in the fast food frame of mind, check out “subwaysubway” on Reddit, where folks have created subway maps that connect locations of the sandwich chain. We see what you did there.

Got a hot tip for your fellow transit riders? Tag us @munidiaries on InstagramTwitterFacebook, or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

You can support the city’s original online transit journal by subscribing to our podcast or helping us on Patreon or our Etsy store where you can find our super-SF Fast Pass goodies on sale right now.

8 of the most SF things that happened on Muni in 2018


We don’t have to look far to remember why we live here whenever the rent, downtown traffic, and constant fog get us down. In the last year, your stories and photos have been daily reminders of the quirky, delightful, and lovable San Francisco that we know so well. We sifted through all of your submissions this year to find some of our favorite moments in the city, as seen on and off Muni.

1. We found one sure way to avoid awkward holiday conversation, see above via @cityslickerSF

2. San Franciscans banded together during the two weeks of wild fire where N-95 masks became de rigueur.

3. Our Strange Cargo collection got a lot more adorable with this kitten-on-a-cat-tree situation.

via Bay City Beacon

4. Why did Elvis leave the building? To take Muni with six of his clones, we think.

via @sfstreets415

5. Muni went head to head with the parking enforcement officer this year on Halloween. Who will win? We’re putting $10 on the kid.

via @thenewbedford

6. Everybody rides Muni, even the parrots of Telegraph Hill.

via @jenmkirch

7. I mean, how can anyone leave cereal milk behind?

via @mr9erfan

8. Don’t die of cuteness, but this dog catching up on some Animal Planet on Muni is pretty much everything.

via @missnorasf

Ok, one more. Bonus round: “FRONT DOOR! FRONT DOOR!”

via @uknowmarcus

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry to our collective diary this year! We can’t do this without you, and we’ve been collecting your Muni and San Francisco stories for nearly a decade. If you have a story that makes you say, “this is what San Francisco is all about,” we want to know! Submit your stories and photos by tagging us @munidiaries on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

You can support the city’s original online transit journal by subscribing to our podcast or helping us on Patreon or our Etsy store where you can find Fast Pass goodies on sale right now.

A most Muni Black Friday sale: Show your SF pride!

Nothing boosts your SF cred (or at least sparks conversation with a n00b) like an ode to the dearly departed Muni Fast Pass. Fellow San Franciscans, no matter the cut of your jib, head on over to our Black Friday sale in the Muni Diaries Etsy shop, where everything is 20% off!

You’ll find tote bags, tees, baby onesies, and Muni Diaries 10th anniversary posters designed by local graphic designer Craig Fowler.

Aren’t the posters sweet?

Thanks, as always, for supporting our project. Here’s what we’re most thankful for this year at Muni Diaries HQ.

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

Free Muni Friday, because bad air quality

The air quality went from red (bad) to purple (even worse) today due to the wild fires up north, and the SFMTA announced that Muni will be free Friday, per the mayor’s request. You won’t need to tag your Clipper cards or use a transfer tomorrow, according to the SFMTA’s announcement. Hopefully this limits your traveling outdoors, and please keep those windows closed when you board.

All schools within the San Francisco Unified School District are closed, as is with most colleges in the city.

Stay safe out there, everybody.

Photo by @SanFranciscoCityandCounty.

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