Nice people and good coffee …

muni_petes1The following is by Suzanne

Has anyone noticed how the baristas at the Embarcadero Peet’s Coffee are incredibly friendly and nice? I remembered them being peppy. The other morning I walked up to the counter bracing myself, ready to cringe at “happy happy happy” service, but instead I was charmed. This is no Burger World. The workers at Peet’s seemed genuinely nice. Their smiles were real! They made real eye contact. They joked and teased each other. It was mesmerizing. In a silly way, it melted the grumpster in me.

Cynics might say, “Wonder what they put in their coffee.” Sure, the coffee is good. But it was seeing people having a good time at work, being nice and silly to each other and customers alike that put a smile on my face. And then, when the caffeine kicked in … even the dullest doldrums in the T were looking pretty good.

Protesting the War in Iraq by Stopping Muni in Its Tracks? (UPDATES)

fprotestSecond update: ABC 7 now has a slide show of the war protest up.

First update: Looks like SFGate is the first bigger operation (the kind that pays its staff) to get the story of the Market Street protest online. Nice work, Rubenstein. We still want to know what you think of this sort of protest. Tell us in comments.

Original post: Are you downtown? Do you see this happening?

A couple of tweets on the event:

dreamnotoftoday Four protesters removed from train track and arrested. Tracking now flowing on Market. #sf #iraq

californiabeat DEVELOPING: Anti-War protest blocking Downtown SF intersection at Market & Montgomery Streets. Police preparing for arrests.

Here’s a post with photos from last year’s (pre-President Obama, mind you) Iraq war protest.

What do you think of these Iraq war protests, where people are lying across the F tracks on Market? Let us know your feelings on this, the anniversary of the war, in comments.

Photo by Twitterer dreamnotoftoday

Transit Digest — Where’s SFPD on Muni, and Is the $2 Fare Coming? [UPDATE]

1040161325_c428fd1282

Update: Per the item below about SFPD’s responsibilities to Muni, SF Appeal has the dirty details.

Original post: At yesterday’s public hearing, details of Muni’s budgeting and funding got a lot of people up in arms. Now that Muni is looking at a huge deficit, it’s time to drill down to where the money goes. Apparently various city departments are charging Muni for services, to the outrage of Supervisor Bevan Dufty. Among the charges to Muni: SFPD actually bills Muni $12 million to “help fund traffic enforcement division” and provide “police services,” which leads SF Appeal to ask: “Have you ever seen SFPD on Muni?

Hmmm. Nope, I haven’t either.

Everyone wants to take a closer look at these “work orders” from other city departments, but to balance the budget, we’re hearing talks of fare hikes again.

In other news, Tom Prete has a roundup of San Francisco’s Central Subway discussion at the SPUR forum, and if you live in the Sunset, there is a public meeting next Wednesday about repairs on the N-Judah and L-Taraval lines.

Photo by Flickr user allaboutgeorge.

‘Anyone Got Change for a $5?’

changeguy1What a scam. Some guy on my morning commute presented the driver with a $5 dollar bill, apologizing that that’s all he had. The driver said too bad, pay the fee or get off. Without hesitation, the guy turned his attention to the passengers.

“Anyone got change for a $5?”

No response.

So he dialed up the tone, “Anyone got change for a $5?!”

As I started to reach for my wallet, I realized the bus wasn’t moving. The driver was waiting for change. Unfortunately, no one had change for a $5, which left us all inconvenienced victims of a Muni standoff: The guy wasn’t budging from the bus and neither was the driver until change was produced.

Change guy starting yelling at the bus driver that he was an asshole for not moving. The bus driver seemed unphased, and continued to idle. The riders, including myself, stayed silent. After all, the guy was pretty big and intimidating (did you check out his picture?).

Read more

1 752 753 754 755 756 800