Tag: featured

When small talk pays off on Muni

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What would make you take off your headphones on the bus to talk to a stranger? In this episode, storyteller Alex Randall shares how he started talking to his fellow riders, and how these “Muni chats” changed the way he looks at our city. This episode was recorded at Muni Diaries Live at Rickshaw Stop in November, 2022.

Listen to his story:

By day, Alex manages a support team at Atlassian, and by evening and weekend, he serves on the board at Z Space, leads walking tours of his favorite San Francisco neighborhoods. He says he takes the 38 Geary often and likes all things San Francisco: history, sports, art, politics, and of course, public transit. You can find him at @ArtrepreneurSF on both Instagram and Twitter.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the Muni Diaries podcast so you don’t miss a minute of these great stories! You can find us on any of your podcast-listening apps.

Photo: Emily Huston

Category: Featured, Funny: Muni LOLs, Muni Diaries Live Tags: , ,

Leading the flock of Muni converts on Halloween

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Storyteller ilyse iris magy has hella Muni bonafides: she was the first paid “staff member” of San Francisco Transit Riders, where she helped pressure city officials to actually ride the bus. She celebrated her 24th birthday by riding the 24 bus with her friends. Name a Muni line and she can tell you the route. But one Halloween evening, when ilyse found herself evangelizing the value of public transit, the Muni gods had other plans.

Listen to her story:

You can follow ilyse and her non-transit related art on Substack and Instagram at @arainbowsquared. Meanwhile, we are gearing up for the first ever Muni Diaries Art Market this Saturday, Dec. 3 at 80 Albion! We’ll be there from noon to 4pm, along with our group of great vendors who will be selling their transit and SF-themed goodies. See you there!

Photo: Emily Huston

Category: Featured, Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: , , ,

Why Mister Boston’s Muni community is no match for leukemia

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As a Muni operator, Mister Boston, AKA Mike Delia, has seen it all. He’s piloted many of the crosstown lines we know and love, he has been assaulted twice in the name of doing so, and he even had someone try to steal his streetcar once.

You might also know him via the limited-edition trading cards bearing his image and stats—that’s actually how we first became acquainted with him ourselves. At Muni Diaries Live this month, we welcomed him, in full Muni regalia, to share his journey as operator, trading card legend, and leukemia survivor, all of which have brought him even closer to his community of San Franciscans.

Originally from Massachusetts with an accent to match, he was bitten early by the transit bug thanks to his father, who was also a transit operator. He was recently named 2022 Muni Operator of the Year by the San Francisco Transit Riders Union.

Listen to his story:

No holiday gathering, gift-giving list, or treat yo’self season would be complete without strong San Francisco representation. We’re excited to bring you the Muni Diaries Art Market: a market featuring 10 local artisans showcasing their wares. Come see us, Muni Diaries Live alums Transit Supply and Yellow Line Art—and more!—from 12-4p, Saturday, Dec. 3 at 80 Albion Street in the Mission.

Photo: Emily Huston
Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: , , ,

Broke-Ass Stuart opens up about 20 years of documenting SF

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If you’ve lived in San Francisco for any length of time, you can’t not know Broke-Ass Stuart. Stuart Schuffman has been writing about San Francisco for two decades, and he is celebrating the occasion on Oct. 13 with a big 20th Anniversary Party. He started the journey as a way to become a travel writer, and he’s become quite the San Francisco local celeb, even running for mayor at one point.

To mark the anniversary, Stuart also published a new zine called Slouching Towards Neverland (where are my Joan Didion fans at?), available to buy at the anniversary party. Stuart says that the zine contains a never-before-published story that he shared nearly ten years ago at Muni Diaries Live about meeting his first love on the 71 bus!

We took the opportunity to chat with Stuart to find out what’s going better in San Francisco since he started writing, how he’s grown his Patreon in challenging times, and the behind-the-scenes story of his most popular TikTok video.

Listen to his story:

Category: News Tags: ,