Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Soggy weather getting you down? Just take one look at Wes and his school robot project, OptimusWes, and we promise everything will seem all right again! There definitely needs to be more Transformer costumes on Muni.
Thank you to @4fifteen on Instagram for today’s little spot of sunshine.
Construction for the Super Bowl pregame activities start next weekend, so here’s a closer look at how Sports Bowl will impact your transit life in the next few weeks.
The short story is: Don’t drive downtown. If you’re reading this on Muni Diaries, you already got the memo. Even though the game will be played in Santa Clara at Levi’s Stadium, a “fan village” called Super Bowl City (free to the public) is being built at the foot of Market Street, and a “pro football interactive theme park” will be at Moscone Center.
The pregame events open on Jan. 30, with hundreds of thousands of people are expected to descend on our city in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, which is on Feb. 7. Officials expect to spend about a week after the event tearing everything down, according to SFGate, so the whole shebang might last from Jan. 22 to Feb 12.
You can see the construction area in the map above. Details from the SFMTA:
San Francisco will spend about $4 million in taxpayer money to host Super Bowl, including $1.7 million for the SFMTA for increased services, according to the Examiner. The Examiner also says that the city hopes to make the money back through tax revenue during the event, according a memo by the mayor’s office.
The good people at Curbed have combed through lots of old San Francisco maps, including this 1940s Muni map (courtesy of our favorite map nerd, Eric Fischer). You’ll see that the F used to go through the Stockton tunnel, and there was no M line at the time. Click here to see a bigger version of the map. Oh, and here are some more Muni maps from 1920s and 1930s.
The Curbed story has lots more old fascinating maps of our city. Go on and check ’em out!
h/t our friends at Tiny Rides. thanks, guys!
Here’s evidence that karma really rewards random kindness. Muni rider Dave said that he had possibly his best ride on the 38-Geary when he decided to help a woman carry her heavy groceries from the bus.
This evening, I was honored to help a woman named Maral carry her groceries home from the bus stop. Maral is preparing for a party on Sunday and after spending the whole day shopping for groceries, she ended up with more than she could carry.
“The bread is light,” she said, “but the pork and vegetables are so heavy.”
Maral is from Armenia, and her husband is recovering from successful open heart surgery three months ago.
“I went to the hospital and I yelled at him him, ‘You do not die yet! You do not die!’ And, he did not die.” She laughed. “I did not even cry.” Then she paused. “Actually, I cry a lot. But not at the hospital.”
Maral told Dave more about her life on their way back to her house, and even tries to offer Dave some money for being such a nice guy (of course he said no). Read the rest of his story on Medium, and see a photo of two new friends who met on the Muni.
Photo by @jeffro9ers
Remember all those times when you tried to walk into an underground Muni station after a night of drinking, only to be reminded that there hasn’t been nighttime underground service since last July? Well, you soon won’t have to suffer that indignity any more, the SFMTA says.
For nearly six months, the underground service has closed nightly 9:30 p.m. to allow for the replacement of the Blue Light Emergency Telephone and Radio System. Surface bus shuttles have substituted for your beloved J, K, L, M, N, and T lines. The construction project is set to be completed on January 22, so you can go back to your underground transit-riding ways.
Muni is a lot of things, but sexy isn’t really one that comes to my mind (cue your favorite “back door” jokes here). So imagine my surprise when I found that Alexa Von Kickinface of the Hubba Hubba Revue came up with a burlesque act all about the bus. Here she is onstage in front of an enthralled audience, with a box adorned with…wait for it…the Muni worm logo. What?
From Alexa herself:
It’s a burlesque act to the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of “Love Roller Coaster” about riding Muni. The box is my “bus” that I start off driving, then riding, then dry humping out of undying love.
Oh, and as if this can get any better, Alexa writes to tell us that her pasties are made from laminated paper Fast Passes from 2009!
Photo by Alexa Von Kickinface