Category: reflection

Muni Party recap, with photos

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We got a report Tuesday about the Muni party earlier this month. Quite the rowdy scene, as the video above attests. Here it is, from the organizers’ perspective:

We are excited to say that the Muni Party (November 12, 2009) was a great success. We were greeted at the M-Train stop at 19th and Holloway with a huge crowd of people, photographers, press, and police. We boarded the two car M-Train with 150+ people, and filled up the whole space. We rode toward downtown with high spirits screaming, chanting, and even singing songs by Journey and James Brown. On the way, we even picked up some bystanders who were waiting at Muni stations. We rode all the way to Montgomery Station, and as a group walked to the Muni Party After Party at Otis Lounge, chanting all the way. We had a great time dancing and mingling at the after party. It was an awesome experience, and we are planning on doing this again early next year. This time, we are going to have a ‘secret’ Muni Party by keeping the exact location secret until the day of the event so we can have a little more freedom. The amazing part of the whole Muni Party event is that we did not spend any money in planning this event, just lots of time, and help from sites such as Muni Diaries. Thanks for all of your support and helping us make this all possible!

MUNI PARTY
Brianna & John

Category: diaries, Photos, reflection Tags: ,

Photo diary: The Passion of the 53-Southern Heights

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Photo by Whole Wheat Toast

For those who don’t know, the 53-Southern Heights is one of seven Muni routes scheduled to be completely eliminated on Dec. 5. It served parts of Potrero Hill for many years. And trust me, you don’t wanna walk that hill every day.

There’s some talk of various ways to honor these great urban warriors: flash mobs, wakes, “last rides” (a religious reference for those who haven’t had their coffee yet). How are you going to mark this grievous occasion?

Muni Diaries, being of the written word and all, is asking you to pen an obituary for your most beloved dying Muni route. The deadline passed on Sunday, but you can still sneak one in. We’ll be running them in the upcoming weeks. Details are here. Write a diary here.

*Yes, the title here is an allusion to the story of Jesus. Deal.

Category: Aww: Cute on Muni, diaries, Photos, reflection Tags:

Muni driver going the opposite of rogue

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Photo by Flickr user Whole Wheat Toast

100 Muni StoriesThe following was originally left by Amy as a comment on “My own personal N-Judah.”

I used to always end up barely making it onto the last 17 leaving from West Portal — it stops at 11:30 on weekdays or something ridiculous. I could’ve always taken the M, but when it’s foggy and cold and nearly midnight, not to mention dark, if I saw that 17 as the M was pulling into West Portal station, I would take it. I would always be the last person left on the bus when I got off at my stop. I always figured it was because the SFSU kids were usually the only other people on the bus and they all got off near the dorms. One day though, the 17 had a new driver and about 10 minutes before the bus was to approach my stop, he stopped and said it was the end of the line.

I asked him why he was letting everyone off early, and he looked surprised. He then explained that the actual end of the line was at the Lake Merced entrance to ParkMerced because the bus had to go home eventually, and then asked if it was my first time taking the 17. And that was when I found out that the former driver had been going out of his way to drop me off at the stop right across the street from my apartment. I wish I had gotten the name or at least the number of the bus before I left the city — that kind man always, without fail, made sure I got to my stop, and I never realised he was going out of his way in time to thank him.

Oh, how we love an uplifting Muni story. Got one? Send it here.

Category: 100 Muni Stories, diaries, reflection Tags:

Archival SF films show old streetcars, cable cars

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By now, you might’ve seen a video floating around the intertubes called, to varying discrepancies, “A trip down Market Street.” If not, go watch it. If our guess is correct, and you have this soft spot for San Francisco in the middle of all your frustrations and angst, you’ll love this footage of our city in its simpler, yet equally fascinating days. It shows the view from a streetcar traveling east toward the Ferry Building, on a Market Street free of cars (easier to do in those days), with pedestrians and horses and buggies crossing the tracks ever so lawlessly.

Owing to the popularity of that video, we came across the above program, sponsored by The Long Now Foundation. The very long program is broken up into easy-to-digest chapters. The un-embeddable chapters we want to call your attention to are: Fillmore Hill Cable Car (lots of great footage of Fillmore and other old cable car lines) and South of Market (which includes archival footage of the Transbay Terminal around 1941). There might be other transit-related bits, but frankly, we haven’t had enough time to watch it all. Here’s a link to the entire program, but you can watch it by the chapter.

The man responsible for the footage, Rick Prelinger, will be presenting more archival video of San Francisco on December 4 at the Herbst Theater.

Category: diaries, reflection Tags: ,
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