Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Photos by KayVee.INC
Saw the above gem via @nom_de_guerre this weekend. Indeed.
And then this screed came into my Google Reader this morning, via Mission Mission. I call it “Pastry Rage on the 5-Fulton.”
I dunno. Looks like slightly different handwriting to us. Check out the difference between the two “ON THE”s. Different N. Different H.
Still, we hope this is the beginning of something new and totally life-altering. Or something.
Photo by Flickr user Justin.Beck
All that talk about a Muni driver’s proposed fried chicken run made me fantasize about hopping on the 38 straight to Popeye’s. Meanwhile, more important stuff was going on this week:
– Muni missing 80 percent more runs as de facto service cuts set in (Streetsblog SF). Judging from the last four weeks of MTA data, Muni is missing a big chunk of runs mostly due to a freeze in overtime, Streetsblog’s Michael Rhodes reports.
– Muni operators and their union reject concession proposal. Mayor angry! This is putting fare hikes and service cuts back in play in a big way. Operators told Streetsblog SF that the union did not do enough to inform members about the proposal. (SF Examiner, Streetsblog SF)
– Bloody AC Transit fight (SFist). New violent transit obsession? We hope not.
– J-Church Thursday morning collision with an F train was caused by “human error,” SFMTA says. (SFAppeal)
– Muni management study could be delayed by audit of farmers market (SF Appeal). “Everyone knows farmers’ markets are prime places for bureaucratic waste and government graft, and ergo must be investigated thoroughly …”
– Found in our submissions box: March against Muni?
– Let’s end with a little levity: Sirron Norris does Muni, with wings! (MissionMission)
Clicking around on Flickr, I found some cool photos of cable lines from many of you who are not yet in our Muni flickr group. So join up, add your Muni photos to the group pool, and enjoy these photos! Until next week…
Photo by Flickr user s__i
Photo by Flickr user Vanessa Elise
Photo by Flickr user danisabella
Photo by Flickr user karenchu121
Photo by engnr_chik
Muni rider Jessica sends in this report from Cole Valley:
I was eager to jump on my daily N Judah this morning after 4 days away in the east coast snow. As I’m riding along, we pull up to the Carl and Cole stop and the driver yells something to Neon-Vest-Muni-Guy-On-Sidewalk. Neon walks up to the door shaking his head and says “It’s not your fault man. It’s Muni. We are a sinking ship!”
Wait a minute. This guy works for muni and is calling out his own employer- in front of a bus full of people! At least they acknowledge the downward spiral. They say you have to hit rock bottom before it gets better, but how much farther is the bottom? I hope for our sake and Muni’s that this boat stays afloat because I have to get to work! Think positive Muni, the sun will come out tomorrow.
We all get to gripe about work a little, especially when you’re feeling disgruntled. Too bad this MTA employee was overheard by a diligent Muni Diaries reader. We can’t help but wonder if the exchange was sparked by the Muni operators and their union’s rejection of the concession proposal to help MTA balance its spiraling deficit. In any event, I’m with you, Jessica, on the Muni-please-stay-afloat thing.
Am I the only one who always asks, “Why didn’t I think of that?” after reading the New Yorker cartoon caption contest week after week?
Well, I hereby commence the NextBus Caption Contest, which is a lot less elitist and won’t make you feel bad at all. Thanks to Muni’s malfunctions, we’ve received more than a few pictures of NextBus signs begging for a line, like the one above from Jeff D at Spots Unknown
Along with the photos, several of you also sent in some suggested captions:
“SOS…SOS…SOS…SOS…SOS” – Daishin from a previous post
“Dear Muni, maybe switch back to the Roman alphabet now?” – Jeff D., who wonders if the sign is in Morse code.
“7 minutes…just kidding! The bus is here!” – Jeff H.
“Hello Earthlings, welcome to Planet Muni.” – Amy C.
“MUNI: FML” – Ashlee B.
Got a caption for this NextBus hiccup?
By the way, if you are still itching to win the New Yorker‘s caption contest, Slate has some tips. Think Farley the Gatekeeper still works there? I hope not, because I totally want his job. And check out Kirk’s hate-love relationship with NextBus, a diary from Monday.
Yesterday our Twitter follower wirelesschunk sent us a link to a video of a fight on AC Transit between two men that got so gnarly that blood was all over the seats. The situation started with what seemed like normal conversation and quickly escalated to the men punching each other. It’s hard to see who threw the first punch, but Ok, I watched the video a few more times and it looked like the young black man threw a punch first, but I’m not sure it matters a whole lot in situations like this.
SFist reports that the argument started when the older white man asked the young black man how much he’d charge for a shoe shine, then escalated from there.
Near the end of the video you can hear a woman mutter, “It’s just like on the bus with the black and Asian women!”
Boy, do we remember that one.
In running a transit-related website, we’ve seen what seems like an unusually high level of hostility on the bus. When we posted the video of a black woman and an Asian woman fighting on Muni, it caused such a storm and gave us a lot to think about, namely: should we be posting these videos at all? The racial tension in the fight between the women was palpable, and we interviewed the rider who broke up the fight to get a sense of what was going on. If the report is correct that the older white man asked the young black man about a shoe shine, the racial tension in this fight could be just as explosive.
As much as we all might have our complaints about the bus, riding public transit is a shared community experience — an idea that is the basis of why we started Muni Diaries. So what is with the hostility and intolerance that we seem to encounter more on the bus than anywhere else? We see many positive stories about sharing the public transit experience, but we’ve also seen our fair share of intolerance (chicken story, anyone?)
You’ll notice that we included a link to the video but refrained from embedding the video itself (and yes, we run stories about AC Transit when we get them). As a moderator and editor of the site, I continue to wonder where the line is between creating a space to share transit stories and a space to share gratuitous violence. My worst fear is that videos like this might be creating a new genre of voyeuristic, violent “transit porn.” Do you think videos like this have a place in your daily reading — do people need to see it to understand the tension and violence around us, or are we desensitizing viewers by showing it?
And we realize that public transit isn’t the exclusive domain of hostility and intolerance. But it does seem to be a main venue for the boiling over of violence. Why?
– Eugenia
Photo by /\/\ichael Patric|{
Yesterday, we read a little piece on SFGate about the worst places in the Bay Area to go into labor. Unsurprisingly, DMV beat all contenders as the least appealing place to bring a new life into the world (we’re pretty sure DMV might clean up at the Least Desirable Awards Show, but that’s another story).
Perhaps also to no real alarm, Muni made the list. No. 2, in fact. And not just any bus or Metro line. No, special disdain is reserved for the 14-Mission like it is for no other line in town. Does that have anything to do with the fact that there’s more (reported) crime on the 14-Mission than any other? Not that we’re scratching our heads at this result.
But it does make us wonder: What are some other dubious Muni awards you can think of? Worst line to make out on. Worst line to take to a fancy date. Worst line to use for grocery shopping. Share your ideas in the comments, please.