Reminder: Go offline tomorrow at Breaking It Down

Riders With Drinks
Photo of Tony Long from Muni Diaries Live! Riders With Drinks, June 2009, by RumNose

We realize that some of you (like us) plan. Some even obsess about it (like us). This post isn’t for you, though feel free to delight in it if you’d like.

No, this post is for the beloved rest of you out in internetia who’ve somehow (god bless ya) made it this far into the future and still don’t know what you’re doing this weekend. Again, we love you. And we want to see you at the Make-Out Room tomorrow night in what promises to be the best edition yet of Muni Diaries Live. This time we’re calling it Breaking It Down (perhaps for obvious reasons?), and check out this lineup:

Comedian Will Franken
Fun(ny) guy Johnny FunCheap
BART operator Kelly Beardsley
Vero Majano of Mission Media Archives
The delightful music of McPuzo and Trotsky
And last but not least, the Cock-Ts will return to … get us all in the mood.

And off-stage, Silvi from The Poetry Store will be our resident poet of the evening! Look for her with her type writer so you can get a poem written just for you.

As before, there’ll be a portion of the event in which we call for your (shortish) stories to be read on-stage. And we’ll ask the audience to use specially designed buzzers applause to judge who’ll win some seriously awesome prizes.

What can we say? Oh, we can say that it’s free to get in. But please tip your bartender! See you there!

Muni Diaries Live! Breaking It Down
Friday, April 23, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. No cover!
Make-Out Room — 3225 22nd Street
Routes serving the area: BART 24th St. Station, 12, 14, 22, 27, 33, 48, 49, 67

Pedestrian dies after being struck by Muni bus (w/updates)

Update (4:19 p.m.): SF Gate has photos from the scene, including a couple of the driver of the bus that struck the victim. The driver looks horribly upset, understandably.

Update (4:00 p.m.): Per commenter JimmyD, SF Gate reports that the victim in today’s accident has died from his injuries.

Update (3:38 p.m.): MTA’s final update:

As of 1:33 p.m., the incident described below has cleared.

Clarification: A pedestrian was involved in the accident, not a bicyclist. The location was Mission Street between Main and Beale streets. Both bus routes rerouted around the scene in both directions using Market Street: from Main Street to Market Street to 4th Street and back to Mission Street.

The pedestrian was transported to SFGH. Both Operators were also injured. The Operator of the 14 Mission was transported to UC Medical Center and the Operator of the 14 Mission Limited was transported to St. Francis.

Both Operators will be tested for drugs and alcohol and placed on non-driving status according to standard procedure.

Video has been provided to SFPD for their investigation

Update (1:41 p.m.): For clarification, we do not know definitely whether the victim was a pedestrian or cyclist. MTA reported that he was a cyclist; multiple eye-witnesses say pedestrian.

Update (12:55 p.m.): Reader Jimmy sends us a photo of the scene, above.

Update (11:48 a.m.): From MTA:

As of approximately 11 a.m., service on the 14 Mission and the 14 Mission Limited in the outbound (east) direction has been disrupted due to an accident at Mission and Beale streets involving a 14 Mission trolley bus and a 14 Mission Limited bus and a bicyclist.

The 14 Mission route is switching back at 4th Street. The 14 Mission Limited is routing around the scene from Main Street to Market Street to 4th Street and back to its regular route on Mission Street.

SFPD and SFFD are on the scene.

Updates will follow.

Update (11:38 a.m.): SF Appeal has an eyewitness account, along with a photo of the scene.

Update (11:35 a.m.): KGO radio says: “Man trapped under the Muni bus was jaywalking. Taken away via ambulance, witnesses say he wasn’t moving at all.”

Update (11:25 a.m.): KCBS now has a story up on its site. Person still apparently trapped, attempts to jack bus up are under way. Person trapped reportedly a pedestrian.

Update (11:23 a.m.): @TUSK81 has an eye-witness account.

Original post: KCBS News reports that there is a person trapped under a bus at Mission and Beale with life-threatening injuries. No word from MTA yet. KGO radio also has a tweet about the accident. And Twitterer @sbermo confirms. We’ll update as we learn more.

Truck, M-Ocean View collide head-on at Randolph and Arch (update)

Update (3:53 p.m.): Chris tells us full service has resumed in this area.

Original post: Yet another “it just hasn’t been Muni’s day” post.

Rider Christopher Rogers tells us of an afternoon head-on collision between an M-Ocean View light-rail and a truck. According to Chris, there were no injuries. But the vehicles seem to have been damaged up real bad.

Chris adds: “They’re running shuttle buses on the outbound M route as of right now. LRVs are running inbound, though.”

Thanks, Chris!

Busted N-Judah Tunnel the Result of Copper Wire Theft? (w/updates)

N Judah
Photo by Flickr user Ce nest pas un JB.

Update (4:16 p.m.): KCBS has confirmed that the troubles this morning in the Sunset Tunnel were, in fact, caused by the theft overnight of copper wires.

Update (11:44 a.m.): MTA says rail service has resumed, but they’re keeping shuttles in place “until service is restored.” We’ll let you figure out WTF that means.

Also, rider Nic sends us this report and photo:

I knew it was bad the moment I got on the nearly empty train this morning. The driver says “For those of you who just got on, I have some bad news.” The news was that I was going to be late. The Sunset Tunnel was out of service. Good times.

Got a picture of the first of two transfers at Hillway.

Update (11:27 a.m.): Brian Brooks has photos from this morning’s scene:

N-Judah Meltdown

N-Judah Meltdown

Read more

Meet the Artist for New Public Art for Church and Duboce

There’s going to be some new art and seating areas along the N-Judah line as a part of the Church and Duboce Streetscape Improvement Project. Wanna know what the new seating area will look like on Church and Duboce, and meet the artist who will create the sculpture there? Primitivo Suarez-Wolfe will be at the Harvey Milk Recreation Center tomorrow evening:

The Arts Commission recently approved artist Primitivo Suarez-Wolfe’s conceptual proposal for a series of new public artworks that will be implemented in conjunction with the Church and Duboce Streetscape Improvement Project. Inspired by the surrounding architecture and the history of the neighborhood, Primitivo proposed to create a series of steel chairs that, in addition to creating a distinct identity for the intersection, will provide much needed seating for the area. The artist will also design a vertical sculpture for the corner of Church and Market that will serve as a gateway feature for the neighborhood. This is your chance to meet with the artist and engage in a dialogue about his artwork concepts before he develops the designs for presentation to the Arts Commission.

More details

WHEN: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Get there by Muni: N, 71, 6, 24, 22
WHERE: Harvey Milk Recreation Center, 50 Scott Street (at Duboce Avenue), Downstairs Exhibit Room

The artist’s proposal (PDF) mentions salvaging and reusing Muni tracks — melting tracks that were slated to be demolished and recasting chairs out of them. Suarez-Wolfe wrote that “the chairs themselves will be cast replicas of domestic seating from local cultures and contexts. To me, this begins to connote the shared diversity and character of the Church and Duboce community.” I’d be interested to see how this turns out in real life.

Thanks, funcheapsf.

Saving Muni From Itself

Ignoring The Space Between Windows
Photo by eviloars

Finally.

SF Weekly’s cover story this week is a bajillion-word feature that finally does the myriad ills affecting Muni some justice. We won’t spill too many words here, so as to save your retinas. But please, if you ride and/or care about the future of public transit in your city, read this article.

The feature comes on the heels of the Board of Supervisors yesterday rejecting a motion to strike next month’s 10 percent service cuts (via Streetsblog SF) based on violations of state environmental regulations. And, for what it’s worth, Matier and Ross blame the operators union (exactly the kind of finger-pointing and blame-gaming the SF Weekly article disparages … the problems with Muni are as complex as navigating SF streets in a 40-foot articulated, you guys).

(We apologize for yet another interruption from our regular, storytelling programming. We feel this to be important enough. Plus, we’ll be back shortly with more wild tales of life aboard the mobile circus that is Muni.)

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