Protesting the War in Iraq by Stopping Muni in Its Tracks? (UPDATES)

fprotestSecond update: ABC 7 now has a slide show of the war protest up.

First update: Looks like SFGate is the first bigger operation (the kind that pays its staff) to get the story of the Market Street protest online. Nice work, Rubenstein. We still want to know what you think of this sort of protest. Tell us in comments.

Original post: Are you downtown? Do you see this happening?

A couple of tweets on the event:

dreamnotoftoday Four protesters removed from train track and arrested. Tracking now flowing on Market. #sf #iraq

californiabeat DEVELOPING: Anti-War protest blocking Downtown SF intersection at Market & Montgomery Streets. Police preparing for arrests.

Here’s a post with photos from last year’s (pre-President Obama, mind you) Iraq war protest.

What do you think of these Iraq war protests, where people are lying across the F tracks on Market? Let us know your feelings on this, the anniversary of the war, in comments.

Photo by Twitterer dreamnotoftoday

Transit Digest — Where’s SFPD on Muni, and Is the $2 Fare Coming? [UPDATE]

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Update: Per the item below about SFPD’s responsibilities to Muni, SF Appeal has the dirty details.

Original post: At yesterday’s public hearing, details of Muni’s budgeting and funding got a lot of people up in arms. Now that Muni is looking at a huge deficit, it’s time to drill down to where the money goes. Apparently various city departments are charging Muni for services, to the outrage of Supervisor Bevan Dufty. Among the charges to Muni: SFPD actually bills Muni $12 million to “help fund traffic enforcement division” and provide “police services,” which leads SF Appeal to ask: “Have you ever seen SFPD on Muni?

Hmmm. Nope, I haven’t either.

Everyone wants to take a closer look at these “work orders” from other city departments, but to balance the budget, we’re hearing talks of fare hikes again.

In other news, Tom Prete has a roundup of San Francisco’s Central Subway discussion at the SPUR forum, and if you live in the Sunset, there is a public meeting next Wednesday about repairs on the N-Judah and L-Taraval lines.

Photo by Flickr user allaboutgeorge.

Your Muni Meltdown™, Brought to You by Twitter

Something nasty happening in the western half of town, as reported on Twitter. Some choice Tweets:

njudah YIKES! Folks, if you’re downtown and need to get home, just plan on MUNI being a big hassle…get a coffee or a cocktail and wait it out.

munidiaries looks pretty ugly out west: http://is.gd/n5QA

AgentNano Looks like there are also delays on MUNI with the N-Judah. Bus Bridge in place between Ocean Beach and at least Sunset, maybe 19th.

rowenoftc Sad N-Judah fail in progress. http://twitpic.com/21fh3

AgentNano MUNI underground 15-30 minute delays on the outbound K, L, M, and T lines, due to equipment problems.

jonsnyder Been stuck underground on the N for like 30 min now. What’s up?

If you know more, or have stories of getting stuck in the fracas, let us know in comments.

Your Turn: Ask Muni’s Judson True

Is there a passenger quota on buses? What is Muni doing to improve its on-time performance? How can we get cleaner buses? Why does the back door never open when I want to get off but always opens when people are cheating the fare? And what was that red puddle on the 14?

These are just some of the questions percolating in our comments section, in our Twitter feed, and on our minds as we ride the bus every day. We know there are a ton more questions out there, so we asked Judson True, SFMTA’s media relations manager, for a little one-on-one. He will be answering some of your most pressing questions in his first Muni Diaries interview. So, what do you want to know?

We will be taking your questions and some of our own, so tell us what you want to know in the comments section by next Friday, March 20, or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Stay tuned!

Transit News Digest 3.11.09

In our last Transit News Digest, we failed to note that former Muni chief Emilio Cruz is back at it, leading a joint-venture of that drastically underfunded Central Subway Project thingy, as reported by SF Appeal yesterday. Thanks for noticing, Rescue Muni.

SF Appeal has another great piece of original reporting out today uncovering the SFMTA’s difficulties in having enough drivers on-board (ha!) to drive the allotted number of buses each day. Nice work on the article, Matt. Stay tuned, Muni Diaries readers, for your chance to ask Muni anything that’s on your mind (well, almost anything).

SF Streets Blog has an excellent piece up today asking the non-rhetorical question: What can the city do make the MTA more accountable? A great read, and be sure to share your ideas with them.

The Examiner digs deeper into just how much of a waste the ill-fated Culture Bus was, and SF Citizen isn’t far behind, comparing the yellow buses to NASA’s space shuttle program. Ouch!

And in happier news (at least for transit nerds like us), KPIX reports that about 8 percent of California’s expected $50 billion in stimulus money will go toward transportation projects. No clear word on how much of that will be for public transit, and how much we can expect here in the Bay Area. And the percentage could always be higher. But we’re happy to see the green river flowing again …

As always, if you’ve got tips, suggestions, or diaries of your own, send them our way.

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