Adorable 1960s Sign for a Retiring Cable Car Driver

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Is there anything sweeter? We found this adorable old sign from @kjerahus on Instagram, whose great grandfather was a conductor on the California Street cable car:

Sign from my great grandfather’s retirement in 1964. He was a conductor on the California St cable cars for years and worked on trolleys and trains since 1917.

Here’s a few more nostalgic finds:
Muni’s first schedule
Streetcar No. 1
Muni rapid in 1966

Got any more old timey finds? Tag us on Instagram at #munidiaries.

Muni Diaries Live: 6 stories, 2 street birds, and 1 incredible evening

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Photo by Justina Wu

Last weekend we experienced what can best be described as a love letter to San Francisco when we saw more than 200 of you pack into the Elbo Room at Muni Diaries Live. I can’t say that we’ve recovered from election results, and perhaps we never will, but it warms my heart just knowing that there are still people who will cheer for your bus line and root for your success in getting a late-night transfer! Let’s count down the many ways that we celebrated getting from point A to point B.

The photo above is one of the surprising and awesome moments from the show: Grand News Stand owner Courtney Riddle shared her dream of becoming a streetcar driver one day. Look closely and you’ll see that she’s embroidered the Muni worm on her cardigan, and her dress is made from fabric that has streetcar prints on it! That’s some serious dedication. When she shared her streetcar dream with her partner, he won the Best Boyfriend awards by writing a rap song in her honor.

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Photo by Melvin Wong

I mean…how much more awesome can people get?

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Vintage Muni: Geek out on this Bay Area transit ruin porn

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Sure, everything feels like this right now. But there is is still beauty to be had if we all look closely — or if you’re, say, just wandering around in Colusa County.
Hat tip to Jack, who found the mother lode of Bay Area ruin porn by doing just that. He said this appeared to be a facility where they restore buses, but he’s keeping the exact location close to the vest to protect the undoubtedly very cool work being done here.
This treasure trove featured old Muni buses — including the 18-Sloat pictured above; the artist currently known as the 18-46th Avenue, the East Bay’s AC Transit, and even the ye olde Key System.

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[VIDEO] BART passenger hopes Assyrian speaker on train gets deported


If this week (year?) has taught us anything, it’s that there is fear all around us, even in our little Bay Area-shaped bubble.

We originally heard about the video from Emily T. Green (@emilytgreen) on Twitter, whose friend Ivet Lolham posted this video on her Facebook page.

I was on the BART going home after a long day and this lady right here heard me talk Assyrian on the phone. You can see what happened next…

Here’s my best attempt at transcribing what the seated woman is saying in the video:

“This woman is a stalker from the Middle East. She’s a Middle Eastern terrorist, and she’s terrorizing citizens like me. And she will probably get deported. And this bastard (points to someone off-camera behind her) … oh, you shut the fuck up. You’re all stalkers. Don’t lie.

(woman taping says, “This is gonna go on Facebook”).

“I don’t give a fuck. Nobody’s gonna watch it. What I would like to say right now is, this crazy person is stalking people, with all these other stalkers. And anybody watching on Facebook knows the ugly, dirty thing you do every year playing the dead pool game (says something indecipherable) and you’re standing here harassing me and I think you’re an ugly little pig who might get deported and I pray that you do.”

We’re in touch with Emily, a Chronicle reporter, and Ivet to find out more about what happened. We’ll update this post as needed.

Be careful out there, everybody.

How San Francisco’s transit ballot measures fared in this election

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Here’s how the transit ballot measures and BART Board of Director’s races fared (data according to SFGate):

  • Prop J (PDF), which would set aside funding (generated via the proposed sales tax increase in Prop K) for homelessness and transportation: passed
  • Prop K (PDF), which was a sales tax increase of $0.0075 to cover Prop J’s set aside: failed
  • Prop L (PDF), which would have shifted three of seven MTA Board appointments from the Mayor to the Board of Supervisors: failed
  • Prop RR, which was a $3.5 billion bond to repair and upgrade BART: passed
  • BART Board District 7: Lateefah Simon
  • BART Board District 9: Bevan Dufty

For more info, check out our Election Guide.

Photo by moppett65535 on Flickr

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