Off the Hook! Muni Diaries Fast Pass T-Shirts

If you need one more reason to go to Muni Diaries Live tomorrow at the Make-Out Room, here’s one: the brand spankin’ new Muni Diaries Fast Pass T-shirts, hot off the presses, modeled here by our lovely Tara Ramroop.

With the type A Fast Pass being phased out Monday, what better way to memorialize our beloved montly passes than these shirts? They are designed by New Skool‘s Nate1, who is also an in-house artist at Secession Art and Design in the Mission.

We’ll be selling Muni Diaries T-shirts at Muni Diaries Live tomorrow with a show discount. You can also buy these shirts, sweatshirts, and Fast Pass baby onesies at Secession Art and Design.

Take a closer look at Nate’s handywork:

That’s some serious awesome sauce right there.

My Disability on Muni

katie

Like all of us, Katie has a unique perspective. But hers might be unfamiliar to you. Read on …

Having a mobility impairment is hard anywhere. The hills and public transit system unique to San Francisco add further complication for those of us with broken bodies. I’m missing half of my right foot because of a motorcycle wreck. I have a skin graft, nerve damage, and phantom pains in tissue that don’t exist anymore.

I ride Muni every day. It’s important I get a seat–if I stand all the way from Taraval at Sunset to Van Ness, the rest of my day is ruined. 20 minutes of balancing on a mangled foot causes anywhere from 12 to 72 hours of pain. I use my cane every morning. When I can grab a seat, sitting in the handicapped seating is stressful.

I get on the train in the Sunset/Parkside district and ride it all the way in. My disability is largely invisible unless I’m barefoot or wearing a skirt that exposes my scar-covered right leg. I get dirty looks from older riders when I don’t get up to allow them a seat; I look like a perfectly healthy 22-year-old woman. I sit in the seat, repeat to myself “you’re handicapped and have a right to sit here” and stare at my foot-and-a-half while clutching my cane with white knuckles.

If someone asks, I explain that I am handicapped; that usually kills any discussion. Only once has someone decided to inflict themselves on me and made me “prove” my disability. After taking off my shoe and asking that my medical privacy be respected, the rider in question turned beet red and got off at the next stop.

Monday morning, I wasn’t able to get a seat. I spent the entire train ride being flung around by inertia. I fell into the person to my left three times. She yelled “Bitch” at me, then turned to look at me and saw my cane. She then muttered “oh, sorry” and moved 2 inches to the right.

I tipped into the able-bodied young man who was in the handicapped seating. He looked up at me, saw the cane in my hand, made eye contact with me and shrugged, then turned up his headphones and pulled his hood over his eyes.

Six hours after my train ride that morning, my entire body was still in searing pain. I had to hold on with my right arm only, as my left arm has tendinitis in the wrist and elbow in addition to being the hand I hold my cane in. My right ankle, calf, knee, hip, shoulder, upper back, and neck were all in various levels of pain and swelling due to not being able to sit that morning. Any pain medications strong enough to combat the pain and swelling caused by the morning’s ride were so strong that I was too strung out to work.
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The World Series Begins: Go, Giants!


Baby Kimmy and mom Shirley spotted on an inbound M-Ocean View.

Jackelyn is out surveying the scene on Muni ahead of Game 1. Above and below are some shots she captured.


Not crowded just yet, but the energy is off the charts!


The crowds on an inbound T-Third around 230 p.m.

Below, from @ChrisGembinski, “Even Muni is cheering on @SFGiants”

AgentAkit took the next photo in 2002, the last time the Giants went to the World Series. Of course, Muni Diaries hadn’t been launched at that time. And some of you probably didn’t live in SF yet.

2002 World Series - Muni Metro

Akit says, “On the second night [of the ’02 series], the train going home was crowded, but someone on the train started singing ‘Bye Bye Baby’ and everyone on the train sung along.” Sadly, that Giants team ended up losing the World Series.

Check out these photos of Giants fans on Muni from last weekend, when the team won the National League pennant. If you have pictures of Giants fans on Muni before or after today’s game, send them our way!

And here’s hoping Muni runs smoothly (heh) and the Giants do a better job this time!

I got big butt and I cannot lie…


Photo submitted by Muni rider Joey

All right. We’ve talked about guys who sit on the bus with their business splayed. You know, the two-seat-takin’, man-sittin’ guys. But rider Joey saw a fellow passenger on the 45 last week who took it to the next level: taking up three seats and giving her a special view first thing in the morning on her way to work.

What was this guy thinking?! Actually, we know:

“What do you want from me? I’m a guy. Yeah, a big honkin’ guy, and that’s why I just gotta sit here next to you with my legs spread wide apart because I have this equally big honkin’ mass between my legs. I can see you’re aggravated that my right thigh is on my seat and yours, but what can I do? Get a smaller package? You’ll have to ask god about that one.”

(We miss you, Muni Mind Reader!)

In the mean time, dear Sirs Spread-A-Lot, please remember: Don’t be a space evader:


Photo by PinkTentacles.com

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