Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Photo by Flickr user Omer Simkha
The next morning as I was walking under the 90 degrees heat to the Coloseum, who do I see but the same woman from the bus, leading a group of Chinese tourists, speaking in fluent Chinese to explain the history of the Coloseum! I pretended not to recognize her.
The experience on the bus really soured me for a moment on Rome. This leads me to wonder: what kind of impression on our city do visitors get from riding Muni?
Art by Nate1
Details:
Happy Hour at Secession
Friday July 23, 2010, 6:30 – 9:30pm
OUTBOUND: Street art & design shows off its symbols, colors, and shout outs to culture at Secession.
Both sides of the Bay represent! The link that holds the bay together – transportation, bridges, media, and graffiti. Our gallery remixes graf into art for your home. Spray paint, stencils, and signature looks make each hand-picked item in our collection a must-see.
Photo by Flickr user Steve Rhodes
A woman who was robbed by three males at a bus stop at Geary Boulevard and Spruce streets at 5:20 a.m. on July 11 asked her aggressors, who had snatched her purse, if they could let her keep her bus pass and identification card, according to Richmond Station police.
…In the end, however, the suspects appeared to have heeded her request. They ran off with a cell phone and credit cards, but then gave her back her purse before fleeing on Geary Boulevard, police said.
Read the rest of the story at the San Francisco Examiner.
Wow, I guess the Fast Pass price hike gave the thieves a tiny dose of sympathy?
Yes, you’ve heard it all the time. Be careful with your fancy electronics such as phones while on the Muni, especially while you’re riding through a sketchy part of town or on a sketchy line. But that caveat is becoming less and less the case.
I was on the 1 heading westbound coming home from Western Railway Museum today (7/16). The bus (5616) stopped at Sproule Street. Then, out of nowhere, a lady screams, “Help! That guy took my phone!”
I turned my head toward the window and saw a man who looked like he was in his 20s, with a hairstyle of Gavin Newsom (without the gel) and looked like Yvan Attai (the taxi driver in Rush Hour 3). Other than that, he was wearing a black sweater turtleneck and black jeans.
After he ran off, the lady ran after him only to stop short of the alley. A couple of people from the bus went to her, and deliberated on what just happened. The rest of the bus, however, was talking about how young he looked.
What about the driver? Oh, he didn’t do anything except he answered a passenger’s question of what happened. No call to Central Control. Nothing.
After a minute, we pulled off, and as I looked into the alley, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I run after him?” The answer was not common sense, but it was because I felt an anger, an unexplainable, intolerable anger.
So, a word of caution: NEVER EVER EVER USE YOUR PHONE ON PUBLIC TRANSIT. NOT EVEN ON COMMUNITY SERVICE ROUTES. The lowlifes who roam Muni all day looking for someone to prey on make me sick. And I’m sure they make you sick too. That is, unless you’re one of those lowlifes.
Photo by Brandon Doran
This amazing photo by Brandon Doran reminded me: The Transbay Terminal, long a bastion of transit and bodily fluids, will be closing next month. As Doran says, “The old terminal is smelly, dirty, and outdated, but it definitely has grit and character.”
Services will be moved to a temporary terminal located nearby, on Folsom Street (bounded by Main, Howard, and Beale streets). The new Transbay Transit Center is scheduled to open in 2017.
Photo by tweetsweet
In Muni news this week:
Yes, there will be two Muni ballot measures for us this November. More on that later.
For now, kick back, relax, and enjoy the decidedly un-July-like weather this weekend. See you next week!
Photo by sxl
Photo by telmo32
Photo by davitydave