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.)

Sonic Enhancement on Muni


Video by RobotGirlAttacks

Yesterday, we tweeted SFist’s Afternoon Palette Cleanser, “Opera” on the Muni. There’s so much to say about that, but I think SFist’s Jay summed it up just fine:

“[T]his is a town that loves wackiness and loves to interact on public transportation.”

Damn, that would make a nice Muni Diaries tagline, dontcha think?

Anyhow, to continue that theme, we bring you this (improv) ditty from the back of the bus. My favorite part is the girl near the camera, who seems none too thrilled, but then starts bobbing her head around 0:36. Rhythms can be infectious that way, eh?

Muni Service Cuts: Illegal?

Rain, rain, go away
Photo by Flickr user ecastro

Is Muni’s proposed service reduction legal? That’s the topic of discussion at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the Examiner reports.

Transit activist David Pilpel filed an appeal with the Board of Supervisors saying the cuts, which save about $29 million, violate the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, according to KCBS.

In a nutshell, Pilpel’s appeal says that the SFMTA should have conducted a state-mandated environmental review of the proposed 10 percent service cuts. Meanwhile, the MTA says that they don’t need to because they’ve declared a fiscal emergency. We’ll keep you updated.

How to really sleep on Muni

Sleep Guy
Photo by Flickr user SFNoob

We’ve posted about sleeping on the bus before — in fact, rider Kelsey reported that there is a special jacket to help you sleep on public transportation and even a Facebook group.  One of my favorite sleeping on the bus moments was this adorable post of Muni Love. You know what, I love this picture so much that I am going to post it here again:

In any case, rider Alexia caught a picture of a rider who took sleeping on the bus to the next level (see her picture below). We really hope this passenger was just getting comfortable and not feeling unwell…

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