A musical aboard the 71-Haight/Noriega
Seventy-One from memetic field on Vimeo.
Memetic (coincidentally, the winner of our “Be our 1,000th follower on Twitter” contest) sent us this poignant video. It’s called “Seventy-One,” and it’s neat.
Muni Party recap, with photos
We got a report Tuesday about the Muni party earlier this month. Quite the rowdy scene, as the video above attests. Here it is, from the organizers’ perspective:
We are excited to say that the Muni Party (November 12, 2009) was a great success. We were greeted at the M-Train stop at 19th and Holloway with a huge crowd of people, photographers, press, and police. We boarded the two car M-Train with 150+ people, and filled up the whole space. We rode toward downtown with high spirits screaming, chanting, and even singing songs by Journey and James Brown. On the way, we even picked up some bystanders who were waiting at Muni stations. We rode all the way to Montgomery Station, and as a group walked to the Muni Party After Party at Otis Lounge, chanting all the way. We had a great time dancing and mingling at the after party. It was an awesome experience, and we are planning on doing this again early next year. This time, we are going to have a ‘secret’ Muni Party by keeping the exact location secret until the day of the event so we can have a little more freedom. The amazing part of the whole Muni Party event is that we did not spend any money in planning this event, just lots of time, and help from sites such as Muni Diaries. Thanks for all of your support and helping us make this all possible!
MUNI PARTY
Brianna & John
BART Photos: The Ground View
Photo by Flickr user Alex H.
Pretty slow week in BARTlandia. Aside from everyone taking a collective deep breath following the BART cop/drunken guy/smashed glass incident from last weekend, and “news” that BART would be running longer trains for everyone-shop-go-nuts day, yeah, slow.
Enjoy these photos from the BART Photos Flickr pool, and let them courier you into a totally rad weekend.
Photo by Flickr user Jonathan.vail
Photo by Flickr user mikedthorn
Photo by Flickr user Alex H.
Muni a smoother ride than AAU shuttle …
… but riding either is just such a San Francisco treat. Spotted this art, signifying some sort of arts-appreciation something-or-other, on an Academy of Art shuttle Tuesday. I have to say this: It was one bumpy-as-fuck ride. At least Muni buses have shock absorbers. I think.
Blackberry Breaks
Photo by Flickr user rwkvisual
Editor’s Note: Rider Eric sent in this diary on the 6-Parnassus, where he couldn’t help but notice a heart wrenching exchange on the Blackberry phone next to him.
It’s 6:30pm and I’m getting on the 6 bus to go home. Usually, on my way to work, I catch the underground, but coming home, unless I’m getting produce at the market, I like to get door to fucking door.
I nab my favorite seat-towards the back on the right just behind the back doors. I forgo my iPod for a change, look in my bag for a magazine I know I don’t have, check my watch, and slide down into the glossy brown plastic seat.
I look out the window as we pass Powell. There’s the standard crowd with pocket cameras and fanny packs circling around a group of street performers corralling the tourists like a herd. I think back to these two boys I once saw dancing for money on the F train in Brooklyn. One was moving to the beat of the other’s hands. As we approached the stop at Smith and 9th, they came around with a hat and people pulled out change without even looking up from the newspaper. When the doors opened, they ran to the next car. I watched them through the connecting car windows as the train went underground, the other one now dancing. I look back at the performers at Powell and shrug off the thought that I live in a town that wants to be a city.
I haven’t noticed it until now, but the guy next to me is fiercely thumbing away on his Blackberry. He’s young, unshaved, in ruffled jeans. I never understand why anyone would want a Blackberry if they weren’t a business man. It’s sort of like a 16 year old choosing to drive a Ford Taurus.
Did I mention how big and bright the fucking screen is on a Blackberry? So I can’t help but look over at what he’s typing, it’s practically in my face—“You look at things all wrong…that’s not what I meant at all”. He fires it off, drops the phone between his legs and stares ahead, wistfully.
30 seconds later, a buzzing tone comes from his lap. I try to make out what the message says, but he’s cradling the phone towards the window—unaware of me, but still hiding it. He reads it, lets out a sigh: this isn’t good.
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Recap of Monday’s Muni safety hearing
Photo by Flickr user Steve Rhodes
Our first attempt at spreading a Twitter hashtag goes straight to the dustbin of history. Oh, well. We tried.
Lucky for us (and you), there are some amazing blogs and great newspeople out there attending these middle-of-the-day hearings so that you can keep reading Muni Diaries and Perez stay at work and wish you weren’t. Here are some tidbits from a few:
(Streetsblog SF) Police enforcement on Muni is getting a major overhaul after years of inconsistent officer deployment. Under a revised Memorandum of Understanding between the Police Department and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, officers will be required to ride lines that most frequently have problems with crime. Station captains will now regularly present Muni crime statistics for their districts at Comstat meetings, where they will be grilled on why crime has increased or decreased. …
At the beginning of the hearing, which was called by Supervisor Bevan Dufty, several Muni riders told stories of experiencing and witnessing violent attacks and robberies on the city’s transit system. One rider, Tim Bishop, said he was attacked in January on a T-Third line vehicle by youths who were shouting anti-gay epithets. When he confronted them, he was beaten unconscious and repeatedly kicked in the head.
(City Insider, an SFGate blog) Deputy Police Chief John Murphy, Muni’s new security boss, detailed plans to significantly improve Muni safety. He said that as opposed to officers randomly boarding buses, a new Memorandum of Understanding between the police department and Muni outlines that officers will be deployed according to the “zone strategy” now used for all crime in the city. Basically, that means tracking crime hot spots on Muni and deploying officers accordingly.
And an audio report of the hearing, from KCBS.
So there you have it. Now that you’ve been a good online citizen and read these reports, how do you feel about Monday’s hearing?