Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Things that were better in the ’70s: Star Wars, hair, and … BART uniforms. Check out this amazing photo from BART’s Twitter account (@SFBART). These BART uniforms from the 1970s might be even better than flight attendant uniforms. The bows, the super fly collar, and that fabulous tie. Can we please bring them back?
Want more groovy blast from the past? Check out this 1980s Muni metro birthday party (we even have a video!)
Where did San Francisco’s streetcar lines go before our time? Designer Chris Arvin used information from the SFMTA photo archive, OpenSFHistory, and two other historic books to create an interactive map of our city’s public transit history. You can choose a decade—1940s or 1960s and hover over the map to see old streetcar routes. Arvin created the map using MapBox.
When you hover over the map, you might see some unfamiliar streetcar route names (some of them featured on Randolph Ruiz’s 1932 street car map).
Arvin shared some thoughts with Hoodline about what motivated him to create the map:
Since I’ve moved to San Francisco and fallen in love with the city, I’ve caught glimpses of the history of our public transit in many places—SFMTA’s posters at transit stops, sites like Old SF (and Hoodline!) and even seeing the partial remnants of tracks in the road in Potrero. There’s something I love about seeing old photos of street corners I immediately recognize, but in such a different context.
Gotta love people who love San Francisco! You can read the rest of the interview on Hoodline and play with the map here.
Update/correction: Cynthia has let us know that the bird seen above is a raven, not a crow. The headline stands, though, because I said it does.
She wrote about her experience with the bird on Muni over on Medium.com. Have a read!
Original post: Via the Twitters, Muni rider Cynthia had a rather unexpected fellow passenger over the weekend:
“TFW a crow flies into your bus and becomes your new best friend.”
All I can think is, What would I do/think if a crow wanted to friend me? Would it mean I was at death’s door and the bird was just biding time until he could devour my entrails? More like, WHAT ELSE COULD IT POSSIBLY MEAN?
In San Francisco Embarcadero Bart station today, officers pinned down black youth & punched him in the face #BLM pic.twitter.com/zNHlRBwphM
— William Fitzgerald (@william_fitz) July 30, 2016
Update (10:10 a.m.): A BART spokesperson said in a series of tweets that there had been a report of a possible armed robbery and that a 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer. The case has been referred to internal affairs for investigation and apparently there is footage of the incident. At least one of the officers involved was wearing a body camera.
@AmyAlex63 call of “possible armed robbery” w/ detailed description of suspect. 22 yo booked resisting,battery of officer. Case w/ IA now.
— SFBART (@SFBART) July 30, 2016
@AmyAlex63 PD reports there is also officer worn camera footage of incident. This will all be part of IA investigation.
— SFBART (@SFBART) July 30, 2016
Original post: In the video above and other videos found on the Hunger For Justice SF Facebook page, BART police are seen last night subduing a young black man in handcuffs at the Embarcadero BART station. The officers then punched the young man while he was on the ground in handcuffs.
In response to Friday’s incident, Hunger For Justice SF has planned a protest today at 2 p.m. at Embarcadero Station to demand that SFPD release the young men.
BART’s ridership is at an all-time high, and the agency reminds us in this commonsense video on how to survive a crowded BART train. I hope at least a few more people will now actually put their backpacks between their feet on a crowded train!
Other tips include riding the first or last train, offering your seat to riders in need, and for god’s sake, don’t try to force the door open. Even if it doesn’t hold up the train, you’ll die a thousand deaths from the shade that your fellow riders will be throwing at you.
Thanks to your contribution, we have a few more tips to add:
Got any other tips for surviving BART? Our inbox (muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com) is wide open!
How would you like a new BART station? District 9 supervisor candidate Joshua Arce is announcing his new plan this morning for the south of Cesar Chavez area of the Mission, and it involves a new BART station. No, not the movie set BART station in the photo above; Arce wants to add a new BART station on Mission and 30th streets.
Arce is set to announce his “Mission South of Cesar Chavez Sustainable Neighborhood Plan” with California Assemblyman David Chiu and BART Board Director Nicholas Josefowitz. His press release says that the plan will “build thousands of units of housing affordable for all San Franciscans, provide long term support for small businesses.”
The event will be held at the Safeway Parking Lot (3350 Mission St.) at 10 a.m. today.