Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Had to link rec this one. Apparently Plug1 at WhatI’mSeeing.com kinda sorta forgot how, like, Muni Diaries is the one-stop shop for all things Muni, and went and, you know, posted this about a run-in with an ornery Muni employee today on their own, ahem, awesome website.
All’s forgiven, Plug1.
Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the stimulus bill, which will provide much-needed mass transit funds. Elana Schor at TPM detailed the mass-transit funding in the bill, which still awaits watering-down debate in the Senate.
Closer to home, SFist_Dan gives us all a much-needed update on the state of TransLink. Put it this way — it’s running about as well as Muni is.
Greg Dewar adds more information to Wednesday evening’s incident in the Sunset involving a car getting pummeled by the N. Greg extended his post with a pretty scary olfactory incident of his own witness later that night. Greg also offered up a seemingly great idea to avoid transit-funding cuts, one he scribbled down at a bar a few years ago, to boot.
KPIX tells us BART’s decision to hire big-name lawyers to conduct a probe into the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant.
And SFGate reports of one example of confusing Muni signage. Word of the wise to SFGate: While technically accurate, this is the tip of iceberg. Read: All things NextBus.
If you know of news we missed, let us know!
Greg Dewar reports of a car that got smashed on the N tracks out in the Sunset, thereby snarling traffic coming out of the downtown corridor.
Here’s a photo, courtesy of Greg:
We don’t know whose fault it was, so, everyone, cars, peds, Muni operators, be careful out there, eh?
It’s been a busy few days, mostly with up-and-down news concerning transit budgets. Greg at N Judah pointed to a possible sign of hope amongst the doom and gloom of DC/Sacto cuts to Muni, while on the national level, TPM, Transit for America, and Matt Yglesias all discussed the cutbacks mass transit is suffering as the so-called stimulus bill keeps getting watered down in Congress.
KPIX and SFist continued their coverage of the fallout from last month’s BART Police fatal shooting, including some new footage of the Fruitvale incident.
And finally, in our favorite local transit-drama story of the week (so far), we have reports of Mayor Newsom in France extolling the virtues of high-speed rail (yes, yes, we’ve been saying so all along), then comes news that Newsom has ordered a temporary halt of the Transbay Terminal (which would serve as the terminus for said high-speed rail) construction project. And conveniently for us, Greg from N-Judah tars and feathers Newsom for giving French high-speed rail a stroke while virtually ignoring Muni here at home. Come to think of it, can San Francisco even be called the governor’s mayor’s home any more?
As always, if you’ve got more news from the past three or four days that should be mentioned here, let us know.
I was heading home Friday afternoon from a very fruitful jaunt to Thrift Town. I entered the 16th St. Mission BART station, and was delighted to discover a good-looking guy playing some kind of rock music solo on his cello. I’m a sucker for rock cello, so I leaned against a wall near him to listen.
That, unfortunately, is when I spotted the guy who had wedged himself between the trashcan and the support column in the breezeway. He was dressed in jeans and a rain poncho, and his hands were deep in his jeans. I don’t mean in his jeans pocket; I mean in his jeans.
Next to me, one of the emergency doors opened and a janitor stepped through with a mop and bucket full of soapy water.
Welcome to the first of what we (who have day jobs) hope will be a semi-regular feature on Muni Diaries: The Transit-News Digest. The aim is to compile these lists every few days or so. Yes, some of these stories have been commented on already on the site, but for what it’s worth …
And as always, let us know if you have news we missed!
Construction affecting 31BX, 38, 43, Jan. 26-Feb. 16, 2009
Riders will pay for BART budget deficit
Regarded criminal attorney to defend ex-BART cop
Fare evaders beware — no cuts planned to Muni inspectors
Muni pares back service on new CultureBus line