Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Muni rider Bhautik Joshi submitted these awesome photos he took at the Muni depot at Bryant street. Bhautik said he used “tilt shift” lenses for these pictures – these are lenses that let the photographer control the perspective in the photos. I love the effect. Thank you, Bhautik!
See more of Bhautik’s Muni pictures after the jump.
The SFMTA is crackin’ down on yer ass. The Chronicle‘s Rachel Gordon reports on a near doubling of Muni’s catching fare evaders.
Photo: lukewho
Muni Diaries was, like many people, sad to learn that a souring economy and sluggish book sales in the electronic age have forced the imminent demise of a downtown literary wonderland — Stacey’s.
But we are quick to mourn, and we believe in picking up and moving on. Therefore, we’d like to take this opportunity to remind readers and riders that Green Apple in the Inner Richmond, our favorite librarie de la ville, is very much still open for business. You can get there on many Muni lines, including the 1, 2, 4, 38, 31, 33, and 44. Let us know if we missed any.
And let us know your favorite place to buy books in the city.
Photo: Raymond Yee
Update: KPIX reports that service has been restored to the N-Judah following this morning’s derailment.
Original post: CBS has the report of this morning’s N-Judah derailment. We’ll update as necessary. Anyone experience this? Let us know in comments.
You never know what you’re gonna learn when you take a leisurely walk in San Francisco.
Tara and I headed out to the ocean from 28th Avenue and Balboa the other day. We took Balboa, but decided to walk back up Cabrillo to see what was in a mixed-use development neither of us knew about. As we approached La Playa, we noticed some large signs behind a group of trees, topped by clown faces. Once we overcame our indignation that clown imagery would be so wantonly employed in public, we decided to inspect. It turns out the signs serve as a marker, a written history of Playland, which used to exist at that spot. That part we already knew. What we didn’t realize was the extensive street car and steam bus circuits that served the amusement park back in the day.
Matt Yglesias, prominent blogger of politics and public transportation, takes on what it means to be poor and the question of car ownership in our nation’s capital.
It’s a good, quick read. Many of the arguments Yglesias makes apply to our situation in San Francisco. I especially liked this bit:
The progressive move isn’t to keep subsidizing cars, but the reverse — to use congestion charges and performance parking fees to raise funds that improve the quality of service on the bus lines that poor people rely on.
I am starting to come around on tax incentives for folks to buy hybrids and other ultra-fuel-efficient cars. But even with such lures, the poor will be left out. Similarly, I’ve been a fan of congestion pricing for dense, urban areas, but not without adequate public transit already in place. That caveat prevents such a system from being just here in San Francisco under present circumstances, as Muni/BART are ill-equipped to deal with so many people choosing not to drive.
As I’ve said before, I’m hoping governments (especially federal) will reprioritize public transit and give it the funding it demands. True, more money alone won’t solve Muni’s problems. But shoring up the agency’s deficit can prevent fee hikes, a terrible idea in our current economic state. I’m excited that the incoming Obama administration is talking of exactly this kind of infrastructure funding. Now our new local government needs to get serious about overseeing big changes at SFMTA, and to help fund those changes.