Tag: 1-California

Post-Chinese Parade Fight on the 1-California

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11623 Waiting with familiar Chinatown grocery bags in hand
Photo by geekstinkbreath

Tyler told us that he was assaulted on the 1-California by a man who tried to attack Tyler’s girlfriend and her daughter. Read his account here and please comment if you’ve encountered a similar situation on the bus.

After having waited more than 20 minutes for the 1-California to show up after the Chinese New Year Parade ended, my girlfriend, her 10-year-old daughter, and I got on the bus (along with others at the stop at Sacramento and Polk). We made our way to the back of the bus and found a kind lady getting out of her seat. Not to give it up, but to get away from a drunk man harassing her. The man then pulled the stop cord for the next stop and got out of his seat.

You could smell the alcohol on his breath from five seats away — one of those riders, you know. I noticed when he got up from his seat that his left fist was clenched. I moved as far against the side seats as I could to avoid him, but I didn’t feel right. I saw him motion his fist toward my girlfriend who was standing in front of her sitting daughter, who was a drummer in the parade hours earlier. I squared myself hoping he was going to just walk past and get off with out incident. He didn’t.

When my girlfriend turned her back to him to look down instinctively at her daughter, the drunk man drew back his fist and lunged it toward the little girl. Without hesitation, I stepped in front of him, taking the punch square on the bone below my left eye. He then fell backwards and tried to lunge again at me. I deflected his advance and he started running backwards trying to escape off the bus.

Who on earth tries to assault a 10-year-old and her mother? I’m sore and have a black eye that I’m nursing with a cold container of mint chocolate chip Breyer’s ice cream.

After the fact, I filed a report with SFPD, but if anyone was there and would contribute their two cents, please do.

Riders, be aware, be alert, and if you are going to be noble, be prepared.

Category: News Tags:

Letting out at Sacramento and Fillmore

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Project 365 — 5/365 — Sacramento Fillmore Muni Stop
Photo by Roshan Vyas

Roshan has this disgusting and far-too-common story to share:

This shelter is at Sacramento and Fillmore in Pacific Heights, in front of the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. One morning last summer, when the old shelter was in place, I was walking to the stop to take the 1 to work. The sun was still rising and blinding anyone walking up Sacramento, so I was squinting when I approached and noticed no one was actually standing under the shelter. Usually one or two people are, even on a nice day.

As I got closer, I noticed why no one was standing there: In the middle of the covered shelter area, someone had left a giant pile of poop. This was no dog dropping either. This was human. Everyone was rightly standing outside the shelter and I joined them there.

Checking my phone while waiting for the 1, I noticed the following email from my other half, who had left for work 10 minutes earlier.

Subject: Alert! Poop at muni stop!!!!!
Body: Watch out!

Indeed. It was quite the harrowing experience and made for a great story.

As the day went on, questions like “Who would do that?!” and “Who is responsible for cleaning that up?!” came up. Was it the City? Was it a neighborhood association? Was it Marc?

When I got home that night, the pile was gone, but a giant stain remained. Not only that, some of the substance was also left behind as footprints walking away from the pile. Someone had accidentally stepped right in it! How could that happen?! My theory is that it was someone getting off the back of the 1 during the day, who just jumped off the Muni looking forward to getting some Peet’s coffee and maybe a $50 dog bowl at Jonathan Adler.

Little did they know that their day, their summer, was about to be ruined.

That person’s experience is why I now take a moment to look down before jumping off the Muni. If you are waiting behind me, now you know.

You were warned.

Share your Muni stories, photos, video, and ephemera here on Muni Diaries.

Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: ,

Muni Mobile Spinach Deals

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Editor’s Note: Thank you for supporting Muni Spinach, a new deal program managed by Mobile Spinach. The Mobile Spinach Muni deals have ended for the year. If you have trouble using Mobile Spinach, email John Vitti at john@mblspn.com. Meanwhile check out our current deals by Scoutmob. If you have other deals you’d like to see on Muni Diaries, please email us!

A Muni commute can be a long ordeal, unless there’s an oyster shot waiting for me at the end of it — such was the case when I took the 22 to Elite Cafe a few Tuesdays ago. Or maybe the ride on the 1-California would seem shorter if I’m looking forward to the tea leaf salad waiting for me at Burma Superstar.

And all of that would seem a lot sweeter if these restaurants would give me half off the price…

My day dreaming about food aside, this is really to tell you that we’ve teamed up with Mobile Spinach to bring you a huge set of deals on a couple of Muni lines! We all already take the bus from point A to B to C and beyond, which is all the more reason to check out the businesses on your Muni line to see if there’s a coupon you can use.

The participating merchants are pretty awesome: the long list includes Chow and Chez Maman ($20 for $40 of food and drinks), and discount for drinks at  Blue Bottle Coffee, Elixir, and Blackbird.

Mobile Spinach is a social mobile coupon company, offering mobile cash that you can store on your phone and deals on local merchants. Their offers are loaded onto your mobile device and redeemable at select locations around the city. The mobile cash never expires – say if you buy the $20 for $40 of food and drinks at Burma Superstar, Mobile Spinach loads your coupon onto your phone, and you can redeem it at the restaurant after you polish off the roti prata.

Mobile Spinach is calling this new campaign is called Muni Spinach. To kick things off, the deals are located at various restaurants, cafes, and shops along the 1-California, 22-Fillmore, 38-Geary, and N-Judah lines. We’ve listed all of the offers, organized by line and stop. Click the merchant you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to the appropriate page so you can buy the deal. All vouchers can be purchased directly from your iPhone, iPad, Android, or BlackBerry Torch. Each voucher is only available to purchase for a limited time, but can be redeemed at any time.

Note: The deals are programmed especially for Android devices, iPhones, iPads, and BlackBerry Touches.

Category: News Tags: , , , ,

Muni thefts can happen anywhere, anytime

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Muni Accident At 3rd And Market

Whole Wheat Toast shares this cautionary tale.

Yes, you’ve heard it all the time. Be careful with your fancy electronics such as phones while on the Muni, especially while you’re riding through a sketchy part of town or on a sketchy line. But that caveat is becoming less and less the case.

I was on the 1 heading westbound coming home from Western Railway Museum today (7/16). The bus (5616) stopped at Sproule Street. Then, out of nowhere, a lady screams, “Help! That guy took my phone!”

I turned my head toward the window and saw a man who looked like he was in his 20s, with a hairstyle of Gavin Newsom (without the gel) and looked like Yvan Attai (the taxi driver in Rush Hour 3). Other than that, he was wearing a black sweater turtleneck and black jeans.

After he ran off, the lady ran after him only to stop short of the alley. A couple of people from the bus went to her, and deliberated on what just happened. The rest of the bus, however, was talking about how young he looked.

What about the driver? Oh, he didn’t do anything except he answered a passenger’s question of what happened. No call to Central Control. Nothing.

After a minute, we pulled off, and as I looked into the alley, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I run after him?” The answer was not common sense, but it was because I felt an anger, an unexplainable, intolerable anger.

So, a word of caution: NEVER EVER EVER USE YOUR PHONE ON PUBLIC TRANSIT. NOT EVEN ON COMMUNITY SERVICE ROUTES. The lowlifes who roam Muni all day looking for someone to prey on make me sick. And I’m sure they make you sick too. That is, unless you’re one of those lowlifes.

Category: diaries, reflection Tags:

A misfired projectile in Tiffany’s airspace

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1-california-clay-and-powell
Photo by christine.ricks

100 Muni StoriesJesse told a two-minute version of this story at Muni Diaries Live! two Fridays ago, and there was no question that he was the crowd favorite of the evening. People couldn’t get enough of Jesse so we asked him to write his story in full here for you.

I was heading home from work, a task that takes about 45 minutes and one transfer. In the afternoons, I prefer to take the 1-California, as it has consistently proven to be the gentler, cleaner, more Asian cousin of the consistently troubling 38-Geary. Little did I know that this was to be no ordinary ride home. This was a bus ride that, even years later, is still burned into the memory portions of my brain (those are somewhere in the upper middle, right?). When dealing with Muni, I suppose one should always expect the unexpected.

As I approached the bus shelter, I heard a loud, angry voice taking someone to task for being a “Lazy-Assed Cracker.” Soon it was revealed that the man attached to the voice was a tall fellow who would sporadically refer to himself in the third person. His name was Leroy. Leroy seemed to be pushing 60, though I suppose he could have been younger. One thing was for sure; Leroy was not new to the streets. He was crusty in a way that is almost special. It seemed that Leroy had maintained a long and devout abstinence to water, since Y2K was a genuine threat. Leroy’s hands were swollen, coated in years and layers of sedimentary funky junk and it dawned on me that Leroy’s claws have quite possibly touched many of the same public surfaces that mine have over the years (I resolved at once to stop biting my nails). His T-shirt advertised the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and was so timeworn that maintaining its structure must have been accomplished through ancient magic long since forgotten.

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Category: 100 Muni Stories, diaries, Funny: Muni LOLs, Muni Diaries Live, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: , ,
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