The N-Judah Chronicles

This weekend has already gotten off to a great start with the SPECTACULAR weather we're having so far. This should be of benefit to all San Franciscans, but it also means that if you're attending Outside Lands, you won't freeze out west. However, we would direct any and all patrons of the MUNI to our longstanding PSA on personal grooming products as a courtesy to other riders.

Also, don't forget, that today is Critical Sass Day, which sucks because it's super hot and a billion people are coming into town for the music festival. If you can, escape downtown as fast as you can, so you're not caught up in this maelstrom of selfishness. (Then again, Burning Man starts on Monday, so perhaps people are starting to leave town for it, thus making it a bit smaller than usual? One can hope).

Finally, since the weather is so great and it's my birthday tomorrow, I'm going to go light on posting this weekend. Barring a major MUNI fail (and not the usual nonsense) or something else of note, I'm going to leave the comments open on this post for people to report on anything particularly good or bad this weekend. I'll of course be on the Twitter armed with my iPhone as well for short posts + pictures.

In particular, if you're taking pictures, post them online and post the URL in the comments - surely with billions of people attending Outside Lands there has to be something of note to take a picture of.

Finally, I wanted to post this video of the always awesome Beth Spotswood's "Weekend What's Up" created by the always awesome VidSF.com folks. Have a great weekend and enjoy a sunny San Francisco!

Oh wait! SF Appeal has this live coverage online of Outside Lands - if you've got something to say about Outside Lands or whatever, go for it.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Quite a lot is happening this weekend. Not only is the weather expected to be hot and sunny, it's my birthday on Saturday (yay!) and we on the west side have the (in)famous Outside Lands Festival all weekend, starting Friday.

Last year I composed a quick guide to attractions around the festival, and posted and tweeted many MUNI fails that weekend as well. It seems the organizers have learned from last year, and have tried to mitigate the effect of millions of Tenacious D fans on the Park and our neighborhoods this year.

This year there are so many guides to the festival, it makes it even easier to do a round up of all the places you can get some really good information and plan your weekend accordingly. I'm not attending myself, unless of course I win tickets or something, but I will most likely either camp out on the deck on our roof and watch the masses flood MUNI with a cooler of cheap TJ's beer, or sell treats to drunken festival-goers at street-fair inflated prices for a few bucks.

So here are your guides for the weekend (click through for the list):

-The SF Appeal has a list of public transit options courtesy of MUNI. If you're worried about riding the fail whale, the festival has contracted with Bauer's to provide shuttle service from 4 locations as well. Whatever you do, don't even think about driving - DPT is going to be in ticket-writing heaven, assisted by pissed off homeowners and tenants who get their driveways blocked.

-Akit, of Akit's Complaint Department, has composed this well researched list of links and info, and points out that unlike last year, there is now a hotline for you to call with complaints or suggestions at 415 933-6901 (corrected). Thanks, Akit! Likewise, the Richmond SF Blog has similar info, and a map of road closures for you as well.

-If you don't feel like waiting in line for $9 beers, SFist informs us that the entire thing is going to be on YouTube (and there's even an iPhone app too? wow!) so you could just sit in your backyard, use your laptop, put up some portapotties and find some coyotes to start "doin' it", and pour yourself $9 worth of cheaper beer into your stadium cup and pretend you're there.

-Thanks to the magic of Google News Alerts, I came across the Breweventures Blog, and their guide to restaurants, etc. in the Outer Sunset. Last year, I published a similar guide for the Inner Sunset, and it mostly still applies.

If you have any tips for concert goers or westside residents, or just wanna sound off on something that's awesome or annoying, feel free to post in the comments section. Be nice and be sure to enjoy what looks to be wonderful weather this weekend here in San Francisco.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Harper, who's guest blogged here before, offers up his personal experience using TransLink since its rollout earlier this year. Everyone's experience is unique - this is simply one person's experience and is meant to foster discussion to ensure TransLink can be its best. This is just one person's POV, and if you have a different experience with Translink on MUNI or BART, please post it in the comments! That's the point of free and open discussion on Guest Blogger Wednesday!

Having experienced the ups and downs TransLink from May to July, I feel obligated to stand up on this soapbox and tell you that the TransLink system is not ready for exclusive use. MUNI is talking about phasing out our beloved, tree-killing FastPasses in 2010. This gives TransLink a few extra months to get their ship in shape, but some of my experiences have led me to feel the system is inherently flawed. Let me go over the three months I used my card and then I'll follow up with what TransLink and MUNI can do to improve the system.

I switched to TransLink for simple enough reasons. As a full-time student who lived on campus, I did not leave the house often though to warrant an actual FastPass and I was sick of having to gather the odd change to make the $1.50 fare (Remember those days?). I felt that eCash was the solution for me. I found out pretty quickly that it wasn't that great of a solution. First and foremost, the most accessible way to add money to your card is with their website.

They say on their site that money added on the site will show up on the card within 72 hours. Well yes, it does take three days at minimum, but at worst it could take 5 days or more (god forbid some of those days are weekends). Compounding this, you can't view your balance online. You either have to remember what the scanner flashed when you "tagged" your card or call their 1-888 number, which won't reflect any balance changes from within the last 24 hours. Your other option is to find an Add Value machine, which are only really available at the underground stations. So, the only obvious solution to the eCash problem is to set up "Autoload". Autoload will automatically add a sum of money to your card after you've gone below $10. You can set the amount you want TransLink to add, but the minimum is $20.

The second problem I encountered was a series of bus drivers and MUNI representatives who were completely clueless about the card and how it works. The training these people received seems to have been limited to "Someone is going to get onto your bus and tap a card against this thing and you can't leave until it beeps." Questions about how the card works, why the card isn't working, or anything else are met with shrugs.

Honestly, I can't blame them. A physical paper transfer is pretty clear-cut while the various beeps and blips that the TransLink box may or may not be making are meaningless. The technical errors that the TransLink system encounters seem to happen randomly and can range from the reader not being on to the reader not recognizing your card. Some bus drivers will let you board even though TransLink isn't working, and the others will make you pay the fare anyway. Regardless, if your card doesn't tag, it won't read as containing a transfer if you run into a transit cop. TransLink warns you to bring money for an alternate form of payment with you and they aren't lying, you'll use it often.

Anyway, I graduated and moved off campus so I felt it was time to switch to buying a FastPass every month. These too can be ordered from the website and so also incur a 72+ hour wait before they can be used. The month of June went pretty well, actually. Except for the few times that the card reader was down and I had to dig for change to pay my fare, I did not encounter too much resistance. And so I went on to buy another FastPass on my TransLink card for July.

In July my card "broke". I don't know what happened, but nothing would read it anymore, so I called TransLink. I was told that if I had been using eCash TransLink could have transferred the balance onto a new card for me, which I could easily pick up from any TransLink vendor, but since I had used a FastPass I had to mail my card to Concord. I was told that they would inspect my card to make sure I wasn't lying, transfer my account onto a new card, and mail it back the same day. Two weeks after mailing in my card, I still had not received my replacement. I called again and was told that they had probably lost it, so they sent me a new one with my account on it a few days later. They also told me they would compensate me $20 eCash for the troubles, but I never received any of that fake money. I used my FastPass on my TransLink card for the remaining week of July and concluded that a paper FastPass was much more worthwhile.

These are problems that TransLink and MUNI can address, however, and it could potentially be a really neat way to use public transit. First, any money added to your card should be available instantly. I don't have to wait three days when I order a hamburger before I can eat it. Second, the actual balance on the card should be updated live and available on the website. Third, all MUNI employees should have an idea of how the card works, how Add Fare machines work, and how to reboot the system when the readers are not working. Finally, and most importantly, TransLink needs local support booths. One should never have to mail a card to Concord for any reason.

In the end, I'm going to regret the passing of the paper FastPass regardless of how professional and robust TransLink becomes. I'm all for adopting new technology, but knowing that as long as I hold a small, duo tone slip of paper I can travel the city is a very secure feeling. Especially when the alternative is a buggy "smart" card that has taken over a decade to actually appear on MUNI and will cost the Metropolitan Transportation Commission an estimated $338 million over 25 years.

Michael Harper is a twenty something writer/activist/geek based out of San Francisco. He likes reading books, writing about obscene, practical & practically obscene things, and listening to the rudest of musics. He dislikes fascism and dairy products. He aspires to one day live in a gutter with a bottle of whiskey or his best friends.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)

This past Saturday, the neighbors who banded together to turn a great swath of concrete into something a bit more inviting and interesting passed a milestone in their quest to make things a bit nicer here in our neighborhood. One of our Guest Bloggers covered this earlier in the year, and as I happen to live on said block, have been watching its progress since then.

After only a couple of weeks of concrete cutting and debris removal, they planted native species plants, trees and other refinements that turned an ordinary street into something everyone can enjoy.

What's most amazing to me was that this wasn't something that some bureaucrat came up with in a rare moment of brilliance. Instead this was a project that the neighbors came up with, organized together, applied for the permits and grants together, and shared in the work to fill in the empty spaces one grey Saturday afternoon. The result is that it was much easier to do all the work at once, as part of a unified plan, instead of having each person have to go through all the steps alone.

We live in a city that has many problems, and it's all too easy to simply dash off annoying comments on SFGate.com and give up, but nothing ever changed that way. Here you have one of what I'm finding are many examples of people in an area deciding they'd like something better, and finding a way to make it happen, instead of waiting for City Hall to do something. (The folks who live at Judah and La Playa have a similar plan for that area, but I can't find the link just yet).

Anyway, here's some more pictures from Saturday. The point of all this isn't that one street is better than the others - instead it should be that there are ways to make things happen, and any street in this neighborhood, or anywhere in the City, can make the choice to clean things up and make things a little better, without having to wait for City Hall to get its act together.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

In a victory for iPhone users who wanted to use a cool little app to check on MUNI related arrival times, Routesy, which was pulled from the iTunes App Store due to a bogus claim against it by some nefarious folks, is now back, and better than ever.

Now, the iPhone user can choose whatever app they think is best, in a truly competitive spirit. The story, and its aftermath, say a lot about MUNI, San Francisco, local media, and how some people can be good and some can be real jerks.

First, if you haven't already done so, go read the story at the San Francisco Appeal, which has the details on how data owned by MUNI is really MUNI's, people who are unecessary middlemen (and charlatans) can't extort money from people anymore, and those who did pay the extortion got nada as a result. (To quote Nelson, "Ha HA!") MUNI's new contract with The Real Next Bus makes sure that the MTA, and only the MTA owns the data generated by the taxpayer/rider funded Municipal Railway. Yay!

When this all broke (when the maker of Routesy made a routine update to the application, and the chaos ensued) I was finding out a lot of intel on the situation. Unfortunately, at the time, I couldn't take the days off of work I would have needed to write a complete story, with the level of detailed research one has to do to get this kind of story done right.

I wasn't comfortable just posting some quickie snarky post, because I didn't want to do a half-assed study of a complex subject, and post something that would be confusing or just plain wrong. But I also didn't want to let it fall by the wayside, a victim of budget cuts at newspapers or considered "unimportant" by deep thinking scribes who have better things to write about than San Francisco day-to-day issues.

That's why I contacted my friend Eve at the SF Appeal, which began covering this in June. I knew they'd do the story right, and I also knew they'd even bother to consider it as a potential story - most other local news entities wouldn't be interested, or wouldn't have the time. I was able to pass on the raw intel I'd collected, connect folks with them, and then let them figure out the details, whatever they ended up being (I just wanted to know what was up, and I didn't have a dog in the fight, so to say). They did a great job, and it's nice to se this thing called "actual reporting of news," regardless of whether the medium is a piece of paper or my web browser. (Check into that, old media.)

You can go there and read the June and August reports, and you'll quickly see that a poorly worded contract between the MTA and The Real Next Bus vendor led to this confusion in the first place - wording that has since been cleaned up. You'll also notice how incredibly f*cked the Apple iTunes store can be to developers - this is nothing new. Although there was a little help from the City Attorney's office, in the end, it took a pro bono lawyer helping out a guy who wouldn't get pushed around by a bunch of legalistic bullies at Fake Next Bus to get things done. In the end, we all won because the right of the public to freely access data generated by publicly funded entities was re-asserted.

Now that we've tipped hats to those worthy of tipping, it's time to wag the finger too. When this whole situation blew up, there was some help from the City Attorney's office. However, if City Attorney Dennis Herrera had used his office and clout to get behind this early on, it probably would have been solved sooner, and the public would have a win, and Herrera could have something he could tout in a future mayoral bid. Besides, his spokesman Matt Dorsey is cool, and it would have been totally boss if he was out there going medieval on our behalf (he's really good at that!).

Likewise, Mayor Newsom had another showboaty press conference about open access to public data, but on the one controversy that concerned this topic, he was oddly silent. That's either because he's completely clueless about the situation, or he just doesn't care about MUNI (like you have to guess which one it is?).

Either way, while he was off playing mayor/gubernatorial candidate for a few hours, when it mattered most, when a Mayor simply could have used the PR megaphone we're paying for, to you know, do something for us, he was off Twittering about Facebook friends or raising money for attack ads. Sigh.

With true competition amongst application developers, be they on iPhone, Android, Palm, or Blackberry, we win when people compete and the best product wins. The worst thing that happened though, was to see how quickly some people capitulated to Fake Next Bus's demands, either by killing off a cool product, or paying the extortion fee to get a monopoly for their product (albeit briefly).

Fortunately for us, this is all behind us, and anyone who wants to build a better app can do so, free of bullying legalistic threats. It's good to know that in a bad situation, some good people are willing to step up, and we all win in the end. Yay good people!

Finally, I'm bringing back an oldie but a goodie. Enjoy:

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I had a pretty fun weekend, actually, which started on Saturday with a trip out to check out the New People J-pop center in Japantown, a nice long walk from J-town to the Inner Richmond, and capped it off with a short ride on the last run of the infamous Culture Bus. I took a few pics here and there and tossed them on Flickr for fun.

Plenty of people have recorded this momentous occasion, including our pals at the SF Appeal, the Transbay Blog, and so on. Reader Jamison was there too, and took pictures way better than mine. Sure it was transit nerdy snarkville, but it was kinda fun. Riding it, however, you really do appreciate just what a half-baked idea it was. The line doesn't connect with BART or Caltrain, it's not likely you'd actually go to all the museums in a day (and yet you pay $10), and the end of the line is 2nd and Howard. How fun.

That said, we all realized how this could have been a fun, moneymaking thing for MUNI if the MTA board ever bothered to listen to anyone (we know they don't), instead of some brainiac from the society set. Not only were we on the cleanest MUNI bus I've ever been on, with one of the coolest drivers, but we also talked about how it would be fun to take over a bus with all of our friends and have someone give a guided tour or something about things we care about ("hey there's Absinthe where that guy from Top Chef worked" and so on).

Magically enough, just hours after our ride, the Restore the 74 bus was posted, and it's funny to see how upset some people got at this so quickly. I mean, come on, Internet, lighten the frak up a little! We're not all crankypants SFGate commenters! It's a fun site but it also makes a point:

Nobody knows where the Culture Bus came from or why it started running, but we’re glad that it did. And now that it’s gone, we miss it more than ever. So we want it back. It doesn’t have to be $10. It doesn’t need to make you wait an hour to catch it. It doesn’t have to be the city’s best-kept secret. In fact, it probably shouldn’t be any of those things. But wouldn’t it be great to ride a bus around town, pointing at the cool stuff and stopping to see the fun stuff? Yeah. That would be really great.

But this doesn't have to be a MUNI funded anything. Heck there are some pretty awesome MUNI lines (well maybe after the October cuts, not so many) that go all sorts of zany places and could use a photo safari/guided tour. It'd be fun. And cheaper than the Culture Bus of the Past.

Which lines would you want to try this on? Post your ideas in the comments.

Oh and for fun, here's me looking like a doofus on camera, and many others looking way cooler than me, courtesy of VidSF:

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I have a ton of "real" posts to do, but for now I wanted to post this short ad that I finally found (Thanks to Mason Powell) of the ad people keep telling me about that was shot on Irving Street.

It's an ad for Travelers and you can see the dog run down Irving Street, and past Pasquale's, and sit at a bus stop on the 28 Sunset line too. It's rare they film anything in this part of town, so it was a bit surprising to see this, finally.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well it looks like we're going to have a BART strike to ruin our summer...I have to say neither labor or management have behaved like adults - instead resorting to a lot of macho chest-beating rhetoric, and not finding a way to work through state-imposed cuts, and a health care system that's an expensive pain in the ass.

I'd been gathering notes for a post that I hoped I'd never have to write - it kept sounding like they'd hug it out - but since we're in apocalypse mode now I'll post something later.

For now, I'd just like to say F*CK YOU to both BART management and labor for finding a new way to make bad times worse. Seriously, both sides really do suck right now.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

The Cool Kids over at the SF Appeal are planning one first ride of the Beleaguered Culture Bus this Saturday. A noble idea gagged by poor pricing (does a shot of bourbon come with that fare?) and poor marketing, the emptiest buses in the fleet will have one last go, and a group of Blogging Folks will be there to commemorate this glorious day.

Mason Powell, our resident quote-meister, upon hearing the news said "it's not so much as a good bye as it is taking Old Yeller out back to shoot it and put it out of its misery." Too true, Mr. Powell!

(Oh and can I just note this: when searching for an image to accompany this post, a picture of The World's Most Interesting Man popped up. True!

Photo Credit: Steve Rhodes, via Flickr.com

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

No, really.

Now, to be fair, some of the accidents yesterday weren't MUNI's fault. If a driver tries to outrun or sideswipe a giant MUNI Metro train, well the possibility of that ending in tears is high. Likewise, if a pedestrian doesn't pay attention to the cars, trains, and whatnot in the street, that can end in tears as well. There's no word yet on today's accident at 17th and Church that was reported about an hour ago, but once again, we'll have endless speculation before we find out What Really Happened.

It's too bad we let that expensive, "Newsom On The Can Idea" Culture Bus run for so long, burning gas, wasting money, and stealing away MUNI's best drivers, and maybe put some of that money towards the lines that actually get used, or something else useful. And it's unfortunate that the Mayor thought it was a great idea to steal money for silly stuff, and somehow expect everything would run fine. Etc. etc. etc.

But enough. Maybe it IS time for a separate tumblr.com blog just hooked up to an RSS of all the usual troublealert sources, and be done with it. Sure would be easy to set up....

On an unrelated subject, I've been doing some searching on the SFPL database for pictures of key locations on the N and elsewhere around town...anyway if you have suggestions on places to either find out more about, or have ideas on other places to go search, lemme know, it's for a feature I'd like to roll out later on this fall.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In light of the recent dramatic accidents on MUNI, we have not one, but two Supervisors holding "hearings" of some sort this morning at City Hall and the press has been getting all fired up about it.

The question I ask is simply...is this a Big Deal, or is this "meh, big deal?"

Of the two Supervisors, I give Sup. Dufty credit for being more on top of MUNI issues than some of his colleagues. He rides the N-Judah sometimes. Whenever I've called Supervisors asking a question, more often than not, it's been his office that gets back to me first with where to go for information. As chair of the functional SFCTA, he's been involved with projects that directly affect transit reliability. And recently he's been out there on the scene of some of the more recent accidents too.

Now, the cynics can get all antsy about the fact he's running for Mayor, and perhaps is looking to use the MUNI issue to ride into office. But let's be real - if you're running for mayor would you really want to stake your future on MUNI reliability, in an era of cuts and work orders? I wouldn't, but the fact he's at least willing to stick his neck out, says a lot.

Sup. Elsbernd, however, doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. It's no secret that he's been a rubber stamp for the mayor since getting appointed a while back, and he's never shown any real interest in making MUNI more reliable (hey he has a car and lives in a big house - why should he?) When we had an attempt to reject the MTA's poorly constructed budget, not only did he vote with the Mayor and the Mayoral-appointed board, he rejected any input from his constituents about sending it back to the MTA for a re-do. He's never shown any interest up until now - it seems unfortunate it took a horrible accident in his district for him to finally take notice that something's wrong over at MUNI. Ouch.

I guess it's nice he's talking tough on some issues now, but if he, and frankly most of his colleagues, had bothered to pay attention once in a while about the years of work order looting, the cuts to training and maintenance, the use of MUNI safety funds to pay for political aides in Room 200, and so on, maybe we wouldn't be in as big a mess as we are now.

So while the mainstream press will cover all of this like it's some Big Deal, I'll wait and see what happens after the cameras are turned off. If we get some changes that make our day run smoother, great. If not, I won't be terribly surprised. At this point, I'm just glad if I don't get stranded at night coming home from work or when I'm out on the weekend for too long.

UPDATE: Reader Jamison has been Twittering the meeting, and noted that Sup. Chris Daly, in his inimitable classy style made jokes about MUNI safety, then attacked Dufty for "not fixing MUNI." Let's be clear - the Supervisor from D-6 (or is it Fairfield?) has never been an advocate for MUNI, has not been able to use his alleged experience on the board to fix it, and does not care about you, the owner/rider of MUNI at all. And, while Sup. Dufty is asking some rather intense, detailed questions, Daly left to get some coffee and perhaps make more jokes at the expense of you, the owner/rider of MUNI.

Class-SEE, Daly. Class-SEE.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I was out of town yesterday and didn't return on Amtrak until this morning, so it seems I missed some rather interesting pieces at both SF Streetsblog and the SF Appeal, among many others, opening up a dialogue on the storied pronouncements of Those Professionals over at the Chronicle.

I think it's great that nowadays, we no longer have just one point of view available for the public to consider, and instead have many points of view free to engage the public, and challenge the conventional wisdom (which often has neither) in a thoughtful manner. At a time when newspapers here have cut way back on local news coverage and wiped out investigative reporting, it may be up to others to pick up the slack and encourage multi-faceted discussions on things that affect daily life.

Now for some changes: I'm finally getting some technical help to make some much needed upgrades to the software that runs this site, and that will mean I'll be able to update the layout and add some new features to make the site more fun. One will be to make a better display of images in a Flickr pool people can add to, among other things, and it'll be easier to read the Twitter feed, etc. I'm also going to revive reporting on local businesses (esp. since I'm alarmed at the number of local businesses that have disappeared lately) and some more feature type posts.

I'm also making some changes in my schedule to better reflect what I like to do (i.e. writing and meeting fun people around town) and as I'm finally getting some decent ads here, I can do so, which is kinda nice.

Don't forget we always like Guest Bloggers for Wednesday - email me if you're interested in signing up.

I think we all know now that MUNI's budget was completely frakked, that MUNI's fails are going to be more commonplace as a result, and that the MTA and the Mayor don't care, so I don't know that point needs to be belabored unless something really bad happens (and God I hope not).

Now for some fun: Lisa Katayama over at TokyoMango has pics of this funny Japanese juice bottles, shaped like trains. And, for iPhone folks, there's a new wave of augmented reality apps on the way, with this one, which helps you find bus stops in San Francisco, being one of the first. Android users have had some augmented reality apps out too, so I imagine it's a matter of time before one comes out for those phones too.

This weekend features many fun activities, all accessible by transit (we hope), and the weather looks like it'll be nice too. If you see something particularly fun or interesting, post it online and put a link in the comments below!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A vigilant reader sent in this story today ,and it's so full of "awww cute" I had to post a link: it seems in Britain there's a cat, "Casper," who regularly boards his favorite bus at the same time every day, rides the bus out and back, and then gets off. How cute is that?

It's similar to our feathered friends who often board down by the Caltrain Station, but I think cats are more likely to have a Fast Pass around their collar...plus they're less likely to eat their splattered pals.

However, MUNI could learn something from our friends in Japan, where a cat who "works" as a conductor at a train station has not only saved what was going to be a shut down line, but generates over $10 million in revenue a year. Talk about a stimulus package for transit!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guest Blogger Wednesday gives readers a chance to regale the Loyal Readers with tales of the neighborhoods, MUNI and more. Want to Guest Blog? Email me and let's get you signed up!

These days, anything "free" is nice, especially when it comes to finding something to do on the weekend. And "fun" is nice too, especially after all the crazy accidents and other crazy stuff going on around town. We need a break! Lucky for us, we've got quite a few fun free events this weekend, all around San Francisco, and easy to reach by even our hobbled MUNI.

On Saturday and Sunday, we have two great street fairs, the Nihonmachi Street Fair in Japantown and the Pistahan Parade and Fair at Yerba Buena Gardens, which has like, a a bazillion MUNI lines that will drop you off over there.

Both are really fun (but I'm not eating a balut, no matter how much people keep telling me it's ok). Personally, I always like going to Japantown if only because it's got sort of a retro 60's James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" feel. (I keep looking for the Osato Chemical Concern logo...). All easily accessible by the 38 Geary and the 22 Fillmore.

On Sunday, we'll have all of Ocean Beach closed off for Sunday Streets SF from 10am to 2pm. Now, what you may not realize is that they're coordinating the street closure with the regular one in the park, so you'll literally be able to walk unimpeded from the Academy of Sciences to the Zoo, if that's your thing. Here's a map for your planning purposes. (Also, note that they're going to repeat this closure on September 6th). Hopefully the N won't die that day so you can avoid trying to find a parking spot way way out there.

Sunday is also the same day as the Inner Sunset Really Really Free Market, located at 6th and Irving. (This is the house Greg refers to as the "House Formerly Known as the Yes We Can House.") Located just a couple of blocks from the Inner Sunset Farmer's Market, they offer free anything, including ice cream. How can you resist that? And the N and the 71 will drop you off over there.

With so many fun free things to do, it's hard to choose, but it certainly makes the weekend more fun. And even on our broken down MUNI, you can get to most of these events pretty easily. So go out and have fun, everyone!

Editor's note: if you know of other fun events around town, feel free to share them in the comments!

UPDATE!: On Friday, August 7th, there's going to be a "Renegade Film Screening" on the N and other Muni Metro trains, from 5ish to 9ish that evening. Talk about MUNI street theater! Let's hope the cops and fare inspectors don't totally shut this down the way they did those kids a few years ago.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BREAKING NEWS: MTA COO Ken McDonald announced his resignation today. Updates at the SF Appeal and Streetsblog SF.

Good grief...I knew something was up when on Twitter I started getting messages about a fleet of helicopters hovering over Market Street, and the first reports of yesterday's big crash. Thanks to on scene pics from Violet Blue, Reader Jamison, the SF Appeal, and many more, we were able to see MUNI's latest disaster.

Fortunately no one is dead (thank God), but it was a bit much to hear Mayor Newsom and Muni Chief Nate Ford plead the case that MUNI is safe when in both cases, it's clear that people who were operating trains and buses perhaps should not have been doing so. And while you can always show statistics that indicate MUNI is "safe", combining these wrecks with a rising criminal element, and you start to realize, no, it's not. One has to wonder if we're going to pay more in settlements than we ever saved with our "cuts." Seriously, you can't take a wrecking ball to the budget, fail to reform work rules that don't allow the bad employees to be fired, and somehow expect everything to run just groovy.

But Mayor Newsom, and his handpicked MTA don't seem to get that, nor do they care. Which is understandable - heck I find myself avoiding commute-time mayhem as much as possible these days, after being stranded downtown waiting for an N that never seems to show up on time.

Which leads me to this email from Reader X, who lives out by the Caltrain station, and reports what many of you have relayed to me on Twitter - the frustration of trying to get an N or a K/T from 4th and King inbound. I know for myself, whenever I'm returning from Palo Alto, inevitably I've got a long ride if I choose the N (which is why I often now take a bus up to Market and switch to the 71.) While I'm lucky personally to be able to choose from 3 bus lines and 1 Metro line to get home, not everyone is as fortunate, so having enough N trains is one of those 'good ideas' that get thrown in the circular file at MUNI hq.

Hi Greg,

Here's one for ya!

The 2nd/King platform is about 500 feet away from the building where I live; as I approached it last night, a downtown-bound T/K was pulling in and I declined to run, opting to wait for the next train; I arrived at the overhead LED at 6:40 PM, with 18 minutes until the next downtown-bound T/K and 9 minutes until the next downtown-bound N-Judah, the latter of which never arrived.

In the 18 minutes until the arrival of the next train, the T/K, which I boarded at approximatly 6:55 PM, there were no less than six 2-car N-Judah trains headed for the CalTrain Depot, NONE of which turned around to conduct service in the opposite direction. The overhead LED kept changing the arrival time of the downtown-bound N-Judah, but it never arrived, making me wonder just how many N-Judah trains can be accommodated at the turnaround under I-280.

While underground on the outbound T/K, I noticed that the platforms were DANGEROUSLY crowded, presumably because many of those passengers were waiting on N-Judah trains.

I arrived at my destination (Church/Market Sts) at 7:15 PM, 15 minutes late for a dinner date, and after an unacceptable 35 minutes of "platform-to-platform" travel time. I sent a complaint to MUNI via their website, but I don't hold out for any explanation; this was the same night that an SUV became sandwiched between two F-line streetcars on Market St because of an allegedly distracted driver, a much more serious problem.

I've actually known a few Loyal Readers who relied on an N or K/T connection to Caltrain that have given up and now drive or actually move, either somewhere else in the City or leave altogether. It's particularly frustrating if you work late way down south and come home, only to find yourself waiting around or taking forever to get home.

Well that's all for now. I'm taking advantage of the sun for a few hours and then going back to work here in the Inner Sunset. Later on, I'll be posting about a whirlwind of free events available this weekend...

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)