The N-Judah Chronicles

What with some pretty major failures every day of the week, with Newsom's "War on Muni" in full effect, and an MTA Board ruthlessly committed to carry out that war on us owners and riders of Muni (with one exception, thank God), this was a week that really shows just what's wrong with the system, and why we need people to change it.

It's clear that the Mayor isn't just indifferent to Muni owner/riders, he and his overpaid political staff are on a jihad to ruin the system as much as possible before he (finally) leaves office next year. The fatwa was issued several times via his shadowy staff and the clerics at the MTA board, with a zeal only a radical could love.

MTA commissioners have been bullied into not even considering revoking all the freebies cars get in the City, and absolutely refuses to consider real revenue replacements for the Sacramento mugging committed by the Governor. Instead they want to drive this system into the ground and make you pay the penalties in time and money. One has to begin to wonder if Newsom gets some sort of personal gratification for this policy of destruction, the kind you can only correct through years of psychotherapy or at kink.com

But all was not lost. The heroes at MuniFail.com gave us a new tool to express our will, although the Mayor's expensive political spokesman basically said "FU" in the Chronicle this morning. Never mind - at least now we can quantify how much the Mayor hates Muni owner riders!

There were a few bright spots. We had a possible chance to end a foolish waste of federal dollars, but in the end, despite the heroics of Chris Daly (!) the project passed, for now. There's still a chance this will end in ether money for all Bay area transit operators or just plain tears, but I give credit to Daly and the others at the MTC who voted "no" for sticking by their beliefs, despite union and politician bullying.

Other bright spots included a new app to catalog your day in Muni, and a break from all that rainy weather. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi took over this week as SFCTA chair, and we got to see some historical photos of what the place known as the Blackthorn today from back in 1950.

I'm taking the rest of the day off, but I'll be posting some new business reviews, and some new features this weekend. Until then, I'm on Twitter at @njudah and the N Judah Chronicles has a Facebook "Fan Page" (!) also. Many times as breaking news comes from multiple sources (be they the Twitteratti of San Francisco, or our friends at SF Appeal, SF Weekly, Streetsblog, and the myriad of transit bloggers out there), I will first break it on Twitter, and write a post later. Have a great weekend!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The application is the work of Aaron Tait, a programmer living in West Portal. I have been trying out the application and it's simple, but an easy way to jot down notes in a Muni-specific fashion. I've often used the iPhone's Notepad for short notes but this one is kinda cool.

Plus, I see how one could extend this application, and connect it to other apps some day, etc. If nothing else it's fun to use.

I did a quick email interview with Aaron this afternoon, and asked him a few questions about his latest work, after the jump:

What is your name, and what Muni routes do you tend to use around SF?
My name's Aaron Tait. I live in West Portal so I'm kinda lucky in that I can take an L, K, or M to and from work and home. I've started a new ritual on Sundays of taking the 76 up to the Marin Headlands too. It feels really weird to be on a Muni bus in it what seems like the middle of nowhere. Everybody in San Francisco needs to experience it at least once.

What inspired you to come up with the idea for Muni Diary?
I'm a transit dork so knowing which lines and vehicles I've been on has always been an interest to me. But recently I started thinking about how Muni becomes a third place for San Franciscans (excuse the cheesy Starbucks marketing reference). A significant portion of our day to day lives is spent on Muni, depending of course on how delayed it is. When I'm stuck in an underground tunnel I think about where I was going or how I was feeling the last time I was in that vehicle. I take Muni just about every day so I know I've been in the same vehicle more than once. I think it's an interesting idea to capture what we're thinking in this in-between state and who we were the last time we were in this vehicle.

Aside from that, Muni is a show on rails and wheels. I wanted Muni Diary to also be used as a way to catalog all the outrageous things that happen on our transit system.

What do you hope will happen as people use your app? In what ways do you imagine people might use it?
It's funny; I made this app for myself in a few hours not even knowing if I was going to release it to the App Store or not. I decided to release it just to see what the reaction would be and how people would use it. I didn't know if anybody would actually download it. It's like a social science experiment to me. I've seen quite an enthusiastic response so far and so I'm going to spend a lot more time working on it. It's going to be a lot more useful when people can share their diary entry's with the world.

What features might we see in the future? (Twitter/Tumblr/Other integration?)
Sharing has to be the number one feature I want o implement. The ability to share your entrys on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, or Email would be super cool. Twitter's new location API would be fun to work with. Imagine being able to see a map of real time experiences on Muni.

Along with sharing, I want to add support for taking photos and videos. The geek in me also wants to export the entry's to a CSV file that you can email yourself.

What's the funniest thing you've seen on Muni?
Come to think of it, it's hard for me to recall any funny moments that really stand out. It's a good thing I wrote this app! Getting home on the L OWL from the Castro on Halloween was quite a scene. The party essentially continued onto the bus and the poor driver had to deal with a bunch of drunk people screaming Lady Gaga songs the whole way.

Anything else you'd want our readers to know? What do you do when you're NOT riding Muni? Etc.
My day job is working as an iPhone Developer at this awesome startup called Stitcher. Stitcher is an app for listening to great news and talk programming on the go. We have clients for iPhone, Palm Pre/Pixi, Blackberry, and Android. It's great for catching up on news while you're riding Muni and we have tons of content!

I also have aspirations of doing my own startup which you can learn more about here: http://phinetech.com

Aside from all the geekery, I love being outside and exploring this amazing city we live in. I take my Canon T1i just about everywhere I go and post pictures to my Flickr.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

IMG_0125

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

There has been a delay—some very substantial—EVERY SINGLE DAY THIS WEEK! I don’t even remember it being THAT bad when they introduced the T to the system. What in Willie Brown’s name is going on?!? Monday: stopped still 20 minutes during rush hour in Market Tunnel

Tuesday: nothing dramatic but there was “heavy traffic” and a much much slower than usual

Wednesday: Duboce Tunnel closed during rush hour, N passengers dumped off and left to wander off to Church station, or the F, or the bus, or whatever

Thursday: crash at 18th Ave, watched several packed shuttles, 71s, and 28s go by from 20th Ave before I finally was able to jump on a 28 and catch the L.

Friday: ??? We could be in for a real treat!

I’ve been late every single day this week—from anywhere from 15 minutes to almost 1 ½ hours! Thankfully I have an understanding boss, but this has gone from angering to farcical to angering again. Where is the accountability here?

Anyway, on to other pressing concerns: you wouldn’t happen to have any N Judah Chronicle/Streets of San Francisco-style shirts left for sale, do you? M or L? I’ve gotten really obsessed with Streets the last six months or so (DVR it on KOFY every day) and would love to get one.

Joel.

It is this kind of day-to-day unreliability that the Mayor, the MTA board (with some exceptions, to be sure) , and Supervisors often seem to be completely out of touch with when they talk all things Muni, particularly when it comes to how to pay for it.

The SF Appeal is reporting that more and more cuts and fare increases are coming, but that's because the Mayor and his MTA board are so barren of ideas, and so timid, they don't dare consider real ways to pay for things besides more parking tickets and more half-assed revenue sources. Nor do they bother to consider cutting down on absenteeism or knock out some wasteful 100k+ employees to cut pension and wage costs.

So long as we have people in there that are completely clueless about what it's like to have a job where you don't get paid no matter what, nothing's going to get better. And when you have idiots like the MTC vote for boondoggles over spending precious federal dollars on something of use to us in day to day life.

Why not commemorate this week of FAIL with a Muni Fail Whale Shirt, Mug, or Mousepad? From now until Sunday, you can get 15% off using the code ZAZZLEFORYOU at checkout. Bring your mug to work, spike your coffee with the booze or flavored syrup of your choice, and regale your coworkers with tales of fail.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Given how much is going on these days, what with a disastrous N and J Muni FAIL yesterday, the accident this morning, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd's recent proposals on Charter amendments, and Sup. Mirkarimi's appointment to chair the SFCTA (on which Mr. Elsbernd also serves), as well as the myriad of topics facing our area, there should be plenty to discuss.

The event is sponsored by the Inner Sunset Park Neighbors, and meet your neighbors. Should be interesting!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Woody is a local historian and all around interesting guy. You may recall that he wrote this guest blog last year, about the celebrations upon the approval of the Sunset Tunnel in the 1920s, back in the days when San Francisco got things done. He is also the author of Carville By The Sea, a history about the beachside neighborhood made up of homes created out of discarded streetcars.

The WNP also produces many short videos, available on Flickr. Here's an interesting one about the lost streetcar of 20th Street. Notice how many of the buildings at Irving and 20th are STILL THERE:

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is big news, and not because Ross has been known to fight street crime firsthand and save lives (really). The SFCTA was created 20 years ago to administer the sales tax money from Prop. K for transit related projects. Because Prop. K created a sales tax, under state law, said money has to be adminstered by.....leaders elected by the people. As a result, the board of the SFCTA is made up of...wait for it....the members of the Board of Supervisors. No, really. (I guess people elected by us peasants can run a transit agency in San Francisco?)

As I've discussed in the past, unlike the MTA, the SFCTA has a very focused staff, and spends money on specific projects. When Muni dragged its heels on fixing the Irving/9th turn mess, the SFCTA stepped in, did a study and got things done as fast as possible. Yes the solution now isn't perfect - but the perfect one meant ripping out the rails. I bring this up because Sup. Mirkarimi was one of the few trying to keep the MTA and Muni to their promises made at a town hall meeting in 2006, which of course, they later reneged on.

Nowadays the MTA is begging for big cash infusions from the SFCTA's bucket of cash, without any guarantees it won't be blown on big pay for people who don't like working, or on stupid crap like "work orders" or aides in the Mayor's office. We need Sup. Mirkarimi to hold the line on such nonsense, and keep the SFCTA doing what it does best, and work with people on all sides to ensure that at least the sales tax money doesn't just get wasted.

Sup. Mirkarimi, show us what you can do. The more electeds willing to stick their neck out on Muni issues and do something, the better for us Muni owners.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There's nothing like turning on KGO news in the morning and watching the transportation report include a pretty wild N/J fail at 730 in the morning. It seems that due to a switching failure, J's and N's had to go to Church Station, where people de-boarded and switched over to outbound trains, and vice versa. (Well, actually there were lots of crowds, and not a lot of trains, as the Appeal reports.)

The good people on Twitter also reported their observations, and I'm sure MuniFail.com got a workout today (and the intern monitoring Gavin's Twitter account is in a padded room now after having to read all those tweets. We're sorry about that, kid.)

But in a weird way, it drove home why we are hoping (but not hopeful) that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will vote to take the $70 million in federal dollars that are allocated to the debacle known as the Oakland Airport Connector, and re-allocate it to Bay Area transit agencies for maintenance costs. In other words, we have a chance to get some government cash to cover fixing problems like this so they don't continue to bite us in our collective ass.

BART is likely to lose this money anyway, because they have a little over a month to comply with federal regulations they chose to flout, so this is our one and only chance to Not Screw Up Federal Funding.

Naturally, we've heard nothing from the Mayor, the SF MTC Board Rep. (Supervisor Mr. Chris Daly, who, if he busted out some mad organizing skillz and made this change happen would be forgiven all alleged sins and be true Hero of the Muni Owner/Rider and I'd ensure he never pays for a drink again in this town), and the MTC "staff" are rooting for failure aka the OAC project, despite the fact that it will likely never happen, and we'll see that $70 million spent in some other state.

If you're so inclined, send a note to the MTC board anyway, so if they do end up doing something stupid, at least we'll have it on the record just how badly they f*cked this one up.

UPDATE: @larrybob on Twitter RT'd this link to some more pictures of this morning's madness, courtesy of Twitter user @boyshapedbox. Ouch.

And, predictably, the MTC voted to continue forth with the $70 million boondoggle known as the Oakland Airport Connector. Sup. Daly voted no (thanks, but wish we'd stopped it) and he said that many of the people who voted yes for this piece of junk knew it's a waste of federal dollars, but voted yes anyway. I'd like to think the Obama Administration would stick up for its principles and deny this thing when BART fraks up the process, but, well, you know....

Posted by Greg Dewar at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The site is brilliant for its simplicity - if you're late to work because Muni had a big ol' fail, you simply click on the button that says "Tell GAVIN" and you can send a message via Twitter to him (and you can add a little commentary too if you like.) It's so simple, and so brilliant, it has that "why didn't I think of that" feel that means it's a cool idea.

I sent a direct message to the author of the site and will post more later. For now, use it as often as you need to. Perhaps the intern monitoring his Twitter account will be so freaked out they'll go running into the Mayor's office, screaming "make them stop make them stop!" and well, something will happen.

UPDATE:I got in touch with Mike Monteiro, the creator of the site, and did a short email interview with him here:

What is your name, and what Muni routes do you tend to use around SF?

My name is Mike Monteiro. I live around the Church and Market area, where a ton of routes congregate. But mostly it's the N to work. Or the F down Market if I'm looking for a romantic experience of climbing over a passed out meth head on a well-crafted vehicle of yesteryear.

What inspired you to come up with the idea?

Sitting in a tunnel, getting later and later for work, realizing that it was taking me 30 minutes to go 3 miles. Again. I started writing angry tweets to Gavin Newsom. And since this was happening on a regular basis, any good monkey with a tool starts looking for a way to automate a routine task, right? So my friend, David McCreath, and I threw this up in about an hour.

What do you hope will happen as people use your site to express their frustration with Muni?

Honestly, my only goal is for the system to get better. The default tweet it sends out is purposely benign. I'd rather generate volume than vitriol. Hopefully, if enough people let the mayor know how this bad service is affecting them he'll be forced to fly back into town and at least address it.

What's the funniest thing you've seen while riding Muni?

This one was tough, but I'm gonna go with the the old man cutting his toenails next to the metallic painted pier 39 mime eating a sandwich.

Anything else you'd want our readers to know?

Please, for the love of God, let me exit before you try to board. It will end so badly some day. And enjoy our other site: http://hasgavinnewsomresignedyet.com/

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

UPDATE: For more posts relating to this subject, check out this roundup at Living in the O, and tell the MTC you'd like to see those federal dollars spent better. Given that BART's about to announce more cuts, this is a chance to "un-screwup" transit in the Bay Area for once.

Hey! All this week you can get 15% off T-shirts and other items at any Zazzle store or at the N Judah Chronicles store using the code ZAZZLEFORYOU. Offer ends Feb. 3rd!

Over the weekend I got an email from Rebecca at Living in the O about a situation (also reported by Eric at Transbay Blog) about a rather odd situation developing regarding $70 million in federal funds floating around the Bay, and how there may be a chance to rescue said federal cash from a rather useless, expensive project, and distribute it to cash strapped agencies to pay for much needed maintenance.

Basically, the much maligned BART Oakland Airport Connector, a $70 million "bridge to nowhere" style project hasn't been meeting certain federal guidelines to be able to accept the federal cash. If BART doesn't get its act together and have said report signed, sealed and delivered by March 5th, said $70 million leaves the Bay Area for elsewhere. Normally, citizens would be in the position of taking federal cash (and the jobs it might provide) for a bad project, or seeing said cash go to some other state or region.

However, there's a silver lining. The Metropolitian Transportation Commission can vote this week to have the cash re-allocated to maintenance projects for Muni, BART, AC Transit and other looted transit agencies. Under the rules, this money cannot be used for big pay for anyone, only actual maintenance projects.

This would be a good thing in a time of budget crapola. Personally, I think that if we're going to see the feds spend money, the least they can do is spend it on something that might actually be of use, instead of blowing out the deficit for something that doesn't help.

If you're interested in this issue and would like to see a minimizing of budget silliness in the Bay Area, you can email the MTC and let them know what you think, or if you can attend the meeting on Wednesday, January 27th, you can do that or listen in via the MTC website. (As always these things are during the day which makes it very difficult for people to attend in person). Incidentally, Sup. Chris Daly serves on the MTC Board, so you could always email him if you so choose.

This isn't a cure-all, but it'd be nice to see more Muni trains in working order, and see things like tracks being repaired and buses in operation, versus seeing some Disney-esque, expensive, goofball project hog all the money.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There's quite a lot going on these days, what with all sorts of Muni mayhem, crime this and that, and plenty more going on. Now, you have a chance to have your concerns addressed in person by Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, and SFPD Chief George Gascon at a town hall meeting on January 21st, just one week from today.

The event is sponsored by the Inner Sunset Park Neighbors, and you'll have chance to talk about current events and your views on what's going on in Our Fair City. In the past, these kinds of events have actually turned out to be quite informative so try and stop by if there's something you'd like the electeds or our police chief to hear about. You can even RSVP via Facebook if you prefer.

The meeting starts at 7pm and will be held at the SF County Fair Building, just inside the park at 9th and Lincoln. Sounds like it'll be fun!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Note: I got a guest spot at the SF Weekly blog, The Snitch this week! Check it out! It addresses some of the silly stuff the Board of Supervisors is considering.

If you're not already aware of the iminent trashing of Muni by its own board of directors, you might want to read some of the detailed coverage so you can at least be prepared if they go through to just expect crappy, expensive service. SF Streetsblog has done a good job researching the dirty detailis, and other blogs have neatly summarized the proposal as well.

I'll simply add this - the cynicism of this Mayor truly knows no bounds. He made a point of not mentioning anything Muni related in his lastet "State of the City" speech, saying at the time that his political aides from his failed gubernatorial run told him "not to." Then they release these cuts to service late on Friday so no one would notice it. BraVO, "Mayor" Newsom. BraVO.

More importantly, the MTA board (appointed by Mayor Football Bat) apparently has a mental block on considering anything BUT service cuts and fare increases. The Mayor refuses to make auto owners pay their fair share for using the roads, and the MTA board refuses to consider any other sources of money. We cannot make up the giant hole created by the state with more parking fines, beating on Muni drivers, and cutting service and jacking up costs. This new proposal will pretty much ensure that smug green San Francisco will have a worse transit system than that in most Third World nations.

If you can make it to the meeting tomorrow, show up and let the MTA board know that you, as one of the hundreds of thousands of owners of Muni that you're not satisfied with their performance, and you're tired of their mismanagement costing you time and money.

If you can't (because they insist on holding this during business hours when most of us are at work), write a lot of emails or letters to everyone: Supervisors, the "Mayor," the MTA Board, and even the dead tree papers. Whether it will help or not remains to be seen, but even if the fools at City Hall are intent on making Muni even worse, we can at least give them a hard time about it.

As for me, an idea I'd thought about last month is starting to take on a new life. In 2010, we're going to have a lot of folks running for office, all of whom will be stuffing your mailbox with a lot of junk mail saying how great they are. I've decided to create a "candidate questionnaire," with the results posted here for everyone to see. We'll find out who knows and who doesn't know about getting around town these days, and we'll have something besides pretty pictures and empty rhetoric to judge them by.

UPDATE: If you want to see just how far out of touch the MTA leadership is, go read this piece by Nathaniel Ford and Tom Nolan. The sheer amount of doublespeak they use in this thing boggles the mind. They basically say "every thing is fine, don't worry, and oh yeah I guess we might have a problem, but oh well what can you do we're still doing great."

Remember that when we have one of our weekly downtown tunnel failwhale regattas. More importantly, if you ever wanted evidence that MTA Board members lie, this is an example. Tom Nolan admitted to SF Streetsblog that they pretty much do whatever the Mayor says, and if the Mayor says "loot Muni and screw Muni owners" then they do it. So which is it, Mr. Nolan?

UPDATE 2: The Market Street Railway people write a very informative letter going over the history of the F-Market Line, and point out how this won't be the cash jackpot the MTA's boneheaded staff think it will be, and how Muni is essentially contradicting the Transit Effectiveness Project's report, and every statement they've said about the F Market Line in the first place. This was a point made in yesterday's SF Weekly too.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The overall discussion is an interesting one from a design perspective - do you make a map that follows the (often odd) geography of a region, as some do, or do you take the more geometric approach that the London Underground picked? Which one conveys the information best to the potential rider? The arguments for different approaches are interesting to me, as someone who has to deal with design issues daily.

However, after reading Deisgn Observer's post, I ended up finding a number of unusual maps people have created, all with some common themes, and they were rather entertaining. First, was this map of the US Interstate System, done in the style of the London Underground. What started as a post on Flickr ended up becoming a phenomenon online, and you can buy high quality prints of the artists' work.

The other (pictured) is a map of….the Milky Way Galaxy (aka the Milky Way Transit Authority"). Reader Michael noted this on Tumblr.com and I found the original site online. I thought this was rather entertaining - you can get a PDF and related merchandise at the original site.

Finally…over the holidays Reader Nina asked me what was going to become of all the old Muni maps at the many bus stops that were replaced and it if was possible to get one before they were all tossed in the recycler. A quick call to SFMTA spokesman Judson True, and I found out they were to be recycled, so I asked if I could have a few, since they were headed to the recycle bin anyways.

Imagine my surprise when I got a very very small stash of high quality laminated maps of Muni (pre cuts) thanks to our pal Judson! They are rather cool, and were a nice find right around holiday time. Also, some thanks go out to Reader Nina, who gave me the idea to ask - I wouldn't have thought to do so if she hadn't suggested it.

Since people seem to like to collect these sorts of things, I'm working on a contest to give away what few I have to Loyal Readers in the near future, so be on the lookout for that. Happy Friday!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You can read about, and join the local chapter of the Urban Prankster Network (the rebranding of Improv Everywhere outside of NYC), and read up on details. I've long been a fan of these kinds of humorous pranks since their intent isn't to harm anyone, and they follow some simple, but necessary rules, and lack the moral high horse nonsense that is the lifeblood of the killjoy activists here in town.

Or, you can read this reprint of the email I got from 'em, it looks to be, um, interesting. If you're out and about and happen to catch any of these fine citizens in public, take a picture and post it in the comments this weekend!

All are invited to participate in the 9th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride. The event will take place from 2:30 - 3:00 PM on Sunday January 10.

REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION:

1) Willing to take pants off on subway
2) Able to keep a straight face about it
3) At least $5 for the BART/MUNI rides and some extra for bar/etc.
(or a fast past)

If you are unfamiliar with the No Pants Subway Ride, read the history here:
http://improveverywhere.com/missions/the-no-pants-subway-ride/

THE PLAN:

Pittsburg/Bay Point train, times below.

Go to the station of your choice, before the scheduled train arrives. If you can, arrive with no pants (if you are bringing pants for later, have them in a bag or otherwise concealed; if you need to, discreetly take your pants off in the station before getting on the train). Then get on the train when it arrives. Act casual. Don't take pictures, if you can help it. Try not to notice the other pantsless people, unless someone points them out to you. If asked, pretend you have no idea why everyone else has no pants. See the improv everywhere page if you need ideas on why /you're/ not wearing pants.

This is the new revised schedule; if you plan on boarding from the other stations that are suggested, PLEASE DO. The more spread out we are the better.

1:47 San Bruno
1:51 SSF
1:54 Colma
1:58 Daly City
2:01 Balboa Park

Enjoy and play nice!

Image via Improv Everywhere.

UPDATE! It seems that BART spokesperson Linton Johnson is not amused by the proposed antics, and in today's SF Appeal, suggests that anyone who does so may be cited for "indecent exposure" by BART police.

To which I say to Mr. Johnson and BART: It's not like you guys arrest the meth addicts, the drug addicts or any of the people that actually cause problems on BART anyway, so why should anyone believe you now? Besides your new BART board president is too busy peddling his lies about cell phones anyway. Fix that, then come back to us and have a real convesation, mmmkay?

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unlike other city departments, Muni's operators don't negotiate pay every few years - they have a formula that sets their compensation. Essentially it ensures they get paid some of the highest salaries in the nation, while also ensuring that Muni drivers can never go on strike. The idea was to ensure labor peace, as opposed to the risk of strikes, like we saw last year at BART. This was done at a time when no one could forsee just how crap-tacular our economy and government would tank, so it seemed like a good idea.

It is very easy to put all the blame on Muni's financial problems soley on drivers since they're the ones people see every day. Why, we even have politicians, who in the past never gave a damn about Muni, coming up with Yet More Ballot Measures to grab headlines, but who are the same ones who supported the looting of Muni in the first place.

However, these grandstanding moves don't address the whole picture. Muni had a big hole punched in its revenue stream by the state of California's illegal shell game budgets, and no one locally has a plan to replace that with a reliable local revenue source. Instead, the plan has been to drive up fares, and drastically cut service. Yesterday's blog post had a few links to some great summaries of how we really got here, and are worth keeping in mind. Let's not forget there's the little discussed detail about how lavishly management and SEIU members are paid at Muni - but since we don't see them every day, no one talks about that...hmm.

What TWU doesn't seem to appreciate, though, is that the lack of public support for them right now isn't because the public is made up of hateful people who want to force drivers to slave away for 10 bucks an hour with no benefits and regular beatings. They've brought on the pain they're experiencing all on their own. Let's make a quick list:

- Arbitrarily turning the N at 19th or Sunset , stranding Outer Sunset passengers;

-Going to court to prevent the public from knowing who the "worst of the worst" are;

- Coming on my blog and telling owner/riders to "get a damn car" after being criticized for an illegal labor action that screwed the morning commute;

-Rampant absenteeism that screws over schedules, drives up costs, and even fellow bus drivers;

- Using the PA system to attack people,

- Never giving any help to the truly GOOD men and women who actually care about their job well.

(You can find more examples in the NJC Archives for added fun.)

Like so many people at all levels of City government, Muni, the MTA and many people who work there seem to have forgotten that we're the true owners of Muni, not them. We are the ones they are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the system they've been entrusted to manage and operate. We are weary of recession, unemployment, barely-employment, and the constant threat of job losses no matter how hard we work.

We're constantly asked to pay more for less service, and we are always the ones taking it in the pocketbook, while we see high pay for executives and a Mayor who steals money from safety inspectors to pay for expensive political hacks. When we've had another day delayed to incompetence or cuts, and get treated like crap by the people who work for us, we're not going to be very sympathetic to them as a group, no matter what the facts are.

They just know that they're asked to pay more and get less at a time when they can't afford it. If the do-nothings around town sucking down big pay at our expense don't wake up soon, people will find a way to ensure they do, and it won't be pleasant. It might not result in the best policy, possible, but people will find a way to at least feel that the pain is being spread around a bit more evenly.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

While it was nice to take time away from all the usual routine for vacation, it's kind of nice to be back into a routine, especially when 2010 promises some significant changes, not all of them good, but changes nonetheless.

I took some time to sit down and learn more about the technical details of running this site's CMS so that I can make some needed changes. Chief among them will be more ways to read the site (via mobile phone, etc.) and to make some features stand out more (i.e. if there's a major fail, better ways to alert people and alert them to alternate routes), and for more fun (i.e. more bar & business reviews.). There are also some pretty big changes coming at that other blog I sometimes write at, but that's not important right now.

Meanwhile, here's a few links that seem rather important. One is a rather well written story by Will Reisman of the Examiner, which sums up the many structural problems that are causing Muni's budget pain. Word is that the Governor is going to try and permanently destroy gas tax funding (80% which goes to roads, the other 20% to transit statewide) to ensure we pay for his cigars.

And of course, the Mayor is out and about saying the N Judah runs perfectly (!) but has also been a big fan of defunding Muni to pay for his campaign staff.

Also worth reading, is Matt Baume's analysis of Muni given the cuts that will come unless something is done, and it's it's worth your time to read and debate. The SF Appeal has this wonderful idea called "actual reporting of news that affects you," and it's something really great to have as a resource. Maybe the million dollar a week losing print folks might take a look at that idea.

Finally, there's a post over at CaliberSF, one of SF's great photography blogs, about Muni's new, written on paper for real photography policy. Troy Holden deserves a lot of credit for pushing this issue, which will hopefully eliminate misunderstandings that often result in hostile confrontations from wannabe Jack Bauers on Muni. Or, at the very least, make it easier to sue if someone breaks your camera for no good reason.

But, on a positive note, there are several new businesses opening here in the Inner Sunset, and some more on the way. That's always a good sign, right?

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)