Friday: The Week In Review, Some Fun Things, And More…

This week has been interesting, to say the least. And by “interesting” I mean “OMGWTFLOL” or something. I mean, the evening commutes this week have been marked by incredible delays and failures. You’d think by now someone at Muni might figure that if it’s going to work at some point in the day, perhaps the evening commute might not be a bad place to start. Alas.
Someone decided to revive the concept of the “Dear Mr. Ford” feature of SFist.com and make a whole blog about it, noting the recent commuting craziness. Interesting.
Other Muni Detritus:
-Over at my side project, the Muni Rider Voter Guide, the deadline is rapidly approaching. I think I made a mistake in giving candidates too much time to fill this thing out, especially since it’s short and isn’t tied to an endorsement. I’d list who hasn’t responded, but that would take up too much space so instead I’ll list who did instead:

-District 2: NONE
-District 4: NONE, but there’s only one candidate anyway
-District 6: Jim Meko, Glendon “Anna Conda” Hyde, Harold “H” Brown, Dean Clark
-District 8: Scott Weiner, Bill Hemenger
-District 10: Lynette Sweet, Steve Moss

The deadline is coming up in a few days so I’m hoping to hear back from more people. If you live in any of these districts, you might want to bug candidates you see out and about asking for votes to return their questionnaires soon. So far the responses we’ve received have been very revealing about the candidates’ experiences with Muni and what they’d do if elected.
-A lot of attention was given to the opposition by TWU to Muni service cuts this week, first by myself and later by our friends at the SF Weekly and elsewhere. However, commenter David, who is keeps a vigilant eye on daily service reports, noted that the real opposition is due to reformed sick leave and absence policies, which drive up overtime costs, and allow for that whole “pay me not to work and screw you” policy that is killing Muni’s budgets (along with plenty of other reasons). Good catch, David!
-We’re still waiting for a clarification on the mysterious “Route One” message some N riders heard the other day, and we’re still waiting to hear when the Irving St. bus shelters might make their return (although in fairness they are putting one up for the 44 on 9th right now).
-Friend of the NJC Matt Baume sent us this video of the speed of the N Judah on Sunday, August 29th (yay!) which indicates where it’s moving along and where it slows down. Very interesting use of public data!
-Finally a few fun notes: This weekend is the San Francisco Zine Fest over at the County Fair Building. This is always a fun event to attend and many cool people will be showing off some interesting zines. (For the Youth of America, a zine is like a blog but on paper, printed at Kinkos). Back in the olden days, I produced more of these things than I care to admit, I have to say.
Also, the famous Trolley Dances will make their return on October 16th on the N Judah line. This is an annual occurrence we’ve been reporting on since 2006 and it’s great to have them back on the N! Best of all your only cost is your fare! What a bargain!
Have a great Labor Day Weekend! Post any events of interest in the comments!

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