Other blogs have provided some interesting analyses, and now, you can look at look at specific lines and see what, if anything will be added or cut. It's by no means the only way one should take a look at the changes, but it is a nice start. Check it out!

UPDATE Since writing this last night, I noticed the Chronicle had a report today.

I think there the concept of van service in some of the lesser used routes, such as the 36 Teresita (which I have used quite a bit) is worth at least exploring. But there might be some ADA issues with that, so who knows if that'll happen. I do know that if you kill off the 36 you doom everyone up on Twin Peaks to cars only, and the current bus runs like, once an hour or something and if you're not right at the stop, they fly by at light speed.

Any reports from the front lines are welcome in the comments section.

Rhetorical note: Many times MUNI personnel refer to San Francisco Citizens as "customers" - but that's not technically true. We are the taxpaying, fare-paying owners of a publicly owned Municipal Railway, and we are citizens who are responsible for making sure Our Public Officials serve the owners.

That is all.

The effect is not just annoying - if you live in the Outer Sunset, and you're dropped off at 19th, you're looking at a 20-30 block walk, or more. Bad enough if you're a hapless commuter - even worse if you're a senior citizen or disabled citizen who relies on MUNI.

Thus, it was interesting to read this story, suggesting that operators who do this would be fired immediately. This was supposedly due to pressure from Supervisor Chu and Assemblymember Ma, who represent the Outer Sunset District. Um, thanks gang!

I'd love to think this is a reality, but there's just one little problem. After some some bitter labor negotiations with the Driver's Union leaders, which ironically happened right before a serious N/T crash, the union got away with no real changes in their contract, or any of the disciplinary measures sought by management to fire blatantly incompetent employees.

And, in a textbook case of MUNI FAIL, the driver involved in the accident on Monday was observed driving improperly just an hour before the crash that sent 14 people to the hospital by a top manager who called it in, but to no avail. Think that person got "fired on the spot?"

Guess again.

What galls me the most is that the MUNI reform measure, Proposition A, made VERY SIGNIFICANT CONCESSIONS to organized labor to ensure the measure passed, and attempt to address their concerns. Many stricter work rules were taken out, at the behest of the San Francisco Labor Council, and MUNI unions. This was done to try and make it so everyone would win - make MUNI better, and be fair to everyone involved.

For Local 250A's leadership (and please note that it's the leadership, not the general members I'm critiquing) to first act like spoiled children when asked to do their frakkin' jobs properly, then stick us with another contract that basically keeps a status quo no one is happy with is nothing but cynicism, masquerading as "promoting working class interests."

It is also an insult to the SF Labor Council, who negotiated the changes to Prop. A in good faith - only to have their own union brothers and sisters at Local 250A stab the Labor Council in the back.

Add to that the fact we're going to pay millions in settlements for the screw ups of the June and August crashes alone, and you can see why people who have to do their jobs or get fired are sick and tired of this kind of bulls*t.

This is what happens when you have union "leaders" like Mr. Lum of Local 250A, who have a madman's devotion to defending the worst drivers, while doing not a damn thing for the many many hard-working drivers who serve the public with courtesy and efficiency.

(Why, just today on the way to work I observed the driver of the 45 this morning who handled a tough situation with an unruly crowd with class and distinction, or the awesome cable car riders on my commute to Powell station today. Does the union work for them? No, because they aren't causing wrecks or racking up complaints.)

Worst of all? The erosion once again of the public's trust in our City to do something as simple as run the buses and trains on time. Plenty of OTHER cities of less than a million people seem to make this work OK - why do we in San Francisco treat this as some Herculean (or Sisyphan) task?

The boards are open....your thoughts?

The good citizens of Six Apart have alerted me to a new plug in that may help. If you find a comment's not made it on the site, email me a copy of it and I'll post it myself in the meantime. Sorry about this - if I could just allow anyone to comment I would but the site would get overwhelmed with junk fairly soon.

This has also resulted in significantly more "Reader Mail", so much so that I think I'm going to designate one day to publish all emails submitted, rather than print them as they come in. That way you can read what your fellow Loyal Readers are thinking, and join in the discussion.

On a side note, we may be changing how we allow comments on the site. One thing no one sees here is the immense amount of "comment spam" the site receives. As a result, I have to approve every single comment so that the 10 spam comments don't get published and the 3 "real" ones do. I think that forcing people to regsiter for every single site is a hassle, but I hate spammers too. And for some reason the option to allow people to use their OpenID (aka your yahoo login) isn't working here either. So for now we're investigating some no-hassle ways to change over to something a bit more manageable so you can participate easily on the site. Suggestions are welcome!

Also, to new readers: I would direct you to the Subject Archives section, where you can read past entries on specific subjects going back to 2005. If you're wondering if we've talked about something, you can look there, or type in a search term in the Search box in the upper right hand corner too.

Finally, I'm going to try and get some professional assistance to make a long-delayed upgrade to the site's layout and interface. I've been working on this for some time now, but as my MovableType and assorted HTML skills are limited (and I have a day job!), what takes an expert a day takes me much longer.

However, the site's basic layout hasn't really changed, aside from colors, since 2006, and is lacking in some features many of you have inquired about that I would like to add. If anyone out there wants to pitch in, I can't offer much in the way of millions of dollars, but you could get a free shirt or two out of the deal, and credit on the site as well.

First off, Reader Pat writes in with some tales of N Judah woe, as he starts commuting downtown via the N these days:

Hey Greg. Pat here. Hope you're doing well.

Been taking the N-Judah downtown to some freelance jobs lately. 3 out 5 mornings last week had me waiting over 12 minutes for a train to come by, at peak morning rush (around 8:20 am). Naturally the trains were packed by the time they reached me at UCSF.

Then we waited at the Church/Duboce stop for another 10-15 minnutes. Driver of the train didn't have the courtesy to say a single word about the delays. I was standing next to some middle-aged woman who was on her way to a doctor downtown, and was in a lot of pain. She finally got off the train and hailed a cab. The inadequacy of trains running on that line is ludicrous. I even decided to drive down and pay for parking a few times, just to avoid dealing with the awful hassle that is traveling on the Judah during peak times.

Ouch! Driving downtown is pricey, what with the tickets going up in price and parking costing what it does. I know that thanks to MUNI fails of late, I've been resorting to pricey cabs. Ugh. But when one has to get somewhere for work and failwhale behavior isn't an option (as it seems to be at the Board of Supervisors or MUNI)

Now, the next email may be a bit controversial, as I cannot verify exactly who this person is. I can say, however, that some of the things mentioned, such as removing track irons from the trains, has been reported to me seperately, so in the spirit of open discussion, I shall print this message and let the chips fall where they may:

If you spotted any suspicious activity on July 22nd that may be of use, please do not hesitate to call Animal Control with your info at (415) 554-9400. Yes, there's a reward and all, but that shouldn't be the reason one lends a hand here - it's finding the sick #$&*%#$@! that came to our part of town, stole away a dog, and decided that stabbing it to death was a Good Idea.

Crime is on the rise in San Francisco, and it's time we stopped just bitching about it on blogs, but take some action. If anyone can help out, please do so! Thanks!

I was riding the N-Judah from the Outer Sunset to Powell Street on Tuesday evening. Everything was going well until about 7:15, when we entered the Van Ness station. The doors closed, again, but we sat there for a few minutes. The front door was reopened to let people on and off, including Muni fare inspectors. We sat in the station for about ten minutes. I was in a hurry, so I walked up to ask. Usually the drivers make announcements about what's causing a delay, and how long we might be expected to wait, and what options we might have as riders.

The driver had sealed the partition where one usually remits their fare so no one could talk to her. I then stepped outside the train, and asked through the window of her compartment, "Excuse me, I see that there's a train parked in the Civic Center station in front of us for a while. Do you think it would be better for me to take surface transportation?" She looked at me in indignation, and slammed the window in my face! I just stared at her for a moment, and walked away.

Then he tells me that the frakkin N-Judah Chronicles has also won the best local blogger award. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked. I mean, not only did I not beg all you Loyal Readers, my friends, relatives, et al to stuff the ballot boxes, I honestly didn't know they even had a category like this. So needless to say, this is a tremendous surprise.

I kinda feel bad for capping on them a while back on that political blog I write that no one reads...all I can say to y'all is thanks! I never thought a joke email sent 3 years ago would lead to anything, much less this!

You can talk about these, and other "real world" concerns to the Police Commission Wednesday, July 30th, at St. Anne's Parish auditorium at 6pm. The N literally drops you off in front of this place, and it's a chance for your voice to be heard.

This is an election year, and at a time when violent crime is out of control, it's important you as a citizen speak out. I'll try and make it over there myself but if work delays me, I hope some of you can stop by and let 'em know what you think needs to happen in our neighborhood.

Apparently it's related to the ongoing labor/management difficulties at the University of California, which have been going on for some time. I don't know all the details - union members or assorted UC workers, feel free to leave a comment and let us know what's up!

At least I found out BEFORE I made my plan to do the MUNI/BART thing. Plan accordingly and be safe, friends!

Some of you may recall how this MUNI customer was getting screwed by MUNI when he tried to use the 25 cent BART to MUNI discount pass they have in the stations. In true MUNI fashion, big paid mangers and spokesfolk said "we'll fix it" and of course, they didn't and this time it was caught on camera.

I think Phil needs to change his job title from Editor at Large to "MUNI Avenger," and get a costume or something. And Akit, you rock for catching this all on tape!

My biggest concern about all those glowing reports about the data they collected was that they'll "overhaul" the system to serve Today's Needs, but in 10 years, people will be stranded in new and improved ways since none of the plans seems to account for where all those condos and the like are being built.

In the past, I've encouraged people to get involved and ask questions to ensure that whatever plan comes out is the best one possible. At the same time, it's easy to think that maybe all those hearings were just a lot of hooey and that some Big Consultants looked at the map, decided that not all of the City is worth serving any more, and took the easy way out.

And, as always, MUNI's unions, to whom we capitulated to pass Prop. A, who recently thumbed their nose at any new rules to make them accountable, now threaten to toss any changes, however mild, into the dustbin of history. I really think it's disingenuous of them to do things like this after so much was done to accommodate them last fall - they're making the Labor Council look bad, and that's not fair to the Labor Council.

Finally, a note - I will be taking my first "real" vacation in a while this week, departing for Sunny San Diego for Nerdvana, aka the San Diego Comic-Con. (Hey, it was this or Vegas, and I've been to Vegas enough times already.) While the City's elite are at some Big Wedding in Montana, I'll be with 150,000 like minded folks from around the world (with a/c and celebrities galore). Now who's the nerd, Gavin?

I won't be in any sort of costume, but I will be taking pictures and covering the proceedings. I will also post some business reviews I've been sitting on so the site won't go stale. And I'll create an open thread for people to post any MUNI nuttiness that goes on while I'm away!

RANDOM UPDATE: I was reading SFPD Captain Paul Chignell's daily report of crime and whatnot today and saw this note:

Supervisor Carmen Chu is sponsoring free tickets to the DeYoung Museum on July 27th. There are 200 tickets available and they must be picked up on the 27th at the Museum. Tickets are only available for District 4 residents. For more information, email to chustaff@sfgov.org or call 415-554-7460.

Well who can argue with that? I am not in District 4 as I am in the Inner Sunset but for those of you out there in D4, the lines are open!