The N-Judah Chronicles

Reading CW Nevius's column today in the Chronicle regarding MUNI fare collections and budget woes today is kind of like reading the N Judah Chronicles or SFist.com two years ago.

To which I'd simply say, welcome to the party, Chronicle, even if you're a bit late! Let's be real here: way way way more people read the Chronicle than my goofy blog, and if likeminded folks there can prod some action out of the brainiacs around town, fine with me. (I sure wish I got paid to write this stuff the way the pro did, but I do have a day job, and hey, the NJC have t shirts!)

For fun, I've rounded up all the articles we've talked about on MUNI's budget and fare collection follies, test plans to allow "back door boarding," fun with fare inspectors, and ongoing bitching about MUNI budgets. It's a MUNI festival! Woo hoo!

At this rate, maybe I can use my brain waves to get the Chronicle to write more stories about other things I like, such as anime, movies, Comic-Con and happy hours. Just let me get my tinfoil hat and hippie crystals and I'll be all set!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By now, most people have heard something about the Transit Effectiveness Project, a project of the SFMTA to try and make things run more efficiently. The braniacs at City Hall have been touting the process as an example of their commitment to A Better MUNI, and clearly the top brass at MUNI and the SFMTA have bet most of their chips on this thing to try and make things better.

The good citizens at The Transbay Blog have posted some very thoughtful comments on the proposed changes, and it's well worth your while to take a look at what they have to say. I was struck, in particular about their comments about the 36-Teresita line, which I have relied on when house-sitting for a friend up in the hills (and have been stranded more than a few times waiting for a bus as-is).

There are many ways you can get involved with the process and offer praise and critiques of the proposed changes. One way, of course is to attend public meetings, a list of which is provided at the end of this post.

For me, I have found the research they've done to be quite interesting, but often times of the "we knew that" variety. For example, they discovered that people want the buses to run on time so they can plan their time accordingly. Well, um, yeah. Also, while they've done a heck of a job pinpointing the most and least used routes, et al, I haven't seen a lot so far about projections for the future.

One of the problems we have now is that we have lots of people living in places that did not have lots of housing 20+ years ago, the last time we made any real changes. So I wonder how they're gonna try and predict where the up-and-coming regions of Our Fair City will be, and how they'll accomodate those changes in the years to come.

Anyway, here's a list of meeting times and places. You can also contact them via email (and be sure to CC your Supervisor and the Mayor when you do!) or via traditional USPS mail. No matter how, do what you can to learn more and get involved.

They can ignore my silly blog, they can ignore a small band of folks, but if enough people learn more and participate in good faith, eventually they have to listen to someone. Surely the good citizens of our city can offer up good ideas to make things work better for all of us, right?

• Saturday, May 3, 10:30 am, Jean Parker Elementary, 840 Broadway St. (at Powell St.)
• Monday, May 5, 6:30 pm, Visitacion Valley Elementary, 55 Schwerin St. (at Visitacion Ave.)
• Saturday, May 10, 10:30 am, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, 4235 19th St. (at Diamond St.)
• Monday, May 12, 6:00 pm, West Bay Conference Center, 1290 Fillmore St. (at Eddy St.)
• Wednesday, May 14, 6:30 pm, Bessie Carmichael Elementary, 375 Seventh St. (at Harrison St.)
• Saturday, May 17, 10:30 am, Mission YMCA, 4080 Mission St. (at Bosworth St.)

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Reader Michael wrote in inquiring about a comment I made to the Examiner that appeared in this morning's paper:

I'm not sure if the Examiner quoted you correctly when they wrote:

"'If you board the N-Judah on 48th [Avenue] and get off before downtown, there is no one checking your ticket,' said Greg Dewar, who runs the blog The N-Judah Chronicles."

The statement attributed to you is not correct. Although it is true that MUNI fare inspectors only work the MUNI rail lines; it is not true that they only do so downtown.

I live in the Outer Sunset (43rd Ave.) roughly equidistant from the N and L lines and ride them both regularly...although I tend to favor the N because it is less crowded and runs much more frequently than the L. On both lines, I have encountered fare inspectors well away from downtown.

On the N, I have faced them at 19th/Judah, UCSF, and Church/Duboce. On the L, I have encountered them at 31st/Taraval and 19th/Taraval.

I think when I was speaking to the reporter (while trying to do some work on the computer at the same time) I don't know that I made it clear I was referring to the second train in a two-train N as being where one can board without paying. I don't for a moment think this was an intentional mistake on the part of the reporter - rather I just didn't pick the precise wording with regards to that issue and the mistake would be mine.

One thing I discussed with the reporter that probably didn't fit into this particular story was the fact that once upon a time, on busy bus and MUNI lines, MUNI paid people to collect money and load people on and off the bus at the back doors of said buses and trains, to move things along and collect money they're owed.

However, I think there is a case to be made that having some more fare inspectors on some of the more notorious bus lines is not a bad idea - I think the 71 Haight easily qualifies as one of the biggest fare-evadin' bus lines in the system. Your thoughts? Post 'em in the comments.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here we go....today it's reported that our green-tie wearing Mayor and allegedly Greener Than Thou Supervisors are starting to feel the heat regarding the proposed parking ticket fine increases, and are threatening to kill the MTA budget to stop it.

Techinically the MTA board is free of political influence (because, you know, you can vote for judges but not MTA board members), but in an odd twist, a supermajority of our Beloved Board and our Mayor can override the entire budget and send it all back with notes.

The Mayor, as usual, always floats out bold "talk" when the issue comes up first, but in the face of any opposition or controversy, backs down, and instead is now talking about screwing the Transit Effectiveness Project he's been promoting, ad nauseum, for a year now.

As I've said before, I was never really comfortable with the idea of relying on parking ticket fines as a stable source of revenue, and have tried, unsuccessfully, to get our Dearly Elected Leaders to realize that these half-assed, fiddle-with-the-margins solutions to MUNI's financial woes will never get us out of the hole and on track to a service that generally works, and is financially secure.

However, once again lost in all these reports and chatter is that once again, our Board of Supervisors, our Mayor, and even our state representatives all seem to be dedicated to cutting as much funding out of MUNI as possible, and never seem to come up with new, stable, fair ways to pay for a system - or even dare audit the MTA and determine just how much money it really takes to run the system, and go from there.

After all, we've had so-called "progressive" leaders actually call for cutting MUNI revenues for certain people, we've had our state Assemblymembers vote to cut MUNI funding from MUNI, BART and every transit district in the state, and our Mayor pushed through big pay raises for certain city employees, blowing out the budget (as well as dipping into MUNI funds to pay for political staffers).

They do manage to slap a picture of the Earth or drive in a Prius in a piece of election junk mail, and the masses are calmed. The out-of-town press comes to town and fawns over Green SF becuase some elected has a hybrid terlet or whatever, and yet, reality collides when a sooty bus arrives 40 minutes late.

Funny that.

So, for fun, I'm going to propose a few "common sense" ideas for the Big Kids at City Hall to consider as they fight amongst themselves and all those special interests at City Hall. I'm sure it'll be ignored by both "progressives" and the Mayor's Voting Bloc, but hey, at least we're converting negative energy into positive, right?

Continue reading ""Green" Mayor and "Green" Board Show Us Why MUNI Sucks...." »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you're not already reading Eater SF the sister site to the always awesome Curbed SF, well you really should check it out if you're interested in more information on the many fascinating (and sadly, expensive) places to eat out in Our Fair City.

Today, Google Reader and Eater SF conspired to bring this little vignette about SF's allegedly super-greenie eviro-y restaurante. Funny enough, they're not only offering Critical Mass Happy Hour Specials, they're also giving Bike Coaltion people expensive "organic" beers for Pabst Blue Ribbon prices.

Memo to hipster greenies running your "Friend of the Earth" restaurant....if anyone deserves a break on pricey hipster beer prices, it is the hard working men and women of Our Fair City that endure a MUNI ride every freakin' day. We're not driving our cars, we're "doing the right thing," so cut us a break even though we don't scream like bashees about some lost cookie, m'kay?

Thanks, and for more information on MUNI, consult your local library!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All of today's Olympic Torchy Goodness has been making MUNI hellacious today - the N, of course, is blocked over by the ballpark, and there's new chatter that the torch is going to run down Van Ness instead (where no one is around to actually see it) and there's an army of Chinese and American security forces out there today.

All of the MUNI alerts about the old route along Embarcadero may be moot, and now we'll have all sorts of closures and whatnots on this "new" routing that they just announced to psyche out the protestors. They already closed the cable cars this morning (replacing them with...buses..), and the N isn't scheduled to be online to Caltrain station until at least 4pm.

I decided well in advance to avoid having any meetings or work downtown, so I'm sitting here watching the torch goodness on KPIX's Eye on Blogs and SFist.

If you've got a tale of a particularly annoying commute or other tales from the front lines, post 'em in the comments and let the bloggy goodness continue.

UPDATE: MUNI just posted this alert...allegedly the N is back on line all the way to CalTrain...

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By now, every blogger in town has weighed in on all things Torch related - Brittney over at KPIX's Eye on Blogs has been rockin' with her coverage of said blog posts around the Bay.

After reading a few, I'd just offer the City this modest proposal to have a hassle-free run of the torch: Don't have the runners run down Embarcadero, or whatever. Just put the thing on the N-Judah at Judah and La Playa.

Not only will any planned protests along the route miss it, since it'd most likely not show up on time, or speed past the stop, you can have a breakdown at 19th and Judah, and then have it put on say, the 6 Parnassus, or maybe the 71, so it can get downtown. Or better yet, put it on one of those greenie buses with the wifi. Then you could have a designated protestor blog a protest on the bus, live.

See? Everyone wins. We think about the children. China won't nuke SF. And protestors get their say. Yay Us!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

An FYI to commuters and some of those who live within range of the N-Judah (or just the Sunset District and parts elsewhere west and south in Our Fair City) - we've got two events that may or may not affect your commute.

Monday, of course, is Opening Day for the Giants at AT&T Park, so it's reported that MUNI will be operating a special "stadium shuttle" as well as other tweaks to move people along to the game. The Giants have thoughtfully provided this guide to getting to the ballpark by pretty much any means possible. If anyone goes to the game, feel free to report your tale of MUNI woe or triumph here in the comments!

On Tuesday, there's a Special Election for those of you who live in the 12th Congressional District. This election is being held to fill the vacancy left by Rep. Tom Lantos earlier this year. Many people may not realize there's an election, even with the spattering of junk mail pumped out by the various candidates. However it's an important election as currently the district (and our N line) is without any Congressional representation.

If one candidate wins the election with a 50%+1 majority, no additional special election will be held, if not they'll hold a Special General Election on June 3rd. However, if the latter happens, it will also mean our CD will continue to have no representation in Congress, which is not a good thing, esp. when we have messes like the Central Subway to try and clean up.

Right now the race seems to be between the frontrunner, who has, among other things, a CalTrain locomotive named after her and an assortment of no-names. I'm rooting for my hometown hero, of course, but you should definitely vote for the candidate of your choice!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I read this headline on my RSS newsreader, I figured it had to be a joke, but it's not - KGO reports that someone found a way to drive all the way into the West Portal Tunnel, until they got to the part where it narrows and got stuck. Fortunately no trains were running so there was no chance for a major accident.

Still, one wonders the logic, or lack of, that would let someone think "O Hai! Tunnelz, I has them!" and just barrel on through.

Then I remember the infamous Judah's Prius Incident captured by one of the Loyal Readers, and realize, in this town, any-thing's possible.

And now, a re-run, of that famous day on the N last year. Enjoy.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The long, slow march towards some increases in MUNI Fast Passes and parking fines continues, unabated, as we approach tomorrow's SFMTA meeting to discuss said changes.

The Mayor's been playfully hinting at said increases, and earlier talk that said Fast Pass increases would happen only as a "last resort" seems to have been just that - talk - since after just 10 days, the MTA folks seemed to have reversed course.

The proposed parking ticket increases seem to be creating the most discussion on local blogs around town. But as always, in these "discussions" some points tend to get missed because we narrow the topic to the point where we exclude a few basic points.

One thing we've done pretty good here in Our Fair City is give MUNI lots of unstable sources of revenue. When times are good, there's "money" and when the inevitable recession hits, suddenly there's "no money." I'm sure to someone looking at a balance sheet, jacking up parking ticket prices is an easy way to show "hey look ma! more money!" but don't seem to realize that relying on parking ticket money to cover the costs of running the MTA/MUNI is inherently unstable.

Put it another way: If you raise the parking ticket fines into the going-medieval-on-your-wallet zone, people are more likely to either a) not drive their cars, or b) make sure the darn meter is fed. Ironically, if more people pump money into the meters, the number of tickets starts to go down because, um, well, people are doing what they're supposed to when they park at a meter.

More importantly, it seems more than a bit strange that we'd take parking tickets, which were once used primarily to cite people for unsafe parking or for meter violations, and turn them into a "revenue source" backed by the criminal justice system.

It also leads one to cynically wonder if the city has so much to gain from issuing lots of tickets if perhaps those meters aren't broken on purpose, just so they can jam another ticket under your windshield. (Given that they've been proven to do a poor job simply collecting the parking meter money in the first place, one wonders if they'll just give up and make everyone pay $60 to park, period!)

All of this comes as we just read the other day about all the City employees who make huge salaries (and will get huge pensions for life too!). The Mayor blew out the budget last year with big pay raises and big increases in the city payroll, but we haven't seen a correlating drop in crime or improvement in city services one might expect.

San Franciscans need to start making smart choices. We can continue to bloat the city payroll, year after year, by "moderates" and "progressives" alike, but we have to be aware that continuing to do so, without some sort of accountability or performance that merits such a bloated payroll has consequences.

The next time you see your car being booted for a handful of EXPENSIVE tickets, think about this: not only are you paying for the people to tow your car away, you're also going to be paying their salary, pension and health care for the rest of their life, too!

UPDATE: I just remembered something. Back in the 1990s, when the State of California was coming up with all sorts of goofball ways to "balance budgets," Gov. Wilson and his allies in the Legislature actually passed a law that mandated local governments had to pay a few bucks to the State of California for every parking ticket they wrote. Locals had the option of just coughing up the cash, or tacking on the surcharge to existing fines.

If that's not racketeering or extortion, I don't know what is!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

After hopes were somewhat falsely raised last year, it's hoped that this will not only ensure safety, but perhaps speed things up for both cars AND trains. (And if you're really that curious here's why it makes that turn in the first place)

After a string of accidents, including the tragic accident last month, and other collisions reported in by loyal readers, and a hapless mini crusade, both here and on Mr. Mayor's "blog", it's nice to just see something happen at all. All this effort, just to get someone to acknowledge a promise made back in 2006.

I really hope they make this work, and if it does work out, I think the politicians and the folks at the assorted alphabet soup of agencies need to hear that if they do their jobs and make something work better for everyone (cars, transit, pedestrians, and residents) that's a GOOD thing, and screwing around, spending our money on foolishness isn't.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The trial balloons for an increase in the costs of a monthly MUNI Pass are being floated, primarily as a "quick fix" for MUNI's persistent budget woes. Always, of course, without mentioning how the politicians keep trying to take away money from MUNI.

No transit system in the world makes all of its money from the farebox anyway, but you know what will accompany this hike - more cuts in service. Pay more for less. The San Francisco mantra, it seems.

But wait! Let's go read some more MUNI news in the Examiner...specifically the fact that MUNI is about to make a huge payout because their employees accidentally killed a child.

This, in addition to the many many payouts MUNI makes due to accidents. As you may recall we've had a few lately, right here on our Mighty N.

So what we're seeing is that we (taxpayers) are paying out huge settlements for horrific accidents. At the same time we 'balanced budgets' by cutting safety, staffing, and maintenance. The politicians got a pat on the back for "not raising taxes," and in the short term, everything was fine, until, um the dying and suffering. If, perhaps we'd spent the nickel in the past to make sure the system was as safe as humanly possible, perhaps today we wouldn't be spending huge payouts for settlements - and lives would not have been shattered by these tragedies.

Not all accidents can be prevented (after all, they are "accidents" and not "stuff MUNI did on purpose to ruin lives"). But when you hear about big pay raises for upper management, big pay for political aides with no background in MUNI safety OR climatology, and science fiction written by the man who played political games with MUNI's budgets, and local legislators that love to talk "green" but vote for huge cuts to MUNI time and again, it's hard to accept that a fare increase of this size is "necessary."

Until people decide that they'd like to get value for their money in San Francisco, this kind of nonsense will continue. So long as you accept the notion of "pay more and more and get less and less", and accept giving big pay raises to people that are not qualified, you will get exactly what you have now. Makes for wonderful blog posts - Hell of a way to run a major American city.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the better part of a year, news of the ongoing Transit Effectiveness Project has been kicked around as meetings, studies and whatnot have been devoted to try and figure out where and what MUNI needs to change in order to be useful to San Francisco's citizens. I've always encouraged people to get involved in the process, mostly because if people just let the geniuses run the show, the result is likely a mess.

The Chronicle has a recap of the report's release, and you can go to the TEP site itself and download copies of the various reports. There's so much here that it's hard to really comment on it without reading it, so for now I'll hold off any big postings until I read it for myself. If any of you have comments as you check it out, please feel free to discuss in the comments section.

And remember: while some of the report inevitably is a bit of the No Duh Institute variety (gawrsh Mickey, folks want the buses to run on time! We needed a study to tell us that), some of the other parts of the study I saw a while back were kind of interesting in showing how people use the system as of today.

MUNI hasn't updated its routes in 20+ years, and let's face it, 20 years ago there were plenty of parts of the City where no one lived, that now house thousands of people, and we still have many "legacy" routes that are the lineal descendants of streetcars (and streetcar companies) long gone.

Enjoy the transit-y goodness, fellow citizens!

UPDATE: The good folks at the Transbay Blog did a nice quick summary of the changes in the TEP. Go check it out!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well at least someone besides me said it: CW Nevius wrote a couple of pieces in the Chronicle this past week, expressing similar concerns to my own that we're about to embark on an expensive white elephant of a rail line known as the Central Subway.

The Central Subway is an intersection of petty political promises and half-assed planning that will do nothing to improve transit for anyone, be they those who live in North Beach, Chinatown, downtown, or on the T-Third (!) line, and as a bonus, will need to steal trains from all the other lines to accommodate this short, 3-stop, multi-billion dollar Tunnel of Love.

Mayor Newsom loves to talk about it though, since he can ribbon cut at a ceremony or something. At last year's "Fake Question Time," he was able to say in the same sentence that he "wanted to hear what people thought," but also that "this is a done deal and there's nothing you can do about it." And it would seem he's correct on the latter point - there seems to be this mantra of "if we don't take the Feds' money for this project, no matter how lame, we're 'losing out" on something" that everyone at MUNI and City hall repeat.

Ah well. I keep forgetting that common sense and reason are in short supply these days, and that "leadership" in San Francisco consists of doing Really Stupid Things to appease future patrons of future campaigns. Epic FAIL.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Dot Com Boom 1.0 Bus Stop

-- Buses that run on time
-- Less-surly drivers
-- Graffiti removal
-- More comfortable seats
-- Back doors that open only for people exiting the bus - not fare cheats sneaking in.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Loyal Reader and blogger friend Melissa just called me a few minutes ago to report on a rather critical accident on a K-Outbound line that's stalled MUNI traffic downtown.

According to Melissa, an elderly gentleman got on at Embarcadero on a K-Outbound line, and the train (which as we know in the tunnel is controlled by computer, NOT the operator) made a very sudden stop, just at the moment that said gentleman's hand was not attached to any handle or bar and he fell down, possibly injuring or breaking his hip. There was a 20 minute wait for the paramedics to show up and move him to safety upstairs. The operator apparently was trying to help as best they could, but got a little grief from patrons, not realizing that machines control the trains in the tunnel (which many people might not be aware of, we're not all transit nerds like me).

As of right now (7:40pm) paramedics and first responders were just about to get him onto a gurney and to safety. OK as I'm writing this and now as of of 7:43pm I just got a text from Melissa that the trains are moving, but delays should be expected.

I think that as we go about our weekends we should hope that said passenger is OK, and be aware there will be some delays for a while as MUNI gets back up to speed.

Thanks to Melissa for her eyewitness account...it's just sad that anyone gets injured on public transit, and more sad that writing about SF transit means talking about mayhem and injuries on said system. If this mayhem, death, and crap continues, I'm quitting, because I didn't start this to write the "let's all talk about people getting hurt and killed blog."

Jeez.

PS: You can read the rest of Melissa's evening, delayed by the K line, over at Beth Spotswood's awesome blog. It's quite a small world here in SF blog land.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Rather than react to the trial balloon on fare hikes MUNI floated today, I decided to take a look back over the past year at all the rhetoric floated by Our Leaders on MUNI fares. Give credit to MUNI and the MTA on this - they are very good at framing issues, mostly by completely ignoring things like "facts" and "past statements."

But first, a comment about "money" and "cuts." I get a bit weary of hearing the "poor us" speech when it comes to money for MUNI. After all, we just voted for Measure A last year which was supposed to bring significant stability to MUNI's funding. Now, suddenly, we're told there's yet another "crisis" and they want us to pay more and get less. Amazing.

Of course, it doesn't help when San Francisco legislators voted for a state budget that whacked a significant amount of MUNI funding. The federal government isn't helping matters by possibly taking away a ton of cash for MUNI projects because of opposition from some folks for a Doyle Drive toll. Using MUNI safety money to pay for political aides isn't exactly good management either, nor is giving the boss a big pay raise in the midst of this "financial crisis."

But these are big issues for another day. Let's instead take that trip in the Wayback Machine and see what's been said about MUNI fares for the last few years.

Way back in February 2006 a report was issued indicating that in many places, 50% of folks weren't paying the fares owed. After said report, did fare collections increase or get better?

No! Because, flash forward to February 2007 and guess what we were talking about? Yep, you guessed it - MUNI still wasn't getting its act together and collect the fares it's supposed to - amazing!

Now you'd think some bright, handsome young Mayor, would seize upon the report and bang his fist on the table saying "Let's do a better job, MUNI! Collect some more fares like you're supposed to." Instead we got some hippie-esque feel-good nonsense from talking about how we should make MUNI "free" (which was thoroughly debunked when the adults studied the idea).

Not to be outdone, Supervisors and other electeds came up with their own notion of a "youth fare", apparently to be paid for with a tax on unicorns and elves. Fortunately, this half-baked idea died as the folks promoting it turned on each other. Woo hoo.

See the pattern? Everyone keeps saying "no money" and yet a big reason they have a problem is because MUNI's not bothering to collect money it is supposed to from its passengers. Instead of demanding MUNI get with the program, the politicians come up with crazy notions to take away more money from MUNI, usually to appease folks of a certain political persuasion. Then they start talking about fare increases and service cuts because...well gawrsh Mickey, there's "no money."

Continue reading "Calling BS on Fare Increases and Fare Shenanigans in San Francisco" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ah, the San Francisco County Transit Agency, described by a sage scribe as MUNI's successful younger sibling. First we heard the news about work finally beginning on the Irving and 9th/Judah and 9th intersections, and soon afterwards, MUNI Chief Nate Ford started arguing he should be able to drink their milkshakes and take their money. Woo hoo!

This afternoon, I got an email announcing new vacancies for the SFCTA's Citizens Advisory Committee. It seems that there are quite a few vacancies, esp. in the districts which represent the N-Judah line (and oh yeah, one in District 11 too).

Full details after the jump. If you've got the time and want to be able to weigh in on such issues as the Central Subway (!) and the like, well here's a chance to join up and get involved!

Continue reading "The SFCTA Needs You!" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You really have to hand it to the geniuses that run AT&T and Comcast...they keep coming up with new ways to screw up. I moved to a new place and Comcast wouldn't let me order new Cable service because the old service was still "active." So I gave up and cast my lot with AT&T and they said it'd be activated today, the 13th.

Ha! Instead after going through all the hassles to re do the wiring in this place and whatnot, they tell me now that starting on the 13th doesn't really mean starting on the 13th (although the BILLING starts today!) and that it might work out later on tonight...or not at all.

They must be taking screw up classes over at City Hall to come up with something like that. I wonder if I can not pay my bill on time and tell them that paying on the due date doesn't necessarily mean paying on the due date?

So for the moment I found a wifi signal in the neighborhood, but I don't like stealing Internet from strangers, so it's off to an Undisclosed Location for some wifi...hopefully we'll be back online soon enough...

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The always informative and entertaining MattyMatt at SFist.com caught the latest agenda of the San Francisco County Transit Agency (SFCTA) and at tomorrow's meeting there's some pretty big news - it appears that the much touted, delayed, and awaited for signal improvements to the Irving/9th and Judah/9th intersections are finally being made!

You can go check out the agenda online, and scroll down to Item 13, where you can read more, and download a PDF of the plan also.

From what I'm reading, this has been fast-tracked to be done in 3 months. The upgrades are being made via Prop. K funds, and the N Judah trains will be getting their own signal, so cars won't have to risk getting rammed by a mega-ton train. I'm guessing in light of recent events this is getting a bit of a push, but you know what? I really don't care why they're doing it - I'm just glad they are, since this has the potential of being a win for everyone - cars, MUNI, MUNI riders, and pedestrians.

I'll keep an eye on this tomorrow and try and post something in between work breaks if I can....this is good news, though, and unlike in the past, someone is spending money and has presented a fairly detailed plan, which in government-ese means that they're more likely to be doing something than not (Funny how money has that effect on a situation.)

UPDATE: Rachel Gordon at the Chronicle has a short story on the Gate website now also.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Call it showmanship or whatever, but giving Dan Noyes and his crew the name "ITeam" sounds cool. I mean, shouldn't they have a cool headquarters with a bullpen, plasma TVs, a "Trouble Alert" and cool cars and uniforms?

Oh wait - that's the Mayor's office! D'oh!

Ok, enough silliness...last night Noyes and his crew showed some hidden camera footage from MUNI. They had to file a lawsuit to do so, and for several months there was some unseen courtroom drama. Now, they got the footage and they're showing it on their website etc. It's definitely worth seeing, but then again, if you ride MUNI anyways, chances are you've seen stuff like this in 3-d.

Inevitably, reports like these bring up the whole "why focus on the bad apples when so many are good" meme, and there's a point to be made about that. I've seen plenty of awesome MUNI drivers myself and made sure to note it here when I can. Heck, we had one guy use his mad driving skillz to avoid another death at Irving and 9th the other day.

However, at the same time, we again see union leaders seem to insist on sticking up only for those "few bad apples" , as opposed to the great majority of good drivers who pay dues (and union leader salaries). This insistence on defending bad behavior is what frustrates so many people, and lead to a lot of anti-union sentiment, which really isn't productive (and for the record I'm all for good unions, and have worked for many of them in the past).

As always, union folks are invited to particpate here in the comments to perhaps start an honest dialogue and find some common ground between riders, citizens, MUNI employees and City Hall so we can get past blame games and spin, and get something done. I'm not holding my breath on that one, though.

Still, you have to wonder at the massive amount of good karma the union folks at MUNI would earn if they just decided to cut loose the few bad apples, and spend more time rewarding the good people who try to make the system work.

I don't know that most of us have anyone defending us or getting us big pay raises if we're a consistently crappy employee, and most of us have to work in a reality far different from the one that seems to operate at MUNI. One wonders at what might happen if said realities collided.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Reader Jeff, who runs the extremely helpful Sunset District Events Calendar, alerted me to a MUNI Town Hall Meeting with Supervisor Carmen Chu. The meeting will be held on January 30th from 7-9pm at the Sunset Recreation Center at Lawton and 29th.

Supervisor Chu has quickly earned a reputation for paying attention to constituent concerns, particularly on MUNI issues, and trying to prod city government to do something. In other words, she's doing the job of a Supervisor, instead of using the job to get higher office or pull shenanigans. What a novel concept.

I will try and attend the meeting but if nothing else I'll post a reminder and encourage others to attend, for sure. If you attend the meeting, be sure to post your thoughts here afterwards, and if you can't make the meeting, try contacting Sup. Chu's office via the city's website.

I think when we have people trying to do something, anything to do the right thing, good citizens should encourage them to do so, and give 'em the support they need. It's much easier for those in charge to invent new ways to mis-spend money and ignore folks - it's a lot harder to try and do the job like one is supposed to.

Update: I couldn't make it to the meeting as I got a last minute assignment for the paying job and had to get it done immediately...so if anyone attended feel free to post comments on the site!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Some days you don't have to do much to write a little blog about MUNI...it just sort of writes itself.

KCBS had a report about the Mayor's eagerness to spend MUNI dollars on expensive staffers for his office, to the tune of about a million dollars. This is on the heels of an article in the Chronicle covering the issue, but with a slightly different take.

It's funny how we were just asked to give MUNI dedicated resources as part of a "reform" measure (which just saw its campaign committee fined for ethics violations), and right away, the only thing our Mayor can think to do is give out big pay raises to the bosses, and take money away from MUNI and give it to people in his office. After all, it's not like it's his money out of his pocket, right? And clearly, San Franciscans like him so much they must think this is ok.

Funnier still, when you read the experiences of everyday people who don't buy their girlfriends $100,000 rings, you wonder if perhaps the Mayor could have complied with his own directive to "cut spending" by starting with his own office, instead of giving out big pay to more city employees, and getting them plasma TVs to watch Project Runway with.

Of course, all would be forgiven if they decided to say, raid the MUNI fund for a $150,000/year job for folks to blog about how great the new plasma tvs are, but that's probably not happening....

UPDATE: Rachel Gordon at the Chronicle has another story detailing the expenditures, the spin and whatnot. Oh and that blogging job pays only $85,000 after all....given how much the staffers get paid over there, I'd say the guy is getting shortchanged.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you were considering a purchase of one of our many witty MUNI-related T Shirts, now is the time to buy. I've just received word that GoodStorm has been acquired by Zazzle.com, and will close down all GoodStorm stores to get everyone onto Zazzle by February 15th.

Our famous "The N Is Near" shirt and others are on sale in our store until then. Buy one today!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some of you may have wondered where flamboyant, wealthy, and wacky former Mayor Willie Brown has been doing since he left the Mayor's office. Well aside from being a lawyer for folks, and making the big retainers and fees, he's also decided to take on a new career, writing science fiction. For those of you who are afficiandos of the genre, you really should take a look, as his work rivals some of the major folks in the business.

Now, mind you, Mayor Brown is not writing manga comics, or cyberpunk, or space opera. Instead he's writing stories in the realm of alternate history, and his new book, co-written by sci-fi fan and former Examiner writer P.J. Corkery, is really interesting. It's an alternative history of San Francisco in the 1990s, one in which MUNI was made into a perfect system, primarily under his personal direction. It's an amazing work, well written, and ranks up there with alternative histories by Philip K. Dick or Harry Turtledove.

In this alternate history, the years of budget shenanigans and the transfer of boom times wealth to his friends never happened. MUNI was well run and never cut training, maintenance or raised fares and cut service. The book serves as a "what might have been" type of read, and given the author's knowledge of San Francisco, makes for a fun read since his use of locations is almost as good as Armistead Maupin's in those Tales of the City books. (BTW, the N- Judah makes an appearance in Maupin's latest book, but I digress.)

For anyone wondering how the boom years of the late 90s could have turned out had those in charge been a little more concerned with using taxes for the benefit of the taxpayers, not their well connected friends with money, read Mayor Brown's book. Maybe they'll get J.J. Abrams to do a movie, or get Ron Moore of Battlestar Galactica fame to do a miniseries on Sci-Fi channel! And they can film it here!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This morning's Chronicle has a report on recent events and MUNI safety that's worth checking out. I think that as we go forward, the good citizens of San Francisco are going to have to keep pestering their elected officials and others if we're going to see any of that Measure A money spent to benefit the folks that pay said money (i.e. the citizens!)

Also, a couple of folks have emailed regarding a comment I made in the story that perhaps needs a slight clarification. The incident I described happened at Irving and 9th, and in this case a guy crossed the street on a red as a 44 O'Shaughnessy was rushing through the intersection to pick us up. As some of us saw what was happening, we were all convinced this was going to be another accident, but the driver in question saw the guy and managed to avoid an accident. Being an idiot I forgot to note the driver's badge number so I could send a compliment in to MUNI because this guy was on the ball.

While this did happen on the same night as the fatal accident on the N, the one described above has nothing to do with the N accident, and just because in this particular case some guy crossed on a red, that has nothing to do with the other incident.

In this case I was merely pointing out that there are many reasons why the streets are unsafe, and as such, no one "solution" will magically solve all our problems.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy guac! We just got word of news about another potential fatality on the N-Judah line this evening. Reader Jeff writes:

Greg:

News helicopters are overhead right now. Judah is closed off 28th Ave - 30th Ave. I just got home, but it looks like it happened about an hour ago.

My neighbor tells me someone was trying to get onto the train and got caught somehow. Passengers tried to alert the driver, but the train didn't stop in time.

I'm guessing the accident will be on the 11:00 news with all the details.

jeff

I got home around 8pm and missed this incident. This sounds pretty bad, though, so if anyone has info or details, please feel free to post in the comments. I'll be up for a few more hours to post details as they come in.

UPDATE: Bay City News has the story so far....

UPDATE 2:, The Chronicle has more information about the incident as well. This is so depressing.

Continue reading "Reader Mail: Another Fatality on the N Judah" »

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

The Cylons in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica have a prophecy they keep repeating: "All of this has happened before, and will happen again." One could say the same thing about the MUNI test program to allow backdoor boarding to try and combat fare evasion, et al.

The thing is, once upon a time, MUNI had "back door boarding" and the like on busy lines, by paying people as "loaders" to collect money and get people on the bus as fast as possible. This has long since been abandoned, in the interest of cutting the payroll. Is this the best way to do things? Maybe, maybe not. But it is interesting to see MUNI revive ideas and call them "new" when in fact a quick look at MUNI history shows that a lot of this is not really new at all. There are plenty of good ideas out there, and many can be found in the history of MUNI. I suppose we're paying the big kids big bucks and giving out big raises so that they can rediscover MUNI history and re-brand it with the help of expensive consultants.

Awesome.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Several people have asked me why it is the N-Judah makes the infamous left turn onto 9th street in the first place, and doesn't just continue on Irving, OR stay on Judah/Parnassus. Aside from the obvious (it wouldn't be the N-Judah if it was on Irving, it'd be the N-Irving), the reason you have this detour is because it's a relic from the olden days of multiple service providers in San Francisco running rail lines.

Quite awhile back we had a photo of the old 6 Parnassus streetcar and the N on Carl Street. MUNI and the private operators avoided sharing rails whenever possible, hence the split we have to this day, even though the 6 Parnassus ceased to be a rail line decades ago.

Many of the bus routes of today are leftovers from when the Market Street Railway merged with MUNI, and from other smaller providers of transit service, when various companies would attempt to duplicate service. And yet if you try to change anything there's usually someone demanding it all stay the same. That's why the Transit Effectiveness Project is trying to analyze how people actually use and don't use the system, so they can revise it to make things run for today's needs, not for 20+ years ago's needs. Hopefully.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

aaaa021

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

"Mason Powell," one of our loyal corrrespondents, reports that something is blocking 19th around Ulloa and Taraval, necessitating a re-route of the bus he was taking from the Daly City BART to Irving Street.

Trains don't seem to be delayed (too badly), however. Anyone see what happened?

UPDATE: Flickr user DeathByCamera took some pictures of the incident yesterday and posted them to Flickr and SFist's "contribute" section!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I would love to have posted all sorts of links to all sorts of as-it-happens mayhem, but I had no power until a few hours ago, so instead I'd be interested in hearing tales of woe and more from the Loyal Readers!

Adding to my fun today was having BART stalled this afternoon due to a felled tree, and other assorted hassles. I think I'm going to buy a generator so that during the next storm/disaster I can just stay at home and watch DVDs.....

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This morning we had an unfortunate accident on the N-Judah at 7th and Irving today. Several readers posted comments or emails detailing what they saw....for example, Reader Lauren writes:

I was on the inbound train that arrived at the scene of the accident within minutes of it happening. It looked like a white pick-up trunk ran almost straight into the outbound train. There were injuries: I think it was the passenger of the pick-up. The shuttle buses were slow to arrive, so I walked down to Lincoln to try to catch the 71. The buses were so packed that some went by without picking us up. So, it took me about an extra hour to get to work today.

Reader Karolyn also sent in a comment:

This morning at appox 7:25am I arrived at 7th & Irving street saw 2 trains at 9th & Irving there was an outbound & inbound stuck at the corner people were hanging out of the door and the trains were not able to move in either direction. I decided to walk towards 9th but didnot see the car that was apparently hit since I needed to get to work. Decided to catch the 43 or 44 to Forrest Hill Station and there was another inbound N at 9th & Judah the conductor must have informed the people of the accident. Just another messed up day on the N Judah line. So sad when it is something your use to.

If anyone else has cell phone camera photos or other information, please send it in!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Normally I'd have all sorts of things to post, but I've been felled by that nasty cold/flu thing that's been going around...it probably didn't help that I was already feeling some symptoms over the weekend but a) pressed on with the Housing Hunt from Hell and b) stayed out in the cold longer than I should have. Oh well.

In the meantime, why not share with us some MUNI Holiday Good Will and Cheer? Or MUNI Holiday Ill Will and Jeers?

UPDATE: Since so many people are asking, here's a schedule of when and where the Double Decker MUNI Bus will be test driving the streets of San Francisco....if and when I stop dying of this stupid flu, I'll check it out!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Double Decker Muni Bus!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Over the weekend, Chronicle readers were treated to this column by CW Obvious on a really horrible stabbing that happened in the Outer Sunset. Thank God the poor woman (an exchange student from Germany) survived and isn't dead, but I can only imagine the pain (mental and physical) such an attack would cause. On behalf of the good people of San Francisco, we all want to say "we're sorry" our City sucked so much you got attacked.

As you might imagine, CW's safari into the strange and mysterious wilds of the Outer Sunset set off blogging mayhem, SF Style, with all sorts of accusations and recriminations, not to mention a torrent of angry comments on SFGate. Feel the love, people.

For me, however, I found the whole situation to be Yet Another Example of how local media might better serve their dwindling readership if they took some classes at the No Duh Institute.

It's no secret that whenever the 5-0 roust the perpetually ill or perpetually addicted from one spot, they go elsewhere, preferably somewhere with some spare change, but without a lot of police or citizen hassle. Too often, that's meant the outer neighborhoods, and we've seen what happens when we get to critical mass. Neither the "homeless" or the citizens win in the end.

Sure, CW and the Chronicle may feel great when they take pictures of "the rabble" being rousted out of a portion of Golden Gate Park - but they don't seem to be aware that the warm, squishy feelings don't change anything - "the rabble" simply pick up sticks and move elsewhere, often using our MUNI.

Now, you would think in a city with as many allegedly intelligent people as ours, folks could turn down the irrational emotions and sensational articles for a few minutes, think about the many issues involved, listen to each other and those involved in said issues, and come to a reasonable solution.

I don't know that the "homeless," drug addicts, or the mentally ill are served particularly well by having them living around the streets, hurting themselves and others, and not being on the medication that can literally save their lives. On the other hand, I've seen enough demands for detention camps (and worse) for folks guilty of the crime of Not Having Money or Having a F*cked Mental Illness to make me wonder just how "enlightened" San Francisco really is.

Instead, as with MUNI, people are content to scream and yell from their respective ideological corners, the louder the better, and to Hell with the Other Side. Too bad that in this case, as with MUNI, the reasonable people of San Francisco are caught in the middle - and end up the ones who lose the most.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sometimes writing this little blog is like shooting fish in a barrel, especially when you open a newspaper and read this little news item about MUNI Boss Nate Ford's raise.

The story reveals so much more than just the facts - in this case the MTA board is giving serious consideration to giving Our City's highest paid (at $298,000/year, plus low interest home loan, plus pension, plus benefits etc.) a nice big bonus. It gives us a nice overview as to why it is people distrust MUNI, and the junkie logic that seems to infect the place.

Note, for example how not only does Mayor Newsom believe Mr. Ford should get his big bonus (despite the fact that the papers tell us MUNI has Big Problems), he also interjects that the voter mandated 85% on time rate is "unrealistic" and that it should be abandoned.

Note also that he supported the measure in the first place, but, like he does so often, he's now against it. Just like when he supported the formation of a Taxi Commission, only to then support its total dismantling with the infamous "Measure A." John Kerry would be proud of these flip flops. So is San Francisco, according to the latest vote count!

Likewise, when Andrew Sullivan of "Rescue Muni" is asked whether Ford deserves the raise or not, we get an answer only a politician could love. Is he for the raise? Against it? In the effort to try and offend no one, he ended up not saying anything. C'mon, Andrew, you're better than this. You're the head of a group that claims to be for us riders. Now is not the time for Establishment Doublespeak to make everyone happy - now's the time to make some noise.

Even funnier (in the "funny as in frakked" way not "funny as in ha ha" way) is Mayor Newsom's statement that to make MUNI run a losy "80% of the time," the system needs $90 million more dollars.

Now, putting aside the fact that Loyal Readers have pointed out time and again how meaningless the systemwide percentage statistic is, I find it really kind of insulting that after we went through all the pain and suffering that was the Magical Measure A campaign, we're now being told by Mayor Newsom what boils down to "We can't even do a half-assed job without more money, and most of that has to go to the boss, even though we screwed up the T-Third rollout and spent a bunch of money on parties, and frankly I don't care because I have a free car from you taxpayers!"

Or something like that.

All this, right as they're considering a pay raise for Nate Ford. Even though the system's at a C- level of service, he gets a raise. And they'll pay him no matter what for the length of his entire contract - even if he got fired tomorrow for gross negligence. In other words, there's no "performance incentive" here - just more and more money for the top, while we get stuck with higher fares and more service cuts.

I guess since the Mayor's so popular, this is what folks want. And I suppose that asking MUNI to keep its employees from stealing from us or at least collect the money they're owed in an efficient manner is too much to ask of a popular Mayor or the best paid guy in City Government.

Meanwhile, we see the results of squandered money, and opportunity every time a Loyal Reader sends in a tale of woe to the site.

And people wonder why a blog about MUNI gets so many hits in the first place. Now you know!

If you'd like to send an email to the Folks In Charge, why not contact the SF MTA, or send an email to Our Mayor Have fun with it and if you've got a particularly entertaining one to share, send it in and we'll use it in a future Reader Mail feature!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Reader Patrick sent me an email about an hour ago indicating that there's been a collision between a Honda car and an N-Train at 9th and Irving. As I'm at work I can't just run down the street and check this out, so if any other Loyal Readers have any info to report, please do so in the comments section!

For those of you just joining us, I made safety at the 9th/Irving and 9th/Judah intersections a mini crusade, with mixed results. Any pedestrian, motorist, or mass transit rider, however can witness a host of near-misses and other problems at these intersections on a daily basis.

Maybe this accident will move along MUNI's folks, flush with Measure A money and whatnot, to get off their backsides and make good on a promise they were supposed to have fulfilled almost a year ago!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Reader Alexandra writes in with an interesting tale of a blocked entrance at Fillmore and Duboce, a "get it done" MUNI driver, some helpful passengers, and a crabby cabbie. Read on:

On the 9th around 1440 I was on my typical daily commute home...All of a sudden on filmore & duboce the J halts-there's a truck blocking the tracks...driiinnnng drinnnng nothing happens ...by now there's a taxi on the right site blaring his horn.

So the driver gets out with his coffee and it turns out that the truck broke down. The driver then announces over the intercom that he needs some guys to help push the truck out of the way. Oh..and he also tells the obnoxious driver politely to get his ass out of the taxi and help push.

What followed was just this great comical relief. The driver with his coffee, his back against the truck pushing with several guys from the J-Church and then the disgruntled taxi driver. About a second after they push the truck out of the way the muni help truck roars in....and the driver simply tells them that its all done.

When GTD comes to MUNI, everyone wins!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry I've been away for so long...but the ongoing distraction of finding a non-crackhouse apartment in the unusually bad, dot-commish like rental market these days is becoming such a distraction I don't really have the time to write genius posts on things like MUNI or that non-election we had last week. All I can say is, if you're thinking of moving, don't for now. It's really not worth the hassle. Usually when I go apartment hunting it takes maybe a week at the most, and I always find something I like. This time - well let's just say that the phrase "all the good ones are taken" pretty much sums it up. After almost 2 months it was really only yesterday I found something that was truly worth renting - the rest were these bizarre "in law" units that were being rented for like, $1400 a month.

Anyway, enough of that. It looks like despite the best efforts of a few, and the total lack of voters at the polls, Measure "A" ended up passing. Um, hooray, I guess? We've had plenty of discussions here about how Measure A isn't perfect, but frankly, now that it's passed, it can be amended if something doesn't work out. More importantly, it's up to us and our elected representatives and our popular Mayor to make sure that all those promises Sup. Peskin, SPUR, and others made about how this thing was going to "save" MUNI are actually met - and that won't be easy.

Personally I found it interesting that in the supposedly "conservative" suburbs, almost every tax measure or bond issue passed, while in supposedly "crazy lefty" San Francisco, something that had "global warming" and "mass transit" stamped all over it was close. Perhaps the stereotypes of the outsiders don't fit the Bay Area after all.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're one of those folks who thinks a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow, there are some chances for you to get involved with volunteer efforts to help pass Measure A. Those of you who are not so inclined, I'm sure there are things you can do as well. Since the only people who contacted me were the volunteers of Measure A, I shall be posting some info which is as follows, reposted from their email:

Help Us Reach Voters on MUNI Friday, 11/2 and Monday, 11/5 After Work!

Help flier every commuter on a train leaving downtown. Meet at Montgomery MUNI Station (on the north side of Market by the circle fence) at 4pm or 5pm each day. Bring your friends! It will be two hours of fun, crucial outreach. Many bus riders still don't know about these Propositions so it's our job to use people power to show them there's a chance for them to vote to make their commute better.

Help Us Walk Precincts on Saturday, 11/3!
We are walking Precincts 10am and phone banking 1-7pm. Meet at 350 Kansas by 16th.

Help Us Get Out The Vote On Election Day (Tuesday, Nov 6)

We really need your help to get transit supporters out to vote. Even if you can only volunteer an hour, anything you can do will help us.

We will be meeting at 7:30 am at Castro Station to talk to transit riders on the way to work, and we'll be meeting at Montgomery Station at 4pm and 5pm to reach people as they go home on Election Day.

If you have any questions, or need additional directions to find us, please call Fred at 415-375-1972 or email at firecircus@hotmail.com. Thanks for your help and support of Measure A!

Well, there you have it. In a low-turnout election, even just a few hours reminding people that there's an election can make a big difference. All those high school civics class lines about "participation" aren't as far out as they sound. Enjoy your weekend and enjoy voting on Election Day!

UPDATE: Dave Snyder, transit policy guy at SPUR sent me an urgent email asking folks in Our Part Of Town to help out on Sunday. If you're an N-Judah rider, and you would like to help out, they are asking good people to staff information tables at our infamous 9th and Irving intersection (where we scored a minor victory for pedestrian safety, better car traffic and faster transit) from 11am to 5pm. Please contact Dave Snyder at 415 216 7393 for more details. Or email him at DSnyder@spur.org .

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy Crap!

Whilst writing a snarky post about the MUNI's massive frakups for Halloween-That-Is-Not-Is, I just got whacked by a really serious earthquake!

Wow!

Here's the latest from the MTA/MUNI. I am going to find out more about the quake....talk about live blogging....

Posted by Greg Dewar at 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you're wondering what to do during your lunch hour on Monday, why not stop by the latest forum at SPUR, since not only will they be talkin' all things MUNI, but they will be talking specfically to MUNI operators and union representatives. Billed less as a presentation and more as a discussion intended to elevate the dialogue, it should be interesting. Or entertaining. We'll see.

Unfortunately, I don't know that I can make it personally since the day job probably won't allow me time to take a long lunch break at SPUR's offices (located at 312 Sutter Street in downtown), so if anyone attends, please drop us a line and let us know how it went!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)