…but unfortunately, Muni sucks way worse than Gavin.
I usually hate “Muni Sux” posts, but I’ve had a really bad couple of days with public transit. And apparently I’m not alone. My particular Muni tale of woe includes a long wait for the 24 Diviz bus yesterday afternoon, when I was toting a box of newly printed advance copies of other #12 plus a ton of books for review. The bus finally showed up, but the driver announced he was going off service, and discharged a massive crowd of people before roaring off.Most of my other nightmares have had to do with the streetcars, which have been incapacitated by the new T line. Long delays and screw-ups, and you can’t ride the N Judah to Caltrain any more. Plus when I tried to catch the T from Caltrain last night, the first train wouldn’t let me on, and the second… you guessed it — was going off service. Aaaagh!
There are two more things that elevate these experiences above the level of usual transit aggravation:
1) Muni paid a bunch of people to stand on the Powell street platform (and possibly others) to dispense info about service. But mostly their job seemed to be to cheerlead. “Yay! The train to Caltrain is coming in just 20 minutes! Isn’t that great! We’ll all go to Caltrain together!” I shit you not.
2) The SF Weekly reports that Gavin Newsom’s new Muni czar Stuart Sunshine is making $214,000 — more than the mayor himself. But 60 percent of that massive salary is coming from Muni, not the mayor’s office. Sunshine isn’t drawing that gargantuan salary because he’s going to fix Muni, but rather because he’s going to find ways to help Gavin get reelected in spite of Muni being broken. It makes me want to spread the Drudged-up “Gavin fellated a microphone” meme for all it’s worth.
3) And this is just random, but I’m really really sick of those “Muni Take Me Away” T-shirts already. Can we just organize a bonfire? They were cute and ironic the first 1,000 times I saw them. Now they’re just another hipster uniform.
Hey Charlie, what time were you waiting for the #24 on Divisadero yesterday? ‘Cause I got to Geary and Divisadero around around 4:30 pm after seeing “Linda Linda Linda” at the Four Star and the Next Bus screen was showing that the next southbound buses would not in fact arrive until after another 32 and 47 minutes. I called Muni to see whether the sign was on crack, but no, two buses in a row had indeed gone out of service for repairs. I filed a complaint and hailed a cab, as I didn’t feel like sitting there and freezing. I’d have happily helped you out if I’d have known.
[...] Here in San Francisco, MUNI has certainly been sucking. Last night, I waited forty-five minutes for my bus and then gave up and took the N Judah home. The mornings have been almost as bad. Charlie Anders outlines some probable causes. But this is inexcusable. [...]