Last night -- according to fredsharples, who took these shots, found on SFist Contribute -- a pedestrian was (reportedly) hit by a MUNI bus at around 7 p.m. on 24th Street between Harrison and Treat. Do any of you know what happened? If so, do tell. We've played Frogger on that strip many times, and those cars and buses cut it damn close.

Residents in Balboa Park are taking legal action to get answers about a mysterious goo-like substance that has been oozing up out of house foundations. This greasy, disgrossting substance has afflicted at least eighteen homes on Navajo Avenue, just down the street from a MUNI maintenance yard.

Residents suspect some sort of oil spill as being the culprit. The city, surprise surprise, hasn’t been all that helpful. Samples were taken months ago by the city, but residents have yet to hear anything back.

Since the mysterious goo might have a negative impact on house foundations, residents have hired a lawyer to make sure that the city will pay for any repairs that may need to be taken care of. For now, Balboa Parkers must wait for test results and an appropriate response from city officials.

Good luck to ya!

Read more about the goo here.

Image Credit: KTVU

If you're like us, you noticed that MUNI put up these little paintings in several stations a few weeks ago. The one pictured above is at the Church Street station, right when you come down the escalator.

We started wondering what exactly these little paintings were supposed to do. Are we supposed to comment about them? Is MUNI asking us if there's a better place in the station to put an LCD display? We can't tell you, because there's absolutely no material around these things to explain, or tell you if comments are welcome. A quick look at MUNI online reveals nothing. We tried looking at 511, but the stupid scrolling information bar broke our browser.

Here's an idea. Since there are already LED displays on the platform telling us when the next train is coming, and there's a little LCD display in the booth where the MUNI employee sits all day, why not put the new display near the top of the stairs? That way we could get to the station, see that the M line will be delayed at least 45 minutes before having to go down the stairs, and then go for a beer at Lucky 13 and sit around and bitch with the other stranded MUNI riders?

Ah, 1979…"I Will Survive" topped the charts and Bette Midler gave us "the Rose" (love, it is a river, you know). ESPN came into existence, the kids were into "Captain Caveman," and Muni got a new command center. Some things may have changed and gone away, but some things stay the same. Like Muni’s command center-- it hasn't been updated since those carefree days of Studio 54 and New Wave.

To fix the problem, Muni's honchos are putting hat in hand and asking $120 million to update the thing. Estimates say it'll cost upwards of between $100 million and $300 million to do the job but $120 million was their first and best guesstimate.

Officials say the outdated system can partially explain all those Muni meltdowns we all know so well. Among other things, it takes too long to track data, communications between driver and the command center are unreliable (we wonder if that means they use CB radio and they have to say things like "10-4 Good buddy" while relaying information), and information inside mission control has to be passed around by hand. To make matters worse, the command bunker hasn't really been remodeled so it's cramped and falling apart. Also-- shag carpeting.

Muni has made a presentation to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and will present then will talk to Muni's board of directors next week.

That's a yearly total of $704,990.44ish (we don't have numbers for January). Will we break a million in 2007? Oh the suspense.

There's only three claims being paid off this month, none of which are particularly tantalizing. Some Muni person dropped something on someone's foot, and they're getting $15,000 -- that sort of thing. The one interesting detail is the bizarre writing style employed by one of the lawyers: Victor Lipovesky, Esq, of Velan Law Firm, a Professional Corporation. God, even their name sounds incompetently pretentious. The case is the boring sort of stuff that Muni litigates every single month -- a driver accelerated, someone fell over, and in so doing believe that they have earned thousands of dollars.

According to Victor (AKA "Sticky Vicky"), "Defendants [meaning Muni, et al] failed to warn the public of the dangerous condition in that they do not engage in proper hiring ... Defendants were negligent in not properly hiring and investigating the driver's background. Defendants did not properly train the driver and did not inquire that the driver does not engage in such callous/reckless conduct."

What the hell? Where'd this guy get his degree, The Hollywood Upstairs School of Law? And what's that dig about the driver's background supposed to mean? As if an FBI check would turn up, "aha! This joker's capable of ANYTHING!"

Weird writing notwithstanding, Victor and his client made off with $12,000. Thanks for the donation, taxpayers!