SFist had to leave work early last week for a four o'clock doctor's appointment downtown. Because we're several varieties of bonehead, we left something at home and had to run back to our apartment in the Mission before our appointment. By the time we grabbed what we needed, we had a little less than half an hour and were unsure of our ability to make it via MUNI. No problem, thought us, we can always hail a cab. After all, we live right off 16th & Valencia. How hard could getting a cab be?

Actually, having lived there for over three years, we know that hailing a cab there in the middle of the day ain't so easy. Hailing a cab at night, when everyone is shuffling in and out of bars, is pretty easy. During the day? Not so much. It's not Outer Richmond hard, but still not as easy as you'd think. Luckily, we still had plenty of time and knew that if it took us the customary ten minutes to get a cab, we’d still be able to get to appointment in plenty of time.

Fifteen minutes later, we were still there, out on the corner chasing down anything that looked like a cab. What was really getting to us wasn't the preponderance of cabs that had people in them, but the occasional cab that passed right by us without stopping. Considering we were right on the corner, standing right off the curb and waving vociferously, we thought we'd be picked up, but no. Nada.