Arts & Entertainment Field Notes: The Cockettes’ Tahara, Christmas Bar, and SCRAP Jewelry Pop-Up This week: 1960s gems at SCRAP, Muni’s holiday wrap artist, and Deck the Halls out the wazoo. Plus, queer performer and activist Tahara, astronomy talks, queer land stewardship, the wildlife of Yosemite, and ushering in the salmon.
SF News Sunday Links: Muni’s Central Subway Closes Overnight After Car Crashes Into Tunnel Amidst the Valley Fair Mall shooting chaos, “Mexican Spiderman” emerged, helping fellow mall bowling alley patrons escape; Artists, submit your work to be projected atop Salesforce Tower; and a car crashed into Muni’s Central Subway tunnel.
SF News SFMTA to Upgrade Bus Lane Ticketing System, Expects to Raise Number of Fines by 500% SFMTA plans to implement $15.6 million in upgrades to its red bus lane ticketing program, which consists of two officers manually reviewing video footage and issuing around 20 citations per day. The new system is expected to help them generate about 100 per day.
SF News Muni Service Cuts Kick In Saturday, Five Bus Lines Getting Their Routes Trimmed The 21-Hayes will cease to be, effective this Saturday, getting merged into a new line called the 6-Hayes-Parnassus, as five Muni lines are getting their routes snipped in hopes of cutting SFMTA’s ballooning budget deficit.
SF News SFMTA Lays Off 12 Senior Managers, And It Sounds Like There May Be More Job Cuts to Come The SF Municipal Transportation Agency that operates Muni just canned 12 of its senior managers in a reorg effort to tackle their massive deficit, and that reorg might mean more layoffs in the near future.
SF News Saturday Links: Costco Stands Up for DEI Costco defends DEI against conservative think tank; the next public meeting to address SFMTA's budget gap will take place next Friday; and vigil held in Half Moon Bay for seven farmworkers killed in mass shooting two years ago.
SF News Central Subway Will Be Shut Down Next Month For Water Leak Repairs People who ride the T-Third line through the Central Subway will be relegated to bus service between late February and mid-March, as SFMTA fixes the subway's water leak issues that they once had to address with plastic red beer pong cups.
SF News SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin Blames Uber, Lyft, and Waymo for Muni’s Woes On His Way Out the Door The five-year reign of SF Municipal Transit Authority director Jeffrey Tumlin ends today, and in an exit interview, he points the finger at rideshares and robotaxis for Muni’s $300 million deficit.
SF Politics SF’s Prop L Hopes to Save Muni With a Tax on Uber, Lyft, and Waymo Rides With the SFMTA looking at a $214 million deficit and potential service cuts, a ragtag band of riders came up with Prop L, which would tax Lyft, Uber, and Waymo rides to effectively bail out Muni.
SF News Twin Peaks Tunnel About to Shut Down Again for Eight Days, Starting Thursday Heads up, those who ride Muni’s K, L, M, and S lines — the West Portal and Forest Hill stations, and all of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, will be closed for eight whole days, effective Thursday morning.
SF News Muni Somehow Scores Its Highest Rider Satisfaction Rate In 23 Years According to a new Muni survey, 72% of riders rated the city’s public transit service as “good” or “excellent,” though that comes with the catch that the more frequently people ride Muni, the less satisfied they are with it.
SF News Muni Workers Might Go On Strike This Summer as Union Rejects Proposed Contract Well, this could shake up the mayoral race, as well as ruining everyone’s commute possibly as soon as July, as the union of Muni operators, fare inspectors, and mechanics has rejected their new proposed labor agreement and might go on strike this summer.
bay to breakers Get Ready for Bay to Breakers Takeover: All the Street Closures to Expect this Weekend The street closures you can expect from the starting line at Howard and Main all the way to the Great Highway at Ocean Beach.
SF News Vintage 1956 Muni Bus Delighted Transit Nerds This Weekend at Duboce Park The good folks at Muni busted out a 1950s-era Muni Mack bus this weekend, and let transit lovers hop onboard and enjoy it in its fully restored glory, as part of a “120 years of SFMTA” exhibit happening over that the Harvey Milk Photo Center.
SF News Muni Redesigns Their Train Seat Layout Yet Again, With Double-Seats and ‘Butt Dimples’ Barely two years after the last seat redesign, the new Muni light-rail fleet is getting another redesign for its seats, with more double-seating and the butt dimples intact to comfort your ‘back door.’
SF News A New Muni Mobile App Launched Today, and They’re Killing Off the Old App, So Use Up Your Old Tickets Muni’s new trip planner and digital ticketing app MuniMobile is now up, running, and available for download, and the old app’s being discontinued on January 15, so it’s time to use up any fares you bought on the old one.
SF News Reminder: Muni Is Shutting Down the Twin Peaks Tunnel at Nighttime for a Week, Starting Thursday Riders of the K-Ingleside and M-Ocean View be aware, Muni is closing the Twin Peaks Tunnel every night for a week starting Thursday, and the Forest Hill and West Portal stations will close at 9 p.m. September 14-21.
SF News The 28R-19th Avenue Muni Line Returns From Its Pandemic Slumber On August 21 Muni riders who have business along 19th Avenue have a speedy old friend coming back, as the long-suspended 28R-19th Avenue line will be reinstated for service two weeks from Monday.
SF News Both the 49-Van Ness and 22-Fillmore Have Seen Their Ridership Surge Beyond Pre-Pandemic Levels No “fiscal cliff” for these two Muni bus lines, as both the 22-Fillmore and 49-Van Ness are rocking ridership levels even higher than before the pandemic. The trouble is that it may be because like many San Franciscans, these lines don’t go downtown.
SF News Central Subway Ridership Already Declining, Barely Two Months After Fully Opening We have two months of ridership data on the new Central Subway, and the second month saw a notable decline in riders — and stunningly, only about 300 people are using the Yerba Buena/Moscone Station on average each day.
SF News Muni’s New Battery Electric Buses Are Being Spotted in the Wild Look ma, no wires! Yet another new fleet of Muni buses has arrived, so keep your eyes peeled, because you may notice the new battery electric buses as they continue in their evaluation and testing phase.
SF News Hijacked Muni Bus Hits 10 Cars in Mission District, Suspect Now in Custody Friday night around 8 p.m., a suspect allegedly assaulted a Muni driver operating a bus at Cortland and Mission streets, before stealing the vehicle and traveling up to 19th and Guerrero streets — striking at least ten cars on their way.
SF News The Central Subway Has a (Kind Of, Sort Of) Opening Date! It’s Saturday, November 19 The November 19 opening date is not the real grand opening of the long-awaited Central Subway, but it’s the beginning of weekend-only service that will initially be free, and real everyday service is vaguely scheduled to begin “by January 2023.”
SF News Electrical Fire Investigation Into Central Subway Could Further Delay Its Opening A June electrical fire inside the long-delayed Central Subway system was a lot more dangerous than we’d realized at the time, and its aftermath may push the Central Subway’s opening out to 2023 — a full five years past its original opening date.
SF News Photos: SFMTA Celebrates First In-Person Muni Heritage Day in Two Years With Free Rides on Vintage Vehicles This past weekend, the SFMTA honored Muni Heritage Day by offering free rides on some of the city's historically significant (and rarely ridden) buses and trolleys to the delight of droves of public transit nerds — a first since the pandemic began in March of 2020.
