Muni Diaries

Here at Muni Diaries HQ, we usually end the year with a fun and lighthearted "Top Most WTF Moments of the Year" type of countdown. But in 2020…where do we even start?

As shelter-in-place became a more permanent fixture of our lives, documenting life in San Francisco, especially via commute tales, took on a different meaning. We saw the uphill battle faced by so many small businesses and venues (like our beloved Rickshaw Stop), and the struggles of essential workers, particularly Muni operators and first responders—many of whom relied on Muni to get around. We're grateful that we could help share those stories.

So here are some highly memorable moments from your commuter tales, in this Dumpster fire of a year.

As always, Muni Diaries is made entirely of stories by San Franciscans like yourselves. Our inbox is always open for your tales: email us at [email protected].

Thumbnail photo by @jack.kerouac.alley on Instagram.

Artist and Muni Diaries Live alum Kurt Schwartzmann is paying artistic tribute to other facets of San Francisco life with artist Deirdre Weinberg, who has created public art for more than two decades. The duo first collaborated on beautifying the outdoor dining space for the iconic Buena Vista cafe this summer, and now they've partnered on the newest of the Hearts of San Francisco—which have benefited the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation since 2004.

In this week's podcast episode, we chat with the artists about how they became stewards of a beloved San Francisco tradition.

Know someone who's giving back to San Francisco in a meaningful way? We want to know! Pitch a story to us at [email protected].

Artist Paul Madonna just created a new book called Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages through the Unknown City, written with Gary Kamiya. The book features vignettes of the history and topography of 16 different locations in the city.

Madonna's drawings of San Francisco range from a well-known views spanning over the Embarcadero, to more obscure corners of the city like Calhoun Tower in North Beach on Montgomery and Union. As he draws en plein air—from real life rather than photographs—Madonna had to find just the right time of day to depict his subject. Sometimes, he and Kamiya even found themselves in places they weren't really supposed to be for the good of their project.

Go to MuniDiaries.com to see photos from Spirits of San Francisco. Got a story idea for us? Our inbox is always open: [email protected].

We invite San Francisco Examiner transit reporter Carly Graf to talk about this year's ballot measures that can change the landscape of public transportation as we know it today. Though the pandemic has severely reduced ridership and budget, public transit was already in trouble with the proliferation of Lyft and Uber. We chat about Prop 22, Prop B, why you should get to know the BART board of directors, and more.

What do you think of their take on the transit-related props on the ballot? We want to hear from you: email us at [email protected]. And if you haven't done your early voting, now is the time!

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Rachel Swan was reporting on the anti-panhandling ordinance last year when she met rapper Tone Oliver, whose story became symbolic of how this ordinance can impact artists like him.

You can follow her reporting at the San Francisco Chronicle website or on Twitter @rachelswan.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Muni Diaries podcast to keep up with more first-person stories about life in San Francisco. And if you have your own story to contribute, email us at [email protected].

You know when a way-too-crowded bus followed by a nearly empty bus right behind it, and you'd wonder, why doesn't anyone get on the empty bus? In this episode, Muni operator Ricardo sheds some light on why this happens, and how he tried to bail out a rookie Muni driver in this predicament.

This story was read by Steve Pepple of VibeMap, who's also a Muni Diaries Live alum.

We are always looking for stories about life in San Francisco, on or off the bus. What's the best thing that happened to you here? Did something or someone in SF change you? We want to hear all about it. Anyone can submit a story to this collective online journal: just email us at [email protected].

In today's episode, rider Tara got to do something that most bus passengers never get to do. This story is read by Muni Diaries reader Amanda Staight.

A couple of San Franciscans created a project that truly made lemonade out of all the lemons that 2020 has thrown at us. Paint the Void matches mural artists with shuttered storefronts, and since April, the nonprofit has matched artists who beautified over 84 shops and restaurants, making walking around in San Francisco a joy again.

In today's podcast episode, we invite Lisa Vortman, the Co-Founder, Director of Photography, Media and Storytelling of Paint the Void, to share the story of the first mural she photographed for the project. Go to MuniDiaries.com to see photos of the mural she talks about in the story.

Muni, like many other public transit agencies around the country, is facing a financial "death spiral" in the face of the pandemic. In today's podcast episode, we talk with Jeffrey Tumlin, the Director of Transportation of the SFMTA who started in his role right at the end of last year after the underground meltdown.

Where do neon signs of yesteryear go to retire? In this episode, we invite two neon historians to tell us about their neon "white whale."

Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan are the creators of San Francisco Neon, an organization of historians, educators, and advocates for the beautiful neon signs you see all over our city. They are also the authors of the book, San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons.

SF Neon now has evening virtual presentations about the history behind beautiful neon signs in the Tenderloin and Chinatown. There's an online version of their festival called Neon Speaks which is in September. You can find out more at SFNeon.org.