sanfrancisco | Moya Watson

The Muni Pill

As often as possible and minimally two days a week, I work from home in San Francisco. I believe this quite literally saves my life. In spite of my occasional encounters with Muni on these days.

I know it’s a cheap shot to complain about Muni, but I just have to get it out of my system and then I’ll be done. I met a friend down at the ferry plaza for lunch and stepped into one of the longest Muni fiascos I can remember. I say this with some measure of restraint, since I know Muni is capable of killing and as far as I know there’s been none of that today. But “something happened to some computer somewhere” and the railways underground have been reduced to a crawl – if they are even running at all.

Note that the news article recommends taking buses or streetcars: should YOU, dear reader, be blessed with reading this before commute hour this evening, heed NOT the scant information in that article! I say that, and note that I always take streetcars whenever I can – I love the friendly colors of the F Market and I generally prefer being above ground. Today, however, these colors make me ill. Note that on days when there is “something wrong in the tunnel,” anything that rolls and is run by Muni above ground is so packed that you don’t want to approach it. This is where I was for most of an hour returning from lunch just now.

Somewhere around Van Ness on the way down and at the point where the orange car I was on resembled a giant, stuffed sardine can, another driver hopped on (I think… I couldn’t see) and started yelling at everyone: “Get back! Get all the way back!” he yelled, “This is MY car now; get back!” For a brief instant, I imagined that terrorists had taken over the car and were going to hijack it; then I considered that it was Muni and why would anyone want to take over Muni? My windows had bars on them so I couldn’t even contemplate breaking out of the car. A claustrophobe’s nightmare, pretty much.

In the meantime, ambulances and firetrucks are inexplicably careening up and down the tracks, sometimes stopping directly in the path of the train, for occasionally no apparent reason.

But lunch was great and the ferry plaza was as gorgeous as always. Only then I had to get back home.

The way back was less crowded but took me an hour. My green train stopped only at 9th street so that it could double back to pick up other stranded passengers. Instead of waiting for the next one, I walked up Market the rest of the way. I approached my street as three colored F Market trains caught up behind me, struggling up the street like gigantic bitter pills stuck in someone’s esophagus. One orange, one yellow, and one green…

Much better to walk.

And with all that, there’s no question at all in my mind that I’d rather be stuck on Muni (or better, walking home in San Francisco) than stuck on highway 280 or stuck in traffic pretty much anywhere.

women

yesterday, leanne and i went to the mayor’s summit for women at the moscone center and heard an impressive lineup of women speak. very little said directly about breast cancer, though molly ivins herself is a survivor. health care and child care, confusion about hormones, being a leader and being a mother, and running for office were all emphasized. the war continues to disrupt the world, and most made passing but not pointed reference to it – except for maxine waters. i like leanne’s post to noend about it so much that i’m just going to reproduce it here:

yesterday i went to moscone with my gf moya for the mayor's summit for women and felt overwhelmingly humanized.


not being a very big fan of willie, myself, i was impressed that all these kickass speakers consider him to be one of their good friends -- ann richards, molly ivins, marian wright edelman, jocelyn elders, patricia ireland, oral lee brown, maxine waters, and others gave fiery impassioned speeches and sometimes modest accounts of some of the really inspiring things they've done (oral lee brown adopted a class in a poor school in oakland and has helped them all graduate from high school and college and some have gone on to grad school)
maxine waters talked (that seems like too soft of a word -- she was ablaze) about what a warhog george bush is and how the new tax cuts he is proposing will kill head start and other programs that help children -- particularly poor children ... and someone else mentioned that dietrich bonhoefer's test of the morality of a society is in how they treat their children and the u.s. fails that test appallingly easily.
several of the speakers mentioned how the u.s. does not provide healthcare or decent education to most poor children but is happy to lock them up in jail (where they can get healthcare) when they become an errant teenager.
marian wright edelman (founder of children's defense fund and author of a few books) was particularly smart and passionate while she sailed and pounded through statistics about poverty and children and the devastating effects on children and adults and our society.  i wish i could invite her to dinner.
about 4000 women were there.  the food was just awful.  the demographics were refreshingly different from most (tech) conferences that i go to.  yesterday there were mostly women -- and a pretty equal mix of black, asian, white, hispanic, latino ...
there was a most excellent war protest out front in the morning and then a 'save our neighborhood schools -- don't ship our children out of the neighborhood' coalition in the late afternoon.
ann richards rocks.  she told stories and jokes and gave health advice and political advice and bemoaned the current state of the u.s.
molly ivins surprised me by spending her entire speech encouraging women to run for public office and get involved in politics and pass campaign finance reforms (i thought she'd tell funny stories and jokes about bush).  she seemed a bit weary and tired of the current state of the u.s. and the world.
i was surprised that catholic healthcare -- who i've heard doesn't allow abortions and takes over hmo's and limits access to birth control -- was a major sponsor when most of the speakers were pro-choice.
dr. jocelyn elders made me feel so good that my hands hurt from clapping.  i wish she was surgeon general instead of the doofus we currently have.
then i walked to work this morning to the peaceful rumble of my neighborhood without the roar of the fell street exit.  i know it's causing traffic hell for a lot of people, but, for me, it's bringing me closer to my community and neighborhood.
now i've gotta go home for the day .... here's to meeting and mingling with people we don't usually see in our daily lives.  i feel completely inspired.
leanne - skipping - to - from - hayes - valley - lower - haight