The N-Judah Chronicles

The N Judah Gets Its Wisdom Teeth Out: Service Disruptions Coming This Month

2009-11-05T19:38:46Z

Just like when one gets necessary, but painful, dental work, the N Judah line has some necessary, but painful surgery coming up this month. On the weekends of November 13th + 20th, and December 4th, the N will be getting rail replacement done between 19th and Sunset Boulevard. For every weekend that the rail replacement is in effect, service will stop at Church and Duboce at 8pm, and buses will run to the end of the line at La Playa. This will be in effect until the following Monday at 4am.

Needless to say, this isn't a lot of fun, either for riders or for anyone along the line. It is, however, necessary maintenance and the best thing to do is plan ahead. In particular, no cars will be allowed on Judah St. either.

There is also some planned pedestrian improvements coming to 19th and Judah, but as of the time I publish this, I haven't found out when that is. The Sunset Beacon had a front page story that detailed the plan, except for the actual date of WHEN that will happen. (That is part of a separate project to improve pedestrian access at Judah, Taraval, and Sloat along 19th Avenue).

You can read all the details at the SFMTA website, and if you live in the affected area, you may want to give them a call at the number listed below so you can plan your weekends around all of this. Hopefully it'll get done on time and we can then move forward and deal with the cuts to service that will come just a day after this project is planned to be complete.

La La La...Let's All Celebrate the Latest (Trial) Balloon Hoax And Take It To the Next Level...

2009-10-27T21:27:08Z

Today we had a lovely "trial balloon" launched by our "Mayor," and like most balloons in the news recently, is a hoax - a lovely, happy, feel good one, but a hoax nonetheless.

This one came in the form of a fanciful, vaguely thought out notion that we're going to ban all traffic, including the many Muni lines that commute from the neighborhoods to the downtown, in favor of some sort of fanciful thruway dedicated to bikes, "pedestrians," and I suppose all the magical creatures that would thrive in this new Nirvana By the Sea.

Now, nevermind that there's no real study of such an idea, or that a vague line like "move it all to Mission," created by some speechwriter, not a planner or engineer is not serious transit policy. And the fact this would kill off the popular F-Line and the MSR, among many other consequences are to be considered, but nevermind that just now.

As always, this is not a serious idea (think back to the days when the "Mayor" and the Supervisors wanted to de-fund Muni with this vague idea about making Muni "free"), and never will be. It's just a "feel good" blast of the day that distracts you from all the Muni FAILs we've had lately, or the fact that riding the N and getting to work in less than an hour is as much of a myth as this one.

Instead, let's take this, and all fanciful ideas our more psychedelic neighbors can come up with and take it to the next level. Forget banning Muni along Market Street - why not ban it entirely? Ban cars too, since they are Satan's Vehicle of Choice. And bikes too - remember they are forged out of metals in the industrial fires of Hell, fueled by cute puppies and coal. (Shocking but true - bicycles are not all made of hemp).

Instead, I think we should fulfill all these fantasies by going to a unicorn/pony/rainbow/flying carpet system. Muni will no longer be short for Municipal Railway - it'll be short for the Municipal Unicorn Transit System. You won't wait for a mere tram to take you about - you'll simply imagine a unicorn that will take to your destination, stress free.

If unicorns aren't your fancy, there'll be magic carpets for those who are going to a drum circle in the park with friends. Rainbows will be expressways to and from across town. And you'll pay not a dime, because the City will impose taxes on leprechaun gold, wizard's potions, and the legal marijuana that's coming in 2010. There'll be no more angst, I'll change the name of this blog to the "Magical Man from Happyland" and I'll report on the goings on at the newly renamed Gumdrop Lane.

If all of this sounds rather ridiculous, it should. But remember - dumb ideas created by speechwriters don't always go away like silly blog posts. Bad political rhetoric in the 90s gave us the billion dollar boondoggle as the Central Subway. So beware of what you let your politicians wish for!

First A Muni Bus for Sale on eBay, now a Farebox for Sale on Craigslist!

2009-10-27T17:43:53Z

By now, you may have heard that there was a Muni bendy bus for sale on eBay which was purchased for a mere $3250 dollars, reported by our esteemed colleagues at SFist. Personally, I considered buying it myself and revamping it into a Culture Bus of my own, but I'm sure my neighbors in the Inner Sunset would not have appreciated me swiping what few parking spots we have on the block for this thing (although DPT would have made a fortune in tickets when I would forget to move it for street cleaning).

However, fret not, if you still want to buy a piece of Muni. It seems there is someone selling a real Muni farebox on Craigslist! Really! The seller claims it's a legit sale, and I'm sure it is.

Think of the possibities. If you have children, you could give it to them for Christmas, and set up the latest in board game fun - "Muni Fare Evader!" Or, bring it along and set up shop in the back and collect fares from unwitting back door boarders. It's definitely more unique than a gumball machine, and it's yours for a mere $325!

News but Not News from the ABC7 News I-Team: MUNI's Broken Surveillance Cameras

2009-10-26T20:06:44Z

Yikes!

Ok, we all knew the state of repair of Muni's cameras was bad, between anectdotal comments on many blogs and recent events involving crime on muni. But reading the records revealed by the ABC7 "ITeam" today about just how badly in need these cameras are of repair or replacements is rather sobering. (Update: the SF Appeal also had a story about this too).

I'm glad the ITeam is willing to go through the legal hassles to get Muni (or any agency) to disclose to the public, um, what it's supposed to disclose to the public via records requests. The more complicated answer is "Why?"

Now, I'm sure blogville can come up with about a million suppositions (mine being that it would seem if you keep cutting Muni's budgets by 100s of millions of dollars, at least some of those cuts will come from maintenance), but I don't want any more of that.

If no one at the MTA, the MTA Board, the "Mayor's" Office or the Board can either come up with the "why" this is happening or a "how" we might fix it, then they all need to be banished to The Village and we need some people who will start taking a "can-do" attitude.

As it stands, the price we're paying for crappy cameras is way too high.

UPDATE: After I posted this I was talking about this with a neighbor, and they made a bigger point - we just had a Big News Conference about safety, where all the Big Jay Journalists were there (mostly asking about that F*CKING YouTube video), and this information was apparently available, but not revealed.

This, in the wake of (as the Appeal points out) a Big News Conference with our "Mayor" about gov't data tranparency.

Cue "Curb Your Enthusiasm" theme music.....

Muni Rolls A "Hard Six" on the 43 Masonic, Back and Forth...

2009-10-23T07:25:57Z

No, really.

This Thursday a good friend of mine, Carol of Comcast, invited me to a screening of an HBO documentary about the Obama campaign. Prior to our screening at Fort Mason, she and I and her awesome colleagues at Comcast and I hung out in the Marina (!), which all I can say is now I get it when Beth Spotswood makes that joke about getting passports stamped and currency exchanged in a strange land.

What was once familiar to me ages go was a bewildering place, and thanks to SF Weekly's "Bouncer" column I was able to locate the Horseshoe Tavern, probably the only place out there that doesn't offer "roofies" in the bathroom. (Oh and btw, the bartender there was super nice and pours a nice drink.)

But I digress.

That's because, dear readers, Muni rolled a hard six. It's been known to happen before, for sure, but in these days of anarchy and budget cuts, not likely. And yet, I had that moment when sh*t got done the way we expect it.

Really.

So, first off I did some trip planning. The Google and the 511 were telling me to take a batsh!t crazy route that involved the N and the 28, when upon looking at my final destination, I realized the zany 43 Masonic could take me literally from a block away home to the doorstep of my intended destination, Chestnut and Fillmore(!). WTF, computer dudes?

I checked out Nextmuni and OMGWTF? It's actually on time? Holy Frak!

So I got changed and went over to the stop on 7th and Judah and there came my limo/bus. I say that because it was spotless. Now, do recall that the 43 has one of the more interesting routes around town. The fact that late in the afternoon it was this clean and vacant meant...either something was going right or something was gonna go bad soon.

We twisted and turned through Cole Valley, the Haight, through the Tunnel of Death (AKA Masonic via Fell and Oak). We passed the Lucky Store. We turned at the Old Sears Place. We blew through the Presidio.

And then we were There.

Wow. I had door to door service because of ....Muni?

So anyhoo, I had a nice night. I got to see a preview screening of an HBO Documentary about the Obama for President campaign aka "By the People", which was interesting. They had an awesome reception afterwards with all kinds of "Top Chef" like appetizers, including mini corn dogs and mini burgers. (which was fine but the food at Circa was better and they make a decent Old Fashioned).

When we all broke up and everyone drove home from places north (Sacramento), and east (East Bay) and so on, I looked up the NextMuni and OMGWTF? The 43 was either leaving IN THAT MOMENT or in 45 minutes!

Realizing I was looking at a long night getting home at best, and missing the Inner Sunset Neighborhood Group's meetup at the Little Shamrock, I did what anyone would do - I ran.

And lo and behold the Muni driver, noting that there was absolutely no traffic on Fillmore, and seeing me run like an idiot, let me board.

At that moment, the driver could have asked me for a kidney and I'd have been happy, since this meant the indirect 22 to the N/71 home was no more. I was just on the happy bus to home.

While on Le Bus, a passenger boarded and asked "do you go near Irving and 9th?" As the driver had never driven anywhere near there, she was unsure what to say. I shouted "Yes, get on and it's all good!" and our new passenger got on.

We both got off the bus at 9th and Judah. I, headed to the Inner Sunset mixer at the Little Shamrock, my comrade Kim walking to Le Video to return a video. We chatted amiably and then I went to the Shamrock where I and the folks there had a nice time.

All in all, Muni rolled that hard six and all I can say to the drivers of the 43, and Muni in general, THANK YOU! Finally someone at Muni is "doin it rite!" as the LOLCATS might say....

Halloween Haunted House at 6th and Irving Next Saturday!

2009-10-20T23:35:21Z

Halloween is on a Saturday this year...which in San Francisco means that it's not only going to be a REALLY crazy Saturday, it also means that it's most likely to be a 3 day affair starting on a Friday afternoon. You can bet that there'll be plenty to do around town - here on the N Judah line the house at 6th and Irving Formerly Known as the Yes We Can House will be holding a haunted house for folks 10 years and older from 7pm to 10pm on the 31st (the sign says 9pm but the hours were changed).

The Haunted House will feature six Rooms of Terror, and will move people through a bit faster this year so it's worth the wait. There will be free cotton candy for kids and other treats as well. The events here are always fun and are a great way to meet people from all over the area, so stop on by!

Golden Gate Park and Elsewhere Via The Air

2009-10-20T18:19:09Z

Golden Gate Park

I saw this picture while perusing my morning Flickr stream, and had to re-blog it. A great aerial photo of the park, the west side of San Francisco, and I can even see my apartment in this one.

The photo is by the always awesome Telstar Logistics, which is one of the best sources for all things awesome in San Francisco.

Catastrophic Flooding Besets Evening Commute, As Does PHP Fail

2009-10-20T00:04:59Z

Well today has pretty much sucked for everyone it seems. First a burst of rain shut down Muni, flooded Van Ness Station, and pretty much brought upon 2012 3 years early in some parts of town.

Then, at the same time, because my ISP migrated my site to a new server right in the middle of the busiest time of year for me, and I didn't have a chance to make some changes to the server paths in some of the PHP files and suddenly none of the updates I did were showing up. But after firing off an appeal for help to the Internet, I was able to fix it with a band aid (hey like Muni) for now and will be able to limp through 2 more weeks until I can fix it right.

Anyway, if you have some nightmare stories about the Flood of 2009, or a funny story, or advice on how to get home, feel free to post, and if you get some weird error message, send me an email and lemme know. (I already know about that one "fatal error" thing though).

On an unrelated topic: Our friends at SFist report a retired Muni bending bus is for sale for a mere $2300 (well that's the opening bid). If I had the means to store and maintain it, I'd totally buy it, install a wet bar, DJ, and everything a true party bus needs, and run it around town!

Let's All Have a Freak Out - Why the Debate on Parking Meters and The "News" About Fare Stealing Jerks Aren't Totally Related

2009-10-19T20:14:55Z

Oh here we go.

I'm getting caught up with blogging today because I was busy all weekend (including a detour to LitQuake where I attended the super-entertaining panel hosted by SFist and SF Appeal) and the next two weeks are going to be really busy for me. However, as I read The Twitter, the newspapers and so on, it's clear we're going to have an authentic Made-In-San Francisco crapstorm coming this week, and well, hey that's what fuels blogs, right?

In this case, we have two pieces of news that don't really have as much to do with each other as spinners and the like would have us believe. However, because the human mind likes to pick out patterns even when one might not exist, we're going to have one of those unproductive debates where shrillness and cleverness beat out the facts. (Remember David Chiu's silly-willy "accounting" about fare inspectors?)

As part of the "deal" crafted by "Mayor" Newsom and the Board of Supervisors over the MTA budget, a study on parking meter hours was preparedTuesday on parking meter hours was prepared. The point was in part to share the budget pain amongst everyone, instead of just Muni owner/riders, and to encourage 21st century parking management as well. There's plenty for people to like or dislike, and the misinformation pumped out by political types and the "Green Mayor" have helped fuel irrational speculation. The irony is of course, once again, "Green Gavin" has stabbed Muni owner/riders in the back, and talked a good game on climate change, but of course goes back on his word. (Insert blogger snark/sarcasm here)

Now, I'm not a car abolitionist, and I absolutely hate relying on fines as a permanent operating fund source. That's in part because for several years I owned a car and racked up a sh*t-ton of tickets which I very much disliked paying and cost me a lot of money! And no one likes fishing for quarters or finding out they don't have any at the wrong time, my primary cause for getting a ticket, if I recall...

However, I also dislike how people use parking spots in business districts for overnight parking when they come home, essentially getting free parking on the taxpayer dime. It's not good for business districts that operate past 6pm, and it's not fair that some people get a "fake freebie" and some pay more for less. Right outside my apartment I see the usual suspects (some of whom I found don't even live in the neighborhood) hog all the spaces all night, while those that need one are circling for an hour.

It makes a lot more sense to find ways to make it so those who actually need parking can find it, and those that do not (i.e. like a former neighbor of mine who was perfectly healthy yet had to drive 2 blocks for a pack of cigarettes in his gas guzzling SUV) pay more. Unfortunately, with the storm launched by the media , and opportunistic politicians who want to be seen as giving goodies like Santa Claus without disclosing the true cost, will probably ensure that reasonable policies will go down by the wayside, and no one wins.

Complicating matters was the release of a study, no doubt done by the No Duh Institute, which makes the earth shattering discovery that fare cheats cost the Muni system a significant amount of money, to the tune of an estimated $19 million per year.

No, really? Stealing from Muni has consequences? Who TOLD?

I've always insisted Muni do a better job collecting fares and parking meter money it is currently owed, before sticking us with more hikes. It's just a natural - one would not take a large piece of their pay each week and toss it in a garbage can and then complain they can't pay the rent, so....why would Muni do that?

Now here's the San Francisco crapstorm - people are trying to tie the fare collection issue to the parking issue, and that's just foolish. The former is a function of management and maintenance and tracking, whereas the latter is about managing a very limited resource in a compact city.

Yes, extended hours on meters would add in a bit of change to the MTA budget, but the real goal is to better manage and charge for that limited resource to keep the city moving. Put it another way - people say the MTA should be run like a business - well if it did, it'd charge market rate for all parking spaces, which would be significantly higher than they are today.

It's a lack of honesty in these discussion, and the willingness of our leaders to put political points ahead of good policy, that ensure that in the end, we, the owner riders of Muni and citizens of San Francisco end up with a dysfunctional transit system, combined with clogged streets and poor parking management. So long as we insist that's ok with us, we'll continue to get such lovely results.

PS: To illustrate that last point, on Saturday night the one-car N on a busy evening was crammed like a sardine can. While it was nice to meet a neighbor of mine I'd never met before, I could have done without the crappy service. Several people on the train indicated that if this keeps up, they'll be forced to take a car or a cab to reliably get home on a weekend night. Epic FAIL, San Francisco!

Photo Credit: Flickr User ZontikGames via a Creative Commons License

This Kind Of Story Is Frustrating To Read...Dead Guy on the 5 Fulton?

2009-10-19T19:47:31Z

So today, it was reported that a dead body was found on a 5-Fulton, apparently having been on the bus in the bus yard long after the bus was done for the day.

Fine, that's the news so far. But it is also very unclear if this is a situation where a) someone died on a bus, and no one noticed, even after an inspection (required after every shift) should have happened or b) if someone broke into the yard, got in the bus, and then died.

These kinds of stories set off a firestorm of theories, ranging from the mundane to the bizarre, or a rosary-like repeating of whatever mantra people want to repeat to make themselves feel good ("Muni sucks," "frak the unions," "San Francisco sucks," blah blah blah). I'd rather find out about this after some more facts are known. Until then I honestly don't care about random speculation, and I don't think anyone else should until we have more facts and less guesswork. In most of these cases, the facts never match up with the wild speculation found on SFGate and blog comments, and don't even rate a level of drama akin to an episode of "Law and Order."

Saturday Events Remembering the Loma Prieta Quake

2009-10-14T16:04:13Z

So in case you forgot, this weekend is the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta Quake. In an attempt to get people to be more prepared for the Next One, there are quite a bit of events going on around town as part of the "Big Rumble" series of events on Saturday. You can get a complete list of the events around town at the site - out in the Sunset there will be two, one on 14th between Judah and Kirkham and one at 20th between Irving and Judah.

I wasn't actually in San Francisco at the time - I was away at school at UC Santa Cruz and was standing in the parking lot by the old Bay Tree Bookstore when it hit. The campus itself wasn't seriously damaged, but most of the downtown of Santa Cruz either collapsed, burnt down, or was demolished soon afterwards.

So....where were you when the big one hit?

Talking About Muni Safety and Crime with Sup. Chu, the SFMTA, the SFPD and More!

2009-10-09T23:15:29Z

There's no denying that Muni safety and crime are of concern to citizens right now. What with the much-publicized fight on YouTube, the gang-related incident that sent a young person to the hospital on Monday, and the many other incidents we've had lately, people are getting worried. A quick survey of the archives here bears this out. So what's anyone doing about it?

Today we had a few steps in the right direction. Rather than take the cynic's view of "oh f*ck this nothing works Muni sucks blah blah blah" (which never accomplished anything, as far as I can tell), I've decided that we take the SFMTA, the SFPD and Sup. Chu at their word and simply keep a vigilant eye on events as they unfold.

The first part of the press conference (pictures are here) was devoted to LRV passenger safety, with a focus on the N-Judah and Taraval lines. Loyal Readers will recall that a recent incident involving a passenger struck by a car while de-boarding the N sparked a rather spirited discussion here last month.

Sup. Chu's office, working with the SFMTA, came up with a partial plan to increase driver awareness with the yellow stickers (pictured at right) which remind drivers that they need to yield to people de-boarding the train. Sup. Chu talked about her own experience with "near misses" on the L and the number of complaints she'd received from people on this issue. Sam Lau, depty COO of the SFMTA, pointed out that existing signage is off to the right, and that these eye-level signs for drivers on the train itself were designed to increase awareness of the law. However, it was also stressed that passengers need to be careful and be aware of their surroundings when leaving the train, also.

Captain Chignell of the Taraval Station pointed out that such education measures were only part of any solution, that engineering and enforcement of existing laws were needed if anything was going to change, and annouced that the SFPD will be stepping up enforcement of traffic laws regarding drivers and LRVs, which carry at $146 fine.

I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude with all of this myself. Stickers on LRVs alone won't be the silver bullet that slays the safety beast, to be sure. But if the SFPD starts issuing traffic citations for people who are endangering others with their bad behavior, then I can see some hope of us not getting killed or nearly killed while leaving might happen.

In the end, though, one could post all the signs they want to tell people what they should be doing and it won't make any difference if it's not backed up by real enforcement of the law, and with drivers getting a clue about their responsibility to follow the rules of the road.

The rest of the press conference was devoted to crime on Muni. It was interesting to see how the mainstream press focused almost exclusively on whether the Muni cameras were on during Monday's savage attack on a rider of the 9 San Bruno (they were and the SFPD is using them to ID suspects and are asking for witnesses to come forward as well) and in general. However, the moment I asked a question about the years of cuts to Muni's budget and the effect hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts might have on maintaining the surveillance system, the entire press corps literally packed up and left.

To his credit, Muni spokeaman Judson True said simply that while Muni, like every agency, has had cuts, that was no excuse for the systems not working, and that they were committed to getting them up and running ASAP. However, I wasn't asking it so much to give Muni an excuse so much as I was trying to get into the conversation the idea that you can't make zillions of cuts and send money to the Mayor's office or to other departments via bogus work orders and not expect something to screw up. But none of the "real" press wanted to talk about that - they mostly just asked about cameras, and about that incident on the 20 Columbus everyone's talking about.

That last bit is a bit annoying since it's not like people haven't been reporting incidents like these for years, documenting them on video or in print, and yet for some reason, the local media, especially TV, has really gone gaga over it. ABC7 did a report six months ago that had plenty of similar incidents, and yet you didn't see the outpouring of press coverage like you're seeing now.

I think the important thing is to simply hold everyone at their word. We always hear lots of Good Ideas, and that's only part of the battle - it's the follow up that matters. That's up to all of us as the owner/riders of Muni, and if we don't start demanding some accountability, then ultimately it's our fault if the system we own isn't working. We wouldn't have had today's press conference if people weren't saying something, and we won't have a better Muni if we let cynical bullsh!t get in the way of demanding people do what needs to be done.

Streetsblog, and pretty much every local news outlet was there, so you can compare notes and see what made it on TV and what did not...

Fun Friday: Fleet Week, Free F-Line Rides, and a Fun Contest

2009-10-09T17:18:00Z

We definitely need some fun around here, now that the weather's finally starting to be truly Fall weather, and we've had to listen to the news over-hype an incident on the Muni system over and over again. (Really, people, all it takes is one cell cam video for everyone to lose their sh*t? It's not like this is a new thing, news media!)

Anyway, there's quite a lot going on because of Fleet Week. Before all the whining starts about "the noise" and whatnot, bear in mind that the F-Market line and the 47 will be running free all day Saturday and Sunday to accommodate the crowds wishing to view the event. So everyone wins!

But wait, there's more. The SF Appeal is now compiling all the SFMTA Muni Alerts into one page, so you can find out just what's up with Muni and various events, including the Italian Heritage Parade on Sunday, Oracle World next week, and some Burning Man thing.

And now some more fun: Way back when I got two tickets to the Nightlife at the Academy thing on Thursday nights. Now, this should have been a cool thing since I live so close to the Academy, and so on, but every time I've tried to use them, something terrible happens.

Either something keeps me working late, or in at least two verified cases, the person I was going to attend with was either rushed to the ER with an injury (they were hit by a car!) and another was taken ill with the flu (ironically after getting a flu shot). I'm convinced that these tickets are cursed (for me) so I'm going to give them away since they expire soon. I figure someone else might as well enjoy them.

So, since trivia contests don't work online thanks to Google, I'm instead going to do an essay contest, 21st Century style. Instead of an essay, I'm asking for short blog posts of no more than 150 words, describing why you should win the passes, and who you would take if you won them. The person you can take can be someone you know, someone from history, a celebrity, etc. Do not submit them to the comments below - instead email me your submission.

Points are awarded for originality, good writing, a sense of humor that's cool or witty, and points are taken off for bullsh!t. Keep it somewhat clean and friendly, folks, and have fun with it!

Later today I'll be posting some news recently announced about some attempts to make boarding the Muni trains a bit safer. We've had discussions on this in the past, so it'll be interesting to see what exactly they're announcing today. If it means you can de-board the N without nearly getting killed all the time, well that would be awesome.

Photo courtesy of the Blue Angels/US Navy

Reader Mail: Drama on the N

2009-10-06T22:08:41Z

Yesterday I got this on-the-scene report from Reader Colin, but I couldn't post it right away as I was out of town in Sacramento for a conference, and trying to cut and paste a big email on an iPhone into Movable Type is just impossible.

So, here's his email. It's a rather interesting account of one day on the N when one of those "mean scary" strange people board the train (as opposed to harmless strange). Read on:

Hi Greg,
about an hour and a half ago (12:50 p.m., 10/5), I witnessed cops take down a half-naked guy with a ball & chain on the N @ 9th & Irving. here's how I saw it:

I was on the front car of the N sitting in my usual spot, fifth row from the back on the left-hand side. a woman was sitting in front of me chatting on her phone, between me and the side-facing bench for three, both of us facing backwards.

at 9th & Irving, a big burly gentleman wearing no shirt, no shoes, smelling of the street, and carrying some cardboard and a big black ball & chain sat himself in the middle seat of the side bench, right in my line of sight, about 4 or 5 feet away. after fidgeting with his cardboard and his ball & chain, he leans toward the chatting woman and leans back up, looking her up and down and flashing the sleaziest smile. then he takes his ball & chain and starts doing some tricep presses, and you can tell that thing is heavy from the vibrations it sends as he puts it down. some people are noticing, some people aren't reacting at all, and a father and son are sitting themselves down to my left, having come from the Academy of Sciences.

then I notice a police officer wearing a bike helmet is also on board and requesting backup before asking," Hey buddy, what's going on?" As he's doing this, he taps phone lady on the shoulder and yanks her toward the front of the train. I'm getting up too and he clears me aside also, and man, that technique they teach at the academy for moving people is damn effective. Pretty quickly, he's cleared the back half of the train and he's telling us to get off, and maybe one person does that.
Meanwhile, the backup has arrived and it's four more officers, who take care of the cardboard and the ball & chain first before wrestling the dude down to the ground. they pat him down, we wait around for around ten minutes, B&C guy is in cuffs in front of On the Run, and the original officer is getting the driver's info. But before we leave, B&C yells out something that is either gibberish or another language, or maybe a voodoo curse. if only my commute could be like this every day.

anyway, I have to say that I'm impressed with how quickly the police dealt with the situation. I'm not sure if they had just been following this person around before he boarded, but they were on top of the situation from almost the get-go.

Colin

If you've seen something good, bad, happy, or sad, and think other readers might be curious to know more, feel free to email me and I'll feature it in a future Reader Mail post.