Transit Accident at Euclid & Arguello Boulevard with onlookers | November 17, 1915. Courtesy of SFMTA Archives
Not too many links to share this week, but like a good loaf of bread, we don’t want them to go stale…
- How are you all handling the MUNI sickout? We’ve seen hoards of waiting passengers at stops in the neighborhood these past few mornings, and one (handsome!) reader tweeted us that he ran home 5.5 miles from his job to avoid it. Leave a comment to let us know.
- Congrats to the Balboa Theater (which is screening Purple Rain this Sunday night!) for being named among 7 best movie house in the Bay Area by KQED. We could have done without the “just decrepit and seedy enough” descriptor though…
- Despite his legal troubles and pulling out of the election, Senator Leland Yee STILL received just over 287k votes in yesterday’s election primary for California Secretary of State – enough for a third place finish. We’re gonna chalk to this up to people lazily voting for a name they recognize… Sigh.
- This outer Richmond District resident is crafting a new kind of surfboard made specifically for bodysurfing. He came up with the idea after his traditional surfboard broke in half.
- Reader Emily F. tells us that the old Barley Cafe at 343 Clement near 5th Avenue, which closed abruptly after a few months, will soon be taken over by a new Vietnamese restaurant. She chatted with the owners who were on site who told her that “there that will focus on noodle soups and fresh spring roll wraps. They expect to be open by the end of June.”
The people in that pic are so bummed they don’t have a handheld device that would allow them to take a photograph of the accident and then quickly upload it to social media.
The muni sickout doesn’t make me have any sympathy or support for the drivers, only frustration. No word from our supervisor on this illegal action either. For a city that claims to be transit first, the city leaders need to ensure transit works at least at its normal mediocre level!
What a fascinating photograph! Thank you for posting it!
They all seem to be dressed so nicely, perhaps in their “Sunday best”? So I looked up the day of week, and it was a Wednesday!
Nearly a hundred years later, and you rarely see anyone in a suit anymore, except in the financial district.
I pass by this corner a lot. Probably some of the same houses are still there.
Just a fascinating glimpse into the past.
I got lucky on Monday for my mid-afternoon ride on the 38 for a doctor’s appt. No long wait and the bus was uncrowded. However, when I got off at 5th Ave, I know those wanting the 44 were growing about a 75 min wait.
I even got a true 38L back. Both drivers were exceptionally nice. Kudos to these men who came in and remained friendly. I am sure they were thrown a lot of guff during their shifts.
Oh man, my commute home on Monday was terrible – the most packed 38 Geary I’ve ever been on.
Got on at Fremont and Market, nowhere to stand but the step well. for the first 2/3 of the ride.
At least my favorite drivers were all working this week.
Love the photo of Arguello and Euclid!
Kudos to the drivers who kept on driving despite all their coworkers not showing up. 🙂
Is Barley the place that opened in the Java/lotto space? With the wood motif and planted wall? If so, that sure didn’t last long.
MUNI sick out bites, especially as I didn’t know about it until I was on my way to work Monday morning.
Don’t underestimate the people who voted for Leland Yee. I know several, and all of them are very politically aware, not to mention active. They thought it was hilarious. The whole Dashiell Hammett-style nature of the story — the tongs, a murderous tong leader named “Shrimp Boy”, the weird gun charges, including the whole rocket launcher angle, the sheer complexity of the story — has a definite appeal for a lot of people and provided some comic relief in an otherwise dreary election.
@Rachel, Standing in the stepwell was a daily experience on the 31AX after waiting 40 minutes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I had a drawer full of validated (by Muni) missed run postcards which could be redeemed for a free ride (but not a Fast Pass). In the early 1980s the rolling stock was so pathetic that 3 out of 5 expresses would not make it up the hill on Pine Street; I regularly pooled cabs with 4 or 5 others to get home. Getting around during the 1974 Muni Operator strike (which resulted in voters giving away the store and more in labor rights for Muni operators that are grossly in excess of State Laws and Department of Labor standards in exchange for no strikes in the City Charter. In my experience, the last decent year on Muni was 1967 and the operators have been in perpetual slow-down/sick-out ever since.
Our fundamental problem is the City Charter, which has become a universal holding pen for all manner of HR, step-by-step clerical procedures, and assorted picayunes without any accountability for elected and non-elected management personnel on the City and County payroll that we fund. This document does not even contain the purpose or mission statement of each department defined within.
Only two of the buildings seen in this photo remain on the east side of the 400 block of Arguello, between Euclid and Clement intersection today. The rest have been replaced by ugly Richmond Specials in the ’60s & ’70s. The large building in the distance on the left is Richmond Grammar School, site today of Roosevelt Middle School.
People dressed a lot more formally in 1915 than today. Boys wore tailored jackets & knickers, girls wore dresses. The men wore suits & ties even if they were in the laboring-class jobs. They owned two suits, one for daily wear, and one for Sunday & social occasions. Looks like the C Car was traveling too fast down Euclid St. hill and lost control as it turned left on Arguello, and hit the pole.
Apparently the City did file a lawsuit later today: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-city-attorney-files-legal-charges-to-halt-5527895.php. I imagine it is more of a gesture than something that will prevent, what has become an annual event, various transportation agencies shutting down public transport.
As to standing in the stairwell on the 38 or 38L… this is is a regular event from downtown during evening, weeday rush hour, or during an exceptionally gorgeous day/event on the weekend. Since I work from home, I do not have to deal with the evening commute on a regular basis, but the combo of Easter and 4/20 on the same day made for a rather hot and crowded stairwell standing ride from downtown to our ‘hood.
@John Freeman: If someone would knock down all the Richmond Specials and replace them with something better – now that would be a man we could name a street after.
What a great coincidence that picture is. If I’m not mistaken, it is looking south down Arguello on the west side of the street, which would put the site of the accident right in front of my apartment. And just about a week ago, a Muni employee in a Muni pickup truck crashed into my building.
(No one was injured, and some of you might have noticed the bricks and debris littering the street that my negligent landlord ignored and left us gouged tenants to clean up.)
My small slice of SF seems to be a long-standing magnet for public transport-related accidents.
@Owen, yup that’s the one and yup that was fast. I want the inside scoop! What happened?!
In the past a sudden closure in SF means that something illegal is afoot, in my experience.