Set Sail for Treasure Island
Wouldn’t it be fun to make an adaptation of RLS’s “Treasure Island,” only set on modern-day Treasure Island in the middle of the Bay? Instead of traveling by boat, the pirates would just need to take a bus. They definitely should not drive!
That’s because, for some reason, Treasure Island developers are planning to build eight thousand parking spaces. So, if just a tenth of the eventual residents who own cars decide that they want to drive to work in the morning, that’s eight hundred cars jamming the very narrow onramp onto the Bay Bridge. Sounds like fun!
As an alternative, Muni will run a bus that they say will take ten minutes to get from the island to the Transbay Terminal. Fair enough, but will the bus first have to drive around the island and pick everyone up? And if the bridge is packed with traffic, then what? Will there be a transit-only lane?
You may wish instead to take the ferry, which will also take 10 minutes to reach the city. Just like a pirate!
And if you do decide to drive, get ready for a $5 toll to leave the island. If you can’t pay, that’s all right — you’ll just be trapped there FOREVER. Or until rush hour ends.
BTW, have you ever been to Treasure Island? It’s actually a pretty charming place, in a post-apocalyptic sort of way. Also, it’s radioactive.
Cab Driver Mayhem
Poor cabbies can’t catch a break: first a cab driver was arrested for defending himself when a fare turned violent, and now the Ex reports on what may be a new robbery trend.
Of course, two incidents hardly constitutes a trend. As the Ex reports, due to security cameras, crimes against taxi drivers have “gone done.” (Crimes against proofreading remain at an all-time high.)
But cab drivers may still want to keep their guard up. This weekend’s robberies happened in the Bayview and the Eastern Mission (aka “The Abandoned Warehouse District”), and follow two other recent incidents in the Western Addition and Bayview.
After those previous incidents, some cabbies wanted better lines of communication with the SFPD.
Muni Strike
If you haven’t bought a bike yet, now might be the time: there’s talk of a strike at some point in the next few months.
Their justification for doing so sounds perfectly ludicrous. Even though the City Charter prohibits strikes, according to one union official, they don’t have to honor that rule because Muni has violated the charter in other ways already.
Over at the N-Judah Chronicles, Greg Dewar IS NOT HAVING IT. Calling both the Union and Muni management “spoiled children,” Greg throws up his hands in exasperation at the “crypto-bullshit” and begs the leadership to just get to work and iron out an agreement instead of throwing a tantrum.
Also, according to the Ex, “a strike would leave those of passengers without alternatives,” which certainly makes sense to us.
Permit-Parking Freakout in Sub-Urban Richmond
Richmond residents have mixed feelings about increased permit parking around 16th and Geary. Most of the commenters at the Richmond Blog are in favor of it, since it’s still pretty cheap for residents (about 26 cents per day) and discourages long-term car storage on the street.
But a flyer’s gone up around the neighborhood that shouts, in part, “HIGHWAY ROBBERY ON 16TH AVE!” and “UNLESS WE PROTEST, THE MUNICIPAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY WILL PASS THIS INDECENT PROPOSAL.”
The western neighborhoods have always lagged a bit behind the rest of San Francisco when it comes to density, so there are bound to be some growing pains as we modernize and move away from olde-tymey car dependency. Change is scary! But also, necessary, if the Richmond wants to eventually be considered a part of San Francisco, instead of a distant suburb.
Okay, okay, we know that the Richmond is technically part of San Francisco already. Not a suburb! Don’t call it that! But still, with its single-family homes, its driveways, its front lawns (for heaven’s sake), it’s hard to think of the Outerlands as urban. They’re sort of … less-than-urban. Sub-urban. Suburban. Not a suburb! Don’t call it that!
Muni Powerless, but also Romantic
Also, according to the rumormill, someone pinched some electrical equipment for the 5-Fulton near 12th Ave. Richmond district commuters, are you finding that to be the case?
Chris Rogers captured footage of a train stopping at Church Station in defiance of a robot-lady announcement that it would not, in fact, be stopping. Was it a ghost train? (Yes.)
And CW Nevius reports that two people met on the N-Judah and fell in love, awwww. Also, an 8BX driver sang “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Awww?
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