Concepts in the Paradox

I like how I can take a girl on the bus during a date, and it is considered superior to picking her up in my car or calling a cab. Also, 38-Geary is like paying for a $1.50 movie, but more interactive.

I like how I can say “meet me at 24th street Bart” and that is also considered normal. Meeting at train stations is my idea romantic.

Anyway, meet me at Powell station near the cable car turn-around.

The door opened, and everyone in the elevator was laughing. I stepped in, and listened in to find out what was so amusing.

“14 you say?!” one woman said.

“Yes, just 14, can you believe it?” another man responded.

“Wow, 14!”, another man said, and then another round of laughing.

“I just can’t imagine, you know, 14.” the woman reiterated.

The door opened to my floor, and as I exited I tried to make one more attempt to figure out what this mysterious “14″ related to.

Alas, as the door closed all I heard was “Man… 14. Geez”.

I had a sleeping buddy on the bus ride home. Shortly after getting on at Market, an early-30’s professional woman took a seat next to me. Short hair, too much makeup, Kaki pants, a business coat, white blouse, and a leather purse, she looked like she did some sort of middle management, or some other mind-numbing career in the financial district. I was too engrossed in my book, Rats, hoping to finish the last chapter during my 14 minute ride home to notice this woman had completely fallen asleep.

I didn’t take notice until her head was resting gently on my shoulder, the slightest dab of sleepy drool oozing from her lip. The bus would hit a bump, take a turn, or make a classic Muni “Gas+brake” maneuver, and she’d nod awake for a second, try to rest her face in her palm in a manner that looked like she was deep in thought, then fall right back over onto my shoulder. I thought about waking her, but the ring on her finger looked like more than a year of my pay, so I just elected to enjoy a sleepy traveler using me as a pillow.

Late last night at the Cat Club, I saw this guy dancing about wearing a “38 / Geary” tshirt. For the uninitiated, the “38 Geary to Transbay Terminal” is the bus line I take almost every single day. Yes, I broke up with Muni, but damnit if I didn’t like that Tshirt, and yeah, I’m still using Muni. I’m ashamed: Ask me to show you my Fastpass.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Rumor has it that there is a shop on Irving and 19th that sells similar tshirts, so I don’t have to get the awful white shirts that Cafepress only offers.

I did a dry run of my commute, taking Post down to Market then going in the Davis & Market Embarcadero entrance. I then locked up my bike, looked at the time, and from start to finish it took exactly 30 minutes. 6:07 to 6:37. This included my normal fumbling like, “where is my helmet? Gloves? Locks? Oh! I need water!”

The way back also took 30 minutes. I took Drumm up to Sutter, then Sutter all the way back home. The whole process was pretty exhausting.

Here’s what to expect taking a bike on the busy streets of San Francisco:

• If you don’t take up the whole lane, taxis will try to nudge past.

• If someone is driving an old beater, watch out! If you can smell the car, chances are they’ll try to run you over.
• This isn’t a good way to get fresh air. Most of the cars stink, especially gas powered taxis, police cars and police motor bikes.
• The hills aren’t as bad as they look. Expect to hit plenty of red lights so you can get some rest.
• Pedestrians don’t notice you. They’ll walk right into your path, even if you have right of way.
• Don’t worry about Muni. You’ll zoom past the bus and never see it again during your commute.

I need to buy a bell or horn or something so I don’t have to yell at people to get out of the way, as well as some flashing lights so I can get around at dusk.

I must say one thing is for sure, this will get me into shape way faster than the gym did!

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Today I decided to change my route to and from work, just to mix up the commute monotony. Up the somewhat steep hill on Geary to the Presidio, I waited for the 38BX, or as I like to call it, “The white collar bus”. This route goes into downtown from the Richmond, an area of houses big enough to have yards and cars, and a mostly car-centric area of town, or as some of my friends affectionately call it, “Fog City”.

The Fog City commuters are a different class than what I’m used to on the normal 38/38L I take. They all smell nice, for one. I didn’t see any drunks on the bus, and I didn’t fear for my life when sitting in the back. That’s another thing: the bus is full, but not packed and certainly not “crush capacity” as the 38/38L typically is. The driver was talkative, mainly because it was an older bus that didn’t have the digital stop announcements.

From the stop at the Presidio, the white collar bus’s only stop directly downtown and in front of Embarcadero Bart. On the short walk to the Bart station, I passed perhaps a dozen tempting breakfast eateries. I looked at my watch, and it was only 7:50! I had crossed town in only 19 minutes instead of the normal 30!

I was so shocked by the surreal speed of Muni, that I took the bus back home. While waiting for my coach to arrive, people lined up single file for the bus. No large mob of people waiting for the doors to open, but rather an orderly line of people whipped into shape by The Man. The next stop was back to Presideo Avenue. No people sneaking in the back door, no people refusing to move back, and no drunk passed out in the back.

So I think that instead of taking the poor and blue collar bus to and from Bart every week day, I’ll take the 5 minute walk up a steep hill to the Fog City bus. I could use the extra exercise, and it is sorta nice sitting next to people who bathed this morning.

I keep hearing about this third street light rail project, so I thought that I’d take a drive and see what was down that “up and coming” line, as all the realtors put it. Starting from the ball park, I headed south along the rail. I must say, the downtown area is pretty impressive near the ball park. Clean buildings, good transit, plenty of shops and places to eat. Past the bridge is another story though; it is parking lots, empty fields and rotting warehouses for miles.

The light rail stops look modern and clean, something that I was very happy to see compared to the decay that surrounds the street. I’m not entirely sure why there is a light rail track down to Bayview; the whole area consists of closed businesses, cheap and uninspired looking houses, and shady characters passed out on the sidewalk. At one point in my journey I actually came by some shacks that were lined up along the road where obviously people had been living.

My understanding is that on the other side of the 280 near Hunter’s Point there is some nice housing in areas called “Dog Patch”, which I hoped to take a look at it. I was too taken aback by how depressed the area was to go exploring any further. One can only hope that the re-introduction of light rail into the area will be an economic boom to the area. I don’t know how many decades have passed since the rail along third street to Hunter’s Point was removed, but it had to be a crushing blow to an area that also lost it’s now-toxic naval yard.