Today in things to make you smile: SF Weekly is reporting that a group of passengers moved some fool’s car that was blocking the Muni last night. It happened at Carl and Arguello, right on the border between Cole Valley and the Inner Sunset. An N Judah driver pulled up to make the sharp turn on that corner and discovered an Infiniti parked in the red zone with its trunk blocking the train’s path. Instead of slamming the accelerator and smashing the car into a heap of metallic memory (which is what I would have done) the driver parked the train and opened the doors so anyone who wanted to could start walking. But some folks wanted to do more than the Muni-just-kicked-us-out-again shuffle.
Passengers quoted in the SF Weekly story (one of whom took the photo above) said it took 10 or 15 men about a half-dozen tries to move the car off the tracks. They described it as “a real community moment,” complete with high fives and a feeling of shared accomplishment. Muni passengers 1, anonymous bad parkers 0.
I just happen to live nearby and ride the N Judah with a regularity that would make Metamucil jealous. I’ve seen cars block the train several times — it’s a busy area with three difficult turns between the UCSF stop and the 9th/Irving corridor — and I’ve often fantasized about forcibly removing them. But I’ve never actually done it. So now this small group of civic doers can consider themselves my personal heroes.
My other N Judah fantasy is to block the street with a group of stranded passengers who have watched three “out of service” trains go by in the last half hour. Any takers?
Photo by Kim Lianthamani via Twitter.com/klianth
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