You better have a ticket to ride Muni

You better have a ticket to ride Muni

At the Van Ness station platform on a recent morning, three men wearing Muni uniforms stood alongside others waiting to board the next light-rail vehicle, chatting among themselves. The moment an inbound, two-car J-Church train arrived, the men broke off their conversation and methodically entered through different doors — one at the front of the first car, the second at the rear of the same car and the third at the rear of the last…

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Death of the taxi medallion: SF cab company ponders major change

Death of the taxi medallion: SF cab company ponders major change

DeSoto Cab Co. might not like the under-regulated and fast-emerging alternative-ride service industry, but company President Hansu Kim knows an opportunity when he sees one. If Uber, Lyft and others are allowed to expose loopholes in the regulatory process — which boost their bottom lines exponentially — then so too can the traditional taxi industry, he realized. During public comment at many recent San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors meetings, Kim has explained…

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EXCLUSIVE: SF Central Subway tunnel-boring phase reaches milestone

EXCLUSIVE: SF Central Subway tunnel-boring phase reaches milestone

There was no arresting explosion, no sudden, defining crack announcing the breakthrough. Only small rocks – occasionally a large slab of concrete – periodically tumbling down a crumbled wall 47 feet below ground level as “Big Alma,” the second of two tunnel-boring machines excavating San Francisco’s first new subway in nearly a half-century, slowly peered its cutterhead out Wednesday. A few dozen neon-vested, hardhat-fitted workers on the project — from the contractor’s foremen to the…

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Head of SF taxis to retire

Head of SF taxis to retire

Chris Hayashi, head of San Francisco’s taxi industry during arguably its most tumultuous times, told The San Francisco Examiner on Thursday that she would step down from her post June 20. The tall, hard-to-miss, curly-haired blonde took over as deputy director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Taxis and Accessible Services Division in December 2008, a time when the industry was in dire need of reform. A lawyer by trade, Hayashi, 51, maneuvered the…

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Tech commuter shuttles riding wave of controversy

Tech commuter shuttles riding wave of controversy

On weekday mornings, San Francisco residents, mostly in their 20s and 30s, many in jeans and hoodies, a few in khakis and tucked-in dress shirts, form a single-file line against a mural-graced wall by the Muni bus stop at the southeast corner of 24th and Valencia streets. They know each other well enough to line up following a system that lacks public signage, but rarely engage in conversation. Here they wait to catch a ride…

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Bay Area man envisions environmentally conscious home built from old Bay Bridge scraps

Bay Area man envisions environmentally conscious home built from old Bay Bridge scraps

David Grieshaber drove across the idea last year. As he crossed the Bay Bridge with his wife, brainstorming unique ways to build an environmentally conscious house using recycled materials, he thought: What would become of the original eastern span once the new bridge opened? Neither he nor his wife had a clue, so Grieshaber decided to call Caltrans. After being rerouted to a half-dozen representatives, he was informed that the majority of the scraps likely…

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Chart of the Week: New York City’s income disparities via subway lines

Chart of the Week: New York City’s income disparities via subway lines

The New Yorker came out with an impressive interactive infographic that makes a sad American problem interesting to navigate. Income inequality is particularly acute in New York City, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and Larry Buchanan maps it out on the city’s subway. We took a digital ride on each line and took note of the median household income at each stop. Here’s a snapshot of that journey at a couple of…

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