YB Station

 

Union Square Station Reflections (28 December 2024)

Public art is enriching in very satisfying ways! 

Hawk At Work (1 Sept 2024)

I had to look up what the hawk version of a falconer is, since it isn't a hawker. (It should have been, but that word took a weird turn... You expected me to make a tern joke there, but I'm not going to!... Oh, wait...) 

It's an "austringer."  (Which also took a turn, because most of the results are video-game-weapon-related.  I searched for 'is there a hawk equivalent of a falconer' and got to the right word that way). 

Our local BART system (regional electric trains) employs austringers to clear stations of pigeons, and it works.  I asked the austringer directly, and it takes a while for the pigeons to take a hint.  You can see a 'hawks at work' sign in the distance in the upper right corner of the photo, which I think helps commuters not ask silly questions about why austringers are wandering through the stations. Also, there is a BART anime mascot addressing this topic. (No, really.)

This particular austringer is (a) very handsome and (b) also has a hawk on his right arm in a stunningly gorgeous tattoo in the style of a Japanese painting.  (I don't post photos of other people's tattoos without their permission, but I made giddy sounds when I reviewed the photo later. Such. Amazing. Ink.)

  

Muni in Aggregate (11 August 2024)

When I was a child, I could read from a very young age, but still assumed the MUNI logo was an abstract symbol.  I am not ashamed of this - I mean, look at it!

Nice job on embedding this in concrete.   

Green and Cream (SF Muni Bus in classic colors)

The shiny waistband for the bus! The cream on the wheel! I'm surprised the wheel wells didn't have rounded corners, but that is likely wise not to for safety.

Retro Bus Front (colored filter treatments)

There is something so... interesting about design from this era.  The flatness! The chrome! The spaces without anything there! The double windows! The roundness of the headlights!  The roundness of all the corners!  It is quite engaging to look at.

Ohio delivers

The logo doesn't appear level in any of my photos facing this bus straight on, but I still really like it.

Yes, I am admitting that I attended the Muni Heritage Fair.

Muni heritage bus in 49ers colors

My friend P immediately pointed out that the cool, trapezoidal windows were often impossible to open, but I insist that they still looked cool!

Also: what's this about buses I've ridden in being declared "vintage?" Yikes.

SF's New Chinatown Subway Station (Jan 28)

I've really enjoyed the art at each of the three new stations.  Great work by the City on ensuring the art budget gets applied.

First new subway in 40 years (November 28th-ish)

 

Cable Cars: Strange and Brilliant Technology

I went to the Cable Car Museum, and...  it's both ingenious and crazy to have the vehicles have neither engines nor power, and have the street full of machines instead.  They just get pulled along, and let go of the moving cable when they need to stay still.

Sure, roller coasters are like this, and so-called smart-highways really should be...  The museum has lots of giant wheels rotating cables, and the genius/madness of it is all impressive.

There's also a great exhibit about how the City tried to replace these with buses that couldn't even climb the hills back in the 40s, and how citizens organized to prevent that madness, in favor of keeping this effective-on-hills-and-wild madness that we like better.  Yaaay, people!