Happy 400th Blog Post!

It's a happy moment for Akit's Complaint Department as this is my 400th blog entry.

A big thank you to all you loyal readers and the occasional visitors who have supported me with this blog as you have also contributed to efforts to change public policy.

I write a lot about San Francisco and make people aware of the news that no major news agency would cover. I highly support the efforts of citizen journalists and photographers, including those with no formal training (including me) to provide the news that people should read about.

A lot of my work focuses on policy changes and accountability. SF Appeal's Eve Batey stated that I am "everyone's favorite volunteer public policy consultant" and I believe that's the best way to describe me. I like expressing my opinions and provide ideas so that we can all live in a happier city and society. I enjoy making our government officials accountable for their work and doing the dirty work to find if there are some who are trying to pass things under the radar of the general public. One great example is when I found out the TransLink to Clipper conversion will cost $1.4 million, and it received major public exposure through KTVU (with no credit to my hard work) and SF Appeal (with credit).

There's a lot of times where my blog entries make policy changes, but I don't get any credit for the work; it's frustrating, yet I can still smile at the fact that I contributed in some form. I do appreciate those who have referenced my work and/or have gone more in-depth with their press credentials to ask the tough questions and get the answers.

Always remember, the citizens of San Francisco are the true owners of the city (thanks Greg Dewar). We may elect people to make changes to policies, but the all the people of the city pay their taxes, and through our right to vote, we can kick out politicians and make policy changes.


If you are ever interested in making policy changes, here's a chance to do it: VOTE.

If you haven't registered to vote, go do so. If it sounds too inconvenient to vote on election day in June, why not vote by mail? I'm a permanent absentee voter and simply dropping off my completed ballot on the way to work is much easier than waiting in lines or trying to find the nearest polling place.

2009: A Year in Review at Akit's Complaint Department

2009 has been a great year here at Akit's Complaint Department. When comparing last year to this year, I've posted over 100 more blog entries than last year (maybe because my thesis took a lot of time in 2008).

A lot of blog entries targeted Muni for all the troubling antics the public is so ticked-off about while others targeted the TransLink card program on its development to a major program. I'm also proud that some of my blog entries has changed public policy and defends the people from the broken SF public government system.

And of course... to my readership: Thank you for your continued loyalty. I am truly honored to have my blog being read on your own personal and work computers.

As an anonymous reader said to me: "the squeaky wheel gets heard!" I will continue to squeak the wheels as the watchdog will keep an eye on our city.

Let's sum-up 2009!

January:

• BART started a Facebook page about the "hall of shame," but negative publicity quickly shut-down the gallery, and BART wrote a statement of why they removed it.
• Muni's CultureBus was getting some really bad press on the news, and they also decided to reduce service from 20 minutes to hourly.

February:

• TransLink releases their first survey to people who signed-up for the SFMTA/Muni trials.
  
• After making some demands to TransLink and Muni to confirm people who signed-up for the testing program, the agencies release an official letter from SFMTA Chief Nat Ford to confirm our participation.

March:

• Concert organizers releases the schedule for the 2009 OutsideLands festival. I wasn't happy.
• An unofficial TransLink card party is organized. The party was a success and demonstrated the program as easy to use and reliable (a great marketing tool too!).
• Rumors were flying around about a Muni fare hike to $2.

April:

• I wrote a controversial piece about Japantown and the Cherry Blossom Queen program.
• A long list of stupid proposals by Muni to "save money." Turned-out a lot of people hated their ideas.
• Muni fare inspectors are a bunch of thugs and a-holes. And I still believe they are today.
• TransLink and the MTC sent me some 'thank you' gifts.
• Faster than the mainstream news... I was the first one to break word of the Swine Flu fears making tons of cruise ships visit San Francisco and raking in the money for our city.

May:

• Rumors were flying of the Cherry Blossom Festival being shortened to only one weekend.
• BART wants to use cell phones to open their gates. James Fang calls TransLink a joke, but the public hates Fang for wasting $350,000 of taxpayer money for a cell phone project.
  
• TransLink on BART is getting closer to reality (haa haa haa, UP YOURS FANG).
• Japantown's problems started heating-up when the city wanted to approve the Better Neighborhood Plan.

June:

• The ORCA card in Washington is kicking TransLink's ass. And it's the same damn technology!
• Fare inspectors checking AT&T Park fans TWICE. Idiots.
• Wondering if BART hates me pestering them about TransLink.
• Pissed-off about the dirty politics in Japantown.
• A list of changes to public transit effective July 1st.

July:

• The smartest idea ever: Fort Miley shuttle.
• Catching a DPT officer vomiting on the street.
• Just like the CultureBus, the Golden Gate Park shuttle is a waste.
• CultureBus finally will die in July.

August:

• Official word that TransLink will be accepted on BART.
• A controversial recap of the Nihonmachi Street Fair.
• Akit's Furlough Adventures starts out in Sausalito.
• Video proof that TransLink works on BART.
• Announcement of TransLink being allowed on Caltrain.
• OutsideLands... the hell to our beloved city. How to survive.
• Solutions to why Translink "doesn't work."

September:

• Only six months until a new Muni pass hike, a guide to how to save money.
• The Nichi Bei Times goes away.
• Japanese Americans interned in the Japanese Internment Camps during WWII to be given honorary degrees from the Cal State University system.
• Some damn courtesy on Muni, don't clip your nails!

October:

• The President's Cup brings another world of hell to our city and the folks of SF State. My information is better and more reliable than our city agencies. Info guide, updates (day 1, 2, and 3-6).
• Halloween in the Castro killed-off again.
• Muni hitting rock bottom? Actually... I think they can sink further.
• Advice for rookies riding BART during the Bay Bridge closure.

November:

• My 20 demands to Muni. I was on a roll!
• What Muni pass hike? Muni soon later fixes it... GOTCHA!
• The history of the terrible Muni metro.
• In preparation for Muni's service changes, my favorite bus stop is being dismantled and soon later disappeared.
• Confronted Muni for not posting their route change schedules and not updating the online trip planning programs. The result of my squeaky wheel: Google maps updated, 511 updated.

December:

• Preparing for Muni Meltdown with all the service changes.
• The last ride on the 18-46th Avenue.
• Akit's silly holiday songs about Gavin Newsom and Muni.
• Muni and 511 tells people that Muni Metro has a major problem hours later.
• TransLink to be renamed 'Clipper.' Not the best name...

Happy holidays everyone! Let's sing songs!
Dashing through the bags,
on the most crowded bus in town.

Hearing the driver yell,
"get off the stairs or this bus is going to hell!"

Live chicken in the bag,
Ladies clipping their fingers.

Oh what fun it is to ride and smell the stinky bus tonight...
Oh 30-Stockton, 30-Stockton!

P.S. Sorry for not posting in over a week, I've been out of commission with a cold and I'm almost back to 100% health.

It's Akit's Complaint Department's Birthday TODAY!

It's a big happy birthday here at Akit's Complaint Department! Actually, its the birthday of my domain name: Akit.Org.

I started Akit.Org on February 7, 2002, and ran it through a simple Geocities web site program. But after many years, the website was total junk, and it really had no real potential.

So, on February 17, 2007, I decided to dump Geocities and started a blog on Blogger. I was really becoming an accomplished opinion writer, and was frequently getting my "Letters to the Editor" published in newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Golden Gate [X]Press.

I could not really think of a name in the beginning to call my blog, but I thought... well, I do have a lot of complaints that I wanted to express, and influences like George Carlin, and Penn & Teller's Showtime program made me decide to start up "Akit's Complaint Department," literally home to San Francisco's complaints and sarcasm galore.

My first posting on February 17, 2007 was towards the local TV station I hated so much for their crappy programming... KRON channel 4. But a rookie Blogger didn't get much attention those days.

So after two years of writing and 165 postings (not including this one), what's the two most frequent topics I write about?

1. Muni
2. Translink

Public transit... if it worked so well, I wouldn't be writing about it! But since it's going so badly, there's always a good posting to write!

Here are some of my proudest moments with Akit's Complaint Department:

1. Literally being the place to read all the negative reviews of the Outsidelands festival in August 2008.
2. Making public a disgraceful letter from a condo developer and condo owners association president against a community festival in Japantown.
3. Targeting government waste, like the anti-Halloween campaign to get people to stay away from the Castro.
4. Being an "insider" of the Translink program. I was a pilot tester and knew all the ins and outs.
5. Being featured on SFist, Curbed SF, Eye on Blogs, N-Judah Chronicles, and many other local blogs.
   
6. Making a policy change on SF Muni with help from Phil Bronstein of the SF Chronicle about my article on why Muni will not accept "Muni to BART" discount coupons after baseball games. Then catching MUNI in the act ON VIDEO (see below).

I'm happy today that my blog has grabbed a lot of attention. I'm appreciative of the readers who use RSS, Feedburner, Google Feeds, and even e-mail subscriptions to read my insane and sometimes nutty opinions and thoughts.

Thank you to all you readers! Keep on reading!

And oh... I earned my M.A. degree!!!