Top 30 Ways You Know You're a Real San Franciscan

SFGate did a list with their staffers of their ways people know if they area a "real San Franciscan." Some of them are lame, like Chinese New Year is not a federal holiday (DUH!); so I thought it's time to generate my own list.

You know you're a real San Franciscan if you...

1. Hate the 30 MPH speed limit on 19th Avenue, and prefers to drive the older, faster speed limit.
2. Move all the way to the back of the F-Market where there's ample standing room, and the tourists stay in the front half of the train.
3. Board Muni like a boss and tag that Clipper card, while others pay in cash.
4. Didn't give a damn about the Occupy encampment, and the daily Falun Gong protests at Portsmouth Square and the Chinese embassy.
   
5. Opened a window on a Muni bus on a cold day because the operator blasted the heat.
6. Used the city's public self-cleaning bathrooms once, and never again.
7. Hate local politicians, especially those who robocall you on random occasions (e.g. PHIL TING).
8. Had to drive around the block five times to get a parking space on Irving Street on a mid-Sunday afternoon.
9. Still remember the good ol' days of KFRC on 99.7.
10. (For guys) Taking a piss in the trough urinal at Candlestick.
11. Had to go to the inconvenient criminal courthouse on Bryant for jury duty.
12. Attended either City College or SF State.
13. Patronize in Daly City as a middle finger gesture to SF for high sales taxes, plastic and styrofoam ban, and outrageous gas prices.
14. Willing to go all the way across the city for your favorite food/snack, even though there's a similar place not far from your home.
15. Knows how to score two hours of free parking at Pier 39.
16. Can catch the Cable Car without waiting in the long line at the Powell turnaround.
17. Earned a 'Croix de Candlestick' button for surviving the ass freezing cold at Candlestick.
18. Survived attending an entire Board of Supervisors meeting.
19. Nearly got hit by a car when crossing the street.
20. Seen Frank Chu (San Francisco's favorite protester) at a major event.
    
21. Never want to leave SF, no matter what the newspaper statistics say.
22. You know when free days are at the museums. (from my friend Brandi)
23. Willing to shop outside the city borders because they have all the big box stores.
24. Know which bums to avoid and the ones that are not so bad (from my friend Lena).
25. Hate anyone that says "San Fran" (from Lena). My frustration is towards "Frisco."
26. An earthquake awakens you, then you go right back to sleep.
27. Remember watching movies at the defunct Coronet and Alexandria.
28. Got caught in a traffic jam due to Critical Mass.
29. Slammed the brakes at a red light camera intersection.
30. You blame the mayor for everything.

I welcome your suggestions, just leave a comment!

Free Muni Rides for SF's Youth is a Terrible Idea

In an editorial from the SF Chronicle, they are supporting the proposal to allow San Francisco's youth to be allowed to ride Muni for free. They feel it will make it easier for students to get to school, reduce congestion, and saves money for the parents who dishes out the $22 monthly pass.

I personally think it's a horrible idea.

There's a lot of problems that underlines the notion of being "free" to our city's youth:

One of the major problems is just the cost of running such a program. The Chronicle estimates the cost to be at least $4 million to as high as $7.9 million (let's just say eight). That's a lot of money for an agency that's been bleeding in the red ever since Nat Ford ruined the agency and took a nice 300K+ "up yours" package when he was fired. Four million, if properly spent, can be used for something better for EVERYONE, and not just for the kids.

A second problem is about Clipper cards. A lot of you know about my expertise in the Clipper program, and I can tell you, this will be a big problem to give out free passes on cards. Here's three key problems:

1. If the pass is implemented and they impose time restrictions or can't be used on certain days, the Clipper system cannot handle these types of restrictions. I forgot where I found that information, but I know that the pass system has to work 24-7, or the MTC and/or Muni will have to fork over a ton of money to modify the Clipper card software to handle that.
2. If Muni is permitted to do time restrictions, there will be a lot of time dedicated to being flexible to those students who have school sanctioned activities; say if the pass is invalid after 4PM and their football team practice goes until 6PM, there will be a lot of paperwork and exceptions made for the changes to happen. If a student goes to night school, then what's the restrictions for that? When the pass get's shut off, they'll argue with the driver about validity, and that they can't afford to pay the fare or add e-cash to their card; this means more phone calls with Clipper customer service.
3. One existing problem that will turn worse is the youth Clipper cards looks exactly like an adult Clipper card. Without a fare inspector's card reader, a bus driver cannot identify if the card is for a youth or adult. This means if a parent regularly drives their student to school or the student can easily walk to school, an adult family member could use the youth's card to score free rides on Muni until an inspector catches them. Muni's inspectors regularly targets the metro lines, so odds of getting caught on a bus is a long shot. The ways Muni can fix that is to make the card reader emit a different sound for youth cards, integrate their school ID with Clipper, or put a photo on the card. These are all expensive options, especially adding a photo because if AC Transit learned a lesson, it took a long time to get all the area's youth to get all their photos taken and make custom cards.

One bigger concern I have is conduct. Here's my two big issues:

1. Remember the "Spare the Air" program gave out free transit rides for everyone? It was a success for keeping the air cleaner and more people taking public transit, but it caused a bunch of other problems from transit agencies. People decided to take public transit to just get off at the next stop just because it was "free," this meant delays on transit lines because people are too lazy to just walk to the next stop. For BART, they hated it; youth passengers caused mayhem on the system and turned into a roving hangout (including homeless folks); it reached such a boiling point that BART decided at the next future "Spare the Air" to make people pay for their rides.
2. If Muni gives rides for "free" to the youth, it just lets them barge through the back door of buses and steal the seats from the rest of the honest people who boards through the front door.

Lastly, San Francisco's youth should be lucky they are paying drastically less for public transit. Here's a comparison of single ride fares for major agencies in the Bay Area:

• Muni: $2 adult, $0.75 youth (62.5% discount) with free transfer.
• Samtrans: $2 adult, $1.25 youth (37.5% discount) with no transfer.
• VTA: $2 adult, $1.75 youth (12.5% discount) with no transfer.
• AC Transit: $2.10 adult, $1.05 youth (50% discount) with additional $0.25 for one ride transfer.

The city has no obligation to give discounts to youth, but in the name of tradition, they do. The law states that only seniors, people with disabilities, or medicare card are eligible for a discount fare.
For you youth advocates, be lucky Muni gives the steepest discount AND a free 90 minute transfer. Nothing is free; especially when Muni is already broke.

Serra Bowl Closes its Doors on April 15th (Confirmed)

It is with sad news that I mention this to my readership and the general public:

Serra Bowl has confirmed late yesterday evening, they will close its doors on April 15, 2012.

For the last 48 hours, it was more of a rumor than fact, until the alley confirmed it on their Facebook page late last night. The posting received a high number of passionate responses from people, those whom have fond memories, others worried about what their bowling league will do, and others wondering what to do next.

From what they have said, they have lost their lease to the facility and due to that, is forced to close its doors on April 15th. For 51 years, the lanes of Serra has provided fun and activity to people of all ages, and will be sadly missed. It has been an icon of Daly City ever since I was a kid having fun with bumper bowling and having birthday parties there.

For me, bowling has been a brand new hobby, but I've only started bowling more frequently in the past month in preparation for the SF State faculty & staff league (a private, monthly league). I've invested my time and money into getting great lessons, playing with my co-workers for a few hours at a time, getting a new custom drilled ball, and buying other essential items. It's sad to see the alley go, and the organizers of the league will have to find an alternate location for our final game of the season in May (especially when my team is up against our ultimate rivals).

Serra Bowl has allowed me to have some more fun and get some much needed physical activity; for every hour I play, I burn off about 225 calories; and with their great bowling rates on Sunday mornings, I'm worried of where else am I going to play for a good price.

When Japantown Bowl closed down, it was a sad day for the Japantown community and its regular bowlers; instead, it's replaced with a controversial condominium facility. The community wanted to buy the lanes, but sadly could not succeed. I'm hopeful a person or a group of people can buy the lease and revive Serra Bowl for future generations to come.

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I want to suggest something for all bowling lovers: On its last day of service at Serra, everyone should come for one big farewell celebration; bowl with friends, take up every lane, buy drinks, food, play video games, just everything.

Just like those "cash mobs" where people organize a certain time to go and shop to help a fellow small business, Serra and their employees should leave in style and with a smile on their face knowing that a lot of people appreciate what they've contributed to the community.

Pro Tip: Always Tag Your Clipper Card on Muni (Regardless if a Pass or Not)

I've likely said it a bunch of times on my blog, so let's wipe off the dust and take the cobwebs off and remind everyone...

Don't forget to tag your Clipper card on Muni!

Over the past couple of weeks, some news stories came up about people not tagging their Clipper card and either getting hassled by a fare inspector or getting a fat $100 ticket.

Several hours ago, Muni Diaries heard from the folks at Muni that anyone with a monthly pass isn't required to tag their card.

And at KRON Channel 4, Stanley Roberts (a.k.a. the guy who filmed the infamous elmo shirt rant) did a couple of video segments of fare evaders getting caught for not paying their Muni fare with Clipper and getting a big $100 ticket. (First video on top of blog entry, and second video on bottom of entry).

We all should know by now, fare evasion is a bad thing to do, and sets a bad example to the rest of the public ("hey, monkey see, monkey do!"). I've mentioned it a few times back when the brand new Muni fare gates had a "glitch" in which people could use their hand to open the gates and gain free entry.

For those of you paying for Muni with the blue card using e-cash or an electronic token ridebook, tagging is mandatory every time you board. Don't do it, you'll eventually get caught.

Pro tip #1: Always tag your card correctly. Getting the error tone means you card is NOT VALIDATED! Don't swipe, hold and wait for confirmation.

But as Muni Diaries mentioned, what about monthly passes? Good point. Muni's policy is not to cite people, but the fare inspector has to sift through the data on your card to find out if you have a pass or not; and that means wasted time.

But this is only for the metro service. Not tagging on a bus or F-Market streetcar could get likely in trouble with the operator as passengers are supposed to board the front door and either pay cash, show the transfer, or tag their Clipper card.

Even then, tagging your card is highly encouraged; not just to avoid wasting time with an inspector, but it also helps Muni gather ridership data. When they do an assessment, they have hard proof to the state and federal government that the money they are receiving is not enough based on the ridership numbers.

They can also use the data to find out about usage patterns; say if at 9PM at night, there's a high volume of tagging on the 1-California line, that could indicate to Muni that an extra bus might be needed to run. But it could run negatively to help support reductions of service for a line as well.

Pro tip #2: If the metro train's card reader is not functioning, go to the other half of the car; the "A" car's Clipper card readers are independent from the "B" car's.

So always remember, tag your Clipper card or face the wrath of a notorious fare inspector...

Have a great Wednesday!

Updates: Clipper Card Acceptance on Ferries & Napa-Solano, Union City, & Marin Buses

Greetings everyone! Yes, I'm alive after not blogging as regularly as I should. Things have been quite busy in my personal life for the past few weeks, from going on a diet to joining a bowling league and practicing at the lanes with my co-workers.

Let's get on with Clipper card news:

The MTC's Operations Committee met on Friday, February 17th to discuss new matters about Clipper.

Next Phase of Clipper
Clipper's next step is to expand into the smaller transit agencies. In their minutes from their previous meeting, it is expected the Bay Area ferries will be joining the Clipper card family as early as April 2012. The month mentioned did not say if there's any testing time or exactly when it will be available for public use.

The next transit agencies to join Clipper will be the Napa-Solano group, Union City Transit, and Marin Transit. They were chosen because of the limited amount of Clipper equipment remaining in their arsenal, and their connectivity to other participating agencies using Clipper; for example, Union City Transit connects to BART and AC Transit, two major companies part of the Clipper consortium. Clipper expects equipment to be installed in the next 8-9 months, and should be ready for public use by March or April 2013.

In other Clipper card news
The committee is seeking to approve a contract amendment of $30,000 to the contractors running the Embarcadero station's Clipper card kiosk (this would raise their annual contract to $1,087,100). Statistically, that particular location is the top seller of Clipper card value (e-cash), and with their secondary location at the Ferry Building, has sold over 26,000 new Clipper cards (more than half are youth & senior cards), and replaced over 9,000 inoperable cards. The MTC is considering to give them more money to increase their staffing levels and expand their service hours.

Lastly, Clipper is asking the MTC to approve some changes to the operating rules of Clipper. It's a huge document to read over and I don't know exactly what they are changing. One interesting and particular rule in the operating rules is on page 27 about fees: Clipper can charge a passenger a $5 fee for every second failed Autoload funding source when it is declined.

Akit's Opinions
I think it's going to take some time for new agencies to join the Clipper consortium. You are at least looking at one year just to get the next fleet of buses up and running; as for the ferries, I'd expect them to get ready for public usage by around late Summer or early Fall 2012.

For the 30K additional to run the customer service kiosks with more service hours is a good thing. The lines themselves are long and they are quite popular for the incompetent people who doesn't realize a good number of the kiosk's functions can be done quickly at a self-service machine just feet away from the kiosk.

50 Years of Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

Tony Bennett's legendary song about our city, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" will be played on many radio stations around San Francisco today at 12 Noon.

Can you actually believe it's been 50 years since it was first released? Even then, our city's favorite song, or for me, our unofficial city anthem is still played often around our city.

Did you actually know, I can sing the song pretty well? It's always a crowd pleaser when I go on a cruise and do some karaoke in front of a crowd. I even sing along when attending a home game and the SF Giants win the game just because it's our city's song.

I might rag on our city once in a while (especially Muni), but let's never forget about the song we love. So today, we pay tribute to a great song about our wonderful city.

Enjoy this Valentines Day!

Hacking a Clipper Card? Easy and Cheap Solutions to Protect Yourself

There's been some word around that someone was able to hack a Clipper card.

I know how to hack a Clipper card, just give me a saw.

Actually, it's the other type of hack, some person was able to find how to exploit the Clipper card by being able to somehow get through the encryption and obtain the data. In the worst case scenario, someone could be able to use that data to make clone cards and either make fake card balances and passes to sell, or steal one's information and make a clone card (similar to someone skimming a credit card's magnetic stripe).

Am I concerned? Sure I am, but I'm protected like an electronically tested condom (which reminds me, time to visit Costco for an economy pack).

There's no fear in this; odds are very low that someone will skim your Clipper card and ride Muni free for the rest of the month. Even then, stealing the info and e-cash balance and trying to get cash back is really difficult: You have to prove to Clipper customer service that you are the registered user of the card. Also, if Clipper knows your card is funded or partially funded with commuter benefits (even just one cent), they are not allowed to cancel the card's balance and mail you a check.

If you are just paranoid, get your tin foil hats and learn about this: There are products on the market that is able to shield your Clipper card from people skimming information. You could wrap it in tin foil, that's a cheap option. There are sleeves that people can use to slip their card in to protect it. But the problem with a tin foil or sleeve shield is that you will have to pull your Clipper card out every time when you want to scan it.

One solution I suggest is what is shown in the picture on this blog post. I use a badge holder. This one I have from Identity Stronghold works fine, and I also added a retractable reel to it so I can hook it to my belt. What makes it easy is you don't have to remove the card to scan, you just squeeze the top of the card to open it, scan the card, and un-squeeze to protect the card. I tried the holder with it protected/secured and Clipper card readers doesn't even know the card is there, but with a little squeeze, the card can be read.

So really folks, there's nothing to really fear. You don't need a replacement card if they come out with the newest generation of cards that are more secure. When more secure measures comes out, hackers always try to outsmart it. But with sleeve or badge holder that is shielded, there's no way to electronically pickpocket you.