Muni is San Francisco’s deep end: immediate and immersive exposure to strangers, testing our tolerance for other people’s music, aromas, food, volume, attitude, or public habits. Sometimes all of them at the same time. This concept is what brought Muni Diaries to life. It’s also what makes Muni interesting and representative of the city it cuts through. We can still celebrate and rally around that idea thanks to folks like Meymey Lee. Meymey is an organizer, artist, and outdoor educator, who joined us on stage at Muni Diaries Live. They touched on one of my favorite things about Muni: it can ..read more

Storyteller Adrianna Tan is an enthusiastic bus rider who has ridden buses in more than 30 countries worldwide. But when she finally moves to San Francisco five years ago, she quickly finds out that, in many ways, our very own Muni is not like all the rest. Listen to her story: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Download Here at Muni Diaries we’ve taken an occasional peek at transit riding around the world (Tokyo subway etiquette, a passenger slide in Holland, just to name a few). So we especially appreciate Adrianna’s love for transit that extends beyond Muni. If you have you ..read more

In 2019, storyteller Kurt Schwartzmann told what is still one of my favorite Muni Diaries Live stories about being unhoused and reliant on the kindness of strangers, namely Muni drivers, for temporary warm shelter. In the thick of the pandemic, when we needed it most, he repaid the city with love. That is, he collaborated with artist Deirdre Weinberg on one of the famed Hearts of San Francisco. We had him back at Muni Diaries Live in April, as he is still looking for one Muni operator in particular. Maybe you can help him? Here’s Kurt: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Download Check o ..read more

By school bus, we obviously mean Muni. We’ve gotten our share of “teens on the bus” stories, but it is a special treat hearing from young folks themselves—thoughtful, civic-minded people who are inspired by public transit to participate and create. Tanea Lunsford Lynx is Chair of the Spoken Arts Department at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts and one of the artists behind Muni Raised Me, a multimedia exhibition by San Francisco born-and-raised artists exploring a central question: What does Muni mean to the people who grow up riding it? Tanea brought their students to the Muni Raised Me exhibit t ..read more

IYKYK: San Francisco doesn’t leave us that easily, even when we leave it. Katie Havercamp and LeBron James the cat (yep) learned it bigtime firsthand, and I’d bet that many people you know have strong feelings on the topic. Sheila McElroy has spent her professional life studying, writing about, and talking about place: how our sense of it grounds us in history and provides context for how we see, move around, and make sense of the world. In this story, told at Muni Diaries Live in November 2022, Sheila takes us through her personal sense of place and the role it, especially San Francisco, pla ..read more

What would make you take off your headphones on the bus to talk to a stranger? In this episode, storyteller Alex Randall shares how he started talking to his fellow riders, and how these “Muni chats” changed the way he looks at our city. This episode was recorded at Muni Diaries Live at Rickshaw Stop in November, 2022. Listen to his story: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Download By day, Alex manages a support team at Atlassian, and by evening and weekend, he serves on the board at Z Space, leads walking tours of his favorite San Francisco neighborhoods. He says he takes the 38 Geary ..read more

How often do you ask yourself, “What would you do if this happened to you on Muni?” Storyteller Keli Dailey explores that very difficult question on stage at Muni Diaries Live, where she shared a tale about an unexpected turn of events on the bus. Keli is an award-winning journalist, performer and educator. ​She teaches media classes at the University of San Francisco, Saint Mary’s College of California and Mills College, where she also leads the Communication program. She says that she believes in the power of comedy to communicate news, and that’s something we can definitely identify with h ..read more

Storyteller ilyse iris magy has hella Muni bonafides: she was the first paid “staff member” of San Francisco Transit Riders, where she helped pressure city officials to actually ride the bus. She celebrated her 24th birthday by riding the 24 bus with her friends. Name a Muni line and she can tell you the route. But one Halloween evening, when ilyse found herself evangelizing the value of public transit, the Muni gods had other plans. Listen to her story: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Download You can follow ilyse and her non-transit related art on Substack and Instagram a ..read more

As a Muni operator, Mister Boston, AKA Mike Delia, has seen it all. He’s piloted many of the crosstown lines we know and love, he has been assaulted twice in the name of doing so, and he even had someone try to steal his streetcar once. You might also know him via the limited-edition trading cards bearing his image and stats—that’s actually how we first became acquainted with him ourselves. At Muni Diaries Live this month, we welcomed him, in full Muni regalia, to share his journey as operator, trading card legend, and leukemia survivor, all of which have brought him even closer to his commun ..read more

We don’t often talk about the behind-the-scenes stuff at Muni Diaries because we are really about your stories. But occasionally something happens at Muni Diaries headquarters that just makes us go, “I can’t believe that happened.”  One of the great things about running Muni Diaries is that we get to try any and all ideas, and along the way we met really great people who also have fun and wacky ideas. Sometimes those fun and wacky ideas turn into a whole another thing altogether. And in this case, one idea to incorporate a Muni shelter into our art show with photographer Julie Michelle t ..read more