Powell Street Muni & Bart Station

When I woke up Monday morning, it was pouring rain. Normally, I wouldn’t mind — but Travis, Stuart, Julie, and I had decided to meet up for a group portrait and later go shoot Mid-Market and the Tenderloin. Not to be discouraged by the weather, we decided to try and shoot all 9 subway stations on the Muni Metro lines instead.

We started at the Embarcadero station and headed to Montgomery to Powell to Civic Center to Van Ness to Church, (where Julie departed) and to the Castro Station where Travis and I said goodbye to Stuart and continued to make our way towards Balboa Park.

It was fun to travel in a small group, moving quickly, photographing what presented itself to us and then making our way to the next station.

The day was not without incident, however, as an uninformed station agent at the Castro Station insisted that all photography on Muni was “illegal because of 9/11.” I asked her to call Muni Central Control for clarification, she was unable to reach anyone. Additionally a search on the SFMTA website for “photography” or “photography policy” yields no results. I have an email out to media spokesperson Judson True asking why Muni’s new photography policy has not been publicly posted or communicated out to its employees.

Other than those few minutes, it was a great afternoon to move around underneath The City, shooting together with no real destination.

You can check out our group portrait here.

UPDATE (1/22/10):

I received an email from Judson last week:

Hello Troy—

I apologize for the experience that you and your group had yesterday.  In particular, I am sorry that the interim procedure in place until the guidelines are fully disseminated did not solve the problem.

The guidelines will be on the Web site by Friday.

In addition to following up with this particular Station Agent (who, in her defense, has not been trained on the guidelines), I will talk today with my Operations and Safety colleagues about next steps in getting the word out to staff and holding any necessary trainings.

Best,

Judson

F-Market #1057. See more of these timeless classics here.

Five days a week, Muni is my chariot.

A few days ago, I was standing at the front of a vintage bus from Muni’s 1947 fleet. I had been shooting the Dogpatch with Donald Kinney, and near the end of our walk we found ourselves in the Woods Division vehicle repair shop.

I spoke with one of the mechanics and he mentioned that the work crew were none too happy about restoring her back into a functional bus. I told him I thought the bus was a real beauty and wondered why there was push back on bringing her back to life.

It seems the with Muni’s budget shortfall, if a man is shifted to work on the historic fleet, it means one less man on Muni’s more popular and busy lines like the 9, 14, 22, 30, 28, and 71.

For what it’s worth, this bus will cost around $800,000 to fully restore with no date of expected completion.

A long and heavy rainfall is good for The City — it washes the filth and loneliness off of the streets and fills the air with freshness and life.

While many were scuffling to find an awning or umbrella to hide under yesterday, I embraced the dramatic downpour. Everywhere I turned rain puddles had transformed themselves into mirrors, reflecting the skies above onto the ground below.

And then suddenly there was a change: the looming clouds parted ways, the sun showed its face, and I found myself at the intersection of Folsom and The Embarcadero. With only enough time to fire off this 1 shot, the inbound train headed into the the tunnels — and the moment had vanished, just…like…that.