Blast from the Past with Muni

I read with some amusement (and some horror) at the Municide Blog’s experiences with the 48. If you haven’t already checked it out, it’s got photos, annotations and a map. It’s definitely a tale of urban woe.
What’s funny is that my brother recently sent me a copy of a letter to Muni from 1930 that details the same thing. Here’s a reprint of the letter’s text:

Get this. I live on Jones and Union Streets, and when I want to get to work on time, I have to walk two blocks to Mason and get on the Market Street cable car, transfer at 5th and Market, in order to get to 8th and Brannan.
This morning I had a sore food, so I took a chance on the “E” car, which stops in front of our house. I left the house at 12 minutes to 8 and at 8 o’clock I was still standing there. I hopped down to Mason and just then three “E” cars rounded the corner, all in a bunch, and God knows a person can only use one at a a time. You can’t tell me this just happens once in a while. It is the custom and anything else would be “once in a while.” You sure have a lot of inspectors, writing figures in little books. It seems as if some of them were put to work running cars, there wold be better service, as all their inspecting doesn’t seem to do any good, since conditions remain the same. I certainly am curious to know what all those figures are going to be used for, when they are finally accumulated.
When I take an “E” car and transfer to an “H”, with less walking, it takes me 45 minutes to get to work. On the Market Street lines, I can get down in 25 minutes, so pick the seeds out of that.
Very Truly Yours,
MM

An interesting letter. Written on the letter are some notes indicating a possible answer as to why this had happened, owing to a delay in the “wholesale district” that day.
Anyway, a fun little piece of Muni history…certainly not all of it is bad, and some of it can be quite interesting and fun. But in light of Municide’s recent post, as well as the slap back they got from Muni, I thought it might be fun to post nonetheless.
Muni Letter Photo scanned in from the book “Tours of Discovery”
by Anthony Perles

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