Dan Noyes and the ABC7 “ITeam” Take On MUNI…What Are Your Thoughts?

Call it showmanship or whatever, but giving Dan Noyes and his crew the name “ITeam” sounds cool. I mean, shouldn’t they have a cool headquarters with a bullpen, plasma TVs, a “Trouble Alert” and cool cars and uniforms?
Oh wait – that’s the Mayor’s office! D’oh!
Ok, enough silliness…last night Noyes and his crew showed some hidden camera footage from MUNI. They had to file a lawsuit to do so, and for several months there was some unseen courtroom drama. Now, they got the footage and they’re showing it on their website etc. It’s definitely worth seeing, but then again, if you ride MUNI anyways, chances are you’ve seen stuff like this in 3-d.
Inevitably, reports like these bring up the whole “why focus on the bad apples when so many are good” meme, and there’s a point to be made about that. I’ve seen plenty of awesome MUNI drivers myself and made sure to note it here when I can. Heck, we had one guy use his mad driving skillz to avoid another death at Irving and 9th the other day.
However, at the same time, we again see union leaders seem to insist on sticking up only for those “few bad apples” , as opposed to the great majority of good drivers who pay dues (and union leader salaries). This insistence on defending bad behavior is what frustrates so many people, and lead to a lot of anti-union sentiment, which really isn’t productive (and for the record I’m all for good unions, and have worked for many of them in the past).
As always, union folks are invited to particpate here in the comments to perhaps start an honest dialogue and find some common ground between riders, citizens, MUNI employees and City Hall so we can get past blame games and spin, and get something done. I’m not holding my breath on that one, though.
Still, you have to wonder at the massive amount of good karma the union folks at MUNI would earn if they just decided to cut loose the few bad apples, and spend more time rewarding the good people who try to make the system work.
I don’t know that most of us have anyone defending us or getting us big pay raises if we’re a consistently crappy employee, and most of us have to work in a reality far different from the one that seems to operate at MUNI. One wonders at what might happen if said realities collided.

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2 Responses to Dan Noyes and the ABC7 “ITeam” Take On MUNI…What Are Your Thoughts?

  1. Alberto says:

    Yeah that was pretty bad and then he goes out of the bus to say the lady assualted him. What a class act that guy is. I don’t remember seeing bad drivers like that when I grew up in The City years ago; seems like the bad apples are getting worse. They just get their punishment overturned by the Union.

  2. Alex says:

    Why focus on the bad apples? Because by being so complacent, MUNI employees and union hogs are explicitly condoning the behaviour of the people that give MUNI a bad name. Get rid of the bad apples and everyone’s lives would be better.
    P.S. Did the powers that be remove Forrest Hill from the L-Owl line? I haven’t been on an L-Owl that’s decided to stop at F.H. in quite a while.

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