You Turn Off the Internets For A Few Hours, and Suddenly There’s a Sinkhole On the N?

YIKES!
I turned off The Internet for the evening on Friday to enjoy the beginning of Strong Beer Week at 21st Amendment, and after a few hours looked on Twitter only to find out there’s a big sinkhole under the tracks on the N Judah. WTF? Fortunately the SF Appeal was on the case while I took a few hours off from blogging.
This is a particularly bad time for something like this to happen – they’re going to have to conduct this repair when they were supposed to be finishing off the L-Taraval upgrades (which were delayed due to rainy weather). And, there is going to be some real pain and suffering on Monday, and for the forseeable future as they round up buses to pick up the slack for the broken train tracks. One can only imagine just how difficult that’s going to be, and I don’t forsee this getting fixed any time soon.
This all comes right after an announcement that Mun drivers, who have been getting the crap kicked out of them as they’ve been singled out as The Only Reason Muni Has Problems, are agreeing to some concessions that will reduce service cuts. Hmm.
While I’ve been no fan of TWU (hey read the archives), the endless amount of driver-baiting (while ignoring the big pay of management and SEIU employees, or the “work orders” and state looting of Muni) isn’t exactly helping now that we’re going to need more people driving buses on the affected portion of the N for at least 2 weeks. However, I’d suggest this – Muni operators can show San Francisco they’re here for us in a time of crisis by knocking off with the “don’t show up to work unannounced” BS, and step up and help those living in the affected area get to work at a reasonable time. That action would speak louder than a 1000 words out of a politician or union boss’s mouth, and I think we’d all appreciate it.