{"id":143428,"date":"2026-01-21T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143428\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:47:09","slug":"moving-san-francisco-exhibit-highlights-122-years-of-muni-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143428\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moving San Francisco’\u00a0exhibit highlights 122 years of Muni magic\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

How a city moves is also how it breathes \u2014 its life force. In a new City Hall exhibition highlighting 122 years of photographs documenting Muni travel, you see the flow: Rush hour traffic clogs Market Street in 1940, Bus 76 climbs to the top of the Marin Headlands to catch up with a cyclist in 1976, and Fannie Mae Barnes, the first female cable car grip, clutches a handle in 1989.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving San Francisco: Views from the SFMTA Photo Archive 1903 \u2014 Now<\/a>,\u201d which opened last week and is on display till June 18, draws together 100 images, many of them never before put on public display. The exhibition, curated by San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency photo archivist Jeremy Menzies, with San Francisco Arts Commission galleries acting director Jackie Im, becomes a history of San Francisco itself. The photos range from a series in the era of the Great Earthquake to images of the start of the Muni Metro and day-to-day snapshots of the city in the late 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s beloved public transit system is the subject of running routes<\/a> and viral holiday sweater drops<\/a>, online games<\/a> and storytelling series<\/a>. \u201cIt feels like a part of your family, your apparatus, your living organism,\u201d said Ralph Remington, director of cultural affairs for the arts commission. \u201cFor over 100 years, Muni has been the steady presence that has carried us through the areas that define San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n

The historical images, culled from thousands in the SFMTA photo archive, showcase notable figures who have appeared in support of Muni (Tony Bennett, Phyllis Diller, Harvey Milk) as well as\u00a0the many operators who keep the city\u2019s lifeblood running.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with the photographs are quotations from Muni-riding San Franciscans: There\u2019s Stuart Schuffman (aka Broke-Ass Stuart) recounting the time he fell in love both with Muni and San Francisco, local artist Jeremy Fish claiming the cable car as his favorite and only Muni ride, and TikTok Muni fan Daisy (mysolo.dias<\/a>) reminding us of the \u201cmuni\u201d in community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMuni Streetcar Operator Dolores Piluso With Streetcar 52 | June 22, 1943. Photo by George Fanning, Municipal Railway Photographer.
Courtesy of the SFMTA Photo Archive<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s exhibition opening, a Muni bus driver garnered the loudest applause. \u201cWe have the opportunity and privilege to participate in the daily rhythms of the city,\u201d Mc Allen, a driver in the Woods Division, said. (Mc Allen is the same Muni driver who, last March, wanted Muni to break a 550,000-ride mark for \u201cTransit Operator Day.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Mc Allen was wearing, of course, a Muni jersey, and signed off with what he called an \u201coversized stop announcement\u201d \u2014 the many transfers he calls out at Powell and Market Streets.<\/p>\n

\"ASF Municipal Railway Emblem on Side of Streetcar | Circa 1950. Photo by Marshall Moxom, Municipal Railway Photographer
Courtesy of the SFMTA Photo Archive<\/p>\n

The opening drew a giddy crowd ready to reminisce about favorite transit rides, talk about their Muni tattoos, and enter the raffle for free Muni merch. It also featured a 16-foot long Subway-style sandwich (N-Line veggie, J-Line chicken, M-Line beef, L-line turkey).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Archivist Menzies is not only in charge of taking care of the existing images: He\u2019s also the agency\u2019s photographer, out on the street to document Muni for the future, as the photographers in the show did before him. <\/p>\n

Menzies sees himself as following in their tradition, and points out that even though images might have been taken for a more mundane reason \u2014 for example, to show traffic congestion \u2014 they end up capturing the zeitgeist of a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMuni Buses at the Bay Bridge Walk and Reopening Celebration After Loma Prieta Earthquake | November 16, 1989. Photo by Carmen Magana, Public Utilities Commission
Courtesy of the SFMTA Photo Archive<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople came to look at all the weird hippies,\u201d he said, looking at a 1967 black-and-white photo of Ashbury Street of pedestrians strutting across the walkway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SFMTA is one of the few city agencies to have a full-time photographer on staff. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing that people who head the agency had the forethought to document it,\u201d said Julie\u00a0Kirschbaum, SFMTA\u2019s director of transportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ABoat Car 228 Passing Ferry Building | January 8, 2024. Photo by
Jeremy Menzies | San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency<\/p>\n

Kirschbaum noted that the transit system is tied to so many firsts: first day of school, first date, first day on the job. \u201cThere\u2019s not a place in San Francisco Muni doesn\u2019t touch,\u201d said Kirschbaum.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s stitched into people\u2019s memories.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite all the love, Muni continues to face service cuts<\/a> as the city faces budget shortfalls. Mayor Daniel Lurie cited Muni as a top priority in his State of the City address<\/a> the morning of the exhibition opening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo things we need right now,\u201d Remington said, \u201care more art and more transit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cMoving San Francisco: Views from the SFMTA Photo Archive 1903 \u2013 Now\u201d\u00a0is at San Francisco City Hall at the Ground Floor and North Light Court, from Jan. 15 to June 18, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

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