Culture Jamming

Locals on the San Francisco Hunter's Point bus line are having some fun with the buses:

The Municipal Railway will not use buses from its new hybrid fleet on one line that runs through the public housing projects in San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood until officials can stop troublemakers there from turning off the buses' power switches.

Muni drivers have reported over the last couple of weeks that people have been shutting down the power on their buses by flipping a switch that can be accessed easily through an unlocked panel on the outside of the bus.

Obviously, these are not eco-warriors, otherwise they would be celebrating the use of Hybrid Buses, and the reduction of the city's carbon footprint. And apparently some other locals are not satisfied with just throwing switches:

News of the bus tampering comes as Muni officials are working with police to step up patrols along parts of the 44-O'Shaughnessy and 54-Felton routes, particularly in and around the public housing projects.

There, witnesses reported that teenagers and young adults have thrown rocks at the buses, breaking windows and denting the bodies, officials said. A couple of drivers reported being assaulted, although nobody has been seriously injured.

Now, if I were a certain kind of person, I might draw attention to the words "public housing projects" in both of these situations. I'm not, of course. After all, this is San Francisco, not Paris, and no one's setting off Molotov Cocktails in any of the vehicles.

Yet. (h/t James Lileks)