It’s 4:40 in the am, and your driver is leaving the loo at his regular Potrero Hill Starbucks purged, refreshed, caffeinated, stocked with napkins and with the day’s Tweet behind him. (So…
#SAnFrancisco
6am: I’m darting up the stairs to my attic flat, with the cab out front with its hazards on. As is a darn nice convenience to actually live in San Francisco where…
This week, a short excerpt from San Francisco TAXI: A 1st Week in the Zen Life… ______ It’s end of day at ‘ol Citizen’s Cab, and I’ve just checked out at the…
For the better part of two years now, my mother and my best friend, Spermula bandmate and fellow cabbie, Christian, have been independently giving me the hard sell to “play the airport.”…
It’s noon, there are helicopters overhead, and traffic jams backing up Mission Street all the way to Division. It seems to be all about the left lanes feeding onto Van Ness, which…
Rolling the empty pre-dawn streets in ‘ol Citizen’s Cab 1015, it’s like old times. Karl’s back. (Karl the Fog, for those not following him on Twitter.) While San Francisco is known for…
And the ribbon keeps descending.
Didn’t drive Monday. I tried, hard. Real hard. But I didn’t sleep at all Sunday night. I kept tossing and turning in bed while envisioning potential road rage incidents and the possibility of plowing into some jaywalker challenging my taxi on the streets of San Francisco.
In hack news, the taxi biz has been okay this past week. Your driver scored three airports on Thursday, and was nicely busy outside of that to the tune of $245! This, as successfully avoiding the marijuana celebratory hajj on the Haight that is 420 Day.
Good Friday It’s been kind of a mind fuck driving a taxi around one of the richest cities in the country, San Francisco, these past seven years. Introspecting in the early morning,…
Over the many long rides we’ve shared together, you have read much ado from your driver about his introduction to this “lively” street vocation by way of cab school, of his cab school teacher Rose, and her Ten Commandments.
Citizen’s Cab 1015 is driving me aimless across a ghostly quiet San Francisco predawn. There’s a nowadays rare fog (thanks, global warming) blanketing the Marina district down here. And KCSM 91.1FM – The Bay Area’s Jazz station – and Artie Shaw’s St. James Infirmary sets the mood
It’s getting dangerous to take a ride in San Francisco these days, to be a passenger in Citizen’s Cab 1015… 9:30am: I’m rolling east up Market away from downtown, empty out of…
My four-day class at Cab Driver Institute is here, housed up three flights in a worn-down, antiquated former union building imbued with the soft squeal of a (hopefully) broken burglar alarm that wafts through the air. The elevator is slow to the shared office space where Rose runs her show.
I’m rolling west up Market fresh from a Financial drop. Well, semi-fresh. I’ve made it all the way up past Westfield Mall and am straddling the Loin, with all of its dregs.
It would seem that this morning is “Friday lite,” as they say. “SLOW AS FUCK!!!” I would phrase it as, personally. I’ve been out cruising the streets of San Francisco in Citizen’s…
It’s 4:30 in the am, and Tony is sending me darting out of the office with an order up in Holly Park, a residential hood not far from the Citizen’s Cab lot…
It’s 2:45 in the PM and I’m rolling a Citizen’s Cab spare, 2402, down Fillmore fresh from a fruitless jaunt through Pac Heights. As my day shift winds down, I’ll continue working these well-off commercial strips
As I cruise past the bustling crack and meth scene on 16th Street here, mixed in amongst a seemingly endless sprawl of tents, tarps and bicycle parts, I roll down into the Mission, on a mission…
It’s Monday here in Citizen’s Cab world, my first day back on the job after a crazy weekend that saw the entire world protesting Herr Presidente’s Muslim ban at many of the major airports. Taxi drivers in New York (comprised of many a Muslim) were on strike over at JFK.
By the grace of God, and/or Mother Nature, I’ve been doing quite well working Citizen’s Cab 1015 over the last couple of weeks, what with all of the cold and rain that’s descended over the Bay Area.
I’m traversing the streets, en route to the Citizen’s Cab lot to pick up my taxi, out on the industrial edge of town. And there is torrential rain, downed trees and flooding… BAD!
It’s noon, and a little cold out. But with clear beautiful skies above San Francisco. We’ve got a respite from the torrential rains, before they’re set to start again early in the week.
As presented to you passengers on my last report, it’s a new year for your driver, with a new taxi. (Sorta.)
Thursday Noon: I’m rolling west up Market, empty, in Citizen’s Cab #26, when, “DING!” My iPhone chimes with an IM… Hey! It’s Christian! Note: Best friend, Spermula band mate, and fellow (albeit,…