Don't plan on riding San Francisco's cable cars downtown or the historic F-Market streetcars Sunday afternoon during the 49ers' playoff game or into the night. And don't expect the city's electric trolley buses to show up at all on game day.
That's because Muni wants to protect its historic cable cars and streetcars from overzealous fans, vandals and other troublemakers who might get a bit too rowdy after the Niners win - or lose - in Seattle. It also wants to protect revelers from hurting themselves.............
http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Muni-to-pull-streetcars-cable-cars-off-line-for-5154279.php
King Street Station, Seattle's Amtrak station, is right next to CenturyLink field. I wouldn't even want to be close tomorrow...
Could it get this bad?
http://libcom.org/library/soccer-war-1969-el-salvador-honduras-kapuscinski
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised.
Back in the '80s a British friend of mine told me that when British Rail put together a "Football Special" to take fans from one city to another they'd use the oldest, nastiest, most beat-up passenger cars available. Why? Well, if the fan's team lost they'd rip up the cars in fury and frustration. If the team won, they'd rip up the cars in celebration.
Kind of shocked me because like most American I thought that the standards for good manners and civilized behavior were invented in England, and exported around the world. Silly me.
I don't blame San Francisco considering the idiotic behavior some sports fans exhibit nowadays. I look at old newsreel footage of ball games from the '30s and '40s and see the fans wearing jackets, neckties, snap-brim fedoras, dressed like they're going to work instead of a ball game and I wonder "What happened? How did we go from that to what we've got now?"
I think what is more likely is this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_riot
Tensions are running high locally for the game; I'm sure in the Bay Area it is the same way.
Firelock, if you look at pictures from the '40s and '50s, you see all the railfans on excursions dressed in suits, slacks, ties and hats!
Well sure NorthWest, railfans are a MUCH better class of people! I mean, we didn't tear up downtown Roanoke when Norfolk-Southern dropped the steam program in 1994!
True, true. The world has just grown much more casual.
Imagine this today: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=265520&nseq=4
So many things that would never happen today. People in the gauge, on boxcars (with roof walks!) in nice clothing.
Not mentioned in the newspaper article but on the Market Street Railway website is that Muni will be turning off the power to all overhead wires for both streetcars and trolleybuses. This is obviously to prevent celebrants/rioters from electrocuting themselves.
NorthWest, that's some picture! You're right, fans on the tops of boxcars, standing in the gauge, milling all over, nowadays the railroad's legal and risk management departments would have heart attacks over this.
Truly another day and age.
Marty Bernard has posted some amazing stuff from that era:
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?offset=0&where=%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C12%7C10155%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C
Meanwhile, we're just under 2 hours to game time...
Seattle just won 23-17. Firecrackers are going off in the background as I write this. We'll see, hope there are not riots.
it seems that football hooliganism has calmed down in Britain these last few years but the public drunkenness of younger people is still a problem. A British tour operator told me this, In Britain, kids get drunk and go out and try to have a good time and almost never do because their all drunk out of their minds. In Germany, kids go out to have a good time and might have a drink or two and that's it.
I was on a train in Britain and there was a game on near where the train was going. One carriage had a bunch of kids drinking canned vodka pops at 10 am and none of them looked very happy. Miserable, in fact. I was later on a train in Germany where Dortmund was playing Cologne. Eleven in the morning, everyone was in good spirits, flags were hanging from the baggage racks, accordions were being played, some beer was being drunk. A good time was being had by all, even the train staff.
I was in London near Euston station with some friends when Scotland was playing Brazil in a "freindly" game. There were a few people in Brazil shirts. Then a bunch of very large men in kilts came in. Large, scary looking men. Arms like hams, bald heads like cannonballs. We got the hell out of there. Maybe hooliganism isn't as bad as it used to be, but we sure didn't want to find out if that was true or not.
With Richard Sherman's after came interview it sounded like he wanted to do more damage in San Francisco than the 1906 earthquake.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
No reports of any major rioting that I can find. Transit back to normal today?
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.