Muni Tallies SF Giants Celebration Damage To Be Considerably Less Than Previous Years
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— San Francisco's Muni has tallied up the damage totals for vandalism done the night the Giants won the World Series. It turns out it wasn't as bad as last time, but officials say it's still a black eye on the city.
In 2012, crowds set an entire $700,000 bus on fire contributing to over $1 million damage. In 2014, 28 buses were thrashed, mostly along routes where the overhead trolleys run, but the damage was limited to $140,000. That included $14,000 for a brand new hybrid bus.
"It was a brand-new bus and it took quite a beating literally with windows and doors and graffiti," said Muni's transit director John Haley. "There were some attempts to pull the seats out, but they're anchored very well. It took us a couple of days, but the bus is back in service."
Haley said he's actually really proud of the way workers kept an eye out for trouble, anticipating rowdy crowds and preventing things from getting worse.
He said at 2 a.m. Thursday morning he wasn't sure they'd be able to run regular commute service without problems but they did, chalking it up to lessons learned during the previous two wins.