This Mission District billboard is part of a public relations campaign aimed at urging pedestrians to pay attention to cars and (especially) to buses that might hit them. I find myself feeling suspicious of the intent behind these images. There has been a fair amount of bad publicity lately about MUNI, the San Francisco transit system. A recent article on SFGate explained that MUNI was activating the loud beepers that loudly beep whenever the bus turns or moves sideways, beepers much protested in the past by neighborhood residents as overly loud. MUNI agreed to turn the beepers off several years ago, but now, according to this article, is turning them back on as a way of responding to recent pedestrian deaths under the wheels of MUNI buses. Billboards like the one above and posters inside buses all emphasize that the pedestrian is the obviously heedless one. I think it looks alot like blaming the victim.
Back here hidden away in Spencer Alley we are close to the bustling world, but just far enough away that we don't have to hear it. The silence of these lofty low-rent rooms in a noisy city is a little weird, verging on miraculous.