The M Ocean View light rail line turned 100 last month, but you wouldn’t know it unless you caught a belated birthday blog post commemorating the anniversary.
In 2018, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency celebrated the centennial of the Twin Peaks Tunnel and the K-Ingleside rail line with a photo exhibit and a walking tour at the West Portal Library, where staff handed out K-Ingleside tote bags. (Why the agency didn’t celebrate the anniversary in Ingleside still baffles The Light to this day.)
The M reached its 100-year milestone on Oct. 6, and it seems the SFMTA will allow the centennial to go with little more than a shrug.
“The M Line is our neighborhood.”
“Even if Muni were to just grill some burgers and have a picnic in the park, I think that would be awesome,” said Sal Albowyha, the 35-year-old owner of the M Stop Deli and Market. “The M Line is our neighborhood.”
The unsung Muni line services San Francisco's well-to-do and working-class communities, cutting through the West Portal, Lakeside and the Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside neighborhoods until terminating at Balboa Park Station. Since September of this year, the M has seen an average of more than 20,000 daily boardings.
The M-Ocean View line's centennial celebration is only a blog post so far. | Ingleside Light file photo
“There’s no celebration event on the books yet,” SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte said. “We are, however, celebrating through our digital platforms, and we’ll have more content in the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, the agency has announced it is hosting a holiday-themed ice-skating night in Union Square titled “Merry Days of Muni.”
District supervisors agree that 100 years of operation is cause for an M-Ocean View celebration.
“We need it more than ever. All the people who rely on the M should be celebrating it,” District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar said.
The Light asked District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen about the missing M-Line centennial celebration. One of her legislative aides prepared a statement that read Chen was “proud to uplift the heritage of our beloved M line.”
“The fact that the M is still here is emblematic of the spirit of Ocean View."
Henry Crowell, 20, is a self-professed Muni enthusiast who grew up on the corner of San Jose and Farollones. For Crowell, the M is ingrained into everyday life and is as nostalgic as any of his childhood memories.
“I feel like the city is missing an opportunity to be using the M as a gateway to revitalize Ocean View,” Crowell said. “The fact that the M is still here is emblematic of the spirit of Ocean View, that despite not being talked about or mentioned very often, we’re still here.”
John R. Adkins is a San Francisco-based journalist and storyteller living in Ingleside. He is editor-in-chief of City College's student-run publication The Guardsman and reports on higher education, politics and the arts.
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