SFMTA Helps Usher in Year of the Monkey

Lions, dragons and monkeys — oh my.

The clang of cymbals and the rat-a-tat-tat of drums filled downtown San Francisco streets as the SFMTA — and an estimated 750,000 onlookers — celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Monkey during the annual Feb. 20 Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade.

Brilliantly colored dragons and leaping lions danced gaily through downtown streets performing traditional Chinese dances with a once-a-year exuberance to mark the arrival of the Lunar New Year.

The annual celebration, co-sponsored by the SFMTA, was a bittersweet one for the 38-member agency contingent, the majority of whom rode on the agency’s motorized cable car in honor of colleague Reynaldo Morante, a cable car conductor who died in the line of duty after being struck by a motorcyclist. Posters that read “Celebrating Rey Morante” decorated each side of the cable car.

Operator and Joint Labor Management Board Representative Ron Mitchell navigated the motorized cable car along the parade route, while six-time cable car bell-ringing champion Byron Cobb delighted the audience with non-stop bell ringing that included some impromptu vocalizing. Central Subway Project Manager John Funghi and volunteers marched alongside the cable car carrying the SFMTA banner.

Ornate Chinese lanterns, purchased years ago in China for the annual New Year parade, resurfaced and were hung throughout the motorized cable car by a team from Woods Division. Chinese lanterns have for years represented the light of hope at every Chinese New Year celebration.

San Francisco’s celebration of Chinese New Year dates back to the gold rush days of the 1860s. The city’s celebration is recognized as one of the world’s largest Chinese New Year celebrations outside of Asia.

The monkey is the ninth of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. Risk, strategy, learning, change and progress feature prominently in a Monkey Year.

This year the SFMTA honored Reynaldo Morante, a colleague killed in the line of duty. (Photo: SFMTA)

One of the many colorful floats participating in this year’s 2016 Chinese New year Parade. (Photo: SFMTA)