One day in 2013, Luisa Isbell—newly minted San Franciscan and tech worker—found herself on the wrong side of a stranger's crisis on the 19 Polk, and went from enthusiastic bus rider to bus avoider. Trading freedom for safety seemed logical after such a scary encounter, but several years of gloomy commutes and thousands of dollars in parking fines later, something had to give.
Now Luisa finds herself working with struggling San Franciscans like that bus passenger every day. She joined us at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 to share her winding journey from tech worker to social worker and stand-up comic, from reluctant car owner back to Muni rider, and what she learned about herself and those struggling at the margins of our city along the way.