Things are getting bad in San Francisco. Deadlocked benefit disputes between the city's BART train employees and municipals authorities have left hundreds of thousands of people who can't afford private cars or helicopters with no choice but to unmoor their yachts.

On Monday, commuters found inventive ways to get to work. Wayne Phillips did everything but swim as he struggled to get to his tech job in this city's Financial District.

His usual smooth ride on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train was derailed by the system's first strike in 16 years. So Phillips drove from the East Bay city of Concord to Oakland. He stood in a "quarter-mile-long" line for a ferry. Then he gave up and jumped on his own boat, a 30-foot Bayliner named Lovin' Life.

"I boated to South Beach Harbor and then took Muni," Phillips said, referring to the local bus, trolley and cable car system. "It was the first time I've done that. ... I was waiting in that line, and I realized I would have gotten here at 11 a.m."

This is happening IN OUR COUNTRY, people. Wake up. [via SFist]