San Francisco Bike Blog

There were about 100 people, sometimes more, who turned out last night to remember Jordan McKay. The photo above was taken at about 7:15 pm, just after sunset, from the base of the McKinley statue. The street lights were just starting  to turn on and there wasn’t much lighting in that part of the park - the beginning of the panhandle. After your eyes adjusted to the low light levels, you could make out most things, save for some of the bikes laying on the ground. The flashing bike blinky lights let you know that you were among fellow bicyclists.

Andy Thornly of the SFBC led events for most of the night, and that included the difficult task of introducing the several speakers - Jordan’s girlfriend Alisa Nitsky, and Jordan’s father and brother, Matthew and Noah. It was a difficult task, I thought, because the events leading up to this gathering were so serious, and you could sense that people in the crowd were a bit nervous. How were we supposed to act when faced with such a tragedy? Was it OK to smile because you were happy to see friends show up, or should you just nod and offer a greeting in a low voice - “What’s up”? But Andy handled things with dignity and grace, and by the time we set off to ride, you had the feeling that things went extremely well - you felt that some reconciliation had taken place. Part of that had to do with the words of Alisa, Matthew, and Noah - all of whom expressed gratitude at having so many fellow cyclists show up — ‘Jordan would love this.’

There’s a website set up to support goals that Jordan was interested in, and to track down Jordan’s attackers - see JordanMcKay.com:

Flyers handed out at the McKinley statue park area included the following text:

Jordan graduated with a degree in economics and a minor in film from UCSC. When asked what he would do with a million dollars, Jordan said that he would create an organization that provides micro-lending to people who are struggling to build small businesses around the world. He believed in the power of these small, independent businesses to improve people’ lives and tip the scales toward community rebuilding throughout the world.

For this reason, we’re donating to the Grameen Foundation in Jordan’s name. If you would like to make a donation on his behalf, please log onto www.jordanmckay.com which will lead you through the Grameen Foundation donation process.

Anyone with information about the muder of Jordan McKay should contact the San Francisco Police Department at 415.553.1149. Refer to case #080 986 135. $25,000 Reward for information leading to prosecution.

For more information, please go to www.jordanmckay.com.

The two new things I learned tonight were that the suspects’ car was white, apparently, and that there is a reward for information which leads to prosecution.

The ride first headed down to 15th and Cabrillo, where Jordan died. There was a candlelight vigil with twenty or so people there when we arrived. About three police officers on motorcycles and one on a bicycle (the bicycle officer, only for a short while) accompanied us, helping to stop car traffic along the route. A few people thought we were critical mass. I told one driver that we’d only be another minute - that it was a vigil - and she was very nice and offered to turn around and did. At least one other officer was at the 15th and Cabrillo location, directing some traffic away from the intersection. After 30 or 40 minutes of near-silence, thirty or so bikers headed down to the beach for the bonfire - and we had a police escort for this, too. We definitely appreciated that escort.

Lots more local news coverage can be found from KTVU, including information that a community meeting will be held at the Richmond Police Station tonight at 6pm (starting in 10 minutes).

And this blog post is from someone who was a personal friend of Jordan’s. It gives some insights not available from the more traditional media outlets.

Local blogger sfwiggle.com has more pictures. Local blog, Dale’s Scene, has a snapshot of some of the flyers that have been put up in the Richmond neighborhood.

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