Election Results
I think most San Franciscans are happy about the Barack victory last night. That he seems to be less car/oil/pollution-centric than the other fellow running is probably a good thing.
On the downside of last night, there was that hateful Prop 8 that seems like it has passed - the ‘hate gays’ measure. I guess the crazies need to earn a little victory now and again so they feel relevant. Well, they’ve just become relevant, and I expect and hope the backlash will be greater than they bargained for. San Francisco was the epicenter for folks trying to shoot down Prop 8 - that makes me proud to be a San Franciscan. I wouldn’t doubt it if San Francisco has more gay bicycle riders than any other city on earth. Prop 8 is just a stumbling block on the road to equality.
People are talking about a bike-friendly Department of Transportation in the Obama administration. That could actually happen, and it could be really exciting. Traffic World Online bats around a few names. I’ve thrown in for Sadik-Khan, but any bike-friendly candidate would work.
Here’s the thing - the bicycle community should not wait to have our DOT head anointed for us - we should do some of that real ‘democracy’ stuff and choose our new, fearless DOT leader. Ultimately it will be Barack’s decision, but we should have a say. We should look at all the potential candidates, look at the politics of the situation to see who could be a likely candidate who would also be extraordinary for bikes (and walking - and maybe even transit, I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing), and put those names forward. That Sadik-Khan interview makes me think she really ‘gets it’ in a way that I’ve never heard any other leader ‘get it’ - she seems to know about and respect the whole ‘public spaces’ thing, but I’m more than a bit worried about her love for BRT. Bottom line, though — the bike community should pick our new DOT head. And we should start the evaluation process right now.
Looks like all the hard work our SFBC folks have been doing has paid off - bike-friendly supes!
Bike Vote 2008: Victories!
As we wake to the remarkable result of our national presidential election (wow!), the SFBC is proud to celebrate the many victories of our Bike Vote 08 slate for local and state races:
Prop 1A (California High Speed Rail) wins
Prop A (rebuilding SF General Hospital) wins
Prop P (weakening SF County Transportation Authority) loses
State Senate, District 3: Mark Leno
State Assembly, District 13: Tom Ammiano
BART Director, District 9: Tom Radulovich
SF Supervisor, District 5: Ross Mirkarimi
SF Supervisor, District 7: Sean ElsberndWe’ll have to wait a few days for the SF Dept. of Elections to process “instant runoff” results for the Supervisor races in Districts 1, 3, 9, and 11, but first-round returns are very encouraging, with Eric Mar leading in District 1 by 10 points, David Chiu ahead in District 3 by 16 points, and John Avalos with a 6 point lead in District 11. The District 9 race is, as expected, a tight three-way contest between progressives Mark Sanchez, David Campos, and Eric Quezada.
Congratulations to the winning candidates and campaigns, and BIG thanks to all the SFBC members helped get out the bike vote–your time and energy made a real difference for a better bike-friendly outcome. Keep an eye on the SF Dept. of Elections’ official results page for updates to the Supervisor races, and get ready for a new chapter in public policy for great streets!
This could be huge for a more bike-friendly San Francisco - because we’ll have more bike-friendly supes (which the SFBC and volunteers helped put into office), but also - and possibly more importantly for the long term - because it could show that that SFBC can really move voters to the polls. Politicians who respect (and/or fear) the SFBC will know to ‘act right’ when it comes to looking out for bikers’ interests - ‘The SFBC Effect’ should be something all pols should know about. We’re nutty for bikes, we’re passionate, energetic, some of us have money, and we vote.
So, initial funding for the SUPERTRAIN from SF to LA passed. (I like the ‘$9.9 Billion’ amount, instead of ‘$10 Billion’.) The SMART train initiative passed - good news for those of you who like to be able to get around the North Bay by bike. I want more details on that bike/walk path, by the way - there needs to be enough room for walkers and bikers both - that whole ’sharing the path’ thing always breaks down and leads to accidents and injuries. Shared bike and walk paths simply do not work. If it’s going to cost more money to do it right, then let’s do it right.
Measure KK, which would have slowed and possibly even derailed BRT in Berkely, appears to have been crushed - absolutely decimated. Berekely bikers still need to push to get more than just maintaining a crappy little bike lane on the highway that is Telegraph. Don’t settle for table scraps - what you have right now. Bikes deserve more priority than cars, more than trains, and certainly more than buses. Don’t be afraid to remind your officials of that - actually, they’ve probably never heard that expressed to them. No better time than the present.
Mad props to everyone who worked and volunteered to make the world a slightly better place.
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