An Open Letter to Chief Suhr from Streetsblog

Dear Chief Suhr,

We hope you are okay.

This afternoon, at roughly 1:10, a tipster took some photographs of this silver car parked in the red zone in front of City Hall and sent them to us. Your business card was displayed in the wind screen.

We at Streetsblog just want to make sure you and everyone at City Hall are okay.

Obviously, if it's your car, you must have been responding to an emergency. Why else would you park in the red zone? As you know, these red zones are there for a reason: to maintain visibility and safety. This is especially pertinent at this cross walk, which was given safety upgrades after the death of 68-year-old Priscila Moreto, who was struck and killed some two years ago, a few feet from where the car was parked today.

Now, we know safety is your number one priority. You say as much regularly, when referring to your concerns about the bike yield proposal, for example. And as you've pointed out, it's also important that pedestrians are attentive, lest they get run over, maimed, or killed because of law-abiding people, such as yourself, operating two-to-20-ton motorized machines.

Of course, there's another, more insidious possibility--but we don't think this is really possible for a police chief in a major, progressive city such as San Francisco. It could be that someone took your card and is using it to break the law. And we know you don't tolerate anyone besmirching the good name of the department, by breaking the law under its banner. If that's the case, we trust you'll get to the bottom of this and punish the miscreant.

Regardless, we thank you for participating in yesterday's Walk to Work event and for keeping us safe.

Sincerely,

Streetsblog San Francisco.