Streetsblog San Francisco

I’m pleased to announce that thanks to an outpouring of support these past two weeks, Streetsblog and Streetfilms are more than halfway to our goal of raising $25,000 by the end of the year. If you haven’t given yet and you value the high-impact reporting and videos that we produce day in and day out, help put us over the top. As the headline suggests, we have another great item to give to a lucky donor this week.

Before I get to that, congratulations to the winner of last week’s prize: Long-time Streetsblog reader Marc Agger will be taking home a Zero Tweed bag from Rickshaw.

This week’s prize comes courtesy of Levi’s. Make a one-time or monthly gift by Friday at midnight and you could win a jacket and jeans from Levi’s new Commuter line, designed specifically for cyclists.

The jeans

The jacket

I have the Commuter jacket and it’s great for riding in the spring or fall, even in the rain.

Thanks again to all our dedicated supporters. If you haven’t donated yet, please pitch in and help make 2012 a great year for livable streets coverage.

Oh boy. It’s always sad when communities try to revitalize their downtowns and they resort to subsidizing the kinds of things that hollowed out the area in the first place — namely parking.

Mankato, Minnesota is trying to revitalize its downtown. In the process, it gave $3.2 million in subsidies to a local bank to build parking at this $2.5 million building. Photo: Twin Cities Streets for People

We’re talking to you, Mankato, Minnesota.

After leveling a bunch of historic buildings and turning downtown into the region’s finest collection of asphalt landing strips, civic leaders seemed to recognize the error of their ways with their latest revitalization plans. But did they?

Nathaniel M. Hood at Twin City Streets for Peoplesays Mankato had the right ideas: promoting walkable neighborhoods and creating better bike and pedestrian connections in the historic downtown. But somehow Mankato also ended up subsidizing free parking to the tune of $3.2 million dollars — or about $42,000 in public money per space added — in increasingly precious local and state funds.

Hood writes that this is a classic case of how local communities must be shrewd in the use development subsidies:

The revitalization of downtown is paramount and the HECO building [pictured above] is a key element. The building’s $2.5 million renovation will attract professional firms to Class A commercial space in the heart of downtown. This is a good thing, but it is coming at an unusually high cost to taxpayers.

The bulk part of the subsidy is the City built parking garage attached to the newly renovated building. Here’s the financial rundown of the parking garage:

- $3.2 million for the construction of 154 Total Spaces
- $3.2 million / 154 Total Spaces
- $20,779 per parking space

Read more…

Fixing streets more frequently keeps them in better shape and saves money in the long run. Source: San Francisco Department of Public Works

Last week San Francisco voters approved a $248 million bond to fix streets, which means the city will soon begin the largest repaving expenditure in its history. For the next three years, San Francisco will spend more than three times the amount it has normally budgeted for street repairs. Ninety million dollars will go to bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and infrastructure improvements (we’ll have more on those projects next week).

“There’s a lot of pride from folks in the bike coalition in getting this passed,” said Kit Hodge, deputy director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. SFBC helped draft the proposition, went door to door, and sent out 42,000 mailers on the issue. This support may have been crucial: The proposition exceeded the required two-thirds majority by just under 3,000 votes.

The bond can only do so much, however. It pays for only three years of work and is insufficient to complete the backlog of repaving projects. “This won’t totally fix all the deferred maintenance,” said Department of Public Works spokesperson Gloria Chan. “We still need to find a permanent funding source.”

The problem is that San Francisco has neglected its streets, failing to pay for preventive care since the early 1990’s. Putting things off until later — deferred maintenance — comes at a steep price. It’s actually cheaper to do maintenance more often and keep roads smooth. Engineers have estimated that it costs about three times as much to let streets deteriorate to a broken-down, pothole-scarred state.

Maintaining streets is one of those basic good-government policies that pretty much everyone agrees with. But it’s not sexy. Slurry seals never won fame for a politician. And so far, no one has stepped up to make a permanent solution to this problem.

Read more…

Agenda

SB 910 Veto Message

Supporting vague driving standards that endanger California’s cyclists is no longer a partisan issue.  S.B. 910, which would have mandated a three foot passing cushion when drivers pass cyclists at speeds over 15 miles per hour was universally supported by Democrats in the Assembly and Senate. But that didn’t stop Governor Jerry Brown from vetoing S.B. 910 because he was worried that mandating that drivers slow down to fifteen miles per hour before passing a cyclist or asking them to pass at at least a three foot distance would create either rear-end collisions or long lines of traffic.

Advocates of safe driving laws pointed out that in the 20 states that have similar laws, there has not been one case cited where a crash was caused by a motorist adhering to the law.  But that wasn’t good enough for Brown, which isn’t surprising since his veto statement also implies that its more important to keep motor vehicle traffic moving than it is to protect the safety of cyclists.

Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) was similarly confused by the Governor’s veto and the incoherent logic behind it.

Obviously I am disappointed with the veto, but I am also a bit confused. It appears the Governor’s biggest concern with the bill revolved around the 15 MPH provision. However, that provision actually made it easier for a  motorist to pass a cyclist and allowed for a much smoother flow of traffic. The Governor seems to be advocating for a strict, minimum three foot buffer in which a motorist cannot pass, under any circumstances unless that pass can be made with at least three feet between the motorist and the cyclist. I agree that that would be safer for the cyclist, but it would not, in any way address the concerns the Governor raised in the veto.

The California Bike Coalition, who had championed the law from drafting through passage, was equally blunt.  Jim Brown, the Coalition’s Communications Director, writes, Read more…

Photo: Myleen Hollero/Orange Photography

Today was my last day as editor of Streetsblog San Francisco. Just like the day I published my first story, I spent the morning talking to bicyclists at a trouble spot. One of the great joys of this job has been interviewing people in the field. Some of my best moments have been spent talking to strangers. I’ve learned so much from those encounters.

I took this job three years ago because I was angry at the state of the streets in San Francisco. While we’ve made a lot of progress in that time, we still haven’t arrived at the game-changing moment. So none of that anger I had when I was first hired has subsided. An advocacy news organization like Streetsblog will continue to be crucial in the years ahead to ensure the change that is so needed on our streets.

As I depart, three things are heavily on my mind, and disturb me as both an advocate and a journalist: the high numbers of bicyclists and pedestrians who continue to be killed and hurt on our streets by drivers, the inertia and dysfunction in all levels of San Francisco city government that is preventing safer streets, and the great veil of government secrecy that still exists despite our local Sunshine Ordinance. That’s why I plan to continue my career as a journalist, fighting to knock down these walls.

I’m relieved to know that OpenPlans is committed to keep Streetsblog going. It is a bittersweet moment for me to write this last post to you. OpenPlans is in the process of searching for the next person to run Streetsblog SF, and in the meantime you’ll still be able to tune in every day for your morning headlines fix.

I owe a great deal of thanks to so many people. Thank you Streetsblog founding editor Aaron Naparstek for hiring me. I could never have done this without former Streetsblog deputy editor Matthew Roth, who turned me into an advocate, made me a better writer and has become a great friend. Former Streetsblog reporters Michael Rhodes and Aaron Bialick were great to work with, and helped me immensely. I continue to be inspired by the legendary historian and activist Chris Carlsson, whose writing contributions were always a treasure. Streetsblog editor-in-chief Ben Fried also made me a better writer, and his tireless work on behalf of the organization is also inspiring. Thanks for all your support Ben.

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Bicyclists have to contend with a mess of taxis, delivery trucks and other vehicles obstructing the bike lane on Townsend Street near the entrance to the Caltrain station, to the right. This is why some ride on the sidewalk. Photos by Bryan Goebel.

San Francisco police returned to the Caltrain station at 4th, King and Townsend streets this morning to warn bike commuters not to ride on the sidewalk one day after a sting that resulted in a number of citations for people on bikes. Bike advocates complained, however, that Caltrain has known for years the station presents a challenge to bicyclists, and said the agency’s inaction has allowed conflicts between bicyclists and pedestrians to continue.

Instead of seriously addressing flaws in the street and station design, the situation has led to the selective enforcement of bicyclists. Police told Streetsblog they have received complaints from pedestrians about bike commuters, and yesterday issued a number of citations to bicyclists for riding on the sidewalk. SFPD Lt. Troy Dangerfield said today it was part of a “month-long campaign on bicycle and pedestrian enforcement.” However, the officers did not target drivers obstructing the bike lane.

Shirley Johnson, a member of Caltrain’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and a longtime leader of the Bikes ONBoard program, said she’s been riding on the sidewalk for years.

“I just thought that’s how you’re supposed to get to the station. There’s a curb cut right there, on the sidewalk,” she told Streetsblog. “No one has ever said anything and people are getting ticketed. That seems very unfair.”

“I’m very careful. I ride really slow on the sidewalk,” she continued. “But I can only imagine if someone’s late for the train they’re probably coming along at a pretty good clip. I always got there early enough that I never had to do that but I can see that it’s a safety concern.”

Read more…

Cycling For Everyone from Dutch Cycling Embassy on Vimeo.

Last week, a team of Dutch experts led a series of Think Bike workshops in four U.S. cities, including San Francisco, to help advocates and planners design the bike infrastructure of the future. Cities across the globe continue to look to the Netherlands for inspiration, and guidance, and that demand is being embraced by a unique organization known as the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

The embassy is comprised of bike ambassadors from non-profits, private companies, bike manufacturers and local and national governments in the Netherlands. It recently released a new video that beautifully tells the story of how the bicycle became a part of everyday life in the Netherlands. It’s an inspirational seven minutes by Marc van Woudenberg and a must-see for elected officials and planners in the U.S.

The goal of the embassy, which has also launched a new website, is to “to support, facilitate, contribute to and inspire international cycling projects and policies helping countries, cities and its people to move forward in a safe and healthy way.”

As the video illustrates so well, cycling has always been popular in the Netherlands, but there was a time when cars ruled and the transformation to bike-friendly streets didn’t happen overnight. As the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Leah Shahum pointed out in her timely Streetsblog essay last week, “the arc that we are on in San Francisco right now is surprisingly akin to that of Amsterdam 40 years ago when engaged citizens led by passionate advocates convinced local leaders to solidly commit to making bicycling the easiest and most favored way to get around the city.”

In addition to the video, you can download this great brochure [pdf] from the embassy, which has a lot of important and fun facts about bicycling in the Netherlands, “where 16 million inhabitants own 18 million bicycles.”

I thought we’d get you in the mood for the weekend by leaving you with this fun video via Muni Diaries. Isn’t it sweet? From the YouTube description:

This is a collaboration between Neverstop and YAK FILMS to remix an old school black and white dance video from the Underground in London into a new TURF style video in the San Francisco BART and MUNI systems. Music remixed by Sammy Bananas of Fool’s Gold Records.

I’m off to enjoy the blazing sun and redwoods on the Russian River. Have a great weekend!