Year: 2009

Drinking and driving laws vary from state to state, but in Wisconsin, it's not until your fifth offense that you're charged with a felony for drunk driving. That's an awful lot of leeway for a behavior that so often leads to serious bodily harm.

Bicyclist in Critical Condition After Hit-and-Run Crash in Watsonville (Merc)  Driver Charged with Intentionally Running Down Cyclist in Portland (Bike Portland) Caltrain Service Changes Go into Effect Today (NBC 11) Media News Editorial Blasts High-Speed Rail Project, Calls It “Highly Questionable” Planner Considers a Less Car Dependent Napa County (North Bay Business Journal) Chronicle Op-Ed: … Continued

"The Port of San Francisco has released a draft of the Pier 70 Preferred Master Plan, the result of a two-year community planning process. The plan balances the competing goals for the site; besides the retention of ship repair, it would implement a National Register Historic District and reuse of some historic buildings, open waterfront spaces, infill development sensitive to the setting, the building of new infrastructure, and remediation to improve environmental quality. With David Beaupre and Kathleen Diohep from the Port of San Francisco."

"Is the Google bus the solution or part of the problem? Is job sprawl and employment decentralization a trend that can be reversed? What tools and examples exist to remake how people get to and from work in an increasingly polycentric region? Join SPUR regional planning director Egon Terplan, transit futurist Steve Raney for a discussion on the future of job sprawl and suburbia and its impact on the core cities of the Bay Area and Northern California."

From the pre-urban history of Indian Slavery to the earliest 8-hour day movement in the US, the ebb and flow of class war is traced. SF's radical working class organizations are shaped in part by racist complicity in genocide and slavery, but from the 1870s to the 1940s there are dozens of epic battles between owners and workers, culminating in the 1934 General Strike and its aftermath. This is an entirely different look, during a four hour bike tour, at San Francisco labor history.

"Join the SFBC along the car-free Sunday Streets route on the Great Highway for a group effort to get our kids riding without training wheels. Bring bike, helmet and a snack to share. We'll take care of the rest. Heavy rain cancels."

After more than three frustrating years without any major bike improvements in San Francisco, it appears what bike activists hope will be the final court showdown for the bike injunction is just weeks away. This afternoon, City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office filed a motion (PDF) to lift the bike injunction, a filing that is 15 inches thick and argues the city has met all of its legal obligations.

Thanks to all of you wonderful photographers who tag your photos and videos in our Flickr pool. Be sure to send us more and we might see you on the blog!

In recent weeks, I've been busily making what you might call a negative argument for high-speed rail -- pointing out the many ways in which arguments against HSR are deficient. That's all well and good, but positive cases for HSR need to be made, as well.