Year: 2009

San Francisco designer Lisa Marie Grillos has been on an unexpected journey since she lost her job as a production manager at Williams Sonoma this January, one which took her from frustration and dismay scouring Craigslist and other job sites to having her face splashed across the business page of the New York Times.

What better way to start your week than with a livable streets meet-up! Here are the highlights from this week’s livable streets calendar. Monday: Livable Streets Community Meet-Up. Join Streetsblog SF and the Livable Streets Initiative to meet fellow advocates from around the Bay Area to discuss the role of technology in transportation advocacy. Whether … Continued

Join Streetsblog SF and the Livable Streets Initiative to discuss the role of technology in transportation advocacy. Join the Livable Streets Community to share strategies and let them know how technology can grease the wheels of your work.

What kind of a statement does car-free living make in a small city? Today on the Streetsblog Network, Aaron Renn at The Urbanophile poses that question in a provocative post. Sure, it's about walking the walk of sustainable transportation, he says, but it also represents a withdrawal from the community structure in places such as Columbus and Cincinnati:

Driver Who Hit a Young Girl and Her Mother in Burlingame Won’t Be Charged (SF Gate) Merc: “Officials Struggle to Help Palo Alto Deal with Another Caltrain Death” More About What Muni is Doing to Improve Safety in Wake of Crashes (SF Gate) Bicyclist Seriously Injured in Crash on Highway 92 in San Mateo County … Continued

BART held a groundbreaking ceremony today for a project that will bring a new entrance and accessible walkway to Balboa Park station. The Westside Entrance and Walkway project is intended to improve access to the station for the approximately 5,000 daily riders approaching from Ocean Avenue west of Interstate 280, including students from San Francisco City College and Lick-Wilmerding High School. The station is the busiest non-downtown stop in the BART system, with 13,000 daily riders.

Thanks to all of you wonderful photographers who tag your photos and videos in our Flickr pool. Because you rock so hard, we wanted to highlight your work in a weekly Eyes on the Street feature. Be sure to send us more and we might see you on the blog!

If you're looking for a good way to enjoy the streets tomorrow in the Mission, head over to the Street Food Festival on Folsom Street between 25th and 26th.  The street will be closed all day for a block party to "bring together micro-entrepreneurs, informal food vendors and renowned chefs to celebrate great street food, entrepreneurial spirit and the vibrant communities of San Francisco." 

Earlier this week, we took a closer look at the congressional lobbying teams employed by the transport sector's biggest players, AASHTO and APTA. Today, it's time to meet the representatives of the American Trucking Association (ATA), which reported $1.32 million in lobbying spending during the first half of this year on its congressional disclosures -- more than AASHTO and APTA's combined K Street bills.