Year: 2009

"Team up with us for an inspirational day of art and movement activities with neighborhood residents, local artists, health promotoras, community gardeners and organizers. Neighborhood families will be engaged in community affirming exercises that capture the possibilities of developing a full service, holistically planned community site with potential eco-friendly affordable housing, green space, education and job center at this Public Utilities Commission-owned parking lot."

A coalition of community volunteers, pro-bono landscape architects and personnel from several city agencies this weekend swooped in to North Beach to transform the roadway of Mason Street between Columbus Avenue and Lombard Street into a temporary park in conjunction with the two-month street closure for a traffic study. The resulting open space combines elements from various city agency supply yards to bring trees, plants, and picnic tables into an area that just last week was exclusively used by cars.

As debate rages on in the capital over whether to keep assisting the auto industry by giving out more "cash for clunkers" rebates, two assertions are becoming commonplace: the program is helping diminish U.S. oil consumption, and the program is not paid for with new money.

Were you one of the hundreds who tried out the Bixi bike share bikes from Montreal at Golden Gate Park yesterday? From what I could tell, they seemed to be a hit. The Brandenburger Foundation, based in Los Angeles, brought its solar-powered portable bike station with seven bikes to the park to give San Franciscans a little sampling of what it might be like to have a bike share program. 

Now that the New York City Council has approved a Bicycle Access Bill requiring commercial buildings to allow bicyclists entry, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is ready to push for a San Francisco version of the requirement "by the end of the year." New York's bill, which is limited in its scope and contains some significant loopholes, passed 46-1 and is expected to be signed by Mayor Bloomberg.

It’s a quiet week on the Livable Streets Calendar, as in quiet enough to hear the roar of the ocean at a car-free Great Highway this Sunday. Here are the week’s highlights, leading up to the penultimate 2009 Sunday Streets. Tuesday: SFBC Treehouse Talk: Bike Plan 2009 – the rest of the Plan. We’ve adopted … Continued

It's been nearly ten months since we first started building the Streetsblog Network -- a group of bloggers around the country and around the world who write about livable streets, transportation policy, sustainable development and related topics. To find these folks, we asked our friends for tips and then went out hunting on the Internet. We mined blogrolls, took suggestions, chased down tantalizing links and always stayed open to the possibility of serendipity.

As the Senate gears up for debate this week on approving $2 billion more in "cash for clunkers" new-car rebates, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has vowed to work with the program's main private contractor -- Citigroup -- to iron out any kinks in the system that auto dealers use to apply for taxpayer-subsidized reimbursements.

San Francisco Nurse Killed by a Driver While Walking to Work (BCN via CBS5) Couple Accused in Hit-and-Run Death of USC Student Refuses Plea Deal (LAT) Muni Driver Commits Suicide by Jumping Off the Golden Gate Bridge (SF Weekly) SF Examiner: “Group Seeks to Derail Subway Project” “Cash for Clunkers” Senate Debate: McCain’s Talking Sense, … Continued