During the break, Streetsblog will be publishing some Streetsie Awards and results, but will take a hiatus on headlines and the normal publishing schedule. We'll be back in full swing at the start of 2017. In the meantime, we ask you to consider giving to our year-end fund raising drive.
But before we go, some thoughts on 2016.
There's been lots of progress this year--we recently brought you news of the first protected intersections in San Francisco and Berkeley. The BART bond passed, which will go a long way towards making a more reliable system. Speed bumps are now installed in Golden Gate Park on JFK drive. Improvements are coming to SoMa, on Taraval and elsewhere. The Mayor's Executive Order on Safety accelerated some of these projects.
But SFMTA and other Bay Area transportation agencies remain reactive--it takes too much horror and death to get them to move with urgency. There's still a tendency to accept road violence as an unavoidable fact of life. It's not. It's a result of bad policies, bad engineering, and excessive speeds. While there's been some progress on realizing Vision Zero, there's still so much work to be done.
Nationally, Streetsblog USA is already pushing back against the implications of a Trump presidency on the safe-streets movement. His cabinet appointments already forebode a grim outlook when it comes to reducing green house gases and improving our cities.
Streetsblog San Francisco made the point that the best thing the Bay Area can do is get its own house in order. We need to make this city safe, affordable, clean, beautiful and its transit has to work like clockwork. The Bay Area is a huge economic engine. We can do this. We also need to make this city as accessible as possible to the rest of the nation. The best way to propagate progressive values is to lead by example. We can't do that if our streets are broken and filthy, our police automatically blame victims for getting hit by reckless drivers, people are continually getting killed just going to work or the local store, and the homeless, many of them with mental illness and substance abuse problems, are left to rot.
Streetsblog will continue to do everything we can to bring light to these issues, to spur progress, and, frankly, to call bullsh*t on politicians and city officials who don't follow through on making our neighborhoods as livable, safe, equitable and beautiful as possible.
If you find what we do worthwhile, and can help in this effort, please make a donation today. Any amount helps us continue to lobby for the safe and livable streets we all deserve.
Have a safe and happy holiday from the Streetsblog team. We'll see you next year.
