Fran Taylor
Recent Posts
Commentary: Why This Senior and Transit Advocate Blocked a Google Bus
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Editor’s note: This is a guest op-ed that does not represent the views of Streetsblog. Buses good, cars bad. I get it. Corporate shuttles replace thousands of cars — so why would someone who’s spent hours pounding the podium at Muni hearings, and campaigning for cyclists and pedestrians, join a blockade of seniors and disabled people […]
Voter ID Laws Marginalize People Without a Car
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Sustainable transportation advocates may read news headlines about new voter ID laws, roll their eyes at the prejudices of red-state legislators, and turn the page — at their own peril. This seemingly unrelated issue may have far-reaching consequences for transportation policy. New state laws mandating photo ID for voters threaten to disenfranchise nondrivers, and the […]
Commentary: Caltrans Pulls the Rug Out From a Block of Cesar Chavez
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Snowballs are piling up in hell. I’m about to defend car parking. The rug has been pulled out from under those living on the nastiest block on Cesar Chavez between Hampshire and York, closest to the 101 highway ramps. With only a belated chance to weigh in on changes to the design that never underwent the public scrutiny […]
Commentary: Muni Service Could Solve Cesar Chavez Dilemma
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Disappointed proponents of the thwarted Cesar Chavez East plan for a road diet between Kansas and Evans were at least spared the temptation of using cliché after a contentious meeting on June 27. They couldn’t say the city was throwing bicyclists and pedestrians under the bus because there is no bus. Past Bryant Street, where […]
Cesar Chavez Street Redesign Plan Headed to SFMTA Board for Approval
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An SFMTA hearing room erupted into applause Friday, November 19, when John Newlin, a hearing officer at the SFMTA, ruled that the massive Cesar Chavez Street redesign should move on to the full SFMTA Board. Supporters of the plan, led by CC Puede, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and other community groups, swamped opposition. The […]
Commentary: Parking Over Patients in New St. Luke’s Hospital Plan
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Fran Taylor contributes occasionally to Streetsblog San Francisco and wrote this Op-Ed on the CPMC plans for rebuilding the St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission near where she lives. An ambitious plan to overhaul hospital operations throughout the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC)/Sutter system in San Francisco has stirred up controversy on a number of […]
New Orleans Activist Embarks on 1600-Mile Bike Ride for the Gulf
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Malik Rahim says Americans need to change their lifestyles and move away from fossil fuel dependence. The BP oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico provides a fitting backdrop for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29. Who better to connect the two disasters than longtime New Orleans community organizer Malik Rahim, who […]
Grassroots Coalition Jumps Into the Fight to Protect AB32
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A protest earlier this year against efforts to rollback AB 32. Photo: Ella Baker Center A new coalition launching in the coming weeks is mobilizing groups with deep roots in their communities to take on Proposition 23, a measure on the November ballot that seeks to overturn AB32, California’s landmark greenhouse gas regulation bill. Communities […]
Commentary: Sidewalk Sitting? No Way! Sidewalk Parking? Stay All Day!
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Photo: San Francisco Department of Sidewalk Parking. One weighs 200 pounds or less, the other maybe two tons or more. One is involved in odd scuffles, the other in nearly 40,000 deaths nationwide each year. One is being targeted by the mayor and the press in San Francisco, the other sails under the radar. Even […]
Hairball Study Coughs Up Ideas, Memories
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Click to enlarge. Bird’s-eye view of the hairball shows how much real estate it takes up and how it creates a daunting barrier between neighborhoods. Photo: mike.teczno.com. “You can’t get there from here” is a joke phrase, but trying to travel through the Highway 101 freeway maze at Cesar Chavez/Potrero/Bayshore is no laughing matter. Four […]
Guest Commentary: Transpo Advocates Should Support Hotel Workers
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Transportation advocates were caught off-guard last month when the ANSWER Coalition and other leftist groups declared that extended parking meter hours represented an assault on the poor and working class, despite the overwhelming evidence that the poor and working class are predominantly more reliant on transit than cars for transportation. The absence of these organizations […]