Matthew Roth

Despite concern from some neighborhood residents that the trial pedestrian plaza on 17th Street and Castro Street would be overrun with drunk revelers, vagrants, and other unsavory characters, those concerns didn't manifest the first weekend it was open, according to Andrea Aiello, Executive Director of the Castro/Upper Market CBD. As Aiello explained to Streetsblog, the "problems" they're encountering have everything to do with the success of the space.

Apparently I'm not the only one who got the sneaky suspicion Green Gav doesn't really take transit or ride a bike unless it makes for good publicity. Yet-to-be identified satirists decided to call Mayor Gavin Newsom's bluff on the nonsense assertion he (or his handlers) made to the Chronicle that he occasionally rides Muni incognito when he's not being chauffeured around in a hybrid SUV or driving his ridiculously expensive electric sports car.

150,000 Bike to Work Yesterday (SF Gate) (Examiner) (SFBG) (ABC 7) (Mission Local) (SF Citizen) SF Mayor Newsom Rides Stationary Bike, Drives to Tracy (SF Gate) SF Weekly Picks Nits Over City Attorney Herrera’s “One Less Lawyer in a Car” T-Shirt Extending Meter Enforcement to 8 pm Appears Likely in SF (Examiner) BART Approves OAC … Continued

San Francisco's annual Bike to Work Day drew a record 200,000 bicyclists this morning, according to early estimates, making it the most successful bike to work day since it began 15 years ago. Crowds of cyclists took advantage of the SFBC Energizer Stations to get food and coffee and make new friends in what has become the most exciting and politically important year for bicycle improvements in the city.

Oh walk light, you change way too fast. Your pedestrian green doesn’t last. You force me to run Cross the street, which ain’t fun. So thanks for this cumbersome cast.

Standing before a crowd of more than 100 people, many of them city staff who had worked to realize the transformation of an underutilized street into a "Pavement to Parks" pedestrian refuge, Mayor Gavin Newsom dedicated the first of at least four such plazas that will be constructed around the city.  

With excitement building over the anticipated lifting of the Bicycle Injunction this summer, and hope that crews will soon begin work on priority street improvements throughout the bicycle network, advocates in San Francisco are expecting record numbers for the 15th annual Bike to Work Day tomorrow.

The second of six Sunday Streets was a great success as thousands of people got out on a glorious sunny day to pedal, blade, run, skate, and stroll along the waterfront from AT&T park down to India Basin and the Bayview Opera House.  By coincidence, my father was in town and I got to take him on his first bicycle ride in a city.  Not a bad way to show him the type of streets we might hope to enjoy every Sunday all year long.