Mayor Newsom

Just over the transom, Mayor Gavin Newsom last month sent letters to the Planning Commission, MTA Chief Nat Ford, and the MTA Board of Directors showing strong support for the bike plan, which he urges them to move forward post-haste [respectively, PDF, PDF, PDF]. 

Three years after a judge prohibited any bicycle improvements in San Francisco, the MTA Board and the Planning Commission are expected to finally approve and adopt the EIR and the Bike Plan this week, and legislate at least 45 of the 56 projects, which could bring up to 34 miles of new bike lanes to the city, hopefully within the next fiscal year.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference today with most of the elected and appointed political class, named former Mesa Arizona Police Chief George Gascón to the top job in the SFPD. The mayor said the police commission had conducted 49 public outreach sessions and reviewed 88 total candidates for the job before sending the top three picks to his office.

One of the good things about Mayor Gavin Newsom's obsession with putting public discourse online is the opportunity the public has to ask him a lot of questions.  In this vein, Current is holding a live online video interview with California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom about his "green" agenda and they are seeking help from the public to choose the questions they ask him.

The massive Sunday Streets in the Mission two days ago was touted by organizers and Mayor Gavin Newsom's office as an event that would bring shoppers to the neighborhood and improve sales in a very difficult economy. After walking the route and speaking with the owners and managers of nine businesses, I think it's safe to say that, by and large, merchants cheered the car-free event for not only adding to business but improving the neighborhood.

Massive crowds came out to the Mission yesterday to enjoy the first of two Sunday Streets events, packing Valencia Street and 24th Street with families, dog walkers, and cyclists of all ages and abilities. Organizers were thrilled with the turnout and seemed only to worry how they would get everyone off the streets at 2 pm, the scheduled closing time.

The first of two Mission Sunday Streets is this weekend, opening up wide swaths of car-free space away from the city’s edges and in busy neighborhood streets where businesses are excited about the prospects.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony on Geary and Arguello Boulevards in the Richmond District yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom, MTA Chief Nat Ford and representatives from Clear Channel presented the next iteration of the city's bus shelters, the first of 1100 new shelters that will be installed between now and 2013. The shelters combine innovative solar technology with a design that is meant to evoke both a seismic wave and the hills of San Francisco.

When tens of thousands of people come out to the first of two Sunday Streets in the Mission on June 7th, they will find a route that winds through some of the densest pedestrian streets in San Francisco, a route that at just over two miles is half as long as previous events and should lend to casual strolling perhaps more than cycling.