Green Options

Lately the long foggy nights of summer make me wistfully yearn for the drive-in movies of my youth. Bad movies and sticky salty gooey food were merely condiments for the socializing that was really the main event on so many long ago August nights. Sadly, all of our local Bay Area drive-ins have gone dark years ago; however, this summer in San Francisco we now have something even better, the bike-in movies.

Throughout this summer the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is hosting a series of free bike-related movie screenings downtown at 7th and Mission Streets, right across from the Good Hotel. Once a month the hotel’s barren parking lot is transformed into a festive and inviting public space, where hundreds of people gather for free entertainment, socializing, and to eat tasty locally made snacks.

That was one of the many probing questions that the visionary former mayor of Bogotá Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa, asked a packed auditorium in San Francisco last night. How do we define what makes a good city, what is our criteria? What makes an urban environment desirable and livable, and how do we judge the quality of life? What is socially and environmentally sustainable?

San Francisco Bike Coalition member Rick Baraff produced this short video documenting how the grassroots advocacy work of thousands of SFBC members led to last Friday’s historic victory at the SFMTA hearing.

Hundreds of ordinary citizens, as well as scores of environmental and bicycle advocates, packed the fourth floor of San Francisco City Hall today for the SFMTA’s hearing on the city’s long-awaited Bike Plan.

The Board heard hours of impassioned public comment in support of implementing the city’s desperately needed Bike Network; they voted unanimously this afternoon to approve the Bike Plan EIR and finally adopt the complete Bike Plan.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition just held its 17th annual Golden Wheel Awards and fundraiser in the swanky Green Room in the War Memorial Building in downtown San Francisco. The SFBC honored Sunday Streets for their ongoing work to make our public streets more accessible to fun and healthy activity for everyone.

SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum inspires scores of bike activists and supporters.

My favorite Bayview corner sandwich shop, Upper Crust Deli on Third Street in San Francisco, has just started carrying fresh seasonal produce. They are now selling a variety of melons, potatoes, apples, bananas and many other healthy fruit and vegetable options.

All of San Francisco bicyclists are eagerly awaiting the implementation of our Bike Network.

Today San Francisco’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee just announced that the city’s long-awaited Bike Plan will finally begin to be implemented this June. This is incredibly great news for the thousands of bicyclists who commute in our city every day. As you may already know, the city-wide Bike Plan has been held up for nearly three years by a fatuous lawsuit and injunction, which has prevented the city from making any Bike Network improvements whatsoever, even something as basic as installing a simple bike rack.

San Francisco has just announced that it will go forward with a pilot bike-sharing program to help increase the number of trips taken by bicycle in our city. The program will be implemented by Clear Channel, the operator of SmartBikeDC, currently the only other bike-sharing program in the United States. Many residents and bike enthusiasts are very disappointed that the program will initially only have five stations, with roughly a dozen public use bikes at each. The five stations will [...]

The decision to remove this critical bike lane baffled not only me, but hundreds of my fellow citizens and elected public officials, who demonstrated Friday morning in opposition to the MTA’s proposed plan. At the rally I overheard many frustrated protesters questioning the MTA’s logic: “They say that they want to remove the bike lane because cars are still making illegal right turns and hitting bicyclists. That’s like saying if pedestrians are still be hit in by automobiles we should [...]