Magic Spot Flowing

Your Vision

I had a hard time finding this and ultimately got the link from a friend, so I figured I would share in case anyone else is as lazy as I am but still wants to take the time to tell Obama their thoughts.

This week is the Towards Carfree Cities conference in Portland, and Kent & Christine and Beth both have lovely things to say about life without a car. So many lovely things to say that they’ve said everything I could imagine saying!

My favorite line:

As Peter once told Kent, “I don’t ride my bike because I’m a damn hippie like you, Dad. I ride my bike because I am a FISCAL CONSERVATIVE.”

On my birthday, I drove to the VA in Palo Alto (for the Sequoia ride), to the Farmer’s Market, home, and then to Berkeley, in a friend’s car. While I was on 880-N, driving 65-70mph (and being passed regularly, since this is California), I kept thinking “This is just insane. Why am I going so fast? Where is everyone going?”

Practically speaking, that day was very unusual for me. I had too much to do and too much to carry (a full trunk and back seat) to take my bike or transit. I needed to be able to get to Berkeley in an hour with a whole load of crap, more (I think) than would even fit on an Xtracycle. (You also can’t take Xtracycles on Caltrain.)

What it ended up doing was reinforcing for me how utterly weird it is in my life for me to want or need to be somewhere 50+ miles away in an hour, and how much I no longer enjoy doing that. Slowly, through habit, my life has been reshaped for a more human scale, where ten miles in an hour seems like plenty and trying to locate appropriate places to put a 2000-lb vehicle for 30 minutes to several hours seems bizarre. It also reminded me that I could have made other choices, that it was my own choices that put me in that situation to begin with. Had I made a greater head start on the prep, I could have sent a lot of the stuff back with the other party host, and I would have needed less time for last-minute prep and thus had more time for travel. I’m not unhappy with the choices I made, but I might make different ones next time.

Life without a car is just like any other life: full of evolving choices about how I most want to spend my time.

So Thursday was Bike to Work Day, for which I was determined to do something more than just biking to work. After all, every day is already bike to work day in that sense. So I decided to volunteer to help out as an Outreach Host for SVBC at an Energizer Station, to provide information and make contact with potential members, as well as to help manage the station.

My first stop was Outreach Training, where I learned what the goal of being an Outreach Host is and how to talk to people about SVBC. It was a fun night with some pizza and meeting other members of SVBC interested in volunteering.

The day of, I had to be at the Energizer Station by 7 at the latest, so I got up at 6:15, hurried through my prep, and made it to Cal Ave with five minutes to spare. The day was scheduled to be almost 100 degrees, so I brought a hat, sunscreen, sandals to change into, and plenty of water. We were between busy and inundated almost the entire time I was there, from 7 to 9:15 or so (after that we were mostly packed up). We gave away all our new VTA maps and many old ones, all our bags, all the bananas, and most of the bagels and coffeecake, along with lots of coupons, goodies, smiles, and support.

I really enjoyed the experience, even more than the Amgen Tour of California bike parking volunteering, which I didn’t count for this goal’s purpose because the Tour isn’t a bike advocacy event, it’s a competitive event. This was all about supporting utility cycling and traveling by public or self-propelled transit (walkers, skateboarders, scooters, and others are, of course, also welcome at Energizer stations). It was nice to connect with other people who have high bike-to-person ratios in their households and commute or do errands with their bike setups. My bike and pannier setup got some appreciation. I saw the full gamut from kids (in bike seats and trailers, or on their own bikes or trail-a-bikes) to roadies (there was a Webcor Alto Velo photo op at the station around 8, a good follow-on from last week’s BTWW kickoff event at Webcor).

It started to get pretty hot around 8:00, and by 9:25 when I headed out to work it was very hot. I had to stop several times on my ride to cool down and guzzle water, and I was not appreciating the conductivity of my metal water bottle. Every time I had to stop for a stoplight in the sun, my self-created breeze disappeared and I felt like I was melting. But I made it to work all right, even with a bagel stop. The bagel shop employees kindly let me bring in my bike and gave me some tape to make sure the bagel bag stayed shut and attached to my bike.

One of the most encouraging things for me is that this year I got a lot more positive response from my coworkers. Two of them already bike to work either regularly or occasionally, and did on Thursday. Another rides a lot but doesn’t normally commute that way, but decided to map it out and ride in for Bike to Work Day. Three more are considering it, and our CEO said he will ride someday when he doesn’t have meetings. I am hoping for a company BTWD later this summer, maybe when it isn’t 99 degrees outside! If we really get everyone who’s considering it we will have 8 out of the 25 people in the office riding — 30 percent. And everyone else at least appreciates the bagels. :-)

The day ended with a trip down to San Jose for the Bike Away From Work Bash at Gordon Biersch. I wanted to bike down, but work called, so I grabbed a Caltrain and enjoyed more conversation with fellow cyclists. I missed the food at the party, but got drinks and good company, and missing the food only provided an excuse to go to Ben’s later, so it wasn’t so bad. I finally got home, tired and happy, around 10:30.

I’m sure this is only the first of many SVBC volunteering events I’ll be doing, and it was a great start.

Not sure there’s anything to say about this except, what the fucking fuck? This is worse than the Orange County Register article where an SFPD officer described letting other officers (and any other confidential plate holders, some of whom are things like museum staff) run red lights without penalty as a “professional courtesy” — and that one was bad enough to cause me to write a letter to my State Senator (Joe Simitian, totally a “there oughta be a law” guy — my tag on the letter was “There ought not to be a law”).

I’m loving the Dear Prudence column in Slate, which I discovered by accident. She’s got at least as much sense as Sars and a good dose of snark too, but with a bit more “Miss Manners” style and a touch of the “old-fashioned politeness” Ann Landers/Dear Abby tone.

I find it funny and realistic that she so often tells people to get therapy. Most advice columnists shy away from that except when it’s obviously needed, but usually if you have enough problems that you’re writing to an advice column, you either know the answer to the question and just wish someone would tell you it’s okay, or you need therapy. :-)

Not so much loving: spending two hours at the Sunnyvale BPAC meeting before getting to do public comment. I appreciate the people there are very dedicated and they have certain rules they have to follow about procedure. And I also appreciate that warm bodies are respected more than cold emails, and that sometimes to give input on things I care about, I have to suck it up and wait.

But it didn’t leave me wanting to try any more forays into personal public comment. The City Council meeting may be the more important one, but it’ll go on for hours and half the people there will just infuriate me with what they’re saying. Waiting for two hours without dinner while some wonderful and dedicated citizens (and I mean that, but oy, two hours?) discuss wording points is time-consuming enough for me for now.

The man himself speaks.

Keep emailing or calling your Senators.

From Glenn Greenwald, after the Judiciary committee version (no immunity) was tabled:
The pro-immunity, pro-warrantless eavesdropping Democrats: Rockefeller, Pryor, Inouye, McCaskill, Landrieu, Salazar, Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Mikulski, Carper, Bayh, and Johnson. Neither Clinton nor Obama bothered to show up for any of this.

And they’re going to provide leadership to us in the next four years? Really?

If any of your Senators are the people listed above (or you once lived in that state, or you’re just looking for more people to email) then try these nitwit non-Democrats.

Greenwald also sums up why I’ve just completely lost my patience with these ‘Democrats’ in Washington.

“Democrats find themselves in the same corner they were in last summer: on the one hand their base demands they block expanded domestic spying powers for the Bush Administration; on the other, they can’t risk looking soft on terrorism, especially nine months before national elections. Senate majority leader Harry Reid is angling for another month’s extension of the PAA, but that would only give the Republicans a third bite at the apple in late February….”

Here we have a perfect expression of the most self-destructive Democratic disease which they seem unable to cure. More than anything, they fear looking “weak.” To avoid this, they “cave” and surrender and capitulate and stand for nothing. As a result, they are, as here, endlessly described in the media as “caving” and surrendering. As a result, they look (and are) weak. It’s a self-destructive cycle that has no end.

Until we elect some Democrats who don’t do this, I suppose. I swear, we need a litmus test of our own, only it’ll be based on the Constitution. “Sorry, Mr. Rockefeller, Mrs. Feinstein — you can’t run for office as a Democrat if you don’t believe in the Fourth Amendment.”

This is The Road. The Road is where cars and other vehicles travel. You are pedestrians, you’re walking in beautiful, safe Menlo Park. We have sidewalks here. On both sides of the road. Nice and smooth. Please use them. Please do not act like I’m in your way when I’m traveling legally on the road. I’m not going to hit you, but you don’t belong in the road, and you don’t have an invisible force field around you, so I’m going to indicate that you are traveling hazardously, possibly using my bell or horn. Just in case maybe it actually occurs to you, after said indication, that 1) this is The Road, and 2) someone else might hit you, even if I didn’t.

Yes, I’m a frequent pedestrian. Yes, I walk in the road, occasionally. Going the right way, as near to the side as possible, after checking that there’s no traffic coming. Or crossing, preferably at an intersection, after checking to see that cars and bicycles are either absent or aware of my presence and stopped or clearly planning to stop. There are times and places to use the road. The middle of the road, randomly, walking like a drunk person? No. The bike lane, because you’re just too cool and fast to run on the sidewalk a foot away? No. These are not times and places to use the road.

And for counterbalance, my letter to Mr. Roadshow, which hasn’t been published (yet — come on, Mr. Richards, it was a well-written letter on a relevant topic, and you didn’t publish any other letter of the same type — you ought to drop it in!)

Dear Mr. Roadshow,

Drivers: Allow pedestrians their legal right-of-way at intersections, especially when turning right. Stop before you turn. Remember, just because the intersection doesn’t have painted crosswalk lines doesn’t mean it is not a crosswalk. Pedestrians may cross at any intersection unless otherwise indicated by a sign. Come to a complete stop (not the famous California rolling stop) at stop signs and allow pedestrians who arrived first to cross before you go. Pay attention to your surroundings. And don’t wait for the next Drive the Speed Limit Day to SLOW DOWN. Speed is lethal.

Guys, it’s time for action on FISA again. NOW. TODAY. I was on blog silence last time this came up, but it’s time again. Start with Glenn Greenwald for a decent overview of the politics. There should be a link in there somewhere explaining the principles too, if you’re not already familiar with the fact that the NSA spied on Americans without warrants, and the telecoms companies (mostly) spinelessly caved and cooperated, despite the fact that it’s completely illegal. Now the telecoms want to be saved from their own idiocy and the NSA wants to keep wiretapping us without warrants. I say no way. Write to your Senators, and Senators Reid (pro-spying) and Dodd (willing to risk a ton of political capital and filibuster any bill with immunity provisions), as well as Sens. Obama and Clinton, who are doing fuck all to help Dodd here because they are more interested in holding office than in doing something with it.

Here’s my letter to Reid. I am more than a little pissed off at him. I resisted using the word “toady” in the letter, but only just.

Senator Reid,

[signed]