We had a great time at our combined Streetsblog California 10th/Streetsblog San Francisco 15th Anniversary party last night. It was a fun gathering of like-minded people, including advocates, elected leaders, agencies, and people just interested in the topics of making transportation better. It was also an excellent reminder that there are many people working on making streets better for people on foot, on bike, and taking transit in California, and they are coming at it from many different angles.
In addition to celebrating people making positive changes in the world, the party was also a reminder to our small team that our reporting supports and highlights that work, and allows other people to join in. We're super proud of what we've accomplished, and amazed and delighted at the accomplishments of our honorees. More on that below, with pictures.
But the event was also a fundraiser for us - and a reminder to our readers that as a small, grant-funded organization, we work within a seriously razor-thin margin to bring you the news and discussions that we can. We are so grateful to you, our readers, without whom we would not exist. Your financial support is crucial, but so is the way you stick with us, read us, give us useful tips and information, and share and discuss our posts.
We still have a few bits of cool schwag left to give away, including a few copies of our really cool printed program. If you would like any of it, we can make that happen! See the end of this post for more information.
We were super happy to award Senator Scott Wiener the "Complete Streets and Livability Champion" award for all his hard work and persistence on creating safer streets (his third Complete Streets bill is currently on the governor's desk) as well as fighting for transit funding. Senator Wiener reminded the crowd that the fight for transit is far from over - and that cities will suffer if transit cannot survive.
We gave an "Advocacy Superhero" award to Jeanie Ward-Waller, whose adventures with Caltrans have been covered by us. She spoke of the tough year since she was pushed out by Caltrans leadership for asking questions, which was part of her job both at Caltrans and as a believer in better, safer transportation engineering and planning. She accomplished good things at the department, including building a strong team that is working within the system for better streets, but now she's back on the advocacy side. This has not been a loss for California. We actually couldn't decide what to call her award, so we added "Bad Ass Advocate" and "Wonder Woman" to the award name as well.
Among the other luminaries we gave awards to was Brian Kelly, head of California High Speed Rail, who was able to get the program moving forward after it seemed to be stalled out. He couldn't attend, but his Northern California Regional Director Boris Lipkin came to accept his "Faster than a Speeding Bullet Train" award. So we took the opportunity to give Lipkin his own Streetsie. He has done a lot of work to clear the way for high-speed rail on the northern end, including heading up environmental justice outreach and building partnerships with the many agencies, cities, and jurisdictions the future high-speed rail will run through.
We also gave an award to Assemblymember Phil Ting, whose staff member Rene Fong outlined his accomplishments for the crowd, including decriminalizing jaywalking, banning tolls for walkers and bike riders, getting protected bikeways into the Highway Design Manual, and, as head of the Appropriations Committee, fighting for funding for active transportation projects.
Another reminder of how to get things done came from Rebecca Saltzman. We awarded her the "Movin' on Up" award because she succeeded in getting bikes allowed on escalators on the BART system as a boardmember there. But that isn't her only accomplishment. She also worked on increasing BART service frequencies, getting Bay Area agencies to align fare media, and opening up the bathrooms in BART stations, which had been locked for years. She also spoke of the key role transit plays in all cities, particularly the Bay Area. Even people who don't take transit rely on it, whether they know it or not. Look for opportunities to support transit funding measures in the next few years.
Emeryville city councilmember John Bauters (the "Bicycle Mayor") talked about the pleasure he gets when his city is able to build high-quality, safe infrastructure, and of his success in getting the city to add it whenever they repave or repair the streets. To much applause, he quoted a letter he wrote to a school parent who complained about how the changes forced her to drive slowly: "Dear constituent, thank you so much for noticing [our Safe Routes to Schools project]. I’m very happy to hear that it’s working exactly as it was designed to do."
Streetsies winners are all people who saw a problem and decided to do something about it. Seamless Bay Area, on the left, has worked for years on making Bay Area transit agencies work together better. They said that Roger Rudick wrote about them in their early days, helping them coalesce as a group and create what is now a powerful force for transit integration. Oakland's Traffic Violence Rapid Response Team came together in frustration over mounting traffic deaths. Among other things, they bring attention to road deaths in an attempt to shake people out of complacency. Luke Bornheimer, the "Safe Streets Machine," has spoken up loud and clear when he sees San Francisco making mistakes in its street design and policies. Mike O'Hara, accepting the "You're Going to Need a Bigger Boat" award for the Woodstock shuttle across the Oakland Alameda estuary, talked about how that project came together because it was clear that bike riders and pedestrians needed a better way to get the water. So they did something about it.
It was a party. There was a lot of conversation. There was a lot to say.
Also: Senator Wiener and Assemblymember Ting presented us with a resolution! It reads, in part: (mentally add fancy lettering)
Whereas, by informing the public about public safety issues and promoting sustainable transportation, Streetsblog helps make the San Francisco community safer and holds public officials accountable for following transit-first policies, now, therefore, be it resolved by Assemblymembers Philip Y. Ting and Matt Haney and Senator Scott D. Wiener that Streetsblog San Francisco be congratulated on the celebration of its fifteenth anniversary, commended for the vital role it has played in improving the quality of life in the San Francisco community and the State of California, and extended best wishes for continued success in the future.
We couldn't be prouder.
Cool Schwag Still Available
Programs, get your programs!
Not to boast, but the program for our event is beautiful, informative, and celebratory, and we'd be happy to get the remaining ones into the hands of anyone who would enjoy it. Can you pay for postage? Hurray!
Posters
Tom Flood designed these beautiful posters, and we want to see them up in the world! They are 11x17, nice poster stock, beautifully printed by ACC Printers. We will be happy to mail them to you for the price of postage (around $5), but if you add a donation we'd be even happier. If you put them up in the world somewhere, take a picture of it and send it to us!
Stickers
These really cute tiny stickers can subtly express your interests while you drink your water or work on your laptop, and they're tiny enough to put on your phone. Too tiny to call for a donation, but we'll throw a couple in the mail if you really want them.
THANK YOU
We are ever grateful to all of our sponsors for the program, including BikeLink, Foothill Transit, AARP, City Fabrick, Pocrass and De Los Reyes, Bohnette Foundation, Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, KidSafe, Hayden AI, GJEL, Move California, Transform, SPUR, and Tom Flood/Rovelo Creative. And we can't do this work with the financial support of the California Endowment, SEED Fund, Jeremy Stoppleman, Nick Josefowitz, Jonathan Weiner, and all our individual donors.
