San Antonio Bike Lane Market

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Robert Gonzalez

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Dec 13, 2021, 2:08:15 PM12/13/21
to SVBC San Jose Team
Saw this on both Saturday and Sunday. I hope it's not a regular thing. I love the bike lanes on San Antonio. Can't the church work with the vendors to sell in their parking lot or on their grounds? 

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Buck Crockett

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Dec 13, 2021, 2:28:08 PM12/13/21
to san...@bikesiliconvalley.org
They should block the traffic lane before the bike lane. Always. 

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Thanks, 

Buck Crockett
303.809.1430

Teodoro Cipresso

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Dec 13, 2021, 6:32:43 PM12/13/21
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It would certainly be a positive transit culture change if people saw blocking the bike lane as blocking real people trying to get somewhere. I get the impression that most people just see green paint that sometimes has an eccentric person riding on it.

On Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 11:08 AM Robert Gonzalez <bobbygo...@gmail.com> wrote:
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Moria Merriweather

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Dec 13, 2021, 6:45:45 PM12/13/21
to san...@bikesiliconvalley.org
In San Jose i have, many times, called the police (non-emergency) to report cars illegally parked in a bike lane. They ticket them.

Since this is at a church, perhaps one of us calling the church could work?
I do not recognize the specific location on San Antonio Road.
If you (Robert Gonzales) -- or someone-- can tell us the name of the church, or the address, my guess is that someone on this list might volunteer to give them a call?

Thanks
Moria


Sent from my iPad

Apologies for the typos--OMG so many typos!




On Dec 13, 2021, at 3:32 PM, Teodoro Cipresso <teodoro....@gmail.com> wrote:

It would certainly be a positive transit culture change if people saw blocking the bike lane as blocking real people trying to get somewhere. I get the impression that most people just see green paint that sometimes has an eccentric person riding on it.

On Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 11:08 AM Robert Gonzalez <bobbygo...@gmail.com> wrote:
Saw this on both Saturday and Sunday. I hope it's not a regular thing. I love the bike lanes on San Antonio. Can't the church work with the vendors to sell in their parking lot or on their grounds? 

<FGgKvcnVIAEE0kE.jpeg>

<IMG_1279.jpg>

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Shiloh Ballard

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Dec 13, 2021, 6:58:18 PM12/13/21
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Hi All, 

I wanted to chime in here, highlight some of the broader issues and suggest an approach. First, a blog we wrote on San Antonio is here

Just this past Friday, I had coffee with the ED of Grail Family Services to talk about both our organizations, to understand each other's work, and out of that, how we might work together. These are early conversations so there were no tangible next steps at this point but Grail has two locations on San Antonio and is very ingrained in the community. Grail is also a part of the Si Se Puede Collective, which includes Veggielution, an organization that has invited us into their community to partner in delivering farm boxes by bike. 

In my conversation with them, it was conveyed to me that some folks in the community do not quite understand the bike lanes, and/or rather wonder who the bike lanes are for, feeling that they aren't for them. 

As you all are figuring out how to approach the community of Mayfair, I wanted to underscore SVBC's commitment to two core values through which it tries to do its work - cultural humility and social justice. 

Shiloh



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Robert Gonzalez

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Dec 13, 2021, 8:35:07 PM12/13/21
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Thank you for the blog post and update on your conversation. I didn't expand in my original message and probably should've, but some thoughts below - 

I struggled to even bring this up because I understand how important it is for a lot of these families to sell right before the holidays and how much they rely on the income. I understand how important the church is in the community. I understand the thoughts and views that some people throughout the city have of bike lanes. I understand the idea that bike lanes can be seen as a first step to gentrification. I've sent emails to the City of Los Angeles officials to make street vending easier for folks there and to stop antagonizing them without examining some of the barriers that they've created for street vendors. I've bought countless churros and cups of champurrado from street vendors this holiday season already. There are many reasons why I didn't call the police or parking enforcement. 

One issue that really bothers me though, is that a local Councilmember was at the event this weekend (as seen on Instagram), and the market was still apparently allowed. I think that's skipping an important moment to educate, which is one of the pillars of Vision Zero that the city has committed to. I saw an article posted this morning by San José Spotlight discussing that the 55 traffic-related deaths in 2021 are near record levels despite the City's ongoing investments in Vision Zero, and couldn't help but connect what I saw this weekend and the article's content. The Vision Zero program manager was quoted as saying the 8 bicycle deaths are a 5 or 10 year high. For these reasons, I felt it was important to highlight what happened. 

For context - I grew up on Terilyn Avenue, less than a mile from the Story & King intersection. My grandparents, immigrants from Mexico, lived in San José's East Side from the 60s until the early 2000s. My Tito and Tita and their five children would put on their best clothes and attend Our Lady of Guadalupe, the church on San Antonio where these vendors set up. My cousins, sister, nieces, and nephews were all baptized there. My sister was blessed for her quinceañera there. My grandparents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary there. While I don't live there, I have always felt part of the community, because it was such a large part of our family and my childhood. 

Ultimately, I'm concerned that it will continue to happen and set a bad precedent for these bike lane improvements throughout the city. I'm hoping that the city councilmember brought it up while attending the function, but the fact that it continued leads me to believe that conversation didn't happen. If that opportunity of education was skipped, I think the conversation should still be had. 








Moria Merriweather

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Dec 13, 2021, 8:54:40 PM12/13/21
to 'Brian Preskitt' via SVBC San Jose Team, Shiloh Ballard
Hey Shiloh, 

Happy to hear from you, and I read your article.  
I have more to say about the issues in your article below, but first let me try to stick to this one incident about the event happening in the bike lanes.

(FYI —  I was thinking this was San Antonio Road in Mountain View (that’s the only San Antonio street I frequent).

I’m not sure if your reference to Grail Family Services implies that they are the folks with an event going on in the bike lane — or if, rather, you are citing your contact with them as an EXAMPLE of an organization in this area of town, and some attitudes and situations that may be involved

Certainly the comments you made about GFS having confusion with bike lanes  & not seeing a benefit for them from bike lanes is relevant either way.

Having read your article, I’m left with wondering what happened between May 2019 (when you wrote the article) and now, when there are bike lanes present?
Your article talks in detail about the needs of this community and why a bike lane in this area would be difficult, and could be a hardship.
Did the city, SVBC, or the community come up with alternatives that you think would work better than the bike lane option that was chosen by the city?
Were folks from the community local to San Antonio involved in the process?
Would you advocate for not keeping the bike lane there?
Do you think talking to the [church or organization] using the bike lanes for an event is grossly inconsiderate?

It seems like a nice thing that you’ve introduced yourself to GFS and started to build a relationship.

All of the considerations you list in your article are broadly things I’m aware of and care about — and yet I also want bike lanes to be available, free of glass, free of things and garbage, free of cars. smotthly paved etc.  Which includes free of event booths, in this case.

If you are willing to say more about what you think would be cultural humility and social justice in this case, please do.


============

Just a couple of comments on the broader issue (not related to San Antonio neighborhood):

1. I live on Senter Road, and I **love** the improvements to the bike lanes that have been made in the last year or so.  AND since I live here I am also very much aware that RV's with people living in them were displaced to make these changes.  I do not know where those people went, but I am aware of this as a very steep cost to the people who lived in these vehicles.
I bring this up as another EXAMPLE of a negative cost to “improved” bike lanes.
I’m not saying it is good, I’m saying it is another situation with a cost to people living with extremely limited resources.
I would guess thare are other cases as well where there are negative impacts.

2. While I’m joyful that the bike lanes are SO much better, I’m also anxious to get as MUCH “improvement” as possible out of this.  I’m impatient with the cars that drive where they are not supposed to be (possibly because they don’t understand the new markings) -- I’m impatient with the glass all over parts of the bike lanes — I’m impatient with the piles of branches (I do mean PILES).
In general, I feel a desire to defend the new bike lanes, and have the changes be as “good” as possible relative tot he new designated use (for bikes)

3. Finally, I’d like to touch back on the cars parked in bike lanes which I’ve personally reported to the police:  The situation differs from the conditions on San Antonio in significant ways AND YET it is also a situation where there is a strong perceived need to park there.  I am quite sure the people who park there, and the business they are visiting, would not want that area to be a “no parking” zone, which it now is, because of the bike lane.
In other words, I think this case also involves my acting in ways that are “anti-community”.
There’s a way that I understand reporting cars to the police as being an act of high controversy and as something that creates (or escalates) conflict.
I am objecting to the cars’ presence.
There is a big  practical problem created for the cars’ owners and the business, and no other work-around has been created, so they park in the bike lane.
This also applies to the UPS trucks etc — they are parked in my lane in order to meet real practical needs.
This may differ in some forms from the issues in your article about San Antionio, but is doesn’t differ entirely.


Moria


“The opposite of division is not unity — it is collaboration”  —Dar Williams (from live concert in Hawthorne Barn, May 26, 2018, and Twenty Summers concert, Nov 8, 2018)

"The Biggest Pandemic: Twice as many people died in 2020 of heart disease (690,882) as from COVID-19 (345,323). This doesn't even include another 159,150 who died from stroke and another 106,106 from diabetes (mostly type 2), which have the same risk factors as heart disease. While Covid-19 is an airborne disease, and cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes are predominantly lifestyle and food-borne diseases, it would be wise for the CDC and HHS to put at least as much effort into preventing these chronic conditions as Covid-19."  --Dean Ornish, M.D. | Founder & President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF, quoted from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778234







Shiloh Ballard

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Dec 13, 2021, 9:02:40 PM12/13/21
to Moria Merriweather, 'Brian Preskitt' via SVBC San Jose Team
Hi Moria, 

The city's original idea, or at least ideas that were contemplated involved removing on-street parking for a bike lane. The point I was trying to make in the article is the impact on the community if that were to happen and that we should be sensitive to that. Does that help?

Shiloh
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