Re: Thanks!

[Morgan Fitzgibbons]

Here's a little synopsis of last night's meeting. Also, see Ben's email about the meeting/next steps below.

Last night the Wiggle Transformers group met at the Palace. We recapped our main goals (as there were a few new people), talked a bit about what we have in mind for Duboce Ave/The Clusterfuck, and spent most of our time discussing strategy for moving to bring about a real solution to Fell Street in the near future.

The three changes we all decided we want to get behind are:

1. Bi-directional Cycletrack along Fell St. from Scott to Stanyan with soft hit posts as buffers from Scott to Baker and a lane of parking buffering the route from Baker to Stanyan - This recommendation is the most substantial and probably the most important (although all are important). This change would alleviate a number of problems: excessive traffic on the multi-use path in the Panhandle, cars queuing in the bike lane to get into ARCO, and no return bike lane headed eastbound from the Panhandle to Scott. It also addresses the general safety level of the current Fell bike route, which is not adequate for people 8-80.
   
2. No left turn off of Fell onto Scott - We feel this recommendation is extremely important for safety. If we don't get this implemented, a) someone is going to die, and b) bikers are going to continue to rack up tickets for "illegal left turns" onto Fell from Scott. This is not an acceptable situation.
   
3. Closing the Fell St. entrance to the ARCO gas station - this recommendation is important because if we succeed in getting a cycletrack on Fell, cars are going to queue up in the traffic on Fell st, or, more likely, in the middle of our cycletrack. Not cool.

We're going to put together a focused campaign around these three recommendations. The campaign will be spearheaded by the Wigg Party and Fix Fell, but the success of the campaign will depend on the strength of the coalition that we can form. We are targeting a wide variety of groups to get behind these recommendations: everything from the local community groups, transit groups, to groups who are concerned with Climate Change and anti-war groups (under the auspice of being a movement away our dependence on oil by offering a viable bike route from the eastern half to the western half of the city, and sticking it to ARCO).

Stu, from Fix Fell, Ben and I are going to work together to finalize our list of organizations who we're hoping to recruit into the coalition, and we will also be developing talking points. Hopefully we can all help with recruitment.

The general tenor of the campaign will be one that is open to all suggestions about how to fix the problem, but we will be trying to get people behind these three recommendations, as we feel they are the best ways to solve the issue. We will be constantly listening to the concerns of the members of the community, but we will be pointed in our demands as well. It is important to carry a shared understanding that none of us will be quiet until this problem is fixed. We will not go away.

That's it for now. We're really excited to try to effect a tangible change for our community and our beloved Wiggle. The time is right to take a stand on this. Everything is converging at the perfect time for us to get a solution to this unacceptable situation.

Wiggle On,

Morgan

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 1:29 PM, Morgan Fitzgibbons <mor...@wiggparty.org> wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ben Kaufman <benmk...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Subject: Thanks!
To: Morgan Fitzgibbons <mor...@wiggparty.org>, scma...@gmail.com, Dave Bryson <daveb...@gmail.com>, susieo...@gmail.com, s...@fourmajor.com


Hey All,

Just wanted to drop y'all a quick note to say thanks for coming to the WiggTrans meeting.  It was a great meeting filled with great ideas and I feel like we have some pretty solid next steps moving forward. 

Morgan and Stu, let's chat about this letter and campaign talking points when you guys have a chance.

Everyone, get mentally prepared for some serious community organizing moving forward!

Also, I started to think about our ideas and who this letter will go to after being endorsed by a series of community-based organizations, and I think it really makes sense first and foremost to be lobbying the Bike Coalition to be tackling this issue.  They have been conspicuously silent on the Fell/Arco situation and its time for them to put their mouth where our money is (read: membership) and start advocating for changes that we as the bicycling community need in order for our streets to be safe.

Anyway, hope y'all are doing well and catch you on the flip side! 

PS - When you get a chance, sign up to our Wiggtrans googlegroups listserv.

PPS - We may not be having a formal meeting next month due to the following VERY IMPORTANT community meetings I would implore you to attend:

Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association meeting:

• Monday, August 9th
• 7:00pm - 9:00pm
CPMC Davies - North Tower Building

• Level B (basement) Auditorium
  
• Between 14th St. and Duboce Ave. (@ Scott Street) 

This meeting's main focus is going to be discussing the Duboce/Church clusterfuck, so it is really essential we are there and have our voices heard!

Masonic Avenue Streetscape Improvement 2nd Community Meeting:

• Wednesday, August 11th
• 7:00pm - 9:00pm
• San Francisco Day School
  
• 350 Masonic Ave @ Golden Gate

--
Benjamin M. Kaufman
benmk...@gmail.com
617.308.8352