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The post San Francisco Supervisors set to vote on holding JFK Drive carless – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Here are a few streetsblog news nuggets to start your weekend off.

The city of San Francisco is committed to car-free JFK

For some time now, the powerful de Young Trust has been trying, through its paid lobbyists, to destroy the dream of a car-free JFK ride in Golden Gate Park. The city has been talking about this issue but it seems that things are moving in the right direction again.

From an SFMTA version:

Starting January 5, 2022, you will find new signage along the promenade route reminding users to be friendly, share space, move slowly and say hello to each other. Through over 50 outreach events by the Golden Gate Park Access & Safety Program team this fall and over 10,000 survey responses we received, the San Franciscans have overwhelmingly said they had the place to walk and roll along the JFK Appreciate Drive – but also want to see more Instructions on how to use the space. In response, the SF Recreation & Park Department and SFMTA jointly developed this courtesy campaign to encourage park users to put safety and friendliness first when navigating the boardwalk.

The editorial staff of the San Francisco Chronicle is now also heavily responsible for the boardwalk. From “JFK Drive is for people, not car commuters. So that it stays that way in 2022 and beyond “:

Before the pandemic, JFK was one of the most dangerous and deadly streets in San Francisco. From 2014 to its closure in 2020, there were 91 crashes. This is mainly because 75% of the people who travel with JFK had no intention of visiting the park; they just used it as a puncture. This would be a political failure for any city; however, for a supposedly transit-oriented city like San Francisco, this was an inexcusable display of incompetence.

And:

To ensure JFK remains a safe and enjoyable place, worthy of one of the most beautiful city parks in the world, it should remain closed to cars in 2022 and beyond.

It must sting the de Young Trust a bit to know that the newspaper that originally built its fortune is now officially written in the face. Of course, without a doubt, de Young will never stop stepping on the gas – pretending it’s a stock issue or that there isn’t a huge underground parking lot for people arriving by car. It is for this reason that the hard-working supporters of Walk SF are continuing their postcard campaign to protect the car-free JFK.

Register here as a volunteer service.

California’s high-speed rail project is getting more good news from federal agencies

A French high-speed train that travels at 200 miles per hour and draws power from the overhead line. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Streetsblog readers may recall that HSR opponents, including the chief of the railroad disaster, Ralph Vartabedian of the LA Times, predicted for years that the state would miss construction deadlines and receive $ 2.5 billion in federal matching Fund related to the Obama-era American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Well, this week the agency officially met its eligibility requirements.

From a California HSR publication:

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has notified the California High-Speed ​​Rail Authority that it has fully met its state funding requirements for federal dollars a year ahead of schedule. Today’s action meets an important requirement of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund the grant.

“Federal government investment in this transformative project has doubled dollar for dollar a year ahead of schedule,” said Brian Annis, chief financial officer for the agency. “With a strong, committed federal partner, we are able to further advance the provision of electrified high-speed trains to the Californian population.”

The agency has spent the $ 2.5 billion in federal ARRA funds by the September 2017 legal deadline. Funding benefited the 119 mile long backbone of the state’s high-speed rail system in the Central Valley, a historically deprived part of the state notorious for its poor air quality. The FRA asked the agency to match federal spending with state funding for qualified spending by December 2022.

This is big news. And it’s good news. Waiting to read your concise coverage, LA Times. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.

Oakland launches “Universal Basic Mobility” pilot project

File photo of an AC transit bus

One of the main tenets of this blog is that mobility is a basic human right. Because of this, Streetsblog argues that building cities where residents have to buy an expensive car and wait to get around is inherently unfair. And everyone should be able to move regardless of their economic status. It appears that the City of Oakland is in agreement with its Universal Basic Mobility plan.

From an OakDOT version:

As part of its innovative Universal Basic Mobility pilot, the Oakland City Department of Transportation (OakDOT) announced today that it has successfully distributed 500 prepaid debit cards to East Oakland residents and employees. These cards are limited to the purchase of journeys or passes for public transport, bike sharing and shared e-scooters. Program participants started with $ 150 available on their cards. After recipients complete a survey in January, the second and final withdrawal of $ 150 will be loaded onto their cards. The goal of the Universal Basic Mobility pilot project is to increase walking, cycling, public transportation and shared mobility journeys in East Oakland while reducing private vehicle journeys.

“The Universal Basic Mobility Pilot is capitalizing on the huge investment in East Bay’s first Bus Rapid Transit Line (BRT) by providing participants with free rides on public transport, bike rentals and e-scooters,” added OakDOT- Director Ryan Russo added. “Removing financial barriers to mobility is critical to meeting the needs of East Oakland residents, who are most grappling with the dual costs of housing and transportation.”

For further information, click here.

The post Welcome to the J.F.Okay. Promenade, Fundamental Mobility – Streetsblog San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Here are a few streetsblog news nuggets to start your weekend off.

Proponents of East Bay Transit are pushing for better transit.

About 50 transit advocates and elected officials attended an event in Latham Square, Oakland Friday to call for the restoration of service and priority for transit. “This is a critical moment for transit in the East Bay. It seems like the recession is forcing us to cut service every ten years. That forces drivers into cars. For our climate and social justice, we need to reinvest in our systems operations with new sources of income, ”said Darrell Owens, vice chairman of the East Bay Transit Riders Union and one of the speakers at the event.

The Latham Square meeting was part of the larger Transit Month celebrations across the Bay Area to bring service back to pre-pandemic and beyond. According to a press release from Seamless Bay Area, which aims to integrate timetables and tariffs among the Bay Area’s 30 or so transport companies, the event provided the opportunity to:

• Show your support for public transport for its important role in our communities
• Thank you to the operators and employees for their tireless work
• Call everyone to make more use of local public transport
• Support post-pandemic recovery and further expansion of local transport, including redesigning our roads to make local transport a priority.

For more information on the month of transit and how to get involved, please visit the website.

Supervisor Connie Chan is promoting a completely car-free JFK?

Supervisor Connie Chan hasn’t made many friends in the community for safe roads lately with her support for the closure of the Great Walkway (turning it back into a freeway for de facto exclusive use by motorists). But she posted a letter from JFK Drive this week that looks pretty promising. From lawyer Emily Huston on Twitter:

Hold your handlebars, looks like Connie Chan is promoting a truly car-free JFK!
The press release has laudatory quotes from two supporters (@JaniceForBART and @walksf) as well as all of the recent opponents … which makes me nervous. pic.twitter.com/NTrZZ2zued

– Emily Huston (@ ehuston101) September 9, 2021

Streetsblog will keep an eye on this. According to the Twitter thread, several supporters were skeptical of de Young Director Thomas Campbell’s call to ensure “safe access for people with disabilities” for those who “need to drive.” That doesn’t make sense as the museum has underground parking with its own underground street leading to Fulton Street. The garage has 800 parking spaces, including ADA spaces directly in front of the museum entrance. The ban on cars on JFK trips has nothing to do with museum access. But the “Legislative text includes access for motorists to JFK on 8th Ave for ADA parking * on the JFK drive *,” emphasized supporters of the Great Walkway in the thread.

Still, it is a very encouraging sign that the letter appears to be supported by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Walk San Francisco. Let’s hope all the harmful details can be corrected. Make sure to check out the thread.

BART scraps the last of his lemons

BART C2 train. Image: Wikimedia Commons

BART trains are not all created equal.

BART is reaching certain milestones as it is slowly replacing its old fleet. Last week the agency scrapped the last of its C2 trains, see above. Of all the old BART trains, the C2 bought 30 years ago had a bad breakdown history. BART was happy to see her go.

From a BART version:

The last of BEARDThe troubled 1990s wagons known as C2 wagons have left the building. The C2’s had more than their share of driver and worker issues and were strategically intended as the first cars in the old fleet to be completely decommissioned. The last one was scrapped in August.

C2s were most likely to have had HVAC failures resulting in hot cars and driver ailments. The driver’s cab was cramped with sliding windows that were prone to failure. Engineers and mechanics had to find solutions to problems such as overshot windshield wipers and passenger doors jumping out of lane, car shutdowns and delays.

BART now has 23 new “Fleet of the Future” trains in operation. As Streetsblog reported in August, the agency is still working with the manufacturer to iron out teething problems with the new fleet.

The post East Bay’s Transit Month, Progress on J.F.Ok. – Streetsblog San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

“I’m there [in San Francisco] nearly every year. I would like to retire there, ”he said and laughingly added,“ retire in the most expensive city ”.

The Cabrillo, the theater Harry owns in foggy Richmond, has seen better days, and his girlfriend, the practical Dana, wants him to sell it and they get out of town and go somewhere else. However, Harry really left his heart in the city.

He explained, “Harry is a pretty nostalgic guy and doesn’t want to let go of the past. Willy-nilly. These things seem to have something to do with his reluctance to push many things. ”

At the heart of the book is an “inconsistent up and down romance,” he explained.

Janjigian draws lively characters who are stuck in the midst of serious decisions. When asked where his characters come from, he referred to another writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, who had said in an interview that “she had no idea how this process worked and it just happened”.

He continued, “I would agree with that. For this novel at least, it started when I was living in San Francisco and really, really loved this movie theater and the San Francisco neighborhood. This cinema still exists in the Richmond neighborhood today. ”
Ken_Janjigian

In fact, the Cabrillo in the Richmond neighborhood seems to be inspired by the Balboa Theater in the same neighborhood, showing quirky films in beautiful surroundings.

Not only the main character and his circle are in love with the Beat writers; consider Janjigian a fan. “I got introduced to the Beats by a film professor and attended some avant-garde film courses at Clark [University in Worcester]. The whole environment was strange. I hadn’t read any beats or [Jack] Kerouac until he had us read On the Road in conjunction with a film called ‘Heartbeat’ based on the autobiography of Carolyn Cassady, wife of beat writer Neal Cassady.

(“Heart Beat” explores the love triangle of real-life characters Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac and Carolyn Cassady in the late 1950s and 1960s. It shows Kerouac, who writes his groundbreaking novel On the Road, and its impact on their lives.)

Since then, he said, he has “tried to investigate the beats’ flaws, including the shortage of women”.

Nevertheless, by writing, he can still come close to this ideal. “Writing enables me to explore these lives,” he noted.

“I admire this bohemian way of life, but I like a bit of comfort,” he said with a laugh. “They usually have a much more interesting life.”

Janjigian added another piece of himself to the book: Gephyrophobia, the fear of bridges. It’s one that has been a part of Janjigian’s life for years.

“Like many writers, I use that fear and fear,” he said. And did he think that if he wrote about it, would he be able to master it? “That would have been the ultimate goal to drive it out.”

“Interestingly, when I was living in town and working at the Depot Bookstore in Marin County. I shuttled back and forth across that [Golden Gate] Bridge five days a week for over two years and had no problems. I didn’t have a phobia, ”he recalls. Slowly: “I had a little nervousness that began to develop over some high bridges.”

As he and his wife moved to Maryland over time, the phobia came with a vengeance. “When my wife and I moved to Maryland, my wife and I were walking across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and I was absolutely scared,” he recalls.

“I just really, really avoid high bridges,” he added.

Life during the pandemic

The pandemic made a huge difference in Janjigian’s life. First, a small book tour with stops in Boston and San Francisco was canceled, and second, because of the free time, Janjigian was able to write a screenplay about Kerouac, like his protagonist Harry, “in a case in which he imitates art” ”and a novel.

He explained, “I started doing this right after the novel was published in November. I started writing in December and am currently working through the final draft. It’s called ‘Kerouac’. We’ll see how it goes from here. ”

He added: “I wrote a novel, Confluence in Café Zürich, which is about the character Jackson and a previous theft. which is alluded to in A Cerebral Offer. ”

Janjigian had some advice for aspiring writers. “I subscribe to Hemingway’s simple advice: Travel. It forces you to meet other people and experience different things. It’s the greatest a writer can have. ”

The other piece of the puzzle is writing every day. “I never write. When I sit down to write, I always write something. It is whether it is a holder or not. Even if it’s only half an hour, it’s important to keep this rhythm. ”

Janjigian was born and raised in Massachusetts. He lived in Watertown with his family before moving to Belmont and graduating from Belmont High School. He attended Clark University in Worcester and later did his Masters at Leslie University in Cambridge.

“I was just finishing my degree at Leslie University and teaching full time,” he said. The expat’s life tickled him. So he decided to take some of the courses to complete his studies at St. John’s University in Rome.

He remembered his year living near the beach outside Rome: “I loved it. It was fantastic. I would have stayed longer if I had had the opportunity. ”

“I met my wife in 2005 and we moved here [to Washington, DC] 2009 for her job. She is a scientist who works for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, ”he said.

They tried to move to San Francisco but failed and decided to go where the jobs were.

Janjigian is now Associate Dean of American University. He oversaw the founding and launch of the English Language and Training Academy (ELTA). Before joining the AU in 2012, he taught at UMBC, Northeastern, and the Institute for English Language at Harvard University. At Brandeis University, he helped launch their ESL pathway program.

He has published two other books, Gone West (collection of short stories), Defending Infinity (novel), in addition to A Cerebral Offer.

He and his wife live with their three cats.

To purchase A Cerebral Offer, go to Amazon or visit https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781604892581/a-cerebral-offer.aspx

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