What tomorrow will look like

This is what 4/20 looked like last year in Golden Gate Park.

Thanks to broke-ass stuart

SF cyclists still traumatized by 2005 litigation

This story last week on Hoodline got some interesting reader reaction (Breed Seeks Lower Haight Bikeshare Station's Removal, Relocation).

I commented on the paragraph below, pointing out that Lawrence Li's opinion is not surprising, since he is on the Bicycle Coalition's board of directors:

Lower Haight Merchants and Neighbors Association board member Lawrence Li told the Examiner that bikeshare stations in the neighborhood are well-used and is concerned that parking spaces would take precedent over bicycle stations moving forward.

Apparently neither the Examiner reporter nor the guy who wrote the Hoodline story knew that. I assume that the Examiner reporter, Joe Rodriguez, didn't know that Li was a bike guy, since that would have made Li's soundbite of dubious value (Li is also a member of SPUR).

Rodriguez included a typical quote from the executive director of the Bicycle Coalition itself:

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition voiced concern that Breed would vote to support the expansion of Ford GoBike in San Francisco but remove them in her own neighborhood. “President[sic] Breed has been a strong champion for bike projects in her district, like Masonic, Fell and Oak, and securing funding for improving the Panhandle biking and walking path,” said Brian Wiedenmeier, the coalition’s executive director. “It’s disappointing to hear that she’s limiting access to bikeshare.”

The Examiner's idea of balance: a quotation from two Bicycle Coalition people! 

Speaking of Masonic Avenue, this is the kind of reporting Rodriguez did when he wrote about that poorly conceived bike project in District 5, Breed's district (Big lie on safety to justify screwing up Masonic).

My comment to the Hoodline story identifying Lawrence Li got this response from a reader:

Thanks for pointing this out, Rob Andersen[sic]. Aren't you the same Rob Andersen[sic] who launched a 2-year, 2-person legal assault on the entire San Francisco Bike Plan that was eventually tossed? Having Lawrence on both the SFBC and LoHaMNA boards makes him part of your often-mentioned pro-bike/anti car conspiracy then, right? Is the entire LoHaMNA a shill for the SFBC do you think?

My response linked Judge Busch's decision issued way back in 2006. Evidently there are those in the city's bike community who are still traumatized by our successful litigation that forced City Hall to follow the most important environmental law in California that clearly required an environmental review of the ambitious Bicycle Plan before the city began implementing it on the streets of the city, taking away traffic lanes and street parking on busy city streets to make bike lanes.

Later: No one has ever claimed that this was/is a "conspiracy." It's a dumb policy that's always happening in public, though often in poorly-attended public meetings, which makes it even dumber.

See also Susan King, the injunction, and PTSD.

Genuine fake news

Yes, it's a clever but bogus public service announcement.

Safety tip: Don't ride your bike on acid

From The Guardian:

Basel in the spotlight: the city that learned to love LSD

Seventy-five years ago, the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann experienced the world’s first full-blown LSD trip on his way home from his lab in Basel. Hofmann had been researching the ergot fungus, hoping to develop a drug to treat fatigue. Among the compounds he was analysing was lysergic acid---Lysergsäure-Diethylamid in German, also known as LSD. 

On Friday 16 April 1943, Hofmann left the lab feeling a little dizzy: “I lay down and had these wonderful dreams---I saw every thought as an image,” he said in an interview for his 100th birthday. The chemist concluded that he had accidentally touched the substance, and was intrigued by its powerful effect.

Three days later, on 19 April, he returned to the lab and swallowed a tiny amount just to see what would happen: “As it later turned out, it was five times too much and gave me a horror trip.” He asked an assistant to take him home by bicycle, and Basel transformed into a panorama of hellish and heavenly visions. 

The bike seemed to freeze to the spot; a friendly neighbour turned into an evil witch. Hours later, Hofmann felt wonderful. “LSD called me, I didn’t seek it out,” he recalled. “It came to me.”

Today, Basel wears its psychedelic history with pride. Locals point out that the city has for centuries served as a safe haven for rebels and free thinkers. An exhibition at Basel’s Kunstmuseum celebrates Hofmann’s discovery in the context of the city’s creative history, pairing it with nightmarish, horror trip-like prints by Old Masters such as Bruegel. Thousands of visitors are expected to flock to Basel to celebrate “Bicycle Day”, as 19 April is known among the cognoscenti. And researchers are studying LSD’s medical properties again, shrugging off decades of stigma...

Rob's comment:

Cycling is dangerous in Switzerland like it is everywhere else. Best to not ride your bike while on LSD, on alcohol, or any other drug, for that matter.

Thanks to CityLab Daily.