I’m finally getting around to painting, organizing, dressing-up my house. I just purchased some stuff for my bathroom from Umbra’s online store. I was looking through the order confirmation email and came upon their return policy:
Return Policy
If for any reason you wish to return any of your purchases, Umbra will accept your return and will reverse the charges on your credit card.
Now I don’t do a lot of online shopping. I actually hate it. With the exception of music and occasionally art I don’t do it as a rule. So, seeing this simple, concise wording delighted me. Maybe I should ease my anti-online-consumerism?
I had a strange dream last night that I was riding down Valencia to work on a fixie. Is this a sign?
Closing Market Street to cars (with liberal exceptions)?! Holy car-fumes Batman!
The Chronicle recently published and article detailing Chris Daly’s proposal to sort of copy former-mayor Willie Brown’s proposal to close Market Street except to public transit and bikes. Cue the crazy uproar. My favorite comments:
Next, SF will outlaw cars altogether.
and
Nothing new from foul-mouthed, tantrum-throwing, cop-abusing, socialist wannabe Daly.
As you can see, the dialogue has been quite sitrring. Anyway, (sort of) obviously, I totally support the idea, and this is why:
Dear Mayor Newsom,
Recently, the Chron and Guardian published articles continuing the discussion about a car-free Market Street. I remember when the idea was floated back during Mayor Brown’s time and the backlash against it. Since then, though, San Francisco has made significant progress towards becoming a bike-friendly city, including an over 30% increase in Market Street ridership in just a year.
While we’re unfortunately still a ways off from becoming a pedestrian/bike-transit/friendly pioneer like Portland or Boston, we’ve still got some great ideas brewing, including this one. I commute down Market Street every day from the Mission to Spear Street. It’s always such a pleasure to coast down with other bicycles and the groupings of MUNI buses and trains in their dedicated transit lane. Between transit and and the increase in bikes, there already seems like there is little room for cars – especially considering that it seems that most of these cars are from out-of-town commuters and tourists. Often these are the most dangerous drivers for a cyclist to be around as they are not familiar with how to interact defensively with bikes and transit while navigating the sometimes confusing traffic restrictions on Market St.
For those that do live here, I’m always shocked that anyone would even chose to drive down Market. Having been born and raised in our fair city, I can probably easily count the times I’ve driven down Market Street if I had a few minutes. It’s congested, there’s no parking on it and it offers little maneuverability. Encouraging motorists to take dedicated corridors such as Folsom, Howard, Bush or Pine seems like a much better idea.
Arguments from merchants carry little weight with me considering none of the downtown parking lots have Market St. entrances and I would think that less congestion and easy pedestrian mobility would encourage folks to come downtown. As with the protest to the Geary dedicated transit lane, the Market Street merchant protest is wholly self-motifvated with minimal to no consideration for what San Francisco really needs.
Further, I realize that there is also a vocal – and often hostile backlash – from regular motorists. A sense of this can be easily found by reading the comments on the SFGate version of the aforementioned article. However, I find it difficult to find value in such comments given their negativity and the fact that they typically seem to be rooted in preference rather than consideration to a sustainable future for our town and its residents.
I also recognize that this feedback is often coupled with comments such as “aren’t there more pressing issues at hand?” Again, this baffles me. Why must we chose? I think this speaks to larger political issues, but it is unfortunate that we feel that we must think so small.
As the density of San Francisco grows – especially in the Downtown/SOMA/Mission Bay neighborhoods, we will be harder pressed to ensure that we can provide safe, healthy and reliable transit options. While easily construed as just another anti-car movement, the transition of Market Street to a mass transit and bike-only corridor seems like a good first step.
I welcome any questions or comments you may have.
Regards,
Greg Zhovreboff
→ SF Bike Coalition
→ Transit Effectiveness Project
The hardest thing about Spain’s 3-0 win over Russia in the Euro 2008 semi-final was that the Spaniards that scored the goals were the only one’s I thought were cute. At least if they were not so attractive – um, like Carles Puyol – it wouldn’t have hurt so bad. Oh well. They played well – although seemed to start falling apart after Spain’s first goal – and gave me something to care about.
→ Fabregas can inspire Spain to final glory
→ The hot goalkeeper interview in Russian
