Bike Coalition honors Sunday StreetsBy Steven T. Jones
Proponents of Sunday Streets accepting their award. Photo by Orange Photography courtesy of the SFBC.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition honored the proponents of Sunday Streets – the temporary closure of San Francisco roads to cars that was created by a partnership of groups ranging from Livable City to the Mayor’s Office – at its annual Golden Wheels awards event, held last night in the War Memorial Building across from City Hall.
Sunday Streets, part of an international trend toward adopting the ciclovias popularized in Columbia as a means of expanding public space and promoting fitness and recreation, started last year in San Francisco with two events and there are six planned for this year, with the second coming this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from AT&T Park to the Bayview Opera House.
“The streets belong to us, they are the public spaces of the city, but they don’t feel like they belong to us,” said Livable City director Tom Radulovich, who praised the unlikely coalition that brought these events together. “I don’t get a chance to thank the mayor for very many things…But the mayor was committed to this.”
Newsom has been traveling and didn’t attend, but senior mayoral aide Mike Farrah called Sunday Streets “a spectacular, spectacular event” and said, “We have to keep this going.” All in attendance agreed the it’s pretty cool to see carfree streets turned into miles of recreational open space, but there are challenges (and not just the financial challenges that led to the corporate sponsorships that I've criticized).
Some of the Fisherman’s Wharf businesses (the same group that tried to kill Sunday Streets last year) reportedly grumbled about the April 26 event costing them business, and there are some early indications that Mission District churches (whose attendees close off entire traffic lanes to park their cars on Sundays) may challenge the proposed Mission District route for the June 7 Sunday Streets. But those at the event expressed real excitement about closing streets in the sunny heart of the city, rather than on its edges as the previous events have done.
P.S. In addition to Sunday Streets and the How Weird Street Faire this Sunday, Thursday the 14th is the annual Bike to Work Day, which we’ll preview with complete analysis in the Guardian that hits the streets on May 13.
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