The Jims (Muellner and Wetherell) and Max Chen arrived at the house I share here in Santa Cruz with Faye Saunders at 7PM!! WoW. And I do mean WoW. Huge day for these guys as they left Elliot and Nancy's house (principals with the Peninsula Parkinson's Foundation) in Los Altos, after a beautiful dinner and swim the night before to then hit the road early at 8AM today. From there they took a leisurely ride to the City Hall reception (they got there early thx to Max's expert route planning) in San Jose where Faye met them with her digital camera, she is pictured at the left of this one with her daughter Chloe http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide/PaloAlto2003/GallMainPAGroup6.jpg . Faye was also there with pizza from Pizza Lovers restaurant for when the event was over. And if all that is not enough, not only did she find time from her high pressure job at Apple Computer to create the Pizza Lover donation but she also fed all of us, including Scott Campbell who came over to build the new Backsafer http://Backsafer.com bike we are raffling off this Sunday, the great chicken dinner that we all just enjoyed.
At today's noon time festivities in San Jose, I was talking with Faye when I heard sirens in the background. And as they got closer, she exclaimed, "there they are, gotta go!". Click. They next thing I heard was how incredibly nice everyone was from the police officers that escorted our riders in to Margie, the vice Mayor's scheduler, to Pat Dando, the Vice Mayor herself. Pat even spent a good amount of time telling the riders how happy and proud she was that they had come to visit San Jose, the city she represented. Pat even talked about how supportive San Jose is of cycling as she then read off a long list of all the things they had done to make it easier to ride a bike there. More on all of this excitement soon. But I want next to talk about the riding that followed.
From San Jose, using Ken Hodor's Silicon Valley to the Sea route, http://www.geocities.com/kenhodor/svtoseagps.html , the Jims and Max then climbed over the Coast Range that separates us from San Jose. And this was no easy task. Especially on the bikes they were riding! Not a one of them, two heavy trikes and a BikeE, is a good climbing machine. While I am impressed as usual with Muellner's prowess, I am awed by what Parky (Wetherell) did. At 60 year's old and fighting Parkinson's so hard that his every move is laden with tremor and uncertainty, he powered thru an ascent that is a worthy challenge to even the most fit of cyclists. And all of them did it amidst sometimes impatient rush hour traffic, as the mountain roads they utilized have become an alternative route to those who live in Santa Cruz and work in San Jose. Of which there are many such job holders. Awesome and all of us will be meeting Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly, Councilman Scott Kennedy and Country Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt tomorrow at noon as this segment of our relay wraps up at Santa Cruz City Hall!
On another front, Tim Brummer of Lightning Cycles http://www.lightningbikes.com , meets San Luis Obispo Mayor Dave Romero at the same time we meet in Santa Cruz tomorrow - Noon! And what's exciting is that Tim's company holds the world record for the fastest TransAm crossing on a bike ever. In 1989 they crossed the US in 5 days!! And the bike he will be riding will be even faster than the one they used to set the record that may stand for a very longtime unchallenged. From the San Luis Obispo festivities, he expects to be in Monterey by tomorrow night where he will rest before he takes part in Saturday's Monterey National Bicycle Greenway Day!!
In yet moire exciting news, KPIG radio did an on air interview with me today and in addition to the beautiful program guide that "Connection" magazine did for our event, the "Good Times" ran a two page story about our Sunday show as well! They even had photos of both Jim and myself in there!!
And in closing, if U are new to Santa Cruz and don't know where San Lorenzo Park is located, THX to Joseph Leight it should be easy to find. He plans to go out early Sunday morning and populate key intersections near the park with signage. Big signs! Much of which he is working on right now!!
So exciting!!
Hope 2 C U Sunday!!
THX 4 U!!
We met superstar Mayor Willie Brown in his beautiful San Francisco City Hall office yesterday! After passing thru the security metal detectors, Jim Parky Wetherell, Jim Muellner and myself were then led thru several offices and hallways before we got to Willie's richly paneled room. It was "guarded" by two more members of his staff, Geraldine and Caroline who sat just outside his door. We visited with them for fifteen or so minutes while we awaited his return.
And when he got there a whole new level of excitement and fury seemed to prevail. Suddenly the anti room we had waited in was filled with people waiting to see him. He motioned for us to come inside where he talked about the excitement he felt for Lance Armstrong's recent Tour De France win. In the fifteen minutes we got of his attention, when he told us that he loves to take his family out and bike Golden Gate park and that he "cheats" now with an electric bike, I made sure to ask him what happened back in '97 when he squashed Critical Mass. He looked at me with his fun loving happy eyes and said, "Those guys and I talk all the time and I told them I wasn't going to let them shut down the city." Motioning with his arms he continued, "You just can't have a few hundred bikes going here and few hundred going there all over the city slowing everything down." And even after he left a black mark on Critical Mass rides that remains today, you can see how he got away with it. He's just pure loveable. He makes you want to be support him -- WoW.
And he made sure that the proclamation we got was inside of a handsome brass frame. And to make sure that all three of us were celebrated with it, he recruited one of the people who was waiting for him to take a picture of all of us with the National Bicycle Greenway Day citation. And check this out, the man behind the camera was Joe Lieberman's presidential campaign manager! Here's the photo:
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide//SanFrancisco2003/SFMainWillie+3,jog
Because Willie had expressed an interest in my story, I felt so proud to give him a signed copy of my book. Especially when I saw the genuine appreciation and respect that he rewarded me with. As we were leaving, I asked him if he would help us build the NBG. And when he said YES, I didn't even ask for details. I just know we've got a major power player on our side!!
Yahoooo!!
btw: Palo Alto and Mayor Dena Mossar in a few hours!!
btw2: THX to Kristin Holland for getting us into see Da Mayor!!
btw3: Festival this Sunday http://nbg.bikeroute.com/Events/Festival
MARTIN KRIEG: "Awake Again" Author c/o BikeRoute.com
79 & 86 TransAms, nonprofit Nat. Bicycle Greenway CEO
Ever wanted anything so bad U were willing to die for it?
Really die? By moving thru clinical death and reversing
paralysis, *I saw God* when I answered that question.
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August 11, 2003
Farr home to meet constituents
By LEN La BARTH
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ - On break from his duties in Washington, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, plans to spend some quality time in the 17th District this week.
"He likes to meet with local elected officials and as many people in the community as possible when he has a long break," said Sarah Rosen, Farr's spokesperson.
Farr's schedule to "walk the walk and talk the talk" in Santa Cruz County includes meeting with Santa Cruz and Capitola officials, hosting a Friday night Town Hall meeting in Santa Cruz and speaking at an annual bike fest.
* On Tuesday, Farr will accompany Capitola City Councilwoman Stephanie Harlan on a walking tour of the Capitola Business District.
* Early Friday, Farr joins Santa Cruz Redevelopment Agency Director Ceil Cirillo on a tour of Pacific Avenue businesses. Later in the day, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Farr will hold a Town Hall meeting at City Hall council chambers, 809 Center St.
* On Sunday afternoon, Farr will speak at the annual Santa Cruz Bike Fest, in San Lorenzo Park, which is the ending point of a nationwide bike trek that began in Washington, D.C., on May 2.
You might have noticed that the photo gallery wasn't working for a couple of days. Our hosting provider moved us around on the server and forgot to give us a heads-up so we didn't notice it right away. Everything should be up and working now.
Made it to my first mayor's reception on Friday and weee whoooo was it f u n! And with all the energy that big power Car Free Berkeley Councilman Kriss Worthington was able to put together on such notice, I can see why Berkeley is far ahead of the curve where accommodating its cyclists is concerned. I say short notice because the ride to Oakland evolved out of discussions that I had had with Kriss just two days before. And getting to Berkeley to see how much has changed and why it has changed since I used to bike its streets nearly two decades ago, is due in large part to Wes Anthony. Wes drove me and my tandem trike the 75 miles (2 hrs worth of driving) from Santa Cruz in the van he uses to move his musical equipment around. And not only did Wes bring me up for the mayor's festivities but as one of the top sax players on the West Coast, Wes is both playing our Festival http://nbg.bikeroute.com/Events/Festival for free with his band Banneda Togetha, as well as supplying the sound system that all of the musicians and speakers will be using next Sunday August 17 at a huge discount. Wow.
And when Wes and I got there, late due to freeway traffic , the Berkeley City Hall steps were covered with cyclists. Some of the buzz centered around the beautiful Hi Wheelers (3) that the Rideable Replicas
The results producing Berkeley Friendly Bike Coalition (http://bfbc.org) was well represented with more people than I had time to meet And NBG TransAm Hall of Famer, Max Chen was there. At the center of the 25 or 30 people that were there (not all of them got in the group photo) was a man in whose eyes you can see the love he has for the people he represents. The man to whom I refer is Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. And it was easy to see why he remains the subject of so much media attention for his sleeping with the homeless near the beginning of the year. He really cares.
I learned from Kriss that back in the 60's when Berkeley was the first American city to take back its streets with traffic diverters (barricades and speed bumps) that Mayor Bates and his wife Assembly member Patricia Bates were at the front of the charge. And here now 40 years later when cities across the US are struggling to calm their traffic, the Berkeley I saw on Friday was peaceful and tame.
On our 6 mile ride to Oakland we passed thru a number of quiet neighborhoods lined by massive shade trees. Many of the streets on which Sara Syed, one of the Berkeley traffic commissioners sent our Hi Wheel leaders on had been deemed as official Bike Boulevards, complete with signage both on the street itself and on 8 foot tall signs. If you want to see what some of them look like, go to: (http://nbg.bikeroute.com/gallery).
And as I rolled along I reflected back on my youth riding in Berkeley. In the 60's despite being always in the news for its politically correct unrest and being ahead of the curve on many leading edge movements such as free speech, world peace, non nuclear proliferation, open space preservation in the form of the People Park riots, health food awareness, paranormal studies led by the Berkeley Psychic Institute, Eastern thought and etc, little if any attention was given to the efforts of its cyclists. All this at a time when one of the best bike shops in the Nation, Velo Sport (http://www.shopinberkeley.com/v/velo), was selling state of the art bikes that were getting pushed further and further into the beautiful hills that I myself used to train on for my 1979 crossing of America. This was so because all the turbulence of the times brought cars to the university and to the protests and all the organization that preceded them. To make matters worse, the hippy homeless abounded in their VW vans and dilapidated school buses You just did not ride a bike in what is still referred to as the Berkeley flats. WoW has Berkeley changed!!
On the way out of town on the freeway, we passed under a bike/ped only bridge that connects most of Berkeley with its waterfront. And directly adjacent to I-80, right along the edge of the San Francisco Bay was yet another bike path!! I managed to get a photo of it. It's also at our gallery.
Seeing all the change that has taken place inspires me. It gives me great hope. It shows that if we stay the course, that one by one and in time two by two and etc, we can make it a better America for those of us on two wheels!! Thank you Berkeley for coming so far and to the Berkeley Friendly Bike Coalition for keeping the pressure on to move your city toward being a model cycling community!
Yahooooo!!
btw: San Francisco today, Monday, and then we get to how much Palo Alto honors its cyclists on Wednesday followed by San Jose and Santa Cruz on Friday!!