Carfree San Diego / SoCal

Help wanted organizing San Diego stop for book _Stop Signs_

2011-05-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

Carfree SD/SoCal:

Beginning May 11 and continuing into the summer we are touring across North America for our just released Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay. We are trying to make the book publicity part of local transportation campaigns be it for bike paths, more accessible bus fare, car free streets etc. Would you have any interest in helping to organize an event or know any groups that might? We will be in your part of the world from June 10-15. We could send an e-book if that's of interest. Below is the about the book and blurbs.

Thanks for your help

Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi
Yves Engler at hotmail.com
http://stopsigns.fairtrademedia.com/

Authors offer 13 ways North America’s automobile-dominated transportation system is irritating, irrational, irresponsible and increasingly inhuman

The I-13

Cities have been torn down, remade and planned with cars’ needs as the overriding concern.
Only three percent of the car’s fuel energy actually moves what needs to be moved.
Behind the wheel it’s me, myself and I.
Cars encourage sprawl and the privatization of space.
Car-burbs are infertile ground for the social movements necessary to tip back the scale between rich and poor.
The car’s insatiable appetite for space crowds out bikes and pedestrians.
For every mile of travel, the car is dozens of times more likely to cause death and injury than the train, bus or airplane.
Cathedrals are built to worship the automobile.
A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for cars.
Automotive pollution kills tens of thousands annually.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year to subsidize off-street parking.
Auto-dependent development is pushing oil extraction into increasingly sensitive environments.
A model of transportation that relies on individuals hopping into two, four or eight thousand pound metal boxes to get from one place to another is utterly unsustainable.

In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them.

In Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay, authors Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi argue that the automobile's ascendance is inextricably linked to capitalism and involved corporate malfeasance, political intrigue, backroom payoffs, media manipulation, racism, academic corruption, third world coups, secret armies, environmental destruction and war. An anti-car, road-trip story, Stop Signs is a unique must-read for all those who wish to escape the clutches of auto insanity.

Mugyenyi and Engler's Stop Signs is at one and the same time an entertaining, fact-filled anthropological tour of the land of Homo Automomotivis, and the first all-out global ecological critique of the American automobile addiction. Not since Jane Holtz Kay's Asphalt Nation has a book appeared that so clearly exposed the auto-irrationality of the most car-dependent country on earth.

—John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review and co-author, The Ecological Rift

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the impact of the private automobile on our urban transportation options.

—David Cadman, Vancouver City Councillor, International President ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

In Stop Signs, Mugyenyi and Engler take readers on an insightful, fact-filled journey through the primary habitat of the car-dominated species they call Homo automotivis. With wit and originality, they weave travel tales into a convincing argument against the auto economy, culminating with a fresh call to leave car culture behind.

—Katie Alvord, Author, Divorce Your Car! Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile

Mugyenyi and Engler illustrate the relationship between cars and suburban living. You come away shaken, but ready to roll up your sleeves and contribute, however modestly, to constructing a new world in the twenty-first century.

—Richard Bergeron, Montreal city councilor, urban planner and author

Yves Engler has four published books including The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy (Shortlisted for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non Fiction in the Quebec Writers' Federation Literary Awards)

Bianca Mugyenyi was born in Uganda in 1980 and came to Canada as a child. Mugyenyi spent parts of her youth in Swaziland, Kenya and England. She is the former chair of the Canadian Federation of Students- Quebec and coordinates campaigns at Concordia University's Centre for Gender Advocacy

Affordable housing for carfree people / Santa Barbara workforce housing / Santa Barbara / Goleta carfree attractions.

2009-05-25T20:29:00.001-07:00

http://www.hacsb.org/housing/workforce.html

This is related to an idea I had of creating a land trust where the only people who could reside on land trust land were those who did not use cars. . .

You must work within a narrow downtown area to be eligible for this housing.

From the web site:

One of the Housing Authority's newest affordable housing complexes is Casa de Las Fuentes

Located at 922 Castillo Street
Beautiful new units available exclusively to downtown employees
Studios and one-bedroom units

Below market fixed monthly rents range from $481 to $851
Maximum 2 persons per unit
Income Limits: 1 person household – maximum $36,250/yr, 2 person household – maximum $62,160/yr
Highest preference is given to those applicants without cars

Google street view (it is a bit too close to 101):

Other Carfree Santa Barbara links:

As SoCal coastal cities go, Santa Barbara is the among best I've found for carfree living. Extensive areas of open space, extensive bike trails, and most development is sandwiched in an approximately 3-to-5-mile-wide strip between Los Padres National Forest and the coast.

Bike trails: (an extensive network of paths separate from the streets!):
http://www.trafficsolutions.info/bikemap-north.htm

Transit fares are cheaper than in cities further south.
http://www.sbmtd.gov/Fares.htm (If you get the 10-ride pass--$11.50)

http://goletadepot.org/ has a great history of trains in the area, and an information kiosk with selections of movies with trains and trollies in them (some full-length). See Roger Rabbit ("LA has the best PT system in the world--who needs a car in this town?"), Gandhi getting thrown out of a train in South Africa, Incredibles superhero working out with cartoon trains. . .etc. They have the book _Mule Car & Trolley:The Story of the Santa Barbara Street Railway_
http://www.google.com/search?q=mule+car+and+trolley , which has a great history of pre-bus public transit in SB (and there is a corresponding display in the old depot building).

open space nearly everywhere:

Slideshow with main theme of car-related businesses on El Cajon Blvd

2009-01-27T21:03:00.001-08:00

Hi--I'm not sure how interesting this will be to you, but perhaps it could inspire something that is clearly more interesting.
I got to walking back from Point Loma to near SDSU. Instead of taking the trolley, I decided to walk (to save $2.50, partly, and to practice walking).

I got to taking photos along the way. On El Cajon Blvd, I tried to take a picture of every business that was related to cars (with a few other miscellaneous things thrown in).

Of note is that at least some of these places are closing down--the massive Ford dealership shut down and some smaller ones.

The first photos are from a walk to PB the previous day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/colinleath/PointLomaElCajonBlvd20090126

A main message may be that perhaps up to 3/4 of the business on that street have to do with car sales, maintenance, fueling, legal issues, etc.

Peace & a smile,
Colin

The Transit Alliance for a Better North County + thoughts after a recent long transit trip

2009-01-24T10:17:00.001-08:00

See:
http://sdtjdph.blogspot.com/2009/01/transit-alliance-for-better-north.html

SD Sunday Streets LinkedIn group

2008-12-17T08:05:00.001-08:00

[Car-free events] are good for surrounding shops and eateries that might otherwise be slow on Sundays. They are also a creative use of public space, helping residents and visitors to imagine uses for the streetscape beyond simply moving traffic through.

Michael Brennan sent you a message:

Please join the new LinkedIn Group called "San Diego Sunday Streets." We are trying to gather local support for this exciting movement going on in cities across the US.

Car-free events have been very successful in several cities, from Bogota's Ciclovia, to New York's Summer Streets 2008, to San Francisco's Sunday Streets. The events are good for surrounding shops and eateries that might otherwise be slow on Sundays. They are also a creative use of public space, helping residents and visitors to imagine uses for the streetscape beyond simply moving traffic through. A Sunday Streets program in San Diego would benefit the city in a variety of ways.

Here's the URL to join:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1496767

We hope that LinkedIn will provide enough contacts in the business and government communities that we can begin to connect with them, so feel free to invite others!

-Mike

RE: car free day (9/22)

2008-09-24T03:18:00.000-07:00

Greg,
I'm sorry not to have been available in time--and the truth is I wasn't aware of any SD world carfree day happenings (been focused elsewhere for a while now). I've passed info on about this contact to the carfreesd list & blog--it could help motivate someone to organize something for next year.

There are every so often carfree-related events organized by different groups (critical mass, bike happenings, reclaim the streets) . . . San Diego would benefit from collaboration between these groups and others with a related interest: WalkSD, SD County Bicycle Coalition, San Diego River, MTS, SurfRiders (and many others) to do something on 9/22.
Peace,
Colin

- original message -
Subject: car free day
From: "Bledsoe, Greg (NBC Universal, KNSD)" <greg (dot) bledsoe (a@t) nbcuni.com>
Date: 09/22/2008 5:47 PM

Colin,
My name is Greg Bledsoe, I'm a reporter for NBC 7/39 here in San Diego. I'm doing a story on World Car Free Day today. Are you at all involved? Is there anything going on here locally. I know it's late notice, but would you be anywhere near downtown early this afternoon before 1:00pm or possibly earlier, and available to do a quick interview with me about car free days. My number is 619-726-6061.
Thanks,
Greg

Post for carfree blog: Che Cafe's Gas-Free Beach Day

2008-07-29T19:47:00.001-07:00

Sunday Aug. 10 at 12 Noon: Che Cafe's Gas-Free Beach Day / Community Ride

Location: La Jolla Shores

FEATURING:
MIKE XVX
Brian Rose
Butterfly Bones
Alec Venida, Matt Shagler and Ivan Deyoung-Dominguez
and Che Cafe and Food Co-Op Vegan Food!

GROUP RIDE / WALK / BUS: MEET AT THE CHE @ 12 NOON
(Veggie cars, busers, walkers, cyclists, etc)

Cooking Volunteers: Meet at the Che @ 11am

We will arrive at La Jolla Shores no later than 1pm (if you cannot meet at the Che at noon)
Look for all of the bicycles parked on the grass.

Please call Fran Avendano at 925.337.4259 if you cannot find us.

More information, directions, bus / cycle / trolley routes and alternative living links found at our Gas-Free Event page at checafe.ucsd.edu
http://ucsd.facebook.com/event.php?eid=24033310935&ref=mf

Everyone is welcome to our Gas-Free Beach Day where we will raise awareness on the importance of alternative transportation, food consumption, and much more.

Now with rising gas prices and threats to sustainability, it is essential to bring together those who are socially, environmentally and globally aware to create a more powerful collective for social and global change.

Participants will commit to either riding bikes, taking the bus or driving veggie-fueled cars to get to our event where we will hold mini workshops on sustainable living including bike maintenance, Veganism, and demos of veggie-fuel conversion, celebrating alternative thinking with fun beach activities, food, LIVE MUSIC and conversations.

Only socially and environmentally responsible Vegan, organic and fair-trade food will be provided since it takes more energy to produce meat and its by-products, and much more harmful chemicals to produce non-organic foods. We also seek to reject the unfair international labor and environmental practices of multi-national Corporations by depending on local business rather than on foreign production and the use of excessive oil.

Help us spread the idea of People Before Profit.

To get involved, contact:

Fran Avendano (general coordinator)
favendano624@gmail.com

Global Peace,

Fran Avendano
Ché Café Collective
9500 Gilman Dr.
Student Center B-0323C
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093
858/534-2311
Cell: 925.337.4259

Re: bike advocacy - European example & Bike Friendly SD?

2008-06-06T14:23:00.001-07:00

[A response to a post on the carfreesd list]

Larry,
It is great to hear about your efforts to car less.

We have a local xtra-cycle variant--

"Scott Dion's
Mobile Traffic Calming Service
www.FraserCycles.com"

(His new web site however is too much for my old computer). Steve is a great guy and very focused on the carfree vision.

Airfree tires may help address the puncturability issue:
http://www.google.com/search?q=airfree+tires

I was about to get them for my short range bike, but that bike had an odd rim size.

I never got around to congratulating Michael Brennan on his carfree efforts--maybe he'll share more about that?

I have a friend at the pool who decided to start taking the trolley downtown to work once gas hit $4. (he's driving to the station, so far)

And the cars seem much more subdued around here lately (but then SDSU's spring term is over).

Regarding facilities activism (separate bike paths) vs. vehicular activism (bikes & cars share road)-- we need both. What San Diego needs and lacks are totally separate (as much as possible) bike trails heading north/south east/west.

We have the beach trail. The Mission Valley trail may someday be decent thanks to SDCBC + SanDiegoRiver.org.

Many people will not ever ride with cars and should not be encouraged to--they need the trails, separate paths. Those who live and work using a bike need to act as and be treated as vehicles on the roads.

And we need narrower roads, slower roads that bikes share with cars.

A big barrier to (& opportunity for) improvement in San Diego is (CALTRANS &) the existing street grid and the wideness of the streets. This is also an opportunity--in making the streets narrower, there is a lot of land to be planted, rainwater runoff can be harvested (http://www.google.com/search?q=harvest+rainwater)--many problems can be solved by a street redesign.

Ultimately though, cars should not be used in urban areas.
Almost every activist type person in San Diego, however, still uses cars. So Walk San Diego, SDCBC will not yet embrace the carfree vision. Some younger activists (Reclaim the streets, Critical Mass, Electric Warriors) might. Furthering the vision here requires the finesse of the streets renaissance bloggers--(LA, NYC). In NYC they've turned the corner and can be quite open about closing areas to cars. The LA blogger is getting there -- he's got company (LA ecovillage, others).

We also have Duncan McFetridge (Sofar.org). He made some sort of pro-transit presentation today (perhaps at Sandag), but I've yet to find a way to stay updated about his efforts. Someone who's willing to make more effort could potentially unify all these groups--or at least help them be aware of each other.

As for me, I haven't wanted to make noise about it, but maybe I'm giving up on cities for now? There are great people out in the forest. And if you get out there too, we have plenty of time to hang out together.

So, I'm happily bike-free. I only walk now. And at least in the forest, some roads are appropriately marked.

[see photo]

Maybe we should just use SDTJDPH for these posts. But I didn't want it to just be pro-carfree stuff posted there (my attempt at the streetsblogger finesse + wanting to come from a larger vision than just 'carfree'). So we have the carfree SD blog. And if anyone would like to be more than an email poster there (so you can use the interface and make your posts nicer), please let me know.

Peace,
Colin

--
http://fo-rest.blogspot.com
http://purl.org/j9k/sig/

--- In carfreesd , "Larry Hogue" <lhogue1@...> wrote:
>
> Hello group,
>
> I posted this the other day on SD-TJ Design-Plant-Harvest blog
> <http://sdtjdph.blogspot.com/> , but the link wasn't working then. It's
> working now, so I thought I'd re-post here, (which will be my first post to
> this group - looking forward to a good discussion):
>
> I found this link to a Bicycle Advocacy lecture from the Xtracycle Yahoo
> group (who are pretty militantly carfree folks from all over the country who
> ride Xtracycles, longtail bikes with serious cargo capacity).
>
> It features "Carfree John" Pucher, professor of planning and public policy
> at Rutgers, speaking to a group in Vancouver B.C. He is an entertaining
> speaker, and he covers the things that Europe does right to encourage
> cycling. (Interesting point: Europeans haven't always been into cycling.
> From 1950 to 1970 they went heavily toward the car, then realized their
> mistake, and many countries have gone heavily toward the bike since 1970.
> They had to create a bike culture -- it didn't just always exist.)
>
> http://www.sfu.ca/city/city_pgm_video020.htm
>
> I found the talk very inspirational. Since viewing it, I've been looking
> around at the different bike advocacy groups online, and it seems like
> there's some amount of infighting over exactly how to promote bicycling in
> America (mainly between those who want separate bike facilities vs. those
> who believe that cyclists should have equal access to roads and separate
> bikeways are a waste). In Europe, especially the Netherlands, they seem to
> do plenty of both, and give priority to bikes in many places. We have an
> incredibly long way to go in this country, but maybe gas prices will change
> that.
>
> Any thoughts on how to make San Diego a more bike-friendly place?
>
> Is anyone on this list involved with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition?
> I've been thinking about joining them for a while now. They seem to avoid
> the in-fighting I mentioned earlier.

Re: San Diego Pedestrian Master Plan

2008-05-08T05:51:00.001-07:00

Liz,
Thanks for letting me know about this.
I'll pass it on to the carfreesd list.

The other committees I've known about had their meetings in the SANDAG offices downtown. I'm guessing this is for meetings in City Heights. (If that's not correct, you might let the list know where the meetings are).

List: contact Liz if you'd like more info about this!

Peace,
Colin

2008/5/6 Liz Avalon <redbootgirl at gmail dot com>:

Hi Colin,
I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I'm on the City Heights Planning Committee.

I was asked to come up with names for individuals and organizations that might be interested in participating in developing the City's pedestrian masterplan. City Heights is one of the first communities to start working on the implementation plan. I know you are car-free and are also involved in some bicycle stuff. Would you be interested in participating or know of anyone or organizations that who would be interested but might not be on the City's list?

thanks,
Liz

[Updated Invitation] Independent Transportation Network Community Forum @ Thu Apr 10 9am - 1pm ()

2008-04-05T17:12:00.001-07:00

Details for the following event have changed:

Independent Transportation Network Community Forum

Thu Apr 10 9am – 1pm
(Timezone: Pacific Time)
War Memorial Building, Balboa Park, Zoo Parking Lot, San Diego. (map)
Calendar:

http://www.itnsandiego.org/

http://www.itnamerica.org/

The Independent Transportation Network offers dignified and affordable transportation in private automobiles to seniors and the visually impaired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for any purpose within the service area.

ITNSanDiego affiliate invites you to a public forum featuring ITNAmerica founder Katherine Freund, a leader in senior transportation recently featured in the Wall Street Journal as a "Change Maker," shaping the future of retirement. ITNAmerica is gaining national attention as affiliates take root in communities around the country. Come hear about this dynamic and visionary concept in transportation taking shape right here in San Diego.

Lunch Provided
Please join us. RSVP at coverbey@yahoo.com or call (619) 298-2903 for information.

Sponsored by
City of San Diego (CDBG) & County of San Diego (HHSA).

More event details»

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The Weekly Share 2008-03-14

2008-03-14T23:11:00.001-07:00

View it at sdtjdph.

March 7, 2008 Weekly Carfree SD Urban Design Newsletter

2008-03-07T18:02:00.001-08:00

I'm testing out the idea of creating a weekly newsletter.

A new direction for WCN?: decentralization, aiding those who need more help

2008-03-05T14:01:00.001-08:00

After following up on my air transport working group idea, and finding Plane Stupid and Low Fly Zone, I got to questioning the net effect of the WCN conferences--especially with respect to trip generation, and also the conference's goal of being in a city that is demonstrating best practices.

The global gatherings will probably continue to be important--but it might be worth looking more into a union organizer-type focus for the WCN:

The WCN could adopt the role of looking for cities that could use help and then help send key organizers to those cities to help mobilize, organize, and discover locals who might help with making the city more carfree-friendly.

In a word (er, sentence), in addition to getting many people to go to best-practices-type cities, facilitate getting good help to places that may be lagging a lot but have good potential for improvement.

Regarding the conference-induced trip-generation: I got to wondering whether it would be better for me and others to try to get to the conference or to stay put and keep working where we are, based on what we already can learn about best practices via the Internet.

Lastly--I haven't seen a mention here or on the conference site of the Village Building Convergence in Portland, which ends about two weeks before the WCN conference.

Overall, I'm imagining the WCN re-thinking the whole conference idea (as an example to academics and to the rest of the world), and imagining a world where air travel and other long-distance travel is _very_ rare. WCN resources then would probably be devoted to enabling decentralized information-, motivation-, and best-practice sharing, and helping the places that need it the most to bootstrap themselves to being more carfree-friendly.

peace,
Colin

I'm aware this is a sort of trollish post, and comes from my seeming not to want to travel north this year in spite of all the cool things going on in Portland. But maybe there's some helpful ideas here too. Also, maybe I don't like all the excitement or the intense effort required to organize things like conferences. I am glad to have been able to go to TCFCIII, though.