Tuesday, August 4, 2009

SF Bicycle Plan EIR Certified by SF Board of Supervisors

After hours and hours of droning on about an addition to some place called the Drew School the San Francisco Bicycle Plan EIR finally came up before the Board of Supervisors. It was supposed to start at 4 PM, and was pushed back to 7:30 - heck, I could have gone - in large part because good old Chris Daly was trying to put a condition on the addition that the school relocate the 3 unit residential building they will be demolishing to add on to the school. Not "replace" the housing, he wanted them to move the actual building. Honestly this exchange was almost more worthwhile than watching the bike plan stuff. If Daly wanted to be constructive, there are more than a few vacant, eyesore, 3 unit buildings that could be rehabbed. Instead, this was obstructionist theater. But I digress...

Highlights from the Bike Plan stuff. There were 2 appellants. One was Rob Anderson's a.k.a. "The Media Dude" Citizens for Adequate Review, and one was some folks from Rincon Hill. The Rincon Hill folks were objecting to the work on 2nd St, which has been removed from the first cut of the plan already, rendering their appeal somewhat moot. So they got up there and pointed out their objections to something no longer in the plan, which amusingly cut into the time for Mary Miles, "The Media Dude"'s attack dog. I should have filed a frivolous appeal to chew up more of her time, to save us having to listen to her wandering incomprehensible babble which was punctuated by the spittle coming off whatever piece of candy she was sucking on.

The MTA/Planning had an answer for all of her random points, they were very prepared. Getting to public comments, one bike plan foe got up and basically complained that he was never notified about all this stuff, despite the fact it's been headline news for several years. Deep Jawa gave a succinct, very well reasoned public comment but was practically unnoticed because he had to follow Walter the guy who sings at the BOS meetings.

Miles gave her rebuttal, again sucking on a marble and spitting onto the dias, starting with saying that the people from planning should be sent to jail for the personal attacks on her.

The BOS then quickly, unanimously, approved the EIR. They moved on to the Bike Plan certification. Miles gave another rambling comment as did the "angry uninformed guy", and a couple of random ne'er do wells. The pro bike plan people pretty much stood path. The BOS unanimously certified the Bike Plan, and on we go to Judge Busch.

As "The Media Dude" would say - "See you assholes in court, dude!"

4 comments:

Rob Anderson said...

The meeting last night was nothing but a pro forma exercise, the results of which were a forgone conclusion. The city did not in fact have ready answers to what Miles was saying. In any event, they will have to do better in court, which is what really counts. The city's justification for slowing down nine Muni lines with the Bicycle Plan? Making cycling safer in the city is an "overriding consideration" that trumps everything else! The city's justification for the six-minute standard before a "significant impact" on Muni? There was none. A five minute Muni delay isn't significant? Where did the city get the six minute standard? They pulled it out of their asses. You of course are eager to believe whatever the city says, because you are an adherent of "BikeThink." (http://district5diary.blogspot.com/2006/07/bikethink-ideology-of-bicycles.html)

Recall that the BOS unanimously adopted the Bicycle Plan way back in 2005, even though it was obvious then that they were on very shaky legal ground.

kit said...

@Rob:

You're so cute. I'm just sayin'.

Rob Anderson said...

Kit: You have nothing to say, dude.

Unknown said...

We all love you Rob.