68 San Diego Reader September 1, 2016
LETTERS continued from page 15 While today’s cycling sup-
porters envision a future where bike transportation will be commonplace, it may be more likely that fewer children will learn to ride bikes, bike advocacy will depopulate, and bike lanes will disappear. Christine Donovan Coronado
How I live my life San Diego lives
Houses and Homes He was on the verge of asking her to
marry him, because she loved him more than anyone. He’d admitted that he was hooked on her loving, and then had extended the metaphor to where he was “flopping on the deck.” His taking her home for Thanksgiving was tantamount to a proposal, in his eyes anyway, because this was his family’s most important holiday, at which he had never appeared with anyone so portentous as a girlfriend…
Life in the Courts
Most people in a bungalow court don’t use the courtyard, except as a buffer for privacy, so the designer would seem to have more range in thinking of buffers, and here I think Quigley has had real success. At 1788 Missouri Street in Pacific Beach he designed a two-building, four-unit condominium with a V-shaped yard in the middle. But instead of grass, the yard is all lilies, and has a narrow boardwalk down the center…
What on Earth am I Settling For? I let the front yard go and worked
on building a fence in back. I got so angry digging postholes in the rain one afternoon that I had to lie down for a minute under the eave of the garage (rain falling in a puddle at my ear) because I’d started to feel lightheaded. The rain made the grass in the backyard sprout. Jane was astonished because she thought it was dead, but it didn’t surprise me a bit…
So, What Are You Looking At? About ten years ago, I went on a strict
low-carbohydrate diet in an attempt to shrink to fit society. I ate some of the most unhealthy food imaginable to lose weight — all meats and hard cheeses. No bread. No vegetables. No starches. I lost fifty-six pounds in three months, and I was miserable. I was miserable because life had become unenjoyable. Each day was a struggle, another day of denial. I drank water and black coffee…
at Horton Plaza “It was like a little lady’s purse. It had a shoulder strap and was shaped like a rectangle, but it had this great big flap over it so it was very awkward to reach into it I hated it She, my ex- husband’s wife, said she was giving it to me because I always carry an ugly purse. I was really insulted. We’ve been divorced for 13 years, their father and I…
The Day after Christmas
The Mall Boys Matt and David are waiting for a bus
on Fletcher Parkway. 5:00 p.m. Matt’s face is sweaty, smudged with pizza, dirt from his fingers, and what looks like chocolate. He leans back onto the bus stop bench, his skateboard held to his chest like a pet. His eyes are lidded, heavy. David leans forward off the bench, tosses baseball cards into his Cubs hat three feet away. “Pretty woman ... ” he sings softly to himself…
Ditch Your Cars Re: August 25 cover: “Stop the Irrational Bike Bias” If the city is spending
millions on improving bike- commuter lanes, and nobody is seeing the improvements as enticement to change to bike commuting, then the millions are a total waste. The money would be better spent on fixing roads where both cyclists and motorists could appreciate the repairs. If the adults are not going
to get on bikes anytime soon, spend future money on improved paths for middle and high school students. Sponsor high school racing clubs and education aimed at using bikes to stay healthy. Cycling is great seven days a week, and the future gen- eration can learn to embrace that if the politicians and motorists refuse to change. Even with the author’s
admission of loving cycling, he seems to be missing the point of improving cycling infrastructure. Surely it isn’t just for the current one per- cent, but the other 99 percent to become happier, healthier cyclists. You are all welcome to
ditch your cars and join me on bikes. I’ll be waiting. P.B. to Downtown commuter via email
sdreader.com/news/from-archives
Finally — the 1,500 best stories from 44 years of the Reader — fully transcribed. An ongoing project through the end of 2016.
Man-Powered Bike The transcription of Randall O’Toole’s anti-cycling argu- ments by Moss Gropen in the August 25 Reader (“Stop the Irrational Bike Bias”) gave me a little extra shiver of fear as I looked into the eyes of the irritable pilots of the 100,000- watt, 4000-pound steel cans surrounding me this morn- ing while I man-powered
my bike with the 150-watt output of my 61-year-old, 165-pound body. I work with people study-
ing how to help people that are too fat, have dementia, depression, and other meta- bolic disorders. The current plan for fixing this centers on finding new drugs, or convincing people to drive to the exercise place. Though health care spending con- tinues to rise more rapidly than inflation, the problems listed above get worse each year. The current plan is not working. Before I studied the brain,
I studied geology. The cur- rent low cost of gas is due to a temporary one- to two- percent glut that resulted from the now-moribund U.S. fracking boom. It has imme- diately stimulated people to buy larger cars and drive more miles per year. By the end of this decade, however, the tiny one- to two-per- cent excess of oil produced beyond the 98-99% of world oil production that was used this year will be history. The article correctly stated
that Americans are not choosing cycling now. Why not beat the crowd? Pay no attention to Gropen/O’Toole! I cycle about six miles to work every day. One way- takes about 22 minutes. I wait at all the lights, cycle fast and respectfully, don’t shower (or stink), and I never yell (even though I get yelled at on some days), because I just don’t have the rage! Won’t you join me (Johnny LaRue voice)?
Marty via email
Define “Cyclists” I’ll admit, in regards to the cover story on August 25, “Stop the Irrational Bike Bias,” I’m a little shocked you allowed such ignorant dribble to be published. Or that you published some- thing clearly influenced by a personal bias against the subject (“The only people who might be smugger than cyclists are vegans.” Really?) I can butcher every point
made, but for the sake of length I’ll attack only two. The first is the notion that cyclists do not pay for the
roads they’re using, a state- ment that not only seeks to stir malice toward cyclists by painting them as freeload- ers, but is also unequivo- cally false. Local streets and roads are largely supported through general taxes; these are taxes everybody pays and not the levies placed upon motor-vehicle ownership. And while almost all road wear-and-tear is caused by motor-vehicle traffic, cyclists and pedestrians account for little to none of it. I don’t own a car, and yet here I am pay- ing taxes every year to repave the roads you’re destroying. You’re welcome. I also find it incredibly
odd that the article argues against government subsidies for transportation infrastruc- ture and yet motor-vehicle usage (highways for example) is massively subsidized. The second statement is
that “Cyclists, who tend to be well-educated, affluent, and liberal meaning know how to use the political pro- cess to get what they want.” I’d ask Mr. Gropen to define “cyclists.” Being there are clearly large demographics that commute via bike that don’t fit this definition (i.e., students), that statement comes across as a baseless low-blow against an incredi- bly varied demographic. The truth is that the vast majority of individuals in the United States who utilize bikes for commuting purposes and benefit the most from increased infrastructure are the working poor and first- generation immigrants — not the weekend warrior on the $8000 Pinarello, but Dave, Amir, or Juan who uses their $100 junker to get to their job as a dishwasher on time. Arguing against pro-
cycling measures hurts the most vulnerable members of our society the most. It also hurts me, because when peo- ple stir anti-cycling measures and paint us as selfish, smug freeloaders who milk the sys- tem, they’re propagating the air and the environment that may very well cost me my life one day.
Chase Barrett Golden Hill
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