Driving San Francisco — Part One
By Sebraleaves
Every day I drive in San Francisco, I see a city in turmoil. I see a city that is slipping away from its glorious past. San Francisco was a city of peace and freedom and we were drawn to her. Now she is a city on sale. Stripped of her most treasured assets, her beautiful views and her once friendly countenance, San Francisco is fading. Her empty once grand buildings are shifting into the discount aisle.
How do we motivate people who feel as we do to help us stop the machine that is dismantling and buying our city? We are not relics from the past. Attention must paid if we are to stop the demise.
How do we refocus and turn this ship around without taking back our streets?
Many believe traffic reduction is where the problem started so that is where we must return. We must shine a light on empty Market Street and all the other failing commercial corridors that were once teaming with traffic and street life, clubs with live bands and performances we could afford. We could drive to Folsom, park and walk between 7 or more clubs and restaurants in a night. My LA friends were envious of our night scene. What happened to kill those clubs and how can we bring them back?
It all started with cyclists stopping traffic and getting away with it. They called their monthly escapades critical mass and the media ate it up. Someone decided to let them run rampant on the streets and now they are everywhere, like flies, flitting between traffic lanes. Many don’t use the protected bike lanes they demanded, preferring to stop cars. Since cyclists got away with it, it is open season on traffic, with scooters and cars getting into the act. Flash mobs bring guns and fireworks and like to set cars on fire. Let’s not forget it started with critical mass. Now voters are demanding an end to lawless streets. How does the government react?
Government does not appear to be as interested in stopping the criminals as in writing laws to turn us into criminals. Every year they write hundreds of ever more restrictive bills to force us into a lifestyle of their choosing.
We don’t need an excuse to drive our cars any more than a cyclist needs an excuse for riding their bikes. We need to quit apologizing and demand a reset. We need to overturn the laws turning citizens into criminals and letting the criminals off. We need representatives who will help us change the laws to benefit us. Traffic has to flow again to return business to the city and stop the destruction that is ruining it. Everyone needs to get where they need to go however they choose to do so.
The number one thing that all the voters want is to be left alone. Which of the candidates gets that?
