Everything goes better with Fossil Fool, and the Bike Rapper gave protesters and advocates a boost from on high as he rolled alongside the BP/Arco Oil Spill protest on Fell Street Friday night. After launching the biggest kickstand around for his tall bike (a variation of the Lunar Lander kickstand), Bike Rapper got down to the issue on the street. Here's a clip:
Look for more Sunday Streets next year in new locations with a guarantee that the wildly popular "street openings" will become permanent.
After the first Sunday Streets last year, an open question was whether the experiment would be continued in 2009. A resounding YES: in fact, six this year. The first five have exceeded expectations, and this Sunday's last installment will likely be the same. Now the city is so pleased with the outcome that Sunday Streets will be made a fixture of summers in the city.
This Sunday take the "Penguins to Penguins" route -- from the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate park, along the Great Highway, to the San Francisco Zoo -- for a great morning and afternoon. This is a special weekend for San Franciscans who aren't Burning on the Playa or traveling out of town; there's so much more of the city for us! Just being on a car-free Great Highway is a treat in itself. But also check out the Urban Cycling Workshops and Freedom from Training Wheels sponosred by SF Bicycle Coalition and the Presidio YMCA Bike Program; demonstrations of the latest in electric bikes, dance workshops, roller blading, strolling on the highway, 150 free bike rentals and free bike repair.
And Bands -- lots of Bands. Thanks to the support of Warren Helman, Sunday Streeters will find Brothers Comatose, the Barbary Ghosts, and Allofasudden mixing it up the sound of the surf at three locations: Sloat Blvd., Lincoln Way, and Taraval St. Read more about the ocean vibes in today's Examiner.
To get a taste of what's coming, take a look at August's "perfect weather/great times" Sunday Street. .... 10 am to 2 pm. Sunday. Last chance in 2009.
UPDATE: Check for more extensive coverage on the permanence of Sunday Streets posted by Streetsblog.
I heard the surf, the waves, the Pacific Ocean while biking along the Great Highway today. My first time biking the western edge of San Francisco without cars for company. A good day to be a San Franciscan with temps in the 60s and 70s. For those of us who live and bike in NOPA: Just a few blocks to the park and then to the ocean: what better location?
San Francisco's Sunday Streets came to the Great Highway today and opened one long stretch of highway 
from JFK Drive to Sloat Blvd. (Motorists might say the highway was "closed" to cars. It's a matter of 
perspective). The highway has been blocked to traffic before, most frequently to clear misplaced sand dunes from the roadway and recently for the Tour de California cyclists, but I've never before been here amid bikers and peds 
only. This was special.
Just when the serenity of the ride lulled me, I was jolted by Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper at the Rock the Beach Bike Party. This otherwise lonely stretch of sand at the intersection of Noriega has never seen so much bike energy, literally. A line-up of bikers provided pedal power for Fossil Fool's band and mic -- although FF projected so much of his own energy he might not have needed them. What they say about themselves: "We're bike people. We're inventors and advocates working away in a sweet little workshop in Berkeley, California, pushing the limits of bike culture." Visit their site, check their tunes, get to their performances.
Sunday Streets in San Francisco has been so popular that planning is already underway for more street openings next year and more frequently. I loved the long open ride through Golden Gate Park to the ocean -- we don't "go to the shore" here -- but I'm looking forward to more Sunday Streets in city neighborhoods next year. But then, why wait? Why not open our blocks regularly on our own?
