Mastodawn

Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

A lot has happened in 2022, so here’s a thread looking back at what we've accomplished 🧵.

This year, we grew from the Great Walkway Civil Disobedience Society to Safe Street Rebel- but we still got in a few good slow rides. We took over the Great Highway with bikes and pedestrians, bringing the Great Highway Park back for a few nights, sharing cake with our neighbors, and successfully killing a plan to get rid of Friday Great Walkways.

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Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

2. We also expanded our Slow Rides beyond the Great Walkway, calling for a city-wide safe bike network. We rode in support of a car-free Embarcadero, the protection and expansion of our Slow Streets network (which we won!), and, during pride month, a safe Polk and Valencia Street along with cop-free queer spaces.

Oh, and maybe we should throw some hashtags in: #bike #bikeTooter #banCars

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Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

3. We built on the work of previous activists with a People Protected Bike Lane on Polk, then introduced the #JustAMinute action, where we create a pop-up bike lane when cars block the bike lane - but it’s fine, it’s for Just A Minute!

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Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

4. It was also a big year for electoral politics. We won #JfkPromenade twice, saved weekends on Great Highway Park (and the coastline & sewage plant), and won more funding for Muni. We spent countless hours volunteering for official campaigns and sitting through public comment, but found some time for some shenanigans.

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Safe Street Rebel

5. It was also the year we started making Muni signs where they were missing or out of date, and got so good at it that journalists mistook it for the real thing. We provided signage in the park where signage was missing, helped out with slow streets, and made generally informative signage to inspire the city & public

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Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

6. We learned to work with other groups effectively: We helped Friends of #SlowLake thwart a plan to water down their slow street, we put our corking skills to use during the day everyone was out protesting the Roe V Wade decision and/or at the Trans March, and we helped get the word out about the 30th Anniversary of #CriticalMass and keep it safe - only one of us got hit by a car

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Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

7. It wasn’t all fun, though. We continued holding vigils for those killed by drivers, and started blocking lights for a light cycle to force them to pay attention. We confronted the mayor about her failure to do anything meaningful about #VisionZero, and started creating temporary traffic calming measures with cones, chalk, and eventually, paint.

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Safe Street Rebel Jan 1, 2023

8. It’s been an eventful year, and we did all this with an ever-changing, non-hierarchical group of people. We hope this work inspires others to get some friends & soon-to-be-friends and go out into the streets. You don’t need to wait for someone else to take the lead. You can be the next Safe Street Rebel.

It’s clear that there’s still a lot of work to be done, but the movement is only growing, in SF and around the world, and all of us are going to change the world.

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