A Conversation with Clarence Eckerson of Street Films

Last Halloween I met with video documentarian Clarence Eckerson of Street Films and Bike TV and we had a great and sprawling discussion about the role of internet-based video and blogging in transportation activism. Street Films is a part of Streets Blog, both of which are produced by The Open Planning Project.

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After our chat Clarence went out and shot this, the definitive film about Critical Mass, capturing the essence of the ride on a balmy San Francisco Halloween.

Driven to Despair

As the exurbs transform into slumburbia PBS's Now produces an excellent piece about the collapse of sprawl. It connects with real people as it dawns on them that the often overlooked nexus between the high cost of energy and the housing crises means they need to change their lives. While they still look at driving as their ticket to freedom and they don't want to sit next to others on transit, they sit as prisoners in their mcmansions, unable to finance a full tank of gas.

For contrast, host Peter Brancaccio showcases car-free and car-lite Pasadena urbanists show that yes, its possible to have a full life in Southern California without becoming a slave to the gas pump.

It runs about twenty minutes.

Sunday Streets in San Francisco

In this episode we ask the perennial Bikescape question: What is a street? Is it a place to travel through to to go to? For thousands of years streets have been a place for friends and strangers to meet, a place where the threads of community are woven, the commons. Somewhere along the way, around the time of the rise of the automobile, the purpose of the streets narrowed and they lost their sense of place, becoming instead a conduit for traffic, where each person passes through without consideration of the space, cocooned in his warm leatherette pod.

At best. At worst, its a dangerous battle zone or an inhospitable, unhuman world.

Fortunatly, as the post-car era dawns, cities are waking up to something new, yet as old as the first village - streets where anything can happen. The first modern car-free streets or ciclovias appeared in Bogota twenty years ago. There, over ninety km of urban streets close to cars every Sunday for a few hours. Now, we are seeing the meme progress into Paris, Portland, New York and, at last, San Francisco.

Bikescape, rides and walks the first Sunday Streets experiment on a lovely San Francisco day to see what develops.

The Bike Kitchen was out in force, along with some clowns from the Cyclecide bike club.
I promised a link to Don Byron who performed an album of the music of Raymond Scott.

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Activism at City Hall and in the Streets

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition leads a protest on the steps of City Hall decrying the slow pace of progress on the environmental review for the Bicycle plan as a court injunction drags on. Then we go inside City hall to knock on doors to promote the car-free Sunday Streets trial on Aug 31 and Sept 14.

Finally (at 44 mins) the SFBC hits the streets to set up a photo booth to take pictures of cyclists and their bikes to deter theft.

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Free Wheelies: Pedicabs of New York: An Endangered Species

I tracked down Frederic Choiniere. He's the film maker who presented his work at the pedicab workshop during the Towards car-free Cities Conference in Portland. Here's his film about the politics that swirl around New York's pedicab industry.

The pedicab solution

In yet another in a series of podcasts from the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland last June, we examine the transformational power of human fueled machines on the urban landscape. I recorded a workshop on Pedicabs with Steve Meyer of Main Street Pedi-cabs, Peter Meitzler of Manhattan Rickshaw, filmaker Frederic Choiniere, and Jonathan Magnes of PDX Pedicabs.

Hat tip for the photo to cycleseven

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Cycling opens up civil society in Brazil

Sao Paolo activists open Bicycle Plaza

As every cyclist knows biking creates community. Instead of sitting in a tin can, cyclists are out in the world, reacting to their surroundings and interacting with the friends and strangers they meet along the road. Imagine the effect of even a small Critical Mass ride in a country that has been stultified by dictatorship for forty three years and robbed of its civil society?

In another in a series of podcasts from the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland, we attend a talk by Brazilians Thiago Benicchio and Eduardo Green about how it is to ride a bike in their country. The slide show that accompanied the talk can be seen here and here.

Apocalipsemotorizado is in Portuguese but you can see the babelfish translation here.

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The Battle for San Francisco

Another in a series of podcasts from the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland Oregon, Bikescape recorded a presentation about mobility and land use politics in San Francisco. From the origins of Critical Mass to the ascendency of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the story is told by writer Chris Carlsson, Dave Snyder of San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, the SFBC's Leah Shahum, and CSU professor Jason Henderson.

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Towards Car-free Cities Keynote Speech: Gil Peñalosa

Gil Peñalosa kicks off the World Car-free Network's first ever conference in the United States with an inspirational Keynote address. Bikescape recorded it and attended the press conference that followed.

As Commissioner of Parks, Sports and Recreation Peñalosa initiated Bogata Columbia's trailblazing Ciclovias, where each Sunday ninety one km of streets are returned to the commons for non-motorized use. 1.5 Million people use the ciclovias each week as the practice migrates to Paris, Portland, New York and San Francisco.

Gill has spent five years in Mississauga Canada as commissioner of Parks and Recreation coming up with the thirty year Strategic Placemaking Initiative. He is a senior associate with The Project for Public Spaces, The executive director of Walk and Bike for Life, a senior consultant for Gill Architects, and sits on the boards of American Trails, the City Parks Alliance, the International Sport and Culture Association and the advisory committee of America Walks.

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depave a parking lot, put up a paradise

Movie by Elizabeth Press of Streetfilms

The opening event at the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland, Oregon was the depaving of a 3000 sq foot parking lot. In its place will grow a community garden along with bike parking and a water catchment system. We cover the asphalt removal, then go on a tour of past depaving sites.

Bikescape was there to cover as much of the rest of the conference as one little podcaster could. Stay tuned for many more posts on this important get-together.

The closing song, Chicken or Beef was written and performed by Reptet at the bike art show at Portland City Hall.

I traveled with two San Franciscans who are blogging about the conference. Steve Jones is with the San Francisco Bay Guardian and is posting on their politics blog and Brian Smith runs the excellent Car Free USA blog.

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