UCSC slugs combat social & environmental injustices with bicycles in San Jose

There’s no doubt that the work that UC Santa Cruz students accomplish during their time at the University can serve as a training ground and experimental space for future work in communities beyond Santa Cruz. The latest example of this in the bicycle and social justice realm is the creation of a new bicycle cooperative over the hill by two UCSC bicycling banana slugs, Adrian Baker-Kang and Cassidy Kakin, who are pedal driven to make a difference for youth and bicycle riders in San Jose.

At a recent Bikes & Food Justice Festival at UCSC on May 3, I had the opportunity to hear Adrian, a UCSC senior and UCSCBike Coop co-owner, speak about his thesis work on the role bicycles can play in supporting communities who don’t have access to healthy, fresh foods nearby. In his words, 

“I looked at the obstacles facing low-income individuals when it comes to accessing sustainable, low-cost, transportation. Due to a lack of infrastructure and education, bicycles are simply not a viable method of travel in many cities still, where car users are reluctant to share roads that were not designed with bicycles in mind. The option of public transportation in busy cities can be a massive time investment for many individuals, with short trips across town taking two to three times as long compared to cars or even bikes, as buses become stuck in traffic between picking up and dropping off passengers.” 

Adrian’s solution is pro-bicycle, but with infrastructure issues also comes the costly matter of purchasing a bicycle and then maintaining it.

Adrian speaking at the Bikes & Food Justice Fest.

Both Adrian and his best friend Cassidy studied Politics and “focused [their] efforts and inquiries on the position of marginalized populations in low income communities.” Cassidy Kakin, who graduated last year, explains that “Adrian studied public transportation and bike infrastructure, and I worked on the intersectionality of poverty, race, and education in modern urban society.” Their grassroots approach to these complex issues comes in the form of a bicycle cooperative in East San Jose, called the East San Jose Bicycle Cooperative.

Intrigued by their vision and purpose, as well as their studies on social justice and accessibility issues in communities like East San Jose, I asked them for an interview. Here’s what they had to share:

Melissa Ott: How did this bike co-op idea come about?

Cassidy Kakin: I’ve spent the past year serving a Year of Service with City Year, an Americorps Partner, in a low income school in the suburban ghetto of East San Jose, and I’ve seen the many social pressures and economic struggles placed upon the massive population of marginalized youth in the Alum Rock School District. 

The East San Jose Bicycle Cooperative is the combination of the two efforts, studies, and experiences of two best friends and UCSC alumni.  Its exact origin is shrouded in cold IPA's and hot Sunday afternoons spent together day dreaming about changing the world and starting something big, and in some sense evolved organically from an idea I had to come back to East Side San Jose in a different and more ambitious capacity, and Adrian's divine inspiration to change the world and promote social justice from the seat of a bike.

Adrian Baker-Kang: As a community bike mechanic for two and a half years, I have worked closely with low-income and poverty-level individuals who relied on their bicycles as a critical method of transportation due to the low cost and ease of owning and operating a bicycle. I never considered its potential for social change until I spent a year working at the Bike Church in Santa Cruz. The Bike Church is a non-profit community bike shop that promotes personal empowerment through teaching individuals how to do basic mechanical work on their own bikes. One thing that struck me while working there was how much worth these individuals placed upon their bike, valuing them oftentimes more highly than shelter or a hot meal due to the transportation needs they fulfilled.

Melissa: What is your vision for the East San Jose Bicycle Coop?

Adrian: Our vision is to help make the city of San Jose one of the most bike friendly cities in the nation, and a model for sustainable transportation world-wide. Our model will be one of building strong relationships with the community to foster lasting bonds in promoting bicycles as a viable method of transportation. We will be working directly with San Jose’s youth and their parents to address the safety and educational needs unique to this city, such as how to effectively navigate between downtown and East San Jose.

See more photos and videos of youth supporting ESJBC here.

Cassidy: We’re still in the process of evolving from an idea into a sustainable and successful project. All our goals now and in the future involve means of promoting a positive bike culture in East San Jose's youth community, in order to fight the injustices imposed upon young people by restrictive socio-economic realities.

As of now, we are hoping to promote a positive bicycle culture as an alternative to the often illegal and illicit or gang related activities that some of East San Jose's most vulnerable youth fall victim to. We hope to work during existing afterschool programs in middle schools and elementary spaces in Alum Rock schools, which have successfully situated themselves to address the issues facing San Jose's youth. 

Melissa: What might your work in these schools look like?

Cassidy: With elementary school students, we hope to fan the flames of the developing hobby of young riders in a safe way.  We have seen students with bright futures riding dangerously and recklessly and want to provide education so that their increased access to bicycle infrastructure will not come with negative side effects. In addition, the multifaceted benefits and goals of the bicycle world like environmentalism, social justice, and invigorated cities will be promoted.

In middle schools, we hope to take a long term and holistic approach in the after school space, giving us the ability to form and develop meaningful relationships with students. We intend to have fully functional, mobile bicycle repair clinics to teach students how to maintain and service their bikes, while continuing bicycle safety education.

Image from the ESJBC website.

Melissa: Why are bicycle co-ops important and valuable to communities? Why does East San Jose need one?

Adrian: Bicycle co-ops are an invaluable community resource socially, economically, and environmentally. Socially, they bring communities together in an engaging environment in a way that automobiles cannot. Individuals have the opportunity to slow their life down for a moment and learn new mechanical skills and make new friends without spending any money. Economically, bicycles are a cost effective method of travel that vastly expands the distance individuals can travel who do not use a car. The lack of gas, parking fees, and maintenance costs provides a valuable resource for making fun and healthy trips around town to the grocery store, school, or meeting up with friends.

Cassidy: As I’ve described, we do not intend on having a stationary “shop” space as many bike co-ops have; we instead intend to be fully mobile, giving us the ability to work in schools directly and develop meaningful relationships with students. So why brand ourselves as a “co-op” rather than an educational after school program component?  There is a certain power in the word “cooperative,” both in the bike community and more generally. We are a co-op because we intend to base all of our programming on the needs of the community we serve, evolving with and promoting the growth of the students and community members we work with, hearing their voices and responding to their ambitions and goals for our project. We hope to bring the ideology of a co-op model without replicating the typical cooperative structure. In this way, we hope to empower the voice of East Side San Jose's youth while promoting bicycle culture in a safe and productive manner.

Melissa: How are you spreading the word about this, and how can the community support your work?

Adrian: We are promoting our cooperative through a grassroots campaign, working from the ground up to directly interact with the communities we will be serving. This includes hosting free drop-in bicycle clinics, writing city council members, and promoting our organization through the parents and teachers of the students we will be assisting. We are currently seeking help in terms of volunteers for assisting with our bike clinics, a graphic designer to create a logo, and financial support from potential investors.

Gathering community support for the co-op, Cassidy (right) stands with Justin of Autonomous San Jose and RideESSJ.

Cassidy: At the same time, we are expanding our efforts, learning, and promotion beyond the East San Jose foothills and have begun the important and extensive process of reaching out to networks and people in bike enclaves around the world—from Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and the rest of the Silicon Valley, Marin County, Oregon and beyond, to online networks and social spheres. We also hope to reach out with and sit down with some big movers and shakers in the Silicon Valley bicycling community, like San Jose Bike Party and the Silicon Valley Bicycling Coalition. Hopefully, we will be able to learn from and work alongside the giants who have been working on bikes for years in San Jose and the surrounding areas.

Adrian: With the support of others in our community, we hope to further the ideals of sustainability, safety, and financial viability by promoting bicycles to a younger generation, to help promote a greener and healthier future. We are seeking support from anyone who is interested in supporting our goals, so please visit our website, blog, and social media sites and send us your ideas!

To support Cassidy and Adrian in making their vision a reality for the youth of East San Jose, please visit their Indiegogo campaign site, blog, Facebook, and Twitter to learn more. You can contribute money, ideas, resources, and volunteer support in numerous ways!

Planning Department Takes a Serious Look at Highway 280 Teardown (SF Streets Blog)

Remember when we spoke about the economic and societal benefits of removing freeways? Here's a present-day example of a freeway that should probably be removed. Take a look, and be sure to peruse the comments to hear what others are saying!

"The idea of tearing down a section of highway 280, north of 16th Street, is taking a firm step forward with the launch of a new study by the Planning Department. Although the department has already released a study of the option in December 2012, the new initiative would take a deeper, more comprehensive look at the ”spiderweb” of interconnected transportation infrastructure plans in the area, said the Planning Department’s Susan Gygi." 

Photo: Michael Patrick/Flickr

Read the full story by Aaron Bialick here on SF.StreetsBlog.org.

Streets of S.F. a road hazard as pedestrian deaths spike (SF Chronicle)

I came across this article in the SF Chronicle yesterday while eating at the 9/10 Dining Hall, and I thought it was particularly relevant to our class. The issue of bureaucratic sluggishness on moving projects ahead and the desire (and inability) to get everyone to agree on transportation projects is a huge problem for places like San Francisco. It becomes not only annoying but actually dangerous when the places that are supposed to be seeing these improvements are the site of numerous fatalities for people walking and biking.

Source here.

Perhaps this article could prompt some questions for us to explore on Feb 28 when we have a speaker panel of folks who have directly dealt with processing and implementing transportation changes like the ones discussed in this article… We can also discuss the pedestrian issues addressed in this article tomorrow, since this week's topic is walking.

Here's a snippet of the article, but you should check out the full story on the SF Chronicle website here.

"San Francisco has put together a lot of plans and budgeted a lot of money to reduce pedestrian and bike accidents and generally make its streets safer. 

"But people keep getting maimed and killed by cars - and some city officials and residents think part of the reason is that the city has been slow to follow through with its proposals to improve street designs and crack down on drivers who break traffic laws. 

"A spate of pedestrian fatalities at the end of 2013 and the beginning of this year - including the death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu on New Year's Eve and a man who was killed by a car in the Parkside neighborhood Tuesday - shows that the city's streets remain dangerous. Yet just 6 percent of San Francisco streets account for 60 percent of incidents in which pedestrians are severely injured or killed. On those streets, high-injury corridors representing 5.2 percent of the city's street miles are the site of more than half of all pedestrian deaths and injuries. 

"While the number of hazardous blocks isn't numerous, bringing down the number of deadly collisions hasn't been easy. The city has earmarked tens of millions of dollars for re-engineering dangerous corridors in recent years, but some seemingly simple projects can take years. In the meantime, bicycle and pedestrian fatalities spiked in 2013: 21 people were killed while walking, the most since 2007, and four bicyclists lost their lives, the highest number since 2001."

Hasti's Transportation History

Write your transportation history - Think about the various modes of transportation that you've used in your life at different times and places. How do your experiences with these modes affect your perception of the world, your community, etc.? Have you had pivotal moments on buses, bike rides, car trips, etc. that have changed how you see the world?

Sitting in the backseat as a child during my pre-drivers license days, I remember watching the world go by and observing the different people in their cars going all sorts of places. It fascinated me that there were so many cars filled with individuals in transit with their own destination in mind. Although I was observing the outside environment, I was unaware of the infrastructure encompassing all these vehicles. It wasn't until I obtained my driver’s license that I became conscious of the legalities and logistics of our roads. I looked at each vehicle in a whole new way and better understood the responsibilities of being a driver.

But before I earned my driver’s license, I was dependent on someone else to drop me off and pick me up from the places I wanted to go. Riding public transportation in the Bay Area for the first time forced me to figure out how the Caltrain and BART systems worked. From each stop, I learned more about the geography of the area. Public transportation in the Bay Area is that is fairly inefficient though. Most of the time, it requires more than one mode of transportation to get somewhere. Someone would have to drop you off at the Caltrain station and then you take the Caltrain all the way to the Millbrae Station to switch onto the BART. A major limitation of public transportation is that it is not always there right when you need it.

Bicycling helped me gain independence because I could hop on my bike and head to a local spot at any time. I could fuel the bicycle with my own energy and was on my own schedule. Currently, bicycling is my main method of transport in Santa Cruz. When I tell people that I don’t have my car in Santa Cruz they usually respond sympathetically as if I’m missing out. In a car, encased by metal, you are isolated from the world, whereas on a bike you are exploring and engaging with the environment. It’s actually relieving to not have my car here with me because I prefer biking around town. I don’t have to buy gas, I don’t get stuck in congested traffic, and I don’t have trouble finding parking. I love the scenic routes, the fresh air, and accelerating my heart rate.