Public Transportation
When I moved back to the city of San Diego, I wanted to be able to ride
the city bus system. The system was never that great with only one bus
line from OB to downtown. There was no bus that could get me to work on
time, making the bicycle the only practical option. That meant I had to
ride when the weather was bad or I was not feeling very good. After Proposition
13 (the Jarvis-Gann property tax cut) became law, times got worse for
transit riders. Buses stopped running when the sun went down. Thankfully,
OB had enough entertainment options after dark that were in walking distance,
including the Strand movie theater on Newport Avenue. One time, we drove
to a first run film in Fashion Valley, and I cursed as I tried to find
a last minute parking spot in the crowded lot. It was time to leave San
Diego.
Prop. 13 hurt the Bay Area transit systems as well, but they were still
a lot better than San Diego Transit. Moving to Berkeley in 1980, I found
work at another contact lens factory in Point Richmond. Again I rode my
bike to get the work. It was nice to be able to take a bus if I was feeling
sick or the weather was lousy.
Through this evolution, I found myself becoming more politically involved
against our auto-centric transportation system. I realized how car culture
brought on urban sprawl and environmental destruction. In the early 1970s
I was attending Palomar College in San Marcos and moved close to school
so that I didn't have to drive so far. Soon, I was becoming fond of the
town and was concerned about all the housing developments that threatened
its small town character and its open spaces. I ran for a seat on the
city council and am credited with being the first candidate to bring up
the environment as a local issue. I lost the election, but made friends
with many of the old time residents who shared my concerns for the future
of the city. After the election, I continued to be involved in local politics,
including city planning. The city manager Bill Bradley would later go
on later to serve in the state assembly. When I read he was the author
of a particularly vicious anti-bicycle bill, I sent him a letter. He indeed
remembered me, he replied, adding he disagreed with my politics then and
still disagreed with me. A few years after that letter, he died of colon
cancer.
In 1979, I left my factory job to work for Bill Press on a campaign called
Tax Big Oil. Press was Governor Jerry Brown's director of the Office of
Planning and Research. During the second oil crisis, Brown and Press came
up with a state oil profits tax to fund public transit and alternative
fuels research. After failing to get it passed by the state legislature,
Press quit the Brown administration and set up an initiative campaign
to get the tax on the ballot. I had just quit the contact lens factory
as a failed union organizer when I discovered Press' call for signature
gatherers. I joined up at the beginning of the campaign. We got the proposition
on the ballot, but we failed at the polls. Still, I am proud of the campaign.
After being out of contact with Bill for many years, I was able to see
him again during his 2004 book door. He said he believes Tax Big Oil was
the last real grassroots campaign in California. I agree.
Ironically, while I was working for Tax Big Oil, I was driving my pickup
truck even more than before. The campaign decided to use ironing boards
instead of card tables to hold the petitions. The idea came from Jerry
Brown's campaign to register voters. The iron boards allowed people to
stand up straight to sign the petitions, instead of hunching over the
short-legged tables. Our crews hauled the boards and other equipment in
our cars to shopping centers to get our signatures and donations. I drove
all over San Diego County, and, by the end of the campaign, in LA, Orange,
and Riverside, too. As I drove, the radio played. My favorite song was
the Talking Heads' Life During Wartime. I loved to sing along. I felt
like an Eco Warrior.
One battle we fought was access to the voters at shopping centers. The
property owners kept trying to kick us out even though we had the law
on our side. The state Supreme Court had recently decided what was called
the Pruneyard Decision, declaring a shopping center a public place for
petitioning the government. We carried a photocopy of the decision with
us to show to the police that would be sent to kick off the property.
There were a number of times when the police still kicked us out, just
because they didn't like us. We worked out a deal with some centers that
we would not ask for money, but we frequently asked anyway. We raised
a lot in our coffee cans, most giving the one dollar we requested. A few
even dropped twenties into the can. I have fond memories of Price Club.
Owner Sol Price was completely on our side and made sure store employees
treated us right. They would offer us water to drink on hot days. Price
Club has since merged with Costco.
Most recently, I have been able to find paid employment for my transit
advocacy. In the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008, I was a canvasser for
TravelChoice, walking door-to-door in Berkeley neighbors, offering information
on public transportation, bicycles, and walking. We also offered goodies:
maps, water bottles, pedometers, and canvas shopping bags. Then we delivered
them by bicycle. It was exhausting work, but very satisfying.
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