Author of Blog: Daniel Day

Monday, May 22, 2017

Election Report

On Saturday May 6, 2017, it was election day for the city of San Antonio city council and bond and we have some winners, not all good for cycling.  To See who was the most bicycle friendly Candidate, please click here:  http://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/p/city-election-2017-on-cycling.html

Bad News.....
Rebecca J. Viagran won district 3 again.  This women who openly disguise herself for the people gave the finger to the people won reelection.  As I write this, the day before there was a meeting at the Mission Branch Public Library to remove the bicycle lane.  Naturally, because of work, I wasn't able to attend but from what I hear, they're keeping the bicycle lane on White Ave.  

We have several runoffs elections.  For those who are not familiar with the rules of running for city council/mayor, you need to win over 50% of the votes.  We haven't won yet and it's up to you to get out and vote again.  Ivy Taylor won 42% of the vote with Ron Nirenberg coming in at close second.  For the record, Nirenberg came in at 83% bicycle friendly.  Ivy Taylor thinks that the reason why you ride a bicycle is because you haven't found God.  For the record, Venezuela representative founder for OPEC, Juan Pablo PĂ©rez Alfonzo said, "Oil is the devil's excrement." Cars run on oil, again who here in San Antonio lives their day to day life according to God? 

Several Districts are also stuck in a runoff election to determine who's going to be councilmen. 

District 1:
District 1, is in a run off between Michael Montano and incumbent Roberto C. Trevino.  Michael got a 71% of a score of bicycle friendliness, but if Trevino turn it in ontime, he would have gotten a higher score.  But there's one thing going against Trevino, he decided to allow a development to remove a bicycle lane.  Both promised to a lot of things for bicycling but that's yet to be seen. I leave the decision up to you...

District 2:
The Candidates for District 2 failed to respond to my questions except for the Dori L. Brown, one of the most anti cycling candidates I've seen run for city council this election.  Keith A Toney, the Sierra Club pick also lost and it's now down to the incumbent Alan E. Warrick II and William "Cruz" Shaw.  As a residence of district 2, I really have no favorite.  Warrick the incumbent hasn't even put down a new bicycle lane and Shaw seems to be going to the same way.  I can only hope that both candidates explore question J about free bus fare because they represent a very poor district and providing free bus rides will be a boom to the residence who mainly depend on the bus to get around. But if you're looking for a choice, Toney has just endorsed Warrick

District 6:
District 6 seems to be a clear choice for Melissa Cabello Havrda who got a score of 88%.  Her opponent Greg Brockhouse didn't even bother to return my emails so we can safely assume that he's not interested in bicycling.

District 8:
The two candidates that are going for a runoff didn't even responded to my questions.  They are Manny Pelaez and Cynthia Brehm.

District 9:
The two finalist for district 9 was Marco Barros and John Courage.  Again There's a clear choice here for John Courage got 84% being bicycle friendly and he's also the Sierra Club pick. 

District 10:
In District 10, Ezra Johnson and Clayton Perry are the two finalist.  Clayton Perry didn't even bother to return my emails while Ezra Johnson did and got a score of 82%. 

So base on this, I can now endorse candidates for city council. Remember, Earlty Voting is between May 30 through June 6 with the final day to vote June 10th.

Bicycle Friendly Candidates runoff:
Mayor: Ron Nirenberg,

District 1:  Michael Montano



District 2:  Alan E. Warrick II

District 6: Melissa Cabello Havrda,

District 8:  Nobody

District 9: John Courage,

District 10:  Ezra Johnson

Good News.....
The the $850 Million Bond overwhelming passed providing money for several projects including Broadway.  The future isn't written in stone, and we have a chance to still demand that the city provides a protected bicycle lane from Houston St to Hildebrand.  It's not going to be easy if Ivy Taylor wins, but we can do it, but it's up to you to attend those pesky meetings.

I cannot confirm this, but I am wondering if you read my plea to vote for the most bicycle friendly candidate, that you voted for Keven Roles instead of Ron Nirenberg.  I ask this question because of all the under-reported candidates, he got 1557 votes.  I tweeted this because when I saw the views for my page which numbered 2429.  Compared to all the other under-reported candidates, he got over a thousand I am just wondering, did we have an effect in this election, on this guy getting those votes?  I can't prove it, but I can hope. 

In District 7, the bicycle friendly candidate won, ☮Ana Sandoval☮.  We can only hope that she has balls where Chris Medina failed to have them in defending the useless sharrows.

In other Good news, Shirley Gonzales won re-election for district 5, while Rey Saldana, although claiming to regret voting to remove S Flores, won re-election for district 4. 

Now it's up to you to get out and vote.  And even if you didn't vote in the election, you can still vote in this run-off election.  And with Ron Nirenberg, Melissa Cabello Havrda, and John Courage, all coming in at second place, with Ezra Johnson barely scratching ahead, well, they need your vote now more than ever. Most of all, we need bicycle friendly people on city council and in the mayor's office. 

Friday, May 19, 2017

Harassment on the Southside

Yesterday, my friend Mary (and that's not her real name) was commuting home on Nogalitos riding Southbound. While waiting for the light to turn green,  was harassed by a Hispanic male, late thirties, driving a white Dodge Ram, license plate BT4-0802. Below are her own words.
"So... I'm riding home and stop at a red light, this truck pulls up behind me honking aggressively I turn around, already knowing what he's honking about, and say "What, it's red!" while pointing to the light. He proceeds to yell at me and drive forward like he's going to hit me so I get off my bike and stand facing him, he gets out of his tuck I reach for my phone, he continues to yell at me saying I can't be on the road. As he approached me I struggled to hit record but a man in the lane next to us gets out of his and tells him to leave me alone. I don't know what everyone's problem is but the passed two months of bike commuting have been very aggressive, this is just going to far; people need to get educated or at least mind their own fucking business. And no he did not get in his vehicle when I stopped recording."

The video she posted can be found here at https://youtu.be/rSoxont5F30

This is why we were all for the S Flores bike lanes in the first place, because harassment didn't happen when they were in place.

So what can you do about this, why don't you get ahold of the local politicians of this side of town. in the links below.

And if this is happening to you, please contact me, unlike other newspapers, I'll report it and encourage my readers to call the authorities to get justice.


Mayor Ivy Taylor
210-207-7107  Mayor.IvyTaylor@sanantonio.gov

Ron Niremberg campaign comments link    https://voteron.com/ask-ron/

D3  Rebecca J. Viagran
210-207-7064
http://www.sanantonio.gov/Council/d3/Contact/sendto/District3

D4 Rey Saldana 
210-207-7281
http://www.sanantonio.gov/Council/d4/Contact/sendto/District4

D5 Shirley Gonzales 
210-207-7043
http://www.sanantonio.gov/Council/d5/SuggestionBox

I don't know who else to contact, but if you have a contact for the SA Current, The Rivard Report, and the Express News, please email me sirbikesalot06@gmail.com 

And if you have a similar harassment video on your bicycle, please email me with the video. 

I'll be updating this with links that actually work, later today. Until then, copy and paste please.