Concepts in the Paradox

This time I’m quoted at the top of the page!

READERS’ PLATFORM: Transbay Terminal

The Transbay Terminal is a symbol to the world of what San Francisco was - a city with transit at heart where a working-class person could get to work on a train or a bus in a safe and timely manner. What we are telling the world now is, go get in your car, pay too much for gas and insurance, but don’t take a bus or a train - that’s for incontinent bums. We gave up on the Transbay center when we lifted the rails decades ago and submitted to car hegemony. A new Transbay transit center is likely to be more of the same. Shiny and new for a few years, then urine-soaked after budget cuts and parking garages. Who is going to pay a whopping $260 per square foot for office space with no parking in this city anyway?

- Mark Ballew, 29, San Francisco

Transbay project design selection

The whole reason we are putting up a tower is to help pay for the Caltrain terminal. All the tower designs are ugly and pre-’90s L.A. designs, nothing to show the world that San Francisco is a world-class city. At this rate we should just directly fund moving Caltrain to First and Mission and retrofit the 1939 terminal.

- Mark Ballew, 29, Cole Valley

On Sunday I took a long bike ride, from Golden Gate Park, through the Presidio, across the Golden Gate Bridge and back, through the car congested Marina, down the grid locked Embarcadero, around the strangely silent Bay Bridge, and back up Market to home. The journey was about 21 miles, a new road riding record for me, and with all the hills, I couldn’t drink enough water.

This week the bike cage is supposed to be fixed at work, so I will be leaving the N-Judah to the Sunset suckers and enjoying some fresh air while scooting through the wiggle and down Market st. Biking to work, then back home, are both my favorite parts of the day.

Thinking of biking to work, but you don’t live in a city? See:

How to ride your bike to work