Our Advocacy Team is growing! We now have three community organizers dedicated to winning better bike infrastructure throughout San Francisco, and we’re thrilled to welcome Andy Gonzalez Cabrera as the newest member of the team. Their organizing area includes much of the eastern and southern neighborhoods of San Francisco, including the Mission, Bayview-Hunters Point, the Excelsior and beyond.
Want to work with Andy? We’re looking to bring on Advocacy Interns for our Spring 2019 term. Apply today.
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition: Welcome! Tell us about yourself.
Andy González Cabrera: I am a first generation inmigrante from Mexico. I lived most of my life in Los Angeles, in a neighborhood called Echo Park, where I enjoyed walking everywhere and biking on Sunset Boulevard. I love eating street food, collecting old vinyl records, and listening to female jazz vocalists, alternative rock, Spanish Pop and lots of funk. In my spare time I volunteer with youth programs and community gardens. I’m passionate about environmental issues including environmental racism, resiliency, and womxn’s right and their autonomy.
You’re joining our team as our third community organizer. What are you most excited about?
I’m mostly excited about reaching out to leaders and community members in San Francisco’s southeast districts to provide tools that will help them exercise their civil rights and demand the resources they need most. I’m also looking forward to helping grow and expand existing relationships with community partners. It’s important to me to empower people who struggle to feel safe in the streets and those who have been excluded from the planning process to advocate for the safety of all.
What sparked your initial interest in bicycle advocacy?
At Santa Monica Community College, I was elected Director of Sustainability for the Associated Students and was very active on the Transportation Task Force committee, establishing a new bike share program for my college peers and local residents. This experience along with my passion for sustainable practices and design led me to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, along with an interest in the organization’s intersectional work in successful campaigns. It is so important to be able to give back to communities that are experiencing a lot of change in their streets. I plan to proactively listen and try my best to practice more inclusive participatory planning.
Bicycle advocacy hasn’t historically been the most inclusive movement. How are you looking to grow the movement and represent all types of people who bike?
One of the ways I want to make the bicycle advocacy movement more inclusive is by getting to know the people who have been impacted by the lack of representation in planning processes. I truly want to see safe streets and to share protected roads with more people. I am aware that there are people who have never ridden bikes before; I am ready to engage in conversations with them and our disabled community. I am also excited to work with our staff to ensure we are advocating for other marginalized communities. My hope is to bridge language barriers and technology gaps to reach more people.
Trivia time! What’s your favorite thing about the Bay Area?
I love the sunsets you can see from the East Bay, the multiple hiking trails, and green spaces all around the bay. I am definitely an outdoor person! One of my favorite neighborhoods is Chinatown because of its murals, decorations and food. I also feel blessed to be working with grassroots organizations that are dedicated to empowering communities in the Bay Area. Working in San Francisco has been a dream of mine since I was a very young age; to be doing something that I have a passion for makes being here such a great experience.
Want to work with Andy and our other community organizers on bicycle advocacy throughout SF? Apply to be a spring advocacy intern now!