This Is Our Moment

Posted on by Janice Li

Editors: This story was originally published in Issue 157 of our quarterly Tube Times magazine, one of many perks of membership in the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

On June 1, 2000, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition took a major step to elevate the voice of our then-2,877 members: Gaining 501(c)(4) status.

This wonky tax category meant that for the first time in the organization’s history, we could endorse bike-friendly candidates running for office and actively campaign to make sure these candidates were elected. We continue to exercise this powerful muscle as our membership has ballooned to over 10,000 people and now dig deep every November as Election Day rolls around.

Since 2000, the progress in the ways we get around the city has been incredible. City leaders have risen, fallen and termed out. Ballot measures have moved the city to live up to its transit-first policy and have helped raised money for expanding the bike network, building people-friendly parks and repaving our streets for a smoother ride.

With a major federal election looming and a crowded ballot, this is our moment: Your vote counts. Let’s make 2016 the year San Francisco invested in its transportation and elected the right leaders to guide us forward.

You Vote, We Endorse

Our slate of endorsements is one of the biggest ever, and we couldn’t have gotten here without member input. Let’s take a look at how we came to our endorsements.

First, our 15-person member-elected Board of Directors decided which races to consider endorsing. We then reached out to every campaign in those races with a questionnaire, surveying political candidates on their positions on a variety of biking and transportation issues we know our members care about.

This year, response was overwhelming. With a growing SF Bicycle Coalition membership and transportation as the city’s top priority, candidates seek our endorsement more than ever. In the end, we received 33 completed questionnaires for candidates in 11 different races.

Next, our members weighed in. We posted all of the candidate questionnaires online for the public to view, showing easy-to-read scorecards of where candidates stand. Do they bike? Do they support more protected bike lanes? Where do they stand on Vision Zero? For two weeks after posting the candidate questionnaires, our members voted on which candidates they prefer. The final results of the member polling significantly influenced the final decision on who to endorse, which is made by our board.

This year, in addition to voting for Supervisors, San Francisco voters will also vote on 24 different local ballot measures along with one regional measure for BART. Staff closely reviewed all 25 propositions, analyzed the impacts on biking and the relevance to our membership, then gave detailed presentations to our board for each measure.

At their August meeting, the board reviewed all of the information presented and finalized the slate for both candidates and ballot measures.

We Need to Invest

Out of the 25 local and regional measures going before voters in San Francisco on Nov. 8, there are three that your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has strongly endorsed. These measures will continue the critical investments our transportation networks require.

Vote Yes on Props J and K.

Vote Yes on Measure RR.

Vote Yes for transportation.

All three measures raise significant funding so that transportation remains affordable, safe and reliable. In 2014, the City took the first step to ensure the future of getting around in San Francisco would be reliable, safe and affordable for everyone. The $500 million general obligation bond passed with 72 percent approval and our endorsement.

We knew this was only the first step that came out of the Transportation 2030 Task Force, which detailed a wide range of funding measures to keep our city’s infrastructure strong. Propositions J and K is our city taking the next step.

In order to build out our connected and integrated network of protected bike lanes, and to plan, design and construct the people-friendly streets San Franciscans deserve, we need the resources to get us there. Not only do Propositions J and K raise a projected $13 million per year for complete streets projects, they protect against Muni service cuts in the future and help fund affordability programs like Free Muni for Youth and Free Muni for Seniors and People with Disabilities.

A transit-friendly city is a bike-friendly city. Not only does connecting your bike to transit increase mobility and open up different ways to get around, it also encourages less car use. Having a healthy transit system is inherently good for biking, which is why your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is asking you to vote yes for BART.

As a unique district comprised of San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, BART has few options to find the funding to keep their system moving aside from raising fares. One of their options is to ask voters to approve a general obligation bond, which is why it’s critical we pass Measure RR to do just that.

The numbers speak for themselves. Not only does BART move 430,000 passengers around the Bay Area every day, 60,000 of those trips are within San Francisco alone. This adds up to 129 million BART trips per year! Measure RR puts 90 percent of the revenue raised into repairing and replacing critical infrastructure that has deteriorated over decades of use. The final 10 percent of funding will be used to expand bike access to stations, repair and upgrade elevators and help to relieve crowding on trains, adding up to 100 percent impact for the everyday BART rider.

This year is your chance to weigh in for better biking, better transit and transportation that works for the Bay Area. Vote yes on Propositions J and K, and vote yes on Measure RR.

The Tube Times is published quarterly as one of the many benefits to members of the SF Bicycle Coalition. For a complete list of membership benefits, or to join/renew today, click here.

We’re Hiring: Development Associate

Posted on by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is an effective, member-supported nonprofit organization working to promote the bicycle for everyday transportation. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s work during the past decade has helped to increase the number of people biking in San Francisco by 184 percent.

The Development Associate reports to the Development Director and works closely with a team of staff, board members, interns and volunteers. The Development Associate helps plan and executes contributed revenue strategy in areas key to ensuring organizational sustainability. Areas of responsibility include: individual donor cultivation and stewardship, direct mail and electronic fundraising campaign support, foundation prospecting and grant writing, business partner support, workplace giving and third-party fundraising support.

  • Classification: Full-time
  • Reports to: Development Director

Responsibilities

Individual Giving

  • Assist in planning all direct mail and electronic fundraising appeals; execute those campaigns by building lists, managing mailing process, facilitating the design process;
  • Assist in planning and execution of SF Bicycle Coalition fundraising events, including house parties and major donor events; and
  • Manage workplace giving, including third-party corporate giving portals.

Institutional Giving

  • Manage the SF Bicycle Coalition’s grants calendar, including deadlines for applying and reporting;
  • Manage and grow Discount Partner Program, building relationships with bike-friendly businesses;
  • Manage and represent the SF Bicycle Coalition’s participation in third-party fundraising events, including the Climate Ride and other fundraisers benefiting the organization; and
  • Manage and maintain accounts on third-party giving portals and platforms.

Comprehensive Management of the Donor Database

  • Manage the maintenance, data input, data integrity and accuracy for Salesforce constituent database;
  • Manage the creation of donor reports, developing additional reports and dashboards that are responsive to the needs of the Development team;  
  • Develop systems and procedures for effectively tracking pipeline of donors and facilitate information maintenance; and
  • Conduct prospect research as requested by Director of Development.

Gifts Processing and Acknowledgements

  • Process all gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations and organizations;
  • Generate gift acknowledgement letters, receipts and pledge reminders;
  • Manage and coordinate monthly reconciliation and annual audit requests with the Operations Manager;
  • Respond to requests for information from donors, volunteers and staff in a professional and timely manner; and
  • Perform all functions with a high degree of accuracy and confidentiality.

Essential Skills and Qualifications

  • At least two years of related professional experience;
  • High attention to detail;
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal;
  • Strong database-management skills, including Salesforce or other CRM systems;
  • Demonstrated project-management and time-management skills and ability to manage multiple priorities;
  • Experience using Microsoft suite, mail merge, Google Docs and Google Calendar;
  • Ability to lift 25 pounds;
  • Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends; and
  • Commitment to the mission and goals of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Salary and Benefits

The annual salary for this position is mid-$40,000s or higher, depending upon relevancy of experience. Full-time benefits include medical, vision and dental insurance.

How to Apply

Write a compelling cover letter and resume and submit them by clicking “Apply for Position” below. Be sure to mention where you saw the job advertised. Applications will be reviewed starting Monday, Oct. 10 on a rolling basis until the position is filled. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is an equal opportunity employer. People of color and women are strongly encouraged to apply.

UPDATE: We are no longer accepting applications for the Development Associate position. If you have questions, please contact Tracy.

Members: Vote For Your Board of Directors This Fall

Posted on by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

The SF Bicycle Coalition is governed by a member-elected, all-volunteer Board of Directors. This year, eight of the 15 seats are up for election. Any member in good standing may run and serve a two-year term on the board.

Like all nonprofit boards, our Board of Directors serves many important functions, including hiring and supervising the Executive Director, providing legal and financial oversight, providing strategic direction, and raising money to ensure the organization’s sustainability and support its work.

This year, voting begins on Nov. 14 and will conclude at Winterfest on Dec. 4, where members can meet and question candidates in person. A candidate forum is also planned for our annual member meeting on Nov. 17. Online voting is encouraged, but ballots may also be cast in person at our office at 1720 Market St. during normal business hours.

Members elect half of our all-volunteer Board of Directors every year. This year, voting opens at our annual member meeting on Nov. 14 and closes at Winterfest on Dec. 4. Voting will also be available online during that time, and in person at our office (1720 Market St.) Learn more and vote: sfbike.org/board_election.

Complete Streets Deferred, but (Nearly) Underway

Posted on by Chris Cassidy

Editors: This story was originally published in Issue 157 of our quarterly Tube Times magazine, one of many perks of membership in the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Once planned to begin construction earlier this year, complete streets redesigns are underway – or nearly so – across San Francisco.

Masonic Avenue

Construction began this August as part of the Masonic Avenue Streetscape Project, transforming a street with fast-moving traffic and a history of collisions into a welcoming, neighborhood boulevard. The improvements planned include widening sidewalks, connecting the Panhandle to Geary Boulevard with a raised bike lane, and nearly doubling the street trees with a new landscaped median.

When the San Francisco Board of Supervisors first approved the complete redesign of Masonic Avenue, the three districts touching Masonic Avenue were represented by Supervisors Jake McGoldrick, Michela Alioto-Pier and Ross Mirkarimi. The year was 2008.

The City’s culture of delay repeatedly slowed progress, but now, following eight years of activism and neighborhood watchdogging, construction on Masonic’s redesign is finally underway. Construction is scheduled to last 18 months.

The slow progress on Masonic has demonstrated once again the need for the community to come together to guarantee that safety improvements are approved and then enacted. By acting together, we can ensure that the City feels the weight of an activist community and knows that delays are unacceptable. This collective pressure on the City informs our work not only on the extremely important Executive Directive issued by Mayor Ed Lee in the wake of the tragic events of June 22, but also in regards to other complete streets projects presently underway.

We’ve learned a few lessons watching the delays on Masonic, and don’t want the same fate of inaction for Polk Street and Second Street. We plan to hold the City accountable to its current timelines to see these dangerous streets similarly transformed after enduring years of planning and approval processes.

Polk Street

The debate over whether to bring life-saving safety improvements to Polk Street spanned two and one-half years. The result was a victory for safe streets advocates: Raised bike lanes were approved along a significant stretch of Polk, but not the entirety of the corridor.

polkstreet_600px

Polk Street is set to break ground this fall. Following a substantial construction period delivered in multiple phases, we’re looking forward to riding a new Polk Street that’s welcoming to everyone.

Second Street

In SoMa, another important commercial corridor is preparing for construction. The ambitious plans to connect Market Street to King Street via raised bike lanes along the entirety of Second Street were approved in August of 2015 and scheduled for construction by the end of 2016. Unfortunately, the timeline has shifted and groundbreaking is not expected until the first half of 2017. Once complete, Second Street will be a model for people-first public spaces in a neighborhood surrounded by fast-moving traffic and dangerous corridors.

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Every victory for more bikeable, livable streets – from planning to approval to construction – depends on the collective power of San Francisco Bicycle Coalition members. Together, we will watch these projects and hold the City accountable.

On every single street campaign, the people of San Francisco depend on a team of advocates connecting community members with opportunities to demand change and hold the City responsible. That’s why your membership in the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is so important: Together, we can accomplish more than any of us could ever dream of achieving alone.

Help us ensure these streets become a reality. Give a friend or loved one a gift membership today at sfbike.org/join.

The Tube Times is published quarterly as one of the many benefits to members of the SF Bicycle Coalition. For a complete list of membership benefits, or to join/renew today, click here.

Only One Chance This Year: SF Bicycle Coalition Jersey Sales

Posted on by Chris Cassidy

It’s become an annual tradition: Now is your chance to order SF Bicycle Coalition jerseys.

Unlike our hoodies and t-shirts, we cannot afford to keep these durable, light jerseys on our shelves. So this is your only chance in 2016 to submit your order, which will arrive in time for the holidays.

Purchase Your Jersey Today

Pre-sales are only open from Saturday, Oct. 1 to Sunday, Oct. 15, so order today and your purchase will arrive in early December. This is a limited edition run, so purchase now. We have no plans at this time to make these jerseys available again after Oct. 15.

Manufactured by Castelli and designed by graphic designer Eric Tuvel, these jerseys are light, durable and show your pride in being a part of the community advocating to make San Francisco more bikeable and livable for everyone. 

  • Price: Jersey: $90
  • Color: black, orange & white
  • Sizes: Men’s and women’s training fit jersey range from XS to 3XL
    (size chart)

SFBC-Kit-Pre-Order

NOTE: Last year, Castelli released a new and improved version of their training jersey, so check the size chart to confirm your size before ordering. Although the new design is a bit roomier, Castelli uses European sizing and they do tend to run quite small. You can also try on Castelli jerseys at San Francisco’s many bike shops that carry this well-known brand. Due to the limited run, we cannot offer exchanges or returns.

Purchase your SF Bicycle Coalition jersey today and wear it with pride in the city, over the golden hills and beyond. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to support our work to make San Francisco a better place to bike and live.

Contact Kelsey at membership@sfbike.org with questions.

Request For Proposals: Help Update Our Strategic Plan

Posted on by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

The SF Bicycle Coalition is seeking a qualified consultant or firm to assist us in creating our next strategic plan. We have issued an request for proposals (RFP) detailing the scope of the project, as well as schedule and submission requirements, among other information.

DOWNLOAD RFP

Proposals should be submitted electronically to strategicplanning@sfbike.org by Oct. 24. Please direct any questions regarding this RFP to strategicplanning@sfbike.org.

Now Hiring: Spring Interns

Posted on by Libby Nachman

Join us this spring as part of the SF Bicycle Coalition team! Applications are now open for our spring 2016 internships. Our interns jump right into the bicycle action and keep us cranking in high gear.

We accept both student and practical experience internships, and generally request that interns make a minimum commitment of 10 to 20 hours per week. The spring intern semester runs approximately from January through May.

This season, we’re hiring for up to seven different positions:

  • Bicycle Advocacy Intern: Put on your advocate hat! Join our Advocacy team to support our various street campaigns both inside City Hall and out on the streets.
  • Bike to Work Day Event Planning Intern: We’re throwing San Francisco’s largest citywide bike event of the year and we need your help. Make your list and check it twice to join us managing logistics of the biggest day for biking all year long.
  • Education Program Intern: Hone your teaching skills and learn the nuts and bolts of nonprofit program management. Keep our innovative bicycle education classes going strong.
  • Graphic Design Intern: Photoshop? InDesign? Illustrator? You can use them in your sleep. Flaunt your design skills with highly visible portfolio pieces to support our work.
  • Public Affairs Communications Intern: Learn the ins and outs of public relations and put language to work on behalf of people who bike. Help our Communications team copy edit and produce our weekly newsletters, blog posts and more.
  • Volunteer Coordination Intern: We rely on over 1,000 volunteers each year to push our work forward. Put your people management skills to work in collaborating with these amazing folks.

In addition to loading up your resume with practical experience, interns get other great benefits like a one-year free membership to the SF Bicycle Coalition, ongoing professional development and networking opportunities, discounts on our sweet merchandise, first dibs on exciting events and opportunities, and more. Still not convinced? See what past interns have had to say about their experiences here and here.

We’re accepting applications now and will be reviewing them on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. What are you waiting for? Apply today!

If you’re not able to commit to a full internship, but still want to get involved, we’d love to have you join us at one of our many volunteer opportunities.

Support Protected Bike Lanes in SoMa

Posted on by Janice Li

Want to make protected bike lanes on Seventh and Eighth Streets a reality? Be a part of our people-powered advocacy.

Last week, dozens of people stopped by the open house to see the latest proposal by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to connect Market Street to Folsom Street with protected bike lanes. Take a look at the designs for yourself.

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Street drawing for proposed protected bike lane on 7th Street (from the SFMTA)

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Street drawing for proposed protected bike lane on 8th Street (from the SFMTA)

If you weren’t able to make the open house, you can find all the material at their website. Over the next few weeks, the SFMTA will continue collecting public feedback before pursuing approvals for the Seventh and Eighth Streets Project. To ensure that this project moves forward, we need to show strong support for biking and street safety.

Projects like this are won by people power, which is why our next SoMa Member Committee meeting will focus on city processes and how we can come together to build our power and win real street changes. If you want to see more protected bike lanes in SoMa, please join us.

SoMa Member Committee
Thursday, Oct. 6 from 6:00 – 7:00 pm
SF Bicycle Coalition: 1720 Market St.

Transforming our neighborhoods into welcoming places for people biking and walking is a block-by-block effort. Every project approved with high-quality street designs moves our city one step closer to that vision. We hope you can join us to make it happen.

Polk Street’s Transformation Starts Now

Posted on by Janice Li

Bring on the shovels! We’re this close to breaking ground on the redesign of Polk Street.

Protected bike lanes, fresh pavement, pedestrian bulb-outs and upgraded traffic signals are coming to Polk. Before breaking ground in the coming weeks, the City is holding a pre-construction open house so that you have all the details of what the next two years entail.

Polk Street Pre-Construction Open House
Wednesday, Oct. 5 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Tenderloin Community School: 627 Turk St.

With Masonic Avenue’s groundbreaking just a couple months ago, we are finally seeing years of advocacy bear fruit throughout San Francisco to transform our streets into places where biking and walking are welcomed and encouraged.

Polk Street is an essential north-south bike route that threads through several neighborhoods to connect them to Market Street. Despite the popularity of biking here, the entire corridor is on the City’s high-injury network for both biking and walking. After years of grassroots organizing led and supported by your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, our members and neighborhood allies came away with a major victory in March 2015 — the full approval for the improvements that are getting ready for construction now.

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Rendering by the SFMTA

A lot has happened to turn the publicly-vetted ideas into real designs, so this open house is also your chance to see the details of every inch of bike lane to be painted and each new tree that’s ready to be planted. We hope to see you there to make sure that the public support for this project is loud and clear: San Francisco is ready for construction.

McLaren Park’s $10 Million Facelift

Posted on by Janice Li

Ten million dollars. Three hundred acres of park land.

If you want to help answer the $10 million question for McLaren Park, your chance is coming up on Saturday, Oct. 1. SF Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) will be hosting a workshop to get public input on how to prioritize this investment for San Francisco’s second-largest park, nestled in the southeast corner of the city.

RSVP for Workshop

We know how amazing the Mansell Street improvements will be to open up park space for biking, establishing a beautiful bicycle and pedestrian path that is fully separated from fast-moving cars. The City announced earlier this month that this transformation will be completed in October, and we look forward to celebrating with you once we have the exact opening date.

The excitement doesn’t stop there, though. This upcoming workshop is the first for the McLaren Park Improvement Project to determine priorities for spending the investment that San Francisco voters made in 2012 by approving the Parks Bond, a measure that passed with a 72 percent approval rate.

When it comes to investing in our parks and opening up space where families can enjoy biking together, we’re glad to see improvements throughout all of San Francisco. Help support this work by attending the workshop and learn more about the project at RPD’s website here.