the dot connection in new mexico

The Great Taming of Lead Coal Gathering last Friday, July 15, was the first action I participated in around pedestrian issues. Around 60 folks gathered at a corner of Lead Ave in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill neighborhood, bringing their bikes, their kids, their lawn chairs, and signs to remind the drivers speeding past at highway speeds that people live here, people who want to walk, bike and play safely in their own neighborhood.

The overall feel was that of a neighborhood gathering, which indeed it was. The majority of the participants came from the Nob Hill neighborhood, many living right on Lead and Coal where they daily experience the hazards of life along a major traffic arterial.

I finally bit the bullet and headed out on my bike into dreaded NE Heights territory. I had several errands out that way and have wanted to get past the sense that I "must" drive when I simply must go into the Heights. I've seen some of those streets marked "Bike Route," and it doesn't much look like some of those cars want to share the road.

I chose Griegos/Comanche as my best route out, and it wasn't half bad. It goes back and forth between bike lane and bike route (a bike route is where there is no separate lane but cars are reminded by signs to share the road.) Most of it felt fairly comfortable.

The city of Albuquerque has a tough job when it comes to providing public transportation due to the low-density, sprawling suburban subdivision nature of most of its neighborhoods.

For this reason, Albuquerque's transit department mission statement encourages intermodal transportation as a way to increase use of public transportation and decrease single-occupancy-vehicle use. The Bike and Ride program offers bicycle racks on the front of all city buses to make it easier for transit users to ride their bikes to and from sometimes distant bus stops.

I'm starting to get pissed about how difficult it is to really switch from car-driving to more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation here in this lovely but highly unsustainably planned city of Albuquerque.

Today I'd intended to take the bus to TJs camera to bring in my print order. Looking at the bus schedule, had to concede that a four hour bus ride to perform a two minute errand 8 miles away is a way too inefficient use of my time. If I could combine errands it would be different, but even to do the two errands I need to do out in the NE Heights would probably turn it into an 8 hour, 8 bus ride prospect.

So I went in to my local Walgreen's yesterday to find out who to talk to about the possibility of getting a bike rack installed. I didn't have to ask the clerk, as there were three supervisory-looking types standing conspicuously together talking.

They looked pretty open to approach, so I approached them directly. Turned out two of them were this store's managers. The other was apparently a higher-up over all the local Walgreen's.

I asked about the possibility of bike racks, expressing not only that I bike there and that there is no good place to lock up my bike, but that I know this shopping center is slated for redevelopment, with plans to make it more pedestrian friendly, and that this would be a good start.

I came across this article about the Mayo Clinic developing and promoting workstations where people walk on a treadmill or stand rather than sit--a pretty cool idea and one that makes a lot of sense.

Since I work in the public schools, this got me to thinking about the obesity problem in children in the US. How come, in spite of the link of obesity to sedentary lifestyles, schools are still promoting a paradigm of sitting to work?

I mean, kids are being asked to sit still a lot younger and a lot longer than they used to. At the preschool level, some classes now spend the majority of their time sitting to do "pre-academic" work.

there is no one "sane" voice on gay marriage. a year ago i would have said -- ick -- marriage for gay people. who wants it? who cares? when all of a sudden on feb 20, 2004 our whacky, republican, sandoval county clerk started issuing marriage licenses to same gender couples. 64 same-gender couples got married and as you can imagine it threw a kink into our already nicely running campaign to protect the human rights act from being repealed (which added lgbt protections and was passed in 2003).

there was a quick emergency meeting to figure it all out, and at that meeting two of my friends (and fellow activists) decided to have their ceremony right there. it was that wedding that galvanized my commitment toward working for marriage equality. i was fortunate enough to film their ceremony and i still cry every time i watch it. everyone should have the choice to marry and get the same rights, responsibilities and protections that the state and federal marriage laws provide for. and it's clear that there are a number of other view points out there. that's why when i see libertarians say things like "both sides" it boggles my mind a bit.