Eastern Townships

Originally Posted on March 2, 2007 on Velo Quebec 2007

Eastern Townships
Travel Map

Le plus Beaux Villages du Quebec
Google Maps 50 miles/80 kilometers from Frelighsburg to St-Benoit-du-Lac
Frelighsburg - Stanbridge-East - Knowlton - St.-Benoit-du-Lac

Frelighsburg

Google Map

Nestled between luscious green valleys on the banks of the Brochets River, close to Mount Pinacle and the american border, Frelighsburg is home to a particularly special architectural heritage as is reflected in the importance, originality and preservation of its buildings. Its proximity to the United States meant this village became a place where many cross-border immigrants would eventually settle. The first wave of immigrants arrived in 1790; among them was Abram Freligh, who gave the village its name upon acquiring the sawmill. The second mill, built on the rivers’ edge by Freligh’s son in 1839, is now a historical monument and is private property. Frelighsburg began expanding throughout the 19th century, with side-by-side construction of American-style stone and wooden buildings.

• Au cœur de la Pomme, 42, route 237 : farm with apple products , specialty of applevinegar and honey.
• À la Girondine, 104, route 237 sud : Ducks, geese, rabbits, pâtés, foie gras etc.
• Le Festiv’Art, (Saturday and Sunday, early september) : hundred artists from all over the Québec on the main street.
  

Restaurants

• Café-terrasse Les Sucreries de l’Érable,
  16, rue Principale, downtown (in the old general store)
• Aux Deux Clochers, rue de l’Église
• La Girondine, 104, route 237 sud, country dining
  
  Stanbridge East
  
  Google Map
  
  In 1797, several years following the American Revolution, loyalists Nathan Andrews and Caleb Tree arrived in Canada, and built a grain mill next to the Rivi ère des Brochets (“Pikes river”). The little village of Stanbridge East was thus born, in the heart of a calm and quiet landscape. Harmoniously blended within are cultivated fields, edged in groves and hedges and flanked by evergreens and leafy trees. The river cuts across the landscape, weaves along the hollows, and leads through the heart of the village.

After strolling along the roads, which offer eye-catching vantage points, cyclists and walkers arrive at the village centre, surrounded by nineteenth-century ancestral homes built in the American style using brick and painted wood. Next to the Brochets River is the Missisquoi Museum, housed in the 1820 Cornell Mill, which was built on the edge of the barrage. To the east are Hodge’s General Store and Bill’s Barn (Grange à Bill).

As in its neighbouring villages, here, too, religions reside peacefully side by side. Saint James Anglican Church and its presbytery (1860), built in the neogothic style, stand in a shaded area alongside the small verdant cemetery. The United Church (1884) sits on the opposite side of the park, displaying a more Victorian style. Rather ironically, the Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc Catholic Church is housed in a former 1861 bank.

Starting in the nineteenth century, this peaceful setting saw the expansion of small industries, such as a wool-refining mill, a manufacturer of wooden tops, and a leather tannery. Soon after, railroads and stores were built. Agriculture also began developing at this time, and quickly became the village mainstay after most of the workshops closed down. Today, in addition to standard farming, farms produce a variety of lesser-grown fruits.

• Chèvrerie Les Caprices du Pré (goat farm), 1, chemin Blinn (visits, activities and demonstration of hand-made goat’s milk soap production)
• La Ménagerie de verre, 2, rue Riceburg (artisanal stained glass window making ).
• La Pépinière Bernier, 155 Ridge (nursery and small fruits)
• Les Serres Mercier, 191, chemin Bunker, route 237 (garden centre)
• Le magasin général Blinn, 12, rue River
• Meubles Shaker, route 237 ( Shaker style hand made furniture)
  

Restaurants

• Café « Chez moi »,
  rue Maple (delicatessen, breakfasts)
  Phil Baker’s bakery,
  19, North Road (bakery and asparagus for sale)
  Restaurant « Le Sainte Jeanne d’Arc »,
  7, rue River (breeded game).

Knowlton

Google Map
About 100 kilometres southeast of Montreal, on the shores of a magnificent five- kilometre wide lake, Knowlton is at once a blooming, shady and festive village, especially during the summer and weekends. Vacationers gather here to enjoy aquatic activities on the lake, the beauty of the surrounding landscapes, and the quaint charm of the streets, which are lined with specialized boutiques, antique shops, and cafés.

The village was founded in 1821 with the construction of the first mill, a flour mill built in 1836 by Colonel Knowlton; a sawmill and the general store then followed. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Knowlton became the administrative, legal and postal centre of the region.

As is typical of the region, the presence of three different churches (one Catholic, one Anglican and one 1875 Victorian-style Methodist) epitomizes the co-existence of different cultures and religions. Beautiful residences spread across the village, particularly in the wooded area near the north entrance. Visit Masonic Hall (61, chemin Lakeside), which dates back to 1843 and once housed a tannery. A scenic little pond drawn from Cold Brook creek decorates the village centre.

A number of interesting public buildings are worth visiting, notably the P.H Knowlton Memorial (1854, now the Musée historique du comté de Brome) The History Museum of Brome County, the former post office (1904, now serves as city hall), the former Eastern Township bank, and the old library of 1894.

Duck farming is a Lake Brome specialty. Purchase or sample the variety of duck products available. For your intellectual cravings, a summer theatre features performances in English.

The Anglo-Saxon charm of Knowlton makes a winter visit worthwhile too. Enjoy the inns, winter ice-fishing, window shopping, and winter sports at Mount Glen. For a rejuvenating visit, try the lakefront health spa.

Brome Lac

Brome Lac Ducks
Brome Lake Ducks Ltd.
40 chemin Centre,
Knowlton (Quebec) Canada J0E 1V0
Google Maps


Duckfest - Canard de Fete au Lac Brome
Sept. 23-24, Sept. 30 - Oct 1






St-Benoit-du-Lac Abbey
Map
Blue Cheese and Cider
Room and Board $40 per night

Benidictine Abbey

St-Benoit-du-Lac to Magag to Ste_Catherine-de-Hatley to Sherbrook to St-Denis-de-Brompton to Racine.

90 kilometers or 56 miles







Racine



Racine to Victoriaville 77 kilometers

Victoriaville

Victoriaville to Trois Rivieres

Good and Bad Today

The great thing about riding a bike around town is that you run into the nicest people. You see friends at random out riding. Well today on two separate occasions I ran into friends out for a ride. Its great to be connected in the community. In Portland after only 4 days in town I ran into acquaintances I had met that week. When you on a bike you have the chance to meet so many other people.

The bad thing about being on a bike is you meet (run into) all the other nut jobs out their who hide behind the anonymity and protection of their SUV.

At the intersection of Prospect Ave. and Saratoga Ave. in San Jose, CA. (right in front of the WAMU...Washington Mutual or whatever it is this week) so guy was displaying a sign with random and incomprehensible gibberish. Some SUV (Volkswagen) nut job proceeds to argue with him for about a minute while making a right hand turn.....bit talk such as get a job asshole...etc.

He then pulls into the WAMU parking lot and starts to get out of his car and I am thinking this 150 homeless looking guy is going to kit taken out by this muscle bound, big armed, tattooed loaded cannon. He started to egg him on ....saying things like come on over here and I'll kick your ass. Like this little guy is going to drop his sign and go take on Sgt. Overcaffinated.

I think he knew that I was watching (eyes on the street) so he got back in his car and took off. After he left I was thinking, oh no I hope he didn't go back home to bring out the heavy artillery.

This incident is something bicyclists usually see with the first signs of spring. You know, cooped up all winter, first chance to get out of the house, go for a ride, roll the windows down and harass cyclists and pedestrians. You usually don't see it just before the holidays on a day when our first seasonal chill sets in. Maybe this is a sign of things to come in the Silicon Valley. Maybe everybody is just stressed out economically, wondering if they will be fired from their own little shit hole start up. "We are all just one step away from humility"

So if you see a guy in West San Jose traffic just waiting to explode; check it out. Volkswagen SUV, slate grey, no license plate in front (didn't get the back plate). He is about 5 foot 8 inches about 190, with big tattooed arms and close cut black hair. Age; about 30-35 years old.

Be careful out there...cyclists.

DeAnza College - Ticket Giveway

This morning at 8:30 saw 5 Santa Clara County Sheriffs giving tickets at Stelling Rd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. at the same time.

Miami's First Car Free Event

Bike Miami: Car-Free Under the Palm Trees

This posting from Streetfillms.

Yesterday Miami became the latest American city to pull off a big car-free event, when an estimated 2,000 people (including mayor Manny Diaz) took to the streets for Bike Miami.


And from Bike Miami:

By all accounts Bike Miami was a total success! Some estimates claim nearly 2,000 bicyclists, joggers, walkers, dogs, dancers and skaters in attendance. I have a feeling it may have been a little more, but regardless, downtown was full of smiling people enjoying their city in a new way.

The two hot spots were undoubtedly Mary Brickell Village and Bayfront park, the two bookends of the route where people flocked in droves. In fact, South Miami Avenue was much more like an urban plaza than a street. Did you notice how the cafe seating and active retail edges allowed people to watch the active participants promenade through what became more a stage than a street? It was a beautiful event and instructive. Indeed, I have never seen such an exercise of urbanism within downtown Miami. The event clearly demonstrates the wonderful potential of downtown Miami and I think the event’s organizers and participants now understand what livable streets can mean for the health of downtown Miami.

At 11am Miami Mayor Manny Diaz gave a short speech about making Miami a more bicycle friendly city. His commitment to such a goal has been more than evident in the past 9 months and we should all thank him, his staff (especially Kathryn Moore!) the Bicycle Action Committee and all the other city departments who made Bike Miami so successful. As Mayor Diaz also pointed out, yesterday’s event would not have been possible without the volunteer effort of the city’s police force who were wonderful, if not a bit surprised at the masses of people using the city’s streets in such an innovative way. Thanks to all!

Please know that all those involved in organizing the event are now aiming to make Bike Miami occur on a regular basis, perhaps even monthly as the mayor mentioned to me yesterday. However, before doing so, we would like to hear from you. What did you like? Did you have any problems? Do you have any suggestions for a route change or possible extension? Share your feedback by visiting the Bike Miami homepage and filling out a quick survey.

We will do our best to make Bike Miami even better for you in the future. All we ask in return is that you contact your local representatives, the Mayor’s office and/or your local news outlets etc (Especially the Miami Herald who ignored the event in today’s coverage!). to share your support and positive feedback. This is a grassroots event. Be the roots.

All bike routes lead to SLO

All bike routes lead to SLO
Kylie Mendonca

San Luis Obispo cyclists got some good news from the City Council on Tuesday, with the approval of two bike-friendly traffic projects.

Funding to complete the Bill Roalman Bike Boulevard, which runs the length of Morro Street between Upham and Marsh streets, was approved after dozens of cyclists and neighbors showed their support for the project. It will cost the city an estimated $436,000, of which more than half is to cover the cost of scheduled maintenance.

Although the money for the project had already been allocated, the city has had to reconsider many projects in the city in light of a worsening budget outlook. Council members considered cutting certain safety and ornamental features, such as “bulb-out” curbs at the Pismo Street crossing, and a roadblock at Leff Street. Ultimately, however, the council passed the total project with a 5-0 vote. When it is completed, the boulevard will be closed to cars, except to allow them to cross the boulevard and to allow access to arterial streets.

Bike Coalition Executive Director Adam Fukushima said the strong show of biker support for the path led to its approval.

The Bike Boulevard is just one of several trails that will someday link-up and connect Cal Poly to the south side of town and the downtown area, as well as the Bob Jones Trail to Avila Beach.

Earlier this year, the city opened up a portion of the Bob Jones Trail, a sort of disconnected but beautiful path, which begins at Prado Road and winds around the back of SLO’s water reclamation facility before dead-ending at Highway 101 near Los Osos Valley Road. The council approved plans to build an overpass at that site, and many cyclists hoped that it would also include an underpass for bikes and pedestrians to access the path from Los Osos Valley Road. It didn’t, but the council did approve 12-foot-wide sidewalks, which can accommodate bike lanes in the future.

The Land Conservancy, a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving green space, hopes to connect the newest section of the trail to the historic Octagon Barn on South Higuera. The eventual goal is to connect the trail all the way to Avila Beach. Land Conservancy Executive Director Brian Stark said that while money is an issue right now, he was optimistic about the eventual completion.

“When the Bob Jones Trail is finally finished,” Stark said, “and bikes can get from downtown to Avila without having to get on a road, it’s going to be a priceless experience.”

For now, priceless seems a little steep for county and city budgets.

U.S. Automakers are facing isaster after '30 years of denial"

DETROIT (AP) — At Ford Motor Co. they called it "Blue," a team set up around the year 2000 to design an array of small, fuel-efficient cars to compete with the Japanese. It didn't get far because no one could figure out how to make money on low-priced compacts with Ford's high labor costs.

Besides, the automaker was racking up billions in profits by selling pickups and sport utility vehicles. Times were good and gas was cheap.

"Blue" is only a small blip in automotive history, but it tells a big part of the story about why Detroit automakers are in a mess so critical they could be only months away from bankruptcy.

Democratic leaders in Congress asked the Bush administration on Saturday to provide more aid to the struggling auto industry, which is bleeding cash and jobs as sales have dropped to their lowest level in a quarter-century.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the administration should consider expanding the $700 billion bailout to include car companies.

Critics say leaders over the years at Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and what is now Chrysler LLC were slow to take on unions, failed to invest enough in new products, ceded the car market to the Japanese and were ill-prepared for the inevitable rise in gas prices that would make their trucks and SUVs obsolete.

"There's been 30 years of denial," said Noel Tichy, a University of Michigan business professor and author who ran General Electric Co.'s leadership program from 1985-87 and once worked as a consultant for Ford. "They did not make themselves competitive. They didn't deal with the union issues, the cost structures long ago, everything that makes a successful company."

Industry representatives, however, say their critics are simplistic, giving them no credit for huge progress this decade in cutting costs, raising productivity, and building competitive cars while handling multiple government regulations and a powerful labor union.

"In the last five years, there's been more restructuring done in the automotive business than any other business in the history of the United States," said Tony Cervone, a GM vice president of communications.

Whatever the reasons, the Detroit Three are closer to collapse than ever, and likely won't make it without billions in government loans.

On Friday, GM posted a $2.5 billion third-quarter loss and ominously said it could run out of money before the end of the year. The company spent $6.9 billion more than it took in for the quarter and reported that it had $16.2 billion in cash available at the end of September.

Ford reported a $129 million loss but said it burned up $7.7 billion in cash for the period. It had $18.9 billion on hand as of Sept. 30. Its chief financial officer says he's confident Ford will make it through 2009, but that's because the company took out a huge loan last year.

Industry analysts believe Chrysler, now a private company that does not have to open its books, is as bad off as GM as U.S. sales continue to plummet because of tight credit and lack of consumer confidence due to the economy.

To survive, automakers are pressing Washington for $50 billion in low-interest loans on top of $25 billion already approved to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. The $25 billion, though, is gummed up in Energy Department regulations and may not be available until next year.

The industry's path to cliff's edge is a complex one that even critics say is intertwined with government fuel economy and safety regulations and the United Auto Workers union.

The demise started in the 80s when Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. mastered building reliable and efficient cars while the Detroit Three lagged behind.

As GM, Ford and Chrysler saw their market share start to slip, the 90s arrived and high profits returned as Americans snapped up pickup trucks and SUVs.

As Honda and Toyota took over the small and mid-size car markets, Ford, GM and Chrysler put most of their resources into trucks and SUVs, which brought in billions in profits that covered growing health care, pension and labor costs.

"In a market-based economy when you have to try to be profitable, you go where the money is," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

When times were good, the automakers did not take on the UAW, which the companies say drove up their labor costs to $30 per hour more than Japanese companies paid their workers. The figure includes pension and health care costs for hundreds of thousands of retirees.

When GM pushed for changes in 1998, the union went on strike at two key Flint, Mich., parts plants, shutting down the company and costing it about $2 billion in profits.

"They were making money and the union had a monopoly," Cole said. "They'd shut them down. That's why they had some very lengthy strikes that were very painful."

But when the SUV and truck market started to fade in the mid-2000s, executives realized their business model would no longer work and began globalizing their vehicles, streamlining manufacturing processes and developing new and better cars.

The UAW, realizing that the companies were in trouble, agreed to a landmark new contract last year that nearly eliminated the labor cost difference between the Detroit Three and the Japanese, shifting retiree health care costs to a union-administered trust fund.

But just as the cost cuts started to take hold and new products were rolling out, gas prices rose rapidly to around $4 per gallon and Wall Street collapsed, virtually eliminating credit which 60 percent of car buyers need.

"A lot of things sort of coalesced simultaneously," said Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for J.D. Power and Associates.

Automakers have all said bankruptcy is not an option because people would not buy cars from a company that might not exist in a few years. But if the car companies run out of money and can't pay the bills, bankruptcy could be forced on them, according to industry analysts.

GM's statements that it may run out of cash this year or next likely will have an effect on sales, Libby said.

"It doesn't help, and they know that," he said.

The current crisis, Cervone says, is not unique to the domestics. Honda and Toyota, he says, also have seen huge sales drops in the U.S. in recent months.

If Detroit gets federal help, the companies that do survive should become profitable next year, Cole said, if the credit market thaws out.

Cole says there's no way at this point the Detroit automakers can survive without federal aid. But if they get it, the ones that do survive should become profitable again next year if the credit markets thaw out.

"They'll get out of it," says Libby. "They've got to do what they've got to do. They're backed up against the wall."

New Media Brought Change to Politics as Usual

New Media Brought Change to Politics as Usual

The 2008 race for the White House that comes to an end on Tuesday fundamentally upended the way presidential campaigns are fought in this country, a legacy that has almost been lost with all the attention being paid to the battle between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

It has rewritten the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the news media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks, including many carried by blogs that did not exist four years ago. It has challenged the consensus view of the American electoral battleground, suggesting that Democrats can at a minimum be competitive in states and regions that had long been Republican strongholds.

The size and makeup of the electorate could be changed because of efforts by Democrats to register and turn out new black, Hispanic and young voters. This shift may have long-lasting ramifications for what the parties do to build enduring coalitions, especially if intensive and technologically-driven voter turnout programs succeed in getting more people to the polls. Mr. McCain’s advisers expect a record-shattering turnout of 130 million people, many being brought into the political process for the first time.

“I think we’ll be analyzing this election for years as a seminal, transformative race,” said Mark McKinnon, a senior adviser to President Bush’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004. “The year campaigns leveraged the Internet in ways never imagined. The year we went to warp speed. The year the paradigm got turned upside down and truly became bottom up instead of top down.”

To a considerable extent, Republicans and Democrats say, this is a result of the way that the Obama campaign sought to understand and harness the Internet (and other forms of so-called new media) to organize supporters and to reach voters who no longer rely primarily on information from newspapers and television. The platforms included YouTube, which did not exist in 2004, and the cellphonetext messages that the campaign was sending out to supporters on Monday to remind them to vote.

“We did some very innovative things on the data side, and we did some Internet,” said Sara Taylor, who was the White House political director during Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign. “But only 40 percent of the country had broadband back then. You now have people who don’t have home telephones anymore. And Obama has done a tremendous job of waging a campaign through the new media challenge.

“I don’t know about you, but I see an Obama Internet ad every day. And I have for six months.”

Even more crucial to the way this campaign has transformed politics has been Mr. Obama’s success at using the Internet to build a huge network of contributors that permitted him to raise enough money — after declining to participate in the public financing system — to expand the map and compete in traditionally Republican states.

No matter who wins the election, Republicans and Democrats say, Mr. Obama’s efforts in places like Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia — organizing and advertising to voters who previously had little exposure to Democratic ideas and candidates — will force future candidates to think differently.

“The great impact that this election will have for the future is that it killed public financing for all time,” said Mr. McCain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt. “That means the next Republican presidential campaign, hopefully a re-election for John McCain, will need to be a billion-dollar affair to challenge what the Democrats have accomplished with the use of the Internet and viral marketing to communicate and raise money.”

“It was a profound leap forward technologically,” Mr. Schmidt added. “Republicans will have to figure out how to compete with this in order to become competitive again at a national level and in House and Senate races.”

This transformation did not happen this year alone. In 2000, Mr. Bush’s campaign, lead by Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, pioneered the use of microtargeting to find and appeal to potential new supporters. In 2004, the presidential campaign of Howard Dean was widely credited with being the first to see the potential power of the Internet to raise money and sign up volunteers, a platform that Mr. Obama tremendously expanded.

“They were Apollo 11, and we were the Wright Brothers,” said Joe Trippi, the manager of Mr. Dean’s campaign.

Terry Nelson, who was the political director of the Bush campaign in 2004, said that the evolution was challenging campaign operatives who worked for every presidential campaign, and would continue in 2012 and beyond.

“We are in the midst of a fundamental transformation of how campaigns are run,” Mr. Nelson said. “And it’s not over yet.”

The changes go beyond what Mr. Obama did and reflect a cultural shift in voters, producing an audience that is at once better informed, more skeptical and, from reading blogs, sometimes trafficking in rumors or suspect information. As a result, this new electorate tends to be more questioning of what it is told by campaigns and often uses the Web to do its own fact-checking.

“You do focus groups and people say, ‘I saw that ad and I went to this Web site to check it,’ ” said David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager. “They are policing the campaigns.”

Mr. Schmidt said the speed and diversity of the news cycle had broken down the traditional way that voters received information and had given campaigns opportunities, and challenges, in trying to manage the news.

“The news cycle is hyperaccelerated and driven by new players on the landscape, like Politico and Huffington Post, which cause competition for organizations like The A.P. where there is a high premium on being first,” he said. “This hyperaccelerates a cable-news cycle driven to conflict and drama and trivia.”

Among the biggest changes this year is the intense new interest in politics, reflected in jumps in voters registration, early voting and attendance at Mr. Obama’s rallies. To no small extent, that is a reflection on the unusual interest stirred by his campaign. Thus, it is hardly clear that a future candidate who appropriated all the innovations that Mr. Obama and his campaign tried would necessarily have the same success as Mr. Obama.

“Without the candidate who excites people,” Mr. Plouffe said, “you can have the greatest strategy and machinery and it won’t matter.”

Mr. Trippi, who worked for one of Mr. Obama’s rivals in the Democratic primary, former Senator John Edwards, said: “It has all come together for one guy, Barack Obama. But now that it’s happened, it’s a permanent change.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04memo.html?bl&ex=1226034000&en=ed50bf72c5e6eaea&ei=5087%0A

Century Rides in Califronia - Google Maps Mashup

Here is a link to an interesting bike mashup.....Century Rides in California

Girl, 11, killed in crash outside Glendale middle school

Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Lia Catarinicchia, left, and Margaret Hall grieve at a memorial for Meri Nalbandyan, 11, a sixth-grader at Eleanor J. Toll Middle School in Glendale, who was killed by a sport utility vehicle in the crosswalk in front of school. Catarinicchia has a senior at nearby Hoover High and Hall is a PTA mother at Toll.

Meri Nalbandyan was hit in crosswalk in front of Eleanor J. Toll Middle School. Glendale police say a driver dropping off her child was looking in the wrong direction.

It's every parent's nightmare," said one mother still shaken by the sight of 11-year-old Meri Nalbandyan lying dead on the street outside Eleanor J. Toll Middle School. "What if it were my child? I'd go crazy."

Questions came more easily than answers -- even to the police investigating the driver, a mother who had just dropped off her own child.

"How come the student didn't stop or get out of the way or see the car coming," asked Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz. "As fate would have it, she too was looking in the wrong direction."

Through a cousin, Meri's parents said they were devastated.

Her mother, Lilit, dropped Meri off at school moments before the accident. She called her daughter "an angel."

Meri's father, Grigor, has returned repeatedly to the crosswalk where the eldest of the family's two daughters lighted candles and lay flowers.

"When we remember Meri, we envision a bright, luminous smile covering her face. She was the embodiment of innocence and purity for us. Now we drown in tears of sorrow," her family said in a statement.

Inside the foyer of the school, Meri's classmates -- some in tears -- scribbled notes on a large, pink poster.

"Dear Meri, you are and always will be my best friend," one girl wrote. "We ♥ u so much. I hope you are watching us in heaven!"

The first poster was already so full by midmorning that another blank board had to be added.

Principal Paula Nelson said Meri's death was a reminder to parents "to slow down, leave 15 minutes earlier and stop."

She said parents should "be defensive drivers and tell their children to be defensive walkers."

After Meri was hit about 8 a.m. by a sport utility vehicle, she was taken to Glendale Adventist Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A number of children witnessed the accident, but Nelson said she wasn't sure how many.

She said more than 20 children have met with grief counselors.

All classes spent first period talking about the accident, with students sharing their thoughts. Sixth-graders wrote essays about Meri and drew pictures.

Nelson remembered how excited Meri was to be starting middle school and how enthusiastically she participated in lunchtime activities, such as balloon tosses.

"It was so devastating to me," the principal said. "She was a wonderful bright spot."

 

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The crosswalk where Meri was killed is on Glenwood Road, between the middle school and Herbert Hoover High School, and near Mark Keppel Elementary School.

The Glendale Police Department, which is investigating the accident, said the 38-year-old driver of the SUV was looking away from the crosswalk and driving about 10 mph when she hit Meri.

The driver, who was extremely distressed when she realized what happened, has been cooperating with investigators and was not taken into custody, Lorenz said.

Meri was the third pedestrian killed this year in Glendale. Officials said they knew of no recent accidents at that particular crosswalk. But at least two other pedestrians have been injured by cars several blocks to the east and west on Glenwood Road since 1997, a statewide traffic database shows.

The city provides crossing guards for major intersections around schools, but there was no guard at Meri's crosswalk Wednesday because it is in the middle of the block, Lorenz said.

At the crosswalk Thursday morning, an extra crossing guard helped manage traffic. Near the collection of flowers and candles that sprang up as a memorial, a cluster of parents spoke with concern about the erratic way some parents drive down Glenwood.

Debbie Miller said her two daughters, who are in the fourth and sixth grades, were so frightened by the incident that they spent the night in her bed.

She said parents often double-park as they let their children out in the street, and she often sees drivers impatiently zoom around stopped cars.

"They cause a lot of problems," she said. "I'm . . . surprised it didn't come up earlier."

Some students left notes in crayon or hastily written poems at the memorial. A teacher who had rushed to Meri to try to stop the bleeding taped a card emblazoned with a lion to the memorial:

"Hi Meri, you don't know me but I'm the teacher from Hoover High that tried to help you at the accident. I tried really hard to save you. I wish you peace and your family comfort at this time."

Pedal Power - San Francisco

Pedal Power

Imagine a bike-only street running west to east, from the Pacific to the Embarcadero. Now imagine another one running north-south in San Francisco. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell can.

She quietly raised the notion Monday at the end of a City Hall committee meeting and elaborated a bit more in a subsequent interview. "I think it would really open up our city to biking,'' she said.

Maxwell said that if she had a magic wand she would want to see a couple of streets be turned over to cyclists, free of vehicles, all day every day. But short of that, she'd be happy if a lane or two were set aside during the peak commute hours.

Maxwell, impressed with what she saw when the city temporarily shut down the waterfrontto cars and trucks for two Sundays this summer, said making it easier to commute on two wheels would be good for individuals' health and for the environment.

She said she has no plans at this time to turn her idea into legislation. So, too, would it be premature to convene a City Hall hearing on the idea. Instead, she hopes to meet with bike advocates and other interested parties to discuss the possibility, and will ask some of her volunteer staff to research the potential benefits and drawbacks. Leah Shahum, who heads the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, lauded the notion of bike-only streets and said she is eager to work with Maxwell.

Pedal Power - n

Beyond the automobile: The road to sustainability has lanes for more than just cars

Transportation is the linchpin of sustainability. Fix the transportation system, and almost every other aspect of the city's ecological health improves: public health, conservation of resources, climate change, economics, and maintaining our culture and sense of community.

The region's unsustainable transportation system is the biggest cause of global warming (more than half the Bay Area's greenhouse gas emissions come from vehicles) and one of the biggest recipients of taxpayer money. And right now, most of those public funds are going to expand and maintain freeway systems, a priority that exacerbates our problems and delays the inevitable day of reckoning.

It's going to have to change — and we can do it the easy way or the hard way.

"We'll get to a more sustainable transportation system. The question is, are we going to be smart enough to make quality of life for people high within that sustainable transportation system?" said Dave Snyder, who revived the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and founded Transportation for a Livable City (now known as Livable City) before becoming transportation policy director for the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. "People will drive less, but will they have dignified alternatives? That's the question."

That notion — that transportation sustainability is inevitable, but that it'll be painful if we don't start now in a deliberate way — was shared by all 10 transportation experts recently interviewed by theGuardian. And most agreed that needed reform involves shifting resources away from the automobile infrastructure, which is already crowding out more sustainable options and will gobble up an even bigger piece of the pie in the future if we continue to expand it.

"Yeah, it'll be more sustainable, but will it be just? Will it be healthful? Will it be effective? Those are the questions," said Tom Radulovich, director of Livable City and an elected member of the BART Board of Directors. "You can't argue against geology. The planet is running out of oil. We're going to have a more sustainable transportation system in the future. That's a given. The question is, is it going to meet our other needs? Is it going to be what we need it to be?"

And the answer to all those questions is going to be no — as long as politicians choose to fund wasteful projects such as a fourth bore in the Caldecott Tunnel and transferring $4 billion from transit agencies to close California budget deficits accruing since 2000.

"Our leaders need to be putting our money when our collective mouth is and stop raiding these funds," Carli Paine, transportation program director for Transportation and Land Use Coalition, told us. "I'm hopeful, but I think we all need to do more."

TRANSIT AND BIKES

There is reason to be hopeful. With increased awareness of global warming and high gasoline prices, public transit ridership has increased significantly in the Bay Area. And one study indicates that the number of people bicycling in San Francisco has quadrupled in the last few years.

"Look at what's happening on the streets of San Francisco: you have biking practically doubling every year without any new bike infrastructure. I think the demand is out there. The question is, when is the political leadership going to catch up to demand?" Jean Fraser, who sits on the SPUR and SFBC boards and until recently ran the San Francisco Health Plan under Mayor Gavin Newsom, told us.

But the political leadership and federal transportation spending priorities are behind the times. Of the $835 million in federal funds administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the nine Bay Area counties in 2006-07, 51.4 percent went to maintain and expand state highways. Only 2.5 percent went for expansion of public transit, and 2.4 percent for bike and pedestrian projects. Overall, Paine said, about 80 percent of all transportation funding goes to facilities for automobiles, leaving all modes of transportation to fight for the rest.

"Historically we favor the automobile at the expense of all those other modes," Radulovich said at a forum of experts assembled by the Guardian (a recording of the discussion is available at sfbg.com). "It's been given primacy, and I think everyone around this table is saying, in one way or another, that we need a more balanced approach. We need a more sustainable, sensible, and just way of allocating space on our roads."

Yet the Bay Area is now locking in those wasteful patterns of the past with plans for about $6 billion in highway expansions, which means the MTC will have to spend even more every year keeping those roads in shape. Highway maintenance is the biggest line item in the MTC budget, at $275 million.

"We can't pay for what we have now — to maintain it, repair it, seismically retrofit it — so why we're building more is kind of beyond me," Radulovich said. "We continue to invest in the wrong things."

The experts also question big-ticket transit items such as the Central Subway project, a 1.7-mile link from SoMa to Chinatown that will cost an estimated $1.4 billion to build and about $4 million per year to run.

"There are 300 small capital projects we need to see," Snyder said. "That's really the answer. The idea of a few big capital projects as the answer to our problems is our problem. What we really need are 100 new bike lanes. We need 500 new bus bulbs. We need 300 new buses. It's not the big sexy project, but 300 small projects."

The most cost-efficient, environmentally effective transportation projects, according to renowned urban design thinkers such as Jan Gehl from Denmark, are those that encourage walking or riding a bike.

"I think Jan Gehl put it best, which is to say a city that is sweet to pedestrians and sweet to bicyclists is going to be a sustainable city," Fraser said. "So I think focusing on those two particular modes of transportation meets the other goals of the financial viability because they're the cheapest ways to get people around — and the healthiest ways — which I submit is one of the other criteria for sustainable transportation.... And it helps with the social justice and social connections."

IT'S GOOD FOR YOU

In fact, transportation sustainability has far-reaching implications for communities such as San Francisco.

"I think of sustainability in two ways," Fraser said. "The first is sustainability for the environment. And since I have a background in health care, I think of a sustainable transportation system as one that's actually healthy for us. In the past at least 50 years, we've actually engineered any kind of active transportation — walking to work or to school, biking to school — out of our cities."

But it can be engineered back into the system with land use policies that encourage more density around transit corridors and economic policies that promote the creation of neighborhood-serving commercial development.

"If my day-to-day needs can be met by walking, I don't put pressure on the transportation system," Manish Champsee, a Mission District resident who heads the group Walk SF, told us.

The transportation system can either promote that sense of community or it can detract from it. Champsee said San Francisco needs more traffic-calming measures, citing the 32 pedestrian deaths in San Francisco last year.

Almost a third as many people are killed in car accidents as die from homicides in San Francisco — but murder gets more resources and attention.

"There's a real sense in the neighborhoods that the roadways and streetscapes are not part of the neighborhood, they're not even what links one neighborhood to another. They're sort of this other system that cuts through neighborhoods," said Gillian Gillette of the group CC Puede, which promotes safety improvements on Cesar Chavez Street.

Radulovich notes that streets are social spaces and that decisions about how to use public spaces are critical to achieving sustainability.

"A sustainable transportation system is one that allows you to connect to other people," he said. "Cities have always thrived on connections between humans, and I think some of the transportation choices we've made, with reliance on the automobile, have begun to sever a lot of human connections. So you've got to think about whether it's socially sustainable. Also economically sustainable, or fiscally sustainable, because we just can't pay for what we have."

So then what do we do? The first step will take place next year when Congress is scheduled to reauthorize federal transportation spending and policies, presenting an opportunity that only comes once every four years. Transportation advocates from around the country are already gearing up for the fight.

"We've built out the freeways. They're connecting the cities — they're pretty much done. So what do we need to do to make streets more vibrant and have more space for people and not just automobiles?" asked Jeff Wood, program associate for the nonprofit group Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.

Then, once communities such as San Francisco have more money and more flexibility on how to spend it, they can get to work on the other sustainability needs. "The key component is having all the transportation systems fully linked," Paine said. That means coordinating the Bay Area's 26 transit agencies; expanding on the new TransLink system to make buying tickets cheaper and easier; funding missing links such as connecting Caltrain from its terminus at King and Fourth streets to the new Transbay Terminal; and timing transfers so passengers aren't wasting time waiting for connections.

And the one big-ticket transportation project supported by all the experts we consulted is high-speed rail, which goes before voters Nov. 4 as Proposition 1A. Not only is the project essential for facilitating trips between San Francisco and Los Angeles, it takes riders to the very core of the cities without their having to use roadways.

Paine also notes that the bond measure provides $995 million for regional rail improvements, with much of that going to the Bay Area. And that's just the beginning of the resources that could be made available simply by flipping our transportation priorities and recognizing that the system needs to better accommodate all modes of getting around.

At the roundtable, I asked the group how much a reduction in automobile traffic we need to see in San Francisco 20 years from now to become sustainable — with safe streets for cyclists and pedestrians, free-flowing public transit, and vibrant public spaces.