John King Seems To Disparage the Fewer Cars Model

I submitted this online at 12:37 pm. on Tuesday, April 14, 2020.  The SF Chronicle didn't use it, but they printed a better one today.

I kept my bio really short:  I'm a member of Mothers Out Front, an environmental organization.

I wanted to bring in more than just John King's article.  I wanted to praise Steve Rubenstein.

I also wanted to comment on the use of "strident" to describe the delivery of any new idea people feel threatened by.

I wish I had used disheartened rather than appalled.

This morning’s paper brought us the Bright Side (that Steve Rubenstein, the closest we have to Mark Twain, is now a regular columnist) and the dark:  John King’s confirming a great fear with his article “Cars may emerge with better image in S. F. after pandemic.”

  The bright side of this pandemic is that Earth was getting a rest, so  my heart sank when I saw that MUNI and BART were no longer considered safe and that re-usable bags were being shunned at checkout counters, but I still held hope that we could go back to the better practices we were starting when the pandemic began. 

I notice that John King used the word strident twice in describing talk and measures trying to create a more transit-friendly climate—the same word used against feminists who wanted an Equal Rights Amendment, mentioned in Jessica Zack’s  “A fierce fight over feminism” in the Datebook section. 

The letter to the editor page has a political cartoon by Tom Toles today too, with an elephant-chef announcing that the  “Assault on Climate” diner will reopen for business as usual by May. 

I’m appalled that this seems to be what John King is promoting in his article