An Overpass Adventure

For some reason this blog system can't access the photo I took of the pedestrian overpass at Bayshore and Oakdale when I was trying to get to Bernal Heights for the AFT 2121 walk from Camilla and Ron's house. So...without an illustration I'll relate what happened there--something I mentioned at a Transit Justice meeting on May 26th, 2023, and they seemed to be aware of that problem area. 

I really want to support public transportation--and also see how it's working--so I looked up Muni information for getting to an address in Bernal Heights from my home in Parkside and was told to take the #23 bus on Sloat Blvd. and 19th to Bayshore Blvd and Flower.

The very nice bus driver (who came 4 minutes early; fortunately I'd arrived at the bus stop 5 minutes early), didn't recognize that part of town and confused Bernal Heights with Diamond Heights when we were trying to figure out where I'd get off.  Another passenger was very helpful and told me he knew the spot and was getting off at one stop before mine.  The bus driver recognized the spot when I mentioned the Jack in a Box.      

Flower is close to Oakdale, a much better-known street.  When I crossed Bayshore Blvd, my GPS indicated an overpass, but when I looked over at it, it seemed to be closed off.  So I asked a man who had apparently finished a business deal with a couple returning to their car (What?  They didn't take public transit?) and asked him about the overpass.  He volunteered to take me to it.  That meant going along a path that had encampments though the people who lived in the tents were out on the sidewalk, one of them with his rock collection.  

The path was long, and I told the nice man--who I don't think was a drug dealer--that I had vertigo in high places like overpasses.  He offered to take me all the way across the freeway.  I asked his permission to take his arm, and he consented.  It was a consensual arm-holding.

I didn't exactly hyperventilate, but this was very hard for me, and he said reassuring things like "You're doing fine" and "We're almost there."  By the time I got off the overpass, I was so relieved and grateful to him for accompanying me that I gave him all the cookies (vegan an gluten free so everyone could enjoy them) and $20.00  

 "A developed country isn't a place where the poor have cars.  It's where the rich use public transportation."  The former mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro

 My letter to the editor May 30, 2023 

"Muni warns of big cuts in service" sets off alarms because as Janice Li says of BART, if it fails, everyone will pay the price--even those who don't use it.   To avoid worse traffic congestion and climate warming and to increase equity, we need to support public transit, which I've been riding since 1966--to campus as a student, to homes all over the city as a baby-sitter,  as  a mother with an infant, as a mother with a toddler going to play groups and gyms for tots...and now in my retirement, I take Muni and BART to Davies Hall, the SF Playhouse, Greens, Manny's, across the bay to family reunions and graduations...I am a grateful transit rider, often quoting these words:  "A developed country isn't a place where the poor have cars.  It's where the rich use public transportation."   Rich or poor, let's use it and support it in every way we can, including urging the state and federal government to provide funds.

Sent around 1:20 pm on Tuesday, May 30, 2023

 I wish I'd said from where to where I traveled from on Muni!  Just as a student, I traveled from California and 8th Avenue in the Richmond, 2246 41st Avenue in the Sunset,  624 26th Avenue, 174 Chattanooga, and Lincoln and 9th to SFSU--different semesters, of course!

 Is it transphobic to say that children are too young to make major decisions about surgery on their bodies? They can't vote.  They're supposed to be 16-18 to be at the age of consent for sex, and the same for marriage.

I'm a fan of Joe Garofoli, but I'm disturbed by the headline in his column in the SF Chronicle today, "SF Pride breaks with Snider after his transphobic tweet."

We are too often told what to think.  Here we are being told that Snider's tweet was transphobic.

Dee Snider has been a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights and had agreed to perform the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" in reference to the pushback on the rights of LGBTQ people at SF Pride.

Then Paul Stanley, a 71-year-old rockstar made what Joe Garofoli calls a transphobic Twitter post:  "There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children...as though (it is) some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it."  (Not so clearly stated.)  Apparently he referred to the normalizing and encouraging as a "sad and dangerous fad."

Snider responded, "You know what?  There was a time where I 'felt pretty' too.  Glad my parents didn't jump to any rash conclusions!  Well said, @PaulStanley Live."  

Does this imply that Snider is transphobic?  

Suzanne Ford, executive director of SF Pride said "The message perpetuated by that tweet casts doubt on young trans people's ability to self-identify their gender."   Would it be more accurate to say that the tweet casts doubt on children's ability to permanently identify their gender for a surgical sex change from what they were "assigned"?  And isn't "assigned" a misleading word too?

Here's what else Snider said:

“Parents need to be less reactionary; Right and Left. No need to steer the child in either direction. Let the kid figure it out for themselves knowing their family is supportive. I had a vet/cop hardass dad who, while he shook his head A LOT…let me do my thing.”