Check out this week's featured stories:
1 Intro Spotlight: Lindsey Jacques
2. Circulate Stands in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter
3. Have You Seen Our New Resources Webpage?
4. Curbside Permits To Creatively Use the Public Right of Way and Parking
5. Letter: Support for Community Planning Groups and Housing Production During COVID-19
6. City of Encinitas Pedestrian Scramble: From Pop-Up to Permanent
Intro Spotlight: Lindsey Jacques
Join us in welcoming our newest team member and Intern, Lindsey Jacques! As is our tradition, we interviewed Lindsey so our supporters and members can get to know her.
To read Lindsey’s intro/spotlight, Click Here
Circulate Stands in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter
Streets will never be safe for all until streets are safe for Black people.
Open Streets will never be open for all until streets are safe for Black people.
Vision Zero will never reach zero until streets are safe for Black people.
George Floyd’s murder on a street in Minneapolis was a preventable tragedy. We are committed to advocating for safe streets and mobility choices, fighting injustice, and ensuring streets and transit systems are safe for everyone. That includes safety from police violence as well as traffic violence.
Circulate San Diego stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.
Have You Seen Our New Resources Webpage?
Circulate recently launched a new Resources Webpage filled with fun activities to inspire all ages to get moving.
There is something for everyone:
- Bike Safety Field Guide
- Instructional Videos
- Bingos
- Bike Commuting Tips
- Captain VZ comic book, and more!
Resources can complement existing school curriculum and distance learning for school aged children or inspire adults to get outside for fun socially distant activities.
We hope you find these resources helpful and motivating!
Thank you to our partners Rady Children’s Hospital and California Office of Traffic Safety.
Curbside Permits To Creatively Use the Public Right of Way and Parking
Restaurants, retail, and other commercial uses may be coming to a sidewalk, street, or paking lot near you! Since submitting our letter with recommendations for the development of a permit process and design guidelines, we have started to see some movement in this direction.
The City of San Diego is in the process of drafting an emergency ordinance to allow commercial use of the public right of way, including the sidewalk, parking lane, or whole public right of way. Some permits already allow this type of activity, but they plan on streamlining the process and broadening it to allow more outdoor activities. In addition, San Diego will waive parking requirements for existing establishments to allow for creative use of parking lots by businesses. The ordinance will go to City Council this month and you can read more about the proposal here.
Other cities, including Lemon Grove, are pursuing this type of response to the COVID-19 crisis to support economic development while making their cities more walkable.
Letter: Support for Community Planning Groups and Housing Production During COVID-19
Circulate submitted a letter to the City of San Diego with recommendations for supporting Community Planning Groups and housing production during the COVID-19 crisis. The letter is co-signed by LISC San Diego, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, the Sustainable Growth Community Planners, and Circulate San Diego.
Nationally, organizations like the ACLU Voting Rights Project are advocating for vote-by-mail, and other protections to ensure that every voter has the ability to participate in our democracy during the COVID19 crisis. The same values we support for elections to national office must also apply to our most local offices. In the past couple months, many CPGs were unable to hold their regularly scheduled elections. Planning Department staff have permitted termed out CPG members to continue to serve in their role, and elections are postponed indefinitely until the time when CPGs are able to meet again in-person. San Diego must find a way to move forward with elections and propose reforms that would prevent this from happening in the future.
Additionally, the Planning Department must coordinate with the Development Services Department to ensure that staff are appropriately informing developers about the change in process and not unknowingly creating delays. Specifically, the City must clearly communicate the suspension of requirements for CPG review, when the relevant CPG is not meeting or conducting normal business.
City of Encinitas Pedestrian Scramble: From Pop-Up to Permanent
You may recall, Circulate San Diego installed a pop-up pedestrian scramble at the intersection of Coast Highway 101 and E Street in Encinitas during the City’s inaugural Cyclovia event earlier this year.
We are thrilled to share that Encinitas has installed a permanent pedestrian scramble at the E Street pop-up location! This demonstrates the power of pop-up events to show residents, city staff, and elected officials how mobility improvements look, feel, and function.
The E Street pedestrian scramble is part of a suite of infrastructure improvements recently installed throughout Encinitas to increase walking and biking safety for all. Keep up the great work!
