Back in 2001, the Northern Alameda Chapter of Sierra Club (SF Bay Area) stunned cyclists by opposing a ‘complete streets’ project on Marin Ave. Running through the cities of Berkeley and Albany, Marin Ave isn’t some major commercial thoroughfare, but rather a quiet residential street massively over-built for the traffic volume. The superfluous lanes contributed to speeding and dangerous passing. As such, the Sierra Club resolution disregarded the pressing need for traffic calming, and bike/ped improvements.
Due to outcry by neighbors and cyclists, the Sierra Club rescinded its resolution, and did finally endorse the traffic calming project. But the whole sorry episode of Marin Ave generated considerable mistrust among advocates that the so-called environmental group wasn’t entirely supportive of the Sustainable Transport concept.
Flash forward a decade, and so little has changed.
Up for re-election in Berkeley is Councilmember Kriss Worthington. He was the key swing vote that killed the BRT project in Berkeley. He was the key swing vote that killed the ‘Complete Streets’ project for Telegraph. His candidate statement even boasts of killing the “bad” BRT.
So, guess which District 7 candidate gets the Sierra Club endorsement?
Egads.
Sierra Club policiy is to endorse an incumbent based on his record, and while this one vote was bad, the rest of his record shows him to be an supporter of environmental policies. I know it doesn’t make sense, and I personally vote against everyone who votes against transit improvements. But it’s a sticky situation, and those endorsements include much more than transit.
Worthington’s overall environmental record for the past term was really bad. Far from being an an isolated case, the BRT vote was part of a pattern.
He threw up roadblocks against transit-oriented development. And he stirred up a lot of opposition to bike/ped improvements along the Ashby corridor (which has very high rate of fatalities and injuries).
Given his record, and the fact that there is a very good progressive running against him, the Sierra Club should not have endorsed him.
Isn’t the Sierra Club the group that got CHSRA to add a law banning a stop in Los Banos in exchange for its support for Pacheco?