[Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose bike party.... It's not critical mass, but it's close and legal

[Tian Harter]

In San Francisco it's all about taking over the streets. In San Jose
it's all about having a legal experience that's fun. It's a bike party.
We don't take over the street, we take over the entire right lane.
I could see it evolving into the largest event that could fly under
the radar of the cops. I'd like to see that. Then I'll still be able
to say that in San Francisco the cops escort critical mass. In San Jose
they leave us alone. I like that a lot.

In San Francisco it's totally random. The ride goes all kinds of weird
places. Spontainiously we've visited Moscone's show floor, the Golden 
Gate bridge, and many tourist sights. In San Jose our guiding light
hands out directions 4 the ride at the beginning and says "stay right!"
The directions include things like "stop at Dick's to sync up." The
sheet listed four or five collecting points. We stopped at all of them.

In San Francisco you know you're going to hit some serious hills.
In San Jose we went all the way to the top of the four story parking
structures at the mall across from Santana Row. That would be to the
top of the two highest hills in San Jose. The rest of it was flattish.

In San Francisco political activists hand out fliers at the beginning,
while we are still at Pee Wee Herman Plaza. In San Jose I ran into
Peter Myers (Green Party Congressional Candidate, 15th Dist.) repeatedly 
during the ride. Dressed up for Halloween as a boy scout he fit right 
in. Okay so I can think of some intense SF activists that ride in 
critical mass there to. Barry Hermanson comes to mind but I'm not sure.

I pushed many stickers. I could have pushed many more, but I was 
watching a lot when I first got there. I wanted to soak in the vibe.
It was a new crowd for me. Turned out I had a lot of friends in it.

In San Francisco there are lots of people with cowbells and the like
on their handle bars. Several DJs bring bike trailer sized sound 
systems. In San Jose it's less like that. One guy had a boom box
on his handle bars little two inch speakers that you couldn't hear
ten feet away. One guy had a bike trailer sized sound system, but
it didn't dominate. You had to be within about fifteen feet to think
it was loud.

In San Francisco the ride doesn't stop for anything. At intersections
corkers keep the cars from moving while the ride blows through.
In San Jose the corkers set a good example by stopping for red lights.
They stop the riders behind them, and the ride reconnects at Dick's
or wherever.

Somebody told me there is a party on Sunday at Fabers. Somebody else
told me to be at San Jose City Hall on September 28th to show solidarity
as a bicyclist on some measure before the City Council. 6 to 9 PM or
something like that.

-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
I still have about 98 "POWER TO THE PEOPLE - McKinney 2008" stickers.
Let me know if you want one.
October's San Jose Bike Party: I lost a couple of beautiful tomatoes.