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

[Ray Tobey]

Sounds like fun! When is the next one?

Tian Harter wrote:
> 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.