Bikes, beer, badminton and beefy unionists

[gordonzola]

What a busy May Day.

I started off the day dealing with entitlement on a bike. I don’t know what alerted me to the aggro guy on his bike but he was on my block coming out of an apartment. I don’t think I had seen him before, but he had a bike helmet and sunglasses so it was a little hard to tell. I felt him semi-staring at me as I walked down the block but, like I said, he was wearing sunglasses so I couldn’t tell 100% if he was looking at me. He was giving off that go-ahead-and-ask-me-what-I’m-staring–at vibe so, while I didn’t change my path, I didn’t try to make eye contact either. When I got within about 10 ft. away he swung his bike around and took off.

"Whatever," I thought.

Before I go on I want to mention a few things. I am sympathetic to bicyclists. I don’t think that safety on the roads is 50:50 bike /car. I think it’s more like 90% car because drivers are the ones driving the huge hunks of metal. Though I own a car, I walk (or take public transit) most of the time in the city so I know how scary reckless city drivers can be. Though many times bicycle politics can be ableist and self-congratulatory, I think overall they are for the good. Generally I feel solidarity with bicyclists. Hey my brother even has a bike blog.

Having said all that, here’s what happened. At the end of my block there’s a stop sign. A car was in front of the biker with his right blinker on. Driver stops at stop sign. Bicyclist doesn’t stop, passing him on the right. Driver starts forward turning right, sees bicyclist, jams on brakes and hits his horn (not just a toot, but he didn’t lay on it either). Bicyclist freaks out, jumps off his bike and starts yelling at the driver. I can’t hear the driver but the biker has his hands on top of the open window, leaning in, yelling things like, “How dare you honk at me!” “You almost hit me!” and “You’re lucky I’m nice, another bicyclist would have fucked up your car for honking.”

He’s getting louder and louder as I approach. They driver is being appeasing. Palms-up and everything, he’s trying to explain why he honked but the bicyclist keeps yelling at him, cutting him off. I can’t really follow his rant, something about people in cars are just button-pushers, insulated from the world. He shows no sign of slowing down. I think he may be gearing up to slug the driver.

I stand about ten feet away and say, “You have to calm down.” It is, after all, my block and I’m not going to ignore this and walk by. I say it softly and keep my hands at my sides. He ignores me, continuing his rant. But he knows I’m there. I say it again, the same way. He still doesn’t react or look at me but he finishes with a “Be more careful!” gets on his bike and rides away.

The driver pulls over, a little shaken and exploding with all the things he couldn’t say since he was defusing the situation: “I was signaling!” “He drove through a Stop on my right!” “I always yield to bikes!” I told him that the biker was an asshole and went to catch the N Judah.

Downtown, I stupidly thought the march was starting at the 1934 General Strike Memorial so I had to spend awhile finding the march (“Aha! I said to myself, ”traffic isn’t coming on this side of the street so the march must have started on the other side of Market St!”) I caught the last block and am glad I did because I got to see the ILWU Drill Team do synchronized steps and hook moves. As always, some wingnuts were there but at union rallies they are not allowed to speak. The biggest group in the worker co-op contingent were the Lusty Lady folks who kept a continual retort of “Yes, we’re in a union” to the questioning of other demonstrators.

I didn’t stay too long because I had to go drink beer in the sun and play badminton with members of my co-op at our yearly party in Stern Grove. God, my co-workers children sure have grown since last year.

I missed the Immigrant Rights rally because I ended up driving a co-worker home who nailed a pothole on the way down into the Stern Grove valley and wasn’t doing so well. In fact, she’s the “President”* and our Treasurer went down in the softball game. Of our corporate officers, only our Secretary was still standing at the end of the day.

Good thing we’re a co-op.

How was your International Workers Day/Immigrant Rights Day/May Day?



*As a California Corporation we are required to have a “President”. It is a position with no power whatsoever.

Comments

[jette.livejournal.com]

A mouse died in my cube and we couldn't find it so I went home!

Somehow, this is symbolic/apropos?

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

was it really a mouse?... or was it.... A RAT?!?!!!!

[flipping-hades.livejournal.com]

It's a sad fact of life -- assholes are assholes, no matter what vehicle they're operating. Assholes on bicycles tend to be holier-than-though assholes, which is a whole 'nother level.

I hate other bicyclists in this city, a lot.

[flipping-hades.livejournal.com]

er, holier-than-thou, not though.

[ubiquity75.livejournal.com]

Here's what happened to me back in SF, October, 2006:

--

- On Saturday evening, after we walked back from a delicious dinner of soyrizo burritos at Papa Lote's, we watched as an older woman began to pull out from the curb into traffic, startling the couple of hipster bikers who were blazing down the street at great speed. The male in the equation immediately slammed on his brakes (not riding a fixie, candyass?), wheeled around, screaming profanities at the woman, and road his bike back down the street while his girlfriend called after him, "Mike, we're gonna be late! We're gonna be late!" Mike continued unabated, approaching the driver's window, with the woman inside in shock and frightened, then shouted, "You've got a mirror...FUCKING USE IT!" as he took his hand and slammed it into the mirror, which went flying off the side of the car, shattering on the ground.

I'm all for sharing the road and I have had a number of fucked up near misses happen when on my bike. I've also been HIT BY OTHER BIKERS as well as having issues with other pedestrians. Critical Mass wannabe Mike, however, gives bikers a bad name, and I was left to wonder aloud, after he went speeding away on his hipstermobile vintage Bianchi, if he would have been so quick to attack if the driver in question had not been a diminutive, scared old woman.

After all, as my pal said, "He's a straight white skinny boy male. What the fuck does he have to be so angry about?"

--

[serazin.livejournal.com]

That was a bad story, but it sounded REALLY bad when I misread it and assumed the drivers hand had fallen to the ground and shattered!

Critical massholes

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

I'd bet $100.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yeah, totally. this (white) guy was totally looking for a fight. He just had that vibe.

[seriesfinale.livejournal.com]

I'm a union member and work at a union--we had a box of donuts in the breakroom to celebrate...!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Workers love donuts! ;)

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

i was there in stern grove today! i think i saw you guys maybe. although i did not know you were there or who it was at the time. i was with the puppy, and a cousin and dog-of-cousin.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

awww, I wish I'd seen you. we would have fed you and made you bounce in the jumpy castle.

Sonoma and May Day

[sheanadavis.livejournal.com]

Hey here in Sonoma, we had a fine rally for the community, my daughter was embarrassed that we were in attendance. We had great union representation, local business support and over all it was a good education for Sonoma. We are 70 percent latino community and it is very important for us to recognize those who work hard in our community. I always tell people we would have no winery, restaurant or hospitality business without the latino community. The least I can do is support them in the efforts to educate our town on labor, wages, work environment and more!

Keep up the fight!

sheana d

Re: Sonoma and May Day

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Yay Sonoma!

[magpiesf.livejournal.com]

may day at my worker co-op was almost totally uneventful. i think the most exciting thing that happened all day was our amusement at finding a flyer for a show of furry-related photography.

as for that bicyclist... sheesh. so much misguided rage. he should be yelling at himself for being so blasted unobservant as to not notice the cars turn signal. i would have probably done quite a bit more than you to get his attention, and lecture him about how much attention *he* should also be paying, and how if youre going to run stop signs and behave contrary to traffic law on your bike (something im in no position to tell people not to do :) ), you have to be the eyes for the people who dont expect you to be there, not just for yourself. i am VERY fond of making these types of cyclists look sheepish for being such jackasses - they make it worse for all of us on bikes, far worse than us scofflaws (personally, im a responsible opportunist when it comes to obeying traffic law, or not...) do. actually, i probably would have yelled at him to shut the fuck up, cause the driver was doing everything right! this type of bike-related entitlement pisses me off even more than cyclists who lecture me about not wearing a helmet - they almost make me embarrassed to be a cyclist.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I wish you'd been there.

[foodpoisoningsf.livejournal.com]

I encounter rude, self-entitled cyclists all the time. The only consolation I have is that the little hipsters are most likely becoming their parents.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

This made me laugh and laugh.

[slit.livejournal.com]

May Day: We had a going away party for a co-worker who quit. That seems fitting, right?

On not stopping: This is my biggest pet peeve with bicyclists, when they assume they know what everyone else on the road is about to do. I'm saying this as a pedestrian, not a driver.

I think this is an urban planning problem more than a problem with individual bicyclists, but bicyclists themselves have shouted me down for suggesting that our roads are ill-designed; I'm supposed to hate cars and drivers, I guess, not the lack of structural accommodation for bikes.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

but drivers caused the war in Iraq, Only my self-righteousness can save us!

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

Portions of the New York left half-assedly mobilized themselves and not much of anybody else to a long-ass rally in Union Square. Other portions didn't even bother. Only a few hundred people had shown up by the time the march was to start. Since there is nothing more demoralizing that going on a two-mile long march with few hundred of your closest annoyances, my friends and I left.

You won't often hear me saying this: I would much rather have been in San Francisco.

[misscallis.livejournal.com]

I showed up to work, and reminded everyone that "if this were San Francisco, I wouldn't be working today," and referred to everyone as "comrade."

I only caught two bites: the world history teacher who smirked when I shouted "Viva la proletariat!" in his classroom, and the girl who is moving to SF this summer to begin attending SFSU. Everyone else was like "What?"

Suburbia is fun =)

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

As always, some wingnuts were there but at union rallies they are not allowed to speak.

And people ask me why I'm pro-union.

I told him that the biker was an asshole and went to catch the N Judah.

Good for you. That American drivers don't know how to coexist with bikes is annoying and dangerous. That American cyclists don't know how to coexist with cars or pedestrians (give drivers credit, they at least don't often nearly kill people on foot) is annoying, dangerous and depressing. And the tendency for cyclists to act like a put-upon minority group entitled to direct action...suffice to say that it's time for us cyclists to start policing our ranks, and I'm talking with Kryptos.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

As always, some wingnuts were there but at union rallies they are not allowed to speak.

And people ask me why I'm pro-union.

exactly!

[amarama.livejournal.com]

I hate fucking asshole bikers sometimes, and thanks for talking about the ableism that exists simultaneously with the force for good.

I worked at the Sperm Bank with all of the other jank workers and then went to the rally in downtown Oakland for a second, saw my ex driving a Teamster truck, nodded, walked on by, pumped my fist in the air, and turned around and went home, and then to serazin's house for dinner.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

totally, that is really what pisses me off about bike activism. Like Critical Mass blocking busses where the only folks left on are the ones who can't walk away. Grrrr.

but it sounds like you had a fine May Day.

[lizsybarite.livejournal.com]

I'm just gonna second flipping_hades: assholes are assholes, no matter what vehicle they're operating.

I have seen so many Northampton cyclists act as though the rules of the road are optional. Last year my jaw hung open because a cyclist cruised through a RED LIGHT at this huge 4-way intersection near Smith. I am amazed that more of them don't get run down.

And the whole "drivers are just insulated button-pushers" thing made me LOL. Perhaps we are (some obviously more than others), but knowing that, you'd think he wouldn't RIDE OUT IN FRONT OF ONE.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

And the whole "drivers are just insulated button-pushers" thing made me LOL. Perhaps we are (some obviously more than others), but knowing that, you'd think he wouldn't RIDE OUT IN FRONT OF ONE.

I know!

[flipzagging.livejournal.com]

I celebrated May Day by working about 6 hours of unpaid overtime!

On the other hand I did this deliberately since I'm taking off to help set up at Maker Faire today.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

that's a good trade.

[beelavender.livejournal.com]

We get a whole three day weekend! The banks even have to close!

HA HA HA!

There are some minor benefits in living here.....

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

say hi to Commie-Land for me.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

awwwww.

[greasyspoon.livejournal.com]

I have taken to always stopping at a red light or a stop sign if there is a car within a block of me. Partially to prove that I have the same rights as the car and that means stopping at a signal or sign when provided. There have been 2 times recently where another cyclist blew through the stop sign and I was turning left in front of them, if I hadn't of yielded even though it was technically my turn, I would have possibly collided with them. Gah. Just because I waited and they didn't stop at all. It's not okay.

What that guy did isn't okay either. He should have either come up on the car's left to proceed or up behind it and waited for the car to turn right. Period. What a jackass. Of course you know all of this, I'm just preaching to the choir.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

ha. I appreciate your support.

[walktheplank.livejournal.com]

I wore my red Sabocat t-shirt, and one of my co-workers asked if I was dressed for Christmas.

I told her it was a May Day shirt.

"Oh! Like, red for the flowers?"

Yeah.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Red like the blood of the ruling class when we march them up to the wall!

[loolica.livejournal.com]

I spent the morning at physiotherapy for my work-related injury and had lunch with a co-worker who is in cancer treatment and has been denied an accommodation by our employer. And then in the afternoon: http://www.redredrabbit.ca/lj/the%20internationale.mp4

[clynne.livejournal.com]

I meant to call you on Friday night but it turned out I didn't have your number programmed into my phone! I ended up skipping the bar, briefly hitting a party, and then falling into bed. I didn't touch a computer all weekend.

I should learn that this is what happens when I stay with the Oakland boys -- they ferry me around and take care of me, my brain and body abdicate all responsibility, and I end up hibernating most of the weekend because I know I'm safe. It's nice, but it does mean I don't see many people.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

hey, no prob. I was getting on a plane early saturday. Glad you had a good time.