XPost: rec.bicycles.tech, ba.bicycles, comp.os.linux.advocacy   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: complete@fools.california   
      
   Eiad Eltawil was rattling off the dozen or so businesses that closed on   
   the Valencia Street corridor in recent months when he noticed a sheet of   
   paper.   
      
   There, next to a “FOR SALE” sign on a shuttered storefront near the   
   corner of Valencia and 22nd Street, was a note to customers: “After 36   
   years of service, we have decided to close.” Eltawil shook his head.   
   Unless something changes soon, Yasmin — the casual Mediterranean   
   restaurant he owns at 799 Valencia St. — could be next.   
      
   Eltawil, 41, is just one of many Valencia business owners who say their   
   sales have plummeted since the SFMTA opened a two-way protected center   
   bike lane there in August. Though no one knows exactly how much the   
   controversial bikeway has contributed to the area’s decline in visitors,   
   Eltawil remains adamant: It must go, immediately.   
      
   Out of options and low on hope, he embarked last Sunday on a 30-day   
   hunger strike to bring awareness to the bike lane’s far-reaching   
   consequences. Until May 7, he plans to sleep on a parklet in front of   
   his business, pass out flyers about his cause and consume only water.   
      
   Friends and family worry that Eltawil might get assaulted in the middle   
   of the night, experience a medical emergency or die. But after watching   
   his restaurant — the culmination of decades of work — plunge to the   
   brink of financial collapse, Eltawil figures a month without food can’t   
   be any worse.   
      
   “I’ve already suffered so much,” he said Monday afternoon, standing next   
   to the parklet that currently serves as his home. “At least this way,   
   maybe someone in power will see my struggle and make some changes. It’s   
   a last resort for me.”   
      
   The Valencia bikeway, which runs from 15th Street through 23rd, is a   
   first-of-its-kind project in San Francisco designed to make the city’s   
   most important north-south bike route safer for cyclists. Yet, eight   
   months after it was installed, some aren’t sure it has accomplished its   
   top objective.   
      
   LOOK WHAT THESE FUCKING PROGRESSIVE MORONS DID!  THEY FUCKED OVER   
   THOUSANDS FOR A FEW DOZEN FOOLS ON BICYCLES.   
      
   https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/37/01/21/24908879/3/960x0.webp   
      
   According to SFMTA’s three-month evaluation of the bikeway, 12 crashes   
   between cyclists and cars occurred between August and October — a higher   
   accident rate than before the bike lane opened. It didn’t help that new   
   traffic rules on the eight-block corridor, including the elimination of   
   left turns, created confusion. In September, a left-turning driver   
   killed an 80-year-old pedestrian at Valencia and 18th streets.   
      
   The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition didn’t respond to a request for   
   comment. SFMTA is expected to release its next evaluation in July, but   
   many locals fear the word is already out: This is a place to avoid. A   
   Valencia Merchants Association survey found that some business owners’   
   revenue had dipped as much as 50% between summer 2022 and summer 2023 —   
   despite the end of pandemic-era social restrictions.   
      
   Long an oasis of cafes, clubs and late-night eats, Valencia is slowly   
   becoming a wasteland of boarded-up storefronts papered with anti-bikeway   
   signs. In the process, the historic corridor has lost something bigger   
   and less tangible than money.   
      
   “It no longer has its culture,” said David Quinby, owner of Amado’s, a   
   music venue at 998 Valencia that closed in November. “With no soul, it’s   
   just another quiet, whitewashed community.”   
      
   Rafik Bouzidi has witnessed the street’s decline firsthand. Last spring,   
   after reduced tourism forced him to close his Tunisian restaurant in   
   Union Square, he signed a 15-year lease to open a new spot at 819   
   Valencia — a part of the corridor he had once cherished. Some of   
   Bouzidi’s fondest memories were of finishing a shift at midnight,   
   grabbing a late dinner on Valencia, then sipping a drink at one of the   
   bustling bars nearby.   
      
   But just a few weeks after he opened Gola on that same street, the SFMTA   
   began to install the center-running bike lane. Numerous five-star Yelp   
   reviews haven’t been enough to keep San Francisco’s only Tunisian   
   restaurant busy. With 71 fewer metered spaces on Valencia than there   
   were before the bike lane, customers often cancel their reservations at   
   Bouzidi’s restaurant after a half-hour of searching for parking.   
      
   “If I was in New York, I’d have lines around the block,” he said. “But   
   San Francisco is killing businesses, and it’s as simple as that.”   
      
   Bouzidi, Eltawil and Quinby are among the 10 business owners threatening   
   legal action against the city over how the bike lane harmed their   
   revenue. But as Bouzidi put it, “our biggest enemy is not S.F. — it’s   
   the clock.”   
      
   In the past six months, at least 10 businesses have closed on Valencia.   
   Reports suggest that many more are on the verge of shuttering. Another   
   rough couple of months, and “FOR SALE” signs might cover much of the   
   eight-block corridor.   
      
   This explains why some business owners are out of patience. For about a   
   year now, they have protested the bike lane, only for the SFMTA to keep   
   it in place.   
      
   However, the agency does finally seem to recognize its pilot program’s   
   shortcomings. In a recent interview with the Chronicle, Jeffrey Tumlin,   
   the SFMTA’s director of transportation, acknowledged that the bike lane   
   has “created some unintended consequences” that warrant a “pivot.”   
      
   The city is working to design side-running protected bike lanes that   
   would line the curb and necessitate changing the location of parklets.   
   For that plan to pass, the SFMTA must receive approval from every   
   Valencia business owner with a parklet.   
      
   That’s a seismic task. And even if the SFMTA proceeds with the new bike   
   lanes, the agency will still need another four months — two for the   
   technical design process, two for the approvals process — before it can   
   install them.   
      
   “If we can get to a really quick consensus, it’s still possible to   
   complete the work this year,” Tumlin said. “But there’s a lot of   
   collaboration that’s going to be necessary, so I don’t want to   
   over-promise yet.”   
      
   Eltawil can’t afford to wait. Asked how much longer he would keep Yasmin   
   open if revenue doesn’t improve, he conceded that he “should’ve been   
   shut down a while ago.”   
      
   Desperate for a solution, Eltawil has worked 17 hours a day, seven days   
   a week. He has borrowed money from his family restaurant, Palmyra on   
   Haight Street, to pay his 10 employees. He has sold most of his   
   belongings at flea markets.   
      
   Eltawil’s debts continue to mount. Some nights he can barely sleep, his   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)