We met superstar Mayor Willie Brown in his beautiful San Francisco City Hall office yesterday! After
passing thru the security metal detectors, Jim Parky Wetherell, Jim Muellner and myself were then
led thru several offices and hallways before we got to Willie's richly paneled room. It was
"guarded" by two more members of his staff, Geraldine and Caroline who sat just outside his door. We
visited with them for fifteen or so minutes while we awaited his return.
And when he got there a whole new level of excitement and fury seemed to prevail. Suddenly the anti
room we had waited in was filled with people waiting to see him. He motioned for us to come inside
where he talked about the excitement he felt for Lance Armstrong's recent Tour De France win. In the
fifteen minutes we got of his attention, when he told us that he loves to take his family out and
bike Golden Gate park and that he "cheats" now with an electric bike, I made sure to ask him what
happened back in '97 when he squashed Critical Mass. He looked at me with his fun loving happy eyes
and said, "Those guys and I talk all the time and I told them I wasn't going to let them shut down
the city." Motioning with his arms he continued, "You just can't have a few hundred bikes going here
and few hundred going there all over the city slowing everything down." And even after he left a
black mark on Critical Mass rides that remains today, you can see how he got away with it. He's just
pure loveable. He makes you want to be support him -- WoW.
And he made sure that the proclamation we got was inside of a handsome brass frame. And to make sure
that all three of us were celebrated with it, he recruited one of the people who was waiting for him
to take a picture of all of us with the National Bicycle Greenway Day citation. And check this out,
the man behind the camera was Joe Lieberman's presidential campaign manager! Here's the photo:
bikeroute.comSFMainWillOpen ↗ ie+3,jog
Because Willie had expressed an interest in my story, I felt so proud to give him a signed copy of
my book. Especially when I saw the genuine appreciation and respect that he rewarded me with. As we
were leaving, I asked him if he would help us build the NBG. And when he said YES, I didn't even ask
for details. I just know we've got a major power player on our side!!
Yahoooo!!
btw: Palo Alto and Mayor Dena Mossar in a few hours!! btw2: THX to Kristin Holland for getting us
into see Da Mayor!! btw3: Festival this Sunday
nationalbicyclegreenway.comFestivalOpen ↗
MARTIN KRIEG: "Awake Again" Author c/o BikeRoute.com 79 & 86 TransAms, nonprofit Nat. Bicycle
Greenway CEO Ever wanted anything so bad U were willing to die for it? Really die? By moving thru
clinical death and reversing paralysis, *I saw God* when I answered that question.