Draft Book Excerpt San Francisco

[..snip..]

“So I’m a little confused here, you’ve got this great team and all these fancy new bikes, why are you going backwards in time if modern day bikes are what are going to be using the Greeenway?”

“I asked someone in your group why they weren’t riding a bike like yours and they said they’re not crazy,” another reporter interjected.

“Who said that?,” I said chuckling as I tossed a playful glance at my group. “Yeah, they are dangerous and 10 miles riding one does feel like 30 but you can’t see it from here but on the other side of those hills,” I pointed, “San Francisco has a hospital that kept them from amputating one of my legs. I ended up at UCSF after three other hospitals had given up on me and when Moffet (locals also used this name to refer to the hospital) figured out what was wrong with my leg, it wasn’t but a few weeks later that I came out of the coma I had been in.

“That’s all in my book, “Awake Again” and I am telling you this because I almost didn’t have two legs with which to ride any kind of bike to rebuild my punctured lung and all the other things that were wrong with me. And then even though I used a regular bike to do so and rode one across the US the first time, it was not until a few years ago, that people stopped thinking that I rode a recumbent because I had not fully recovered. Even on my 1986 ride, they never stopped to think how much harder it was for me to pull a hundred pounds worth of trailer on what had become a 13 foot long rig. When they’d see me on my three wheeler, it always seemed like they felt sorry for me.

“And now instead of people feeling sorry for me, they want to know what I have to say! And not just about how I got better, all of a sudden I hear ‘cool bike’ a lot from people of all ages and ethnicities and if I stop and talk to them about the bike they always then listen how a return to the simplicity of cycling can’t help but heal our broken Nation!”

Wanting to talk also about bike taxis for easing congestion by carrying tourists and even old people around and hoping they would also give me an opening to talk about bike trailers for carrying stuff , the attention started to shift from me to the front door of city hall. Security guards and people in suits began to appear.

And one of them, a familiar face started walking toward our group, “Hi Martin”, he called.

“Hey Dave, looks like we got a good crowd this year”, I observed as I looked around the city square, called the Civic Center. Because San Francisco is its own city and county, the offices for both take up a full city block. They surround a promenade that was designed for activities such as ours. Gnarled London plane trees, carefully trimmed and groomed, lined one edge of the walkway that led up to the steps of city hall. A lawn with benches lined the other, where on occasion, free entertainment could be viewed from a stage if one had been set up. Today, however, instead of a viewing platform, wires, amplifiers, musicians and their instruments were positioned at the right edge of the steps.

The snappy music the small band that was there had been playing, a blues beat that featured two saxophones and a keyboard, overlooked the folding tables that had been set up with NBG literature, copies of our books, bagels and the tubs of bottled water and juice. The real focus, despite the pleasant ambience that (BAND TBA) had set, was on the inhabitants of the building that anchored this complex. We were all waiting for the Mayor to greet us with the first of this year’s 28 other NBG Day proclamations.

Dave represented the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and he and I had talked talked a lot over the last few years about the logistics of our annual celebration. We shook hands. “Come on Martin, the Mayor’s almost ready for you guys”, he said as he signaled to the media that we had to relocate while we waited for the Mayor.

As we walked toward the city hall steps, he continued, “So you’re gonna do the whole thing this year on that thing, huh. That’s impressive - I’m always amazed when I see you demonstrate for the press. I gotta admit you do make it look easy but how you get so high up there and then float around just looks so cool”.

Dave was a big guy with strong handsome Latin features. He obviously enjoyed his job working for the Mayor because he was always so enthusiastic. He pointed to the top of the steps, where in front of the City Hall doors a podium with the official seal for the city of San Francisco and a microphone had ben set up. “Do you want to bring your bike?” Dave asked as we got to where all the attention would soon be focused.

Making eye contact with a lot of familiar faces and people that had helped me move the NBG dream forward, I tried to keep focused. I wanted to bring Andy, Frank and Leah from the San Francisco Bike Coalition up there with me. They had helped me so much over the years. As that thought crossed my mind I saw Joe Breeze, one of the principal founders of the mountain bike. He and his company Breezer Bikes had also built a lot of support for the NBG. I kept seeing people who had helped when I determined that if I acknowledged all of them, if even with just a nod or a wink, I would lose my way. Oh yes, I remembered, I ‘gotta get my bike up these stairs.

There were not many of them but I still had to think about what I was doing. I had to grab my big bike in certain places on the frame and lift the wheel and at a certain angle or I could easily trip and make for a real spectacle. Just as I got to the speaking area, Mayor Gavin Newsom appeared. A tall, handsome man, Gavin was known nationally and I felt honored that he always made time for our annual event. His staff told me that making his city safe for biking was very important to him because he knew, like all the Mayors that welcome us every year on our Mayors' Ride, that it improved the quality of life for his citizens.

I followed what I sensed was protocol and waited for him to get to where I was standing with my bike. He reached out his hand as he approached. “Hello Mayor Newsom!” I said confidently as we shook hands.

“Great to see you again this year, Martin, looks like you brought a lot of your friends”, he smiled as he looked off to the crowd of maybe a few hundred media people and well wishers. “My staff tells me this year is different, that you are riding all the way to Boston. And with a book you’ve written no less!”

“That’s right, I even have a signed copy for you”, I said when Patty, one of his aides interrupted. “Martin, we’re going to have to cut it a little closer than what we talked about on the phone, the Mayor has to get over to the Fillmore for a homeless shelter dedication”.

A sharp looking woman, Patty had always worked to make sure we stood out on the Mayor’s business calendar. And today, it was obvious that she was taking the lead. “Jimmer”, she called, “can you get the proc over here and let’s all get going”. To another she asked, “Can you let the band know they’re ‘gonna have to wrap it up for a bit. Tell them now is when we need them to take their break.”

As our new field general choreographed the scene I told the Mayor that one of the cameras that was trained on us was for the documentary that would result from this year’s ride. It was being held by Don Loomis, the man who biked across the US for us in 2004. He would be traveling with me across the U.S. Having taken copious notes when he made his 2004 crossing, it has been Don’s route that we have been working to fine tune ever since.

Then almost as if taking his cue from a script. Dave, the Neighborhood Services guy, walked up to the microphone and started talking, “On behalf of the City of San Francisco and Mayor Newsom’s office, we’d like to welcome all of you who have come here today for San Francisco NBG Day. Today the Mayor will be presenting a proclamation to the National Bicycle Greenway organization to honor them for their mission to connect all the cities across America with safe bikeable roads and paths. So without further delay I give you a respected friend of San Francisco cyclists, Mayor Gavin Newsom!”

We began to clap.

“Thank you”, the Mayor began as he nodded first to Dave and the rest of his staff before he looked out to the crowd and the small pool of reporters before him. I stood behind him off to his right with my fellow riders. Since I moved so slow, they would ride ahead of me and in the towns and cities along the way they would circulate information about my coming arrival.

In between population centers, we would all be doing our own rides. While at the end of the day we would join one another again at a predetermined sleeping spot. The plan was for our driver to already have a spot all set up for the bus and a meal made so I could eat and do a few yoga stretches before I collapsed into my small bed.

“Before I read the proclamation, I want to first acknowledge the group of cyclists here at my right,” the Mayor began, “On behalf of the National Bicycle Greenway these brave men and women will be taking the message we send them off with here today to the towns and cities between here, Washington DC and Boston. Can I get the four of you to take a step forward so the crowd can see who you are?”

As Faye, Skot, Don and Scott moved next to the Mayor, a drum roll could be heard as many of the people who had come began to clap. Someone from the crowd began to chant, “NBG, NBG” as a few others joined in before Mayor Newsom smiled and reading from a small piece of paper said on the loudspeaker that drowned everyone else out, “Thank you Faye Saunders, Skot Paschal, Scott Campbell and Don Loomis, behind the camera, and Martin Krieg.”

He waited a few moments for calm to return.

“So we have come here today to honor the possibilities that the National Bicycle Greenway can mean for Americans and for our great city”, the Mayor began. Holding the San Francisco proclamation before himself, he started to read, “Whereas

PROCLAMTION HERE

After he read the last sentence, he turned to me as he said, “And this year we have NBG Founding Director, Martin Krieg, present to tell us a little bit about why this year’s `ride will go to, instead of come from, Boston,. But before I do that I want to give him and his fellow riders a gift they can deliver to Boston, Mayor Tom Menino from the citizens of San Francisco.”

Handing me a plaque set on a hard plastic base, obviously to make it light, he continued, “Martin, can you read this to our guests today?”

Smiling, I replied, “Wow, this is really cool, and yes, I’ll be happy to.”

I set it on the lectern and read the words:

“As your city and ours join hands with other great bike cities, we acknowledge Boston as the birthplace of the bicycle in America and for the example it has set to make the bicycle an important part of its transportation infrastructure.”

Holding it up for the crowd to see, I continued, “and then it has Mayor Newsom’s signature, and then it has the colorful seal for the city of San Francisco on it and today’s date”.

“This is so beautiful, thank you Mayor Newsom and we will all be so proud to deliver it.”

The Mayor smiled as he motioned for me to continue, “In the interest of time, I will be brief but I do want to say that I will be in Oakland this afternoon before we head off to Napa and then Sacramento, their exemplary river path and the rest of our ride to Boston,. And by default, the 2008 Mayors' Ride will be the rough equivalent of what America’s first coast to coast cyclist, Thomas Stevens did 125 years ago, all the way back in 1884, when he rode one of these things from San Francisco and Oakland to Boston”.

The newspeople pressed closer as I looked at the bike I held before me. “And I want to thank the gracious leaders of the city of San Francisco for always welcoming us and this year in particular as by my pedaling history on this the machine that called for America’s first roads we ask for a return to some of that same simplicity as we bike and grow richer in body, mind and spirit.

And it is for this reason, that I want you, Mayor Gavin Newsom, to have one of the first signed copies of my book, “How America can Bike and Grow Rich. The NBG Manifesto.”

I turned away from the crowd as I walked a few feet across the top of the steps to where the Mayor was standing with three or four member of his staff. They all wore suits. I handed him my book along with an NBG baseball cap.

“Thank you very much Martin. I know some people on my staff have read “Awake Again” and told me how it was inspiring, so this ought to be good.” As he then put on the hat and posed with me and my book for a few photos, a voice boomed out over the loudspeakers.

Dave had taken over at the microphone, “On behalf of the Mayor, I want to thank all off you for coming out today. We’d love to stick around and listen to some of the great music you have here today, eat some of this great food and listen to some of the great speakers we have heard will be here but we have to be on the other side of town for another event that we are already late for. So hurry up NBG we need this bikeway. We get to go fight traffic. In a car.”

<snip>


	Draft Book Excerpt from “How America can Bike and Grow Rich, The National Bicycle Greenway Manifesto” [..snip..] “So I’m a little confused here, you’ve got this great team and all these fancy new bikes, why are you going backwards in time if modern day bikes are what are going to be using the Greeenway?” “I asked someone in your group why they weren’t riding a bike like yours and they said they’re not crazy,” another reporter interjected. “Who said that?,” I said chuckling as I tossed a playful glance at my group. “Yeah, they are dangerous and 10 miles riding one does feel like 30 but you can’t see it from here but on the other side of those hills,” I pointed, “San Francisco has a hospital that kept them from amputating one of my legs. I ended up at UCSF after three other hospitals had given up on me and when Moffet (locals also used this name to refer to the hospital) figured out what was wrong with my leg, it wasn’t but a few weeks later that I came out of the coma I had been in. “That’s all in my book, “Awake Again” and I am telling you this because I almost didn’t have two legs with which to ride any kind of bike to rebuild my punctured lung and all the other things that were wrong with me. And then even though I used a regular bike to do so and rode one across the US the first time, it was not until a few years ago, that people stopped thinking that I rode a recumbent because I had not fully recovered. Even on my 1986 ride, they never stopped to think how much harder it was for me to pull a hundred pounds worth of trailer on what had become a 13 foot long rig. When they’d see me on my three wheeler, it always seemed like they felt sorry for me. “And now instead of people feeling sorry for me, they want to know what I have to say! And not just about how I got better, all of a sudden I hear ‘cool bike’ a lot from people of all ages and ethnicities and if I stop and talk to them about the bike they always then listen how a return to the simplicity of cycling can’t help but heal our broken Nation!” Wanting to talk also about bike taxis for easing congestion by carrying tourists and even old people around and hoping they would also give me an opening to talk about bike trailers for carrying stuff , the attention started to shift from me to the front door of city hall. Security guards and people in suits began to appear. And one of them, a familiar face started walking toward our group, “Hi Martin”, he called. “Hey Dave, looks like we got a good crowd this year”, I observed as I looked around the city square, called the Civic Center. Because San Francisco is its own city and county, the offices for both take up a full city block. They surround a promenade that was designed for activities such as ours. Gnarled London plane trees, carefully trimmed and groomed, lined one edge of the walkway that led up to the steps of city hall. A lawn with benches lined the other, where on occasion, free entertainment could be viewed from a stage if one had been set up. Today, however, instead of a viewing platform, wires, amplifiers, musicians and their instruments were positioned at the right edge of the steps. The snappy music the small band that was there had been playing, a blues beat that featured two saxophones and a keyboard, overlooked the folding tables that had been set up with NBG literature, copies of our books, bagels and the tubs of bottled water and juice. The real focus, despite the pleasant ambience that (BAND TBA) had set, was on the inhabitants of the building that anchored this complex. We were all waiting for the Mayor to greet us with the first of this year’s 28 other NBG Day proclamations. Dave represented the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and he and I had talked talked a lot over the last few years about the logistics of our annual celebration. We shook hands. “Come on Martin, the Mayor’s almost ready for you guys”, he said as he signaled to the media that we had to relocate while we waited for the Mayor. As we walked toward the city hall steps, he continued, “So you’re gonna do the whole thing this year on that thing, huh. That’s impressive - I’m always amazed when I see you demonstrate for the press. I gotta admit you do make it look easy but how you get so high up there and then float around just looks so cool”. Dave was a big guy with strong handsome Latin features. He obviously enjoyed his job working for the Mayor because he was always so enthusiastic. He pointed to the top of the steps, where in front of the City Hall doors a podium with the official seal for the city of San Francisco and a microphone had ben set up. “Do you want to bring your bike?” Dave asked as we got to where all the attention would soon be focused. Making eye contact with a lot of familiar faces and people that had helped me move the NBG dream forward, I tried to keep focused. I wanted to bring Andy, Frank and Leah from the San Francisco Bike Coalition up there with me. They had helped me so much over the years. As that thought crossed my mind I saw Joe Breeze, one of the principal founders of the mountain bike. He and his company Breezer Bikes had also built a lot of support for the NBG. I kept seeing people who had helped when I determined that if I acknowledged all of them, if even with just a nod or a wink, I would lose my way. Oh yes, I remembered, I ‘gotta get my bike up these stairs. There were not many of them but I still had to think about what I was doing. I had to grab my big bike in certain places on the frame and lift the wheel and at a certain angle or I could easily trip and make for a real spectacle. Just as I got to the speaking area, Mayor Gavin Newsom appeared. A tall, handsome man, Gavin was known nationally and I felt honored that he always made time for our annual event. His staff told me that making his city safe for biking was very important to him because he knew, like all the Mayors that welcome us every year on our Mayors' Ride, that it improved the quality of life for his citizens. I followed what I sensed was protocol and waited for him to get to where I was standing with my bike. He reached out his hand as he approached. “Hello Mayor Newsom!” I said confidently as we shook hands. “Great to see you again this year, Martin, looks like you brought a lot of your friends”, he smiled as he looked off to the crowd of maybe a few hundred media people and well wishers. “My staff tells me this year is different, that you are riding all the way to Boston. And with a book you’ve written no less!” “That’s right, I even have a signed copy for you”, I said when Patty, one of his aides interrupted. “Martin, we’re going to have to cut it a little closer than what we talked about on the phone, the Mayor has to get over to the Fillmore for a homeless shelter dedication”. A sharp looking woman, Patty had always worked to make sure we stood out on the Mayor’s business calendar. And today, it was obvious that she was taking the lead. “Jimmer”, she called, “can you get the proc over here and let’s all get going”. To another she asked, “Can you let the band know they’re ‘gonna have to wrap it up for a bit. Tell them now is when we need them to take their break.” As our new field general choreographed the scene I told the Mayor that one of the cameras that was trained on us was for the documentary that would result from this year’s ride. It was being held by Don Loomis, the man who biked across the US for us in 2004. He would be traveling with me across the U.S. Having taken copious notes when he made his 2004 crossing, it has been Don’s route that we have been working to fine tune ever since. Then almost as if taking his cue from a script. Dave, the Neighborhood Services guy, walked up to the microphone and started talking, “On behalf of the City of San Francisco and Mayor Newsom’s office, we’d like to welcome all of you who have come here today for San Francisco NBG Day. Today the Mayor will be presenting a proclamation to the National Bicycle Greenway organization to honor them for their mission to connect all the cities across America with safe bikeable roads and paths. So without further delay I give you a respected friend of San Francisco cyclists, Mayor Gavin Newsom!” We began to clap. “Thank you”, the Mayor began as he nodded first to Dave and the rest of his staff before he looked out to the crowd and the small pool of reporters before him. I stood behind him off to his right with my fellow riders. Since I moved so slow, they would ride ahead of me and in the towns and cities along the way they would circulate information about my coming arrival. In between population centers, we would all be doing our own rides. While at the end of the day we would join one another again at a predetermined sleeping spot. The plan was for our driver to already have a spot all set up for the bus and a meal made so I could eat and do a few yoga stretches before I collapsed into my small bed. “Before I read the proclamation, I want to first acknowledge the group of cyclists here at my right,” the Mayor began, “On behalf of the National Bicycle Greenway these brave men and women will be taking the message we send them off with here today to the towns and cities between here, Washington DC and Boston. Can I get the four of you to take a step forward so the crowd can see who you are?” As Faye, Skot, Don and Scott moved next to the Mayor, a drum roll could be heard as many of the people who had come began to clap. Someone from the crowd began to chant, “NBG, NBG” as a few others joined in before Mayor Newsom smiled and reading from a small piece of paper said on the loudspeaker that drowned everyone else out, “Thank you Faye Saunders, Skot Paschal, Scott Campbell and Don Loomis, behind the camera, and Martin Krieg.” He waited a few moments for calm to return. “So we have come here today to honor the possibilities that the National Bicycle Greenway can mean for Americans and for our great city”, the Mayor began. Holding the San Francisco proclamation before himself, he started to read, “Whereas PROCLAMTION HERE After he read the last sentence, he turned to me as he said, “And this year we have NBG Founding Director, Martin Krieg, present to tell us a little bit about why this year’s `ride will go to, instead of come from, Boston,. But before I do that I want to give him and his fellow riders a gift they can deliver to Boston, Mayor Tom Menino from the citizens of San Francisco.” Handing me a plaque set on a hard plastic base, obviously to make it light, he continued, “Martin, can you read this to our guests today?” Smiling, I replied, “Wow, this is really cool, and yes, I’ll be happy to.” I set it on the lectern and read the words: “As your city and ours join hands with other great bike cities, we acknowledge Boston as the birthplace of the bicycle in America and for the example it has set to make the bicycle an important part of its transportation infrastructure.” Holding it up for the crowd to see, I continued, “and then it has Mayor Newsom’s signature, and then it has the colorful seal for the city of San Francisco on it and today’s date”. “This is so beautiful, thank you Mayor Newsom and we will all be so proud to deliver it.” The Mayor smiled as he motioned for me to continue, “In the interest of time, I will be brief but I do want to say that I will be in Oakland this afternoon before we head off to Napa and then Sacramento, their exemplary river path and the rest of our ride to Boston,. And by default, the 2008 Mayors' Ride will be the rough equivalent of what America’s first coast to coast cyclist, Thomas Stevens did 125 years ago, all the way back in 1884, when he rode one of these things from San Francisco and Oakland to Boston”. The newspeople pressed closer as I looked at the bike I held before me. “And I want to thank the gracious leaders of the city of San Francisco for always welcoming us and this year in particular as by my pedaling history on this the machine that called for America’s first roads we ask for a return to some of that same simplicity as we bike and grow richer in body, mind and spirit. And it is for this reason, that I want you, Mayor Gavin Newsom, to have one of the first signed copies of my book, “How America can Bike and Grow Rich. The NBG Manifesto.” I turned away from the crowd as I walked a few feet across the top of the steps to where the Mayor was standing with three or four member of his staff. They all wore suits. I handed him my book along with an NBG baseball cap. “Thank you very much Martin. I know some people on my staff have read “Awake Again” and told me how it was inspiring, so this ought to be good.” As he then put on the hat and posed with me and my book for a few photos, a voice boomed out over the loudspeakers. Dave had taken over at the microphone, “On behalf of the Mayor, I want to thank all off you for coming out today. We’d love to stick around and listen to some of the great music you have here today, eat some of this great food and listen to some of the great speakers we have heard will be here but we have to be on the other side of town for another event that we are already late for. So hurry up NBG we need this bikeway. We get to go fight traffic. In a car.” <snip>