SF Bicycle Coalition Elections Don’t Have to Be Rorschach Tests for Our Fears

Members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition elect our Board of Directors. The current election for 7 of the 15 seats on the board runs from January 31 to February 16.

tl;dr:

• The last three years of competitive elections for the Bicycle Coalition Board of Directors have made many of us fearful about the intentions of others in the coalition.
• It’s been a rocky few years, but I’m hopeful the coalition is on the verge of coming out of this period stronger and more diverse.
• I think a lot of these fears are mostly misunderstandings. We need to embrace the fact that we are a true coalition, which means working with and empathizing with people who we disagree with sometimes.

Past Fears:

In 2015, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Board of Directors asked members to vote to switch from having members elect the board to having the current board appoint future board members.

The board members who called for this change feared that California’s transparency laws for non-profits with elected boards would lead to cranks and spammers obtaining our member list and pestering members into leaving the organization. Members who want a more grassroots-focused coalition feared this change would exclude members from decision-making. I helped form an ad hoc group called Save SF Bike to oppose that change and keep the SFBC board member elected.

The rift over that controversial vote has led to three straight competitive elections for the SFBC Board of Directors.

Many politically active San Franciscans have seen these elections as proxy wars between the City’s progressive and moderate political camps:

• Progressives feared the endorsement votes of 2015’s Love SFBC slate that included candidates connected to moderate-aligned groups like SPUR and SFHAC.
• Moderates feared the Save SF Bike slate when they saw candidates aligned with progressives like Supervisor John Avalos and Causa Justa:Just Cause.

I understand why political activists would fear political shenanigans, but I believe all of the candidates who have run in these elections did so because they cared about the coalition. For the most active SFBC members, their fears are less about City politics and more about what strategies the coalition prioritizes in its work promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation:

• Some members who want a more professional SFBC fear that rabble-rousing candidates for the board want to micromanage the coalition’s staff and shift its focus to their pet projects, which would alienate donors.
• Some members who want a more grassroots-focused SFBC fear that establishment-minded candidates will compromise our principles for access to politicians and donations from developers and corporations.

Whew, that’s a lot of fear!

As one of the co-founders of Save SF Bike, I either experienced or contributed to most of those fears. We feared the Bicycle Coalition we loved was being taken away from us, and the only option we saw was to aggressively campaign to save it. We condensed complex issues into compelling flyers and social media posts. That upset some members and made them fear we would tear the coalition apart. But all along, our goal was to hold the coalition together and make it stronger by making space for all of us.

But I’ve lost too much sleep and even some friends over all this fear, and frankly, I’m over it. My top priority for my term on the SFBC board is to ease these fears by building understanding and trust across these various divides. I think a lot of these fears are mostly misunderstandings that we can work through.

This Year’s Election:

I was optimistic when the board voted last summer to implement ranked choice voting (RCV), which de-emphasizes slates and allows us to support more candidates. If I was scheming towards a full Save SF Bike takeover of the coalition, I would have opposed RCV and tried to run a slate of candidates in this year’s election. I hope that RCV can help de-escalate the fears of the past few years.

I was relieved when I saw the list of candidates running for the SFBC board this year. This year’s crop of 14 candidates includes a bunch of great members who weren’t involved in those fearful skirmishes of the past few years.

Our group of Save SF Bike organizers debated if and how we should make endorsements this year. We settled on an approach of recommending candidates in tiers based on their responses to our questionnaire, their history with the coalition, and a goal of promoting diversity on the board. We saw that as a kinder-gentler way to give members information on the candidates while fostering a diversity of opinions.

Present Fears:

When this year’s Board of Directors voting opened on January 31, a new group, SFBC United, emerged with a slate of six candidates (for the seven open seats) supported by several former SFBC staff members.

So far this year’s election seems much less divisive than the last two, but alas, there appear to be several new fears:

• The six candidates on the SFBC United slate were the only candidates who didn’t respond to Save SF Bike’s questionnaire. SFBC United may fear their answers to the questionnaire could be used against them if taken out of context.
• The fact that SFBC United candidates didn’t answer the question on if they think the board should be elected by members created fears that they may want to eliminate member voting rights.
• The fact that a number of former SFBC staff are supporting the SFBC United slate suggests they fear the election of more board members aligned with Save SF Bike.
• When Sonja Trauss, co-founder of the BARF/YIMBY movements, tweeted support for a YIMBY candidate on the SFBC United slate, some progressives feared this signaled an attempted YIMBY takeover of the coalition.
• Over on the cesspool of online discussion that is reddit.com/sanfrancisco, some local redditors fear that Save SF Bike are a bunch of progressive activists who have already taken over the coalition.

So. many. fears.

How Do We Stop Fearing Each Other?

I think a good first step would be for all of us hyper-involved SFBC members to talk to each other more, try to be honest about our fears, and try to empathize with each other.

That’s why I’m organizing an SFBC Board of Directors Candidate Mixer!
Wednesday 2/7, 7–9pm
Virgil’s Sea Room
3152 Mission Street at Precita (map)
RSVP on Facebook

Candidates from across the Bicycle Coalition spectrum will be there. Virgil’s is making a special cocktail for us, and they’ll donate $3 from each one we drink to the coalition!

I’m still figuring out how I’m going to rank my votes for all of the candidates. I started writing my thoughts on that, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.

I want to see a diverse board. Diverse in lots of ways: race, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, age, political views, social circles, etc. And also diverse in perspectives on this debate about whether the Bicycle Coalition should be more professional or more grassroots.

If we are truly a coalition of bicycle advocates, we need to embrace the uncomfortable fact that our advocacy will be stronger if we can work with people who aren’t like us: Save SF Bike and SFBC United board members working together. Moderates and progressives and YIMBYs and socialists uneasily working together to promote the bicycle for everyday transportation!

We all need to do the hard work of trying to understand each other’s perspectives. Please join me Wednesday at Virgil’s to continue the discussion.