I have lived in Emeryville for 28 years and have been a bike activist for almost as many years. I helped write our Bike/Ped Plan in the 1990’s. I was a member of EBBC for many of those years but recently I felt I could no longer be a member of an organization that has worked to harm the cause of biking in my town and so I have quit this club. The problem began when the EBBC recently supported the political campaign of Ken Bukowski for Emeryville City Council. This Council member is the most anti-bike on the whole city council at least as it pertains to Emeryville. He is infamous for this in my town and he has voted against EVERY pro bike issue brought before the Council for the last three years.
I pleaded with Robert Raburn to not endorse such an anti-bike Council member but to no avail. After Mr Bukowski won re-election, he joined the others on the Council to purge Council member John Fricke from the Transportation Committee. Mr Fricke represents the lone pro-bike voice on the Council (and Committee). I asked Mr Raburn to please help us in our attempts to stop the purge but also to no avail. The Transportation Committee, now free of Fricke, has used its power to help forward an ill conceived street widening campaign in Emeryville. This street widening scheme was championed by the Council (except Fricke) after the enabling push from the Transportation Committee even though the City’s own commissioned Nelson/Nygaard Alterinative Transportation Study has railed against it.
I asked Mr Raburn is he would publish a letter from me to Ride On about all this but he has said NO. I will consider someday rejoining your organization but not until Mr Raburn is gone or he changes his mind about biking in Emeryville and comes to support it.
I’m sorry this has all come to pass-
Brian Donahue