This week's new articles from the alternative weeklies...
- The rise of bike culture (SF Bay Guardian)
San Francisco has quickly peddled back into the front of the pack among bicycle-friendly U.S. cities, regaining the ground it lost during a four-year court injunction against new bike projects that was partially lifted in November 2009 and completely ended last June. Since then, the streets of San Francisco have been transformed as the city completed 19 long overdue bike projects, including 11 miles of new bike lanes, 40 miles of "sharrow" shared lane markings, and hundreds of new bike racks. The city's first physically separated green bike lanes on Market Street are now being extended, and new ones are being added on Alemany and Laguna Honda boulevards. Full article
- Hunger Strike for Ethnic Studies (East Bay Express)
Zoila Adaljiza Lara-Cea was sprawled on her stomach on a grassy knoll next to the UC Berkeley's chancellor's office last week under a makeshift shelter spray-painted with the words: "Stop the Cuts to Ethnic Studies." While she crammed for final exams, others engaged in debate with a passerby on the importance of ethnic studies. Lara-Cea and the four other hunger strikers hadn't eaten solid food since April 26 to protest faculty and staff reassignments, layoffs, and reductions in hours in the small UC Berkeley department that grew out of the Third World Strike forty years ago. Full article
- Tales of Strange Romance: Single Life in San Francisco (SF Weekly)
...At a time when more Americans than ever are remaining single through their 30s and beyond, this city has become a gathering place for the unattached. Some are complacent in their solitude, while others remain solo based on lofty romantic ambitions...For several weeks, SF Weekly has been collecting tales of romantic takeoffs and turbulent landings in San Francisco. Some are funny. Some are deeply depressing. Each demonstrates a little something about what it's like to be single here, now, in a city that feels so much like drinks at the airport. Full article