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:
http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide//SanFrancisco2003/SFMainWill
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
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Festival
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.
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