This is the information that came with it, if anyone is interested in learning more. “3.0 for 2008 – Newly Revised Edition Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. It was even adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman.”

MoMA and the W Hotel from Yerba Buena Garden

I have to admit, I love to drive. As a teenager in Los Angeles, it was the ultimate experience of freedom and independence. At night I would go for long drives around the canyons, Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway, any place away from home was an adventure. So when I say that I “gave up my car” a few years ago, you have to understand that for me it was like giving up my only child for adoption. I knew it was the best thing for her and for me, but I still felt the pain of separation deeply.

My reasons for going “Car-less in San Francisco” were numerous and well-reasoned. For one thing–global warming. I had been considering it for several years before I actually did the deed. I am a practicing buddhist–(intentionally small ‘b’ buddhist). I believe in living simply and sharing in the stewardship of the earth. I am a gardener and foodie, and I did actually notice small changes already beginning in the climate, crops, and seasons. Another important reason was economy. As many of you know painfully and first-hand, living in San Francisco is not cheap. Also, driving in San Francisco is not cheap. In addition to the stupidly high gas prices, parking, bridge tolls, higher rates on insurance, eerily efficient parking officers, and endless street cleaning, there are also the break-ins by drug addicts who will break any window just to steal a CD. Another reason is that I believe in slowing down in life. I know that is anathema to the American cultural norm, but I began to notice myself living at break-neck speed (pun intended) for no real reason other than habit. I’d been raised by two hard-working Asian immigrant parents who instilled in me the subconscious belief that work was the most important thing in life and that everything else is generally a waste of one’s time. I needed to learn new habits.

South Beach Harbor

Although I had been considering it for several years, it was not until I wrote a paper on global warming in chemistry class that my logical reasons overcame my emotional connection to my car, a grey Toyota Camry, by the way–most popular car in America for a reason. I had already felt that of all the places to live in America, I was in the best place of all to be car-less. One article had even proclaimed SF even better than Boston or New York to live in without a car. Everything is either walkable, bikable, or MUNI/BART/CalTrain-able. My studio apartment is only 9 blocks away from my office, a 5 minute bike ride down hill. My school is 18 to 22 minutes away downhill until the very end, then three and a half bruisingly steep hills to the upper campus. Of all people in America I should be able to sacrifice my car for the good of the environment and my bank account and my lifestyle. I knew that if I just tried to drive my car less, it wouldn’t happen, because driving had become so ingrained in my habits of living. I would have to quit cold turkey.

Inside the Contemporary Jewish Art Museum

I have to say that there have been benefits that I did not realize there would be. I get a great morning adrenaline rush just in time to keep me awake and alert for my 3 and 4 hour acupuncture and herbs classes. I see things in many neighborhoods that I would not have noticed if I’d been driving. Biking slows me down and enables me to take a long look at beautiful stairways tucked away, or new restaurants or stores that look really cool, or trees and people and buildings. I love to stop on a ride, take out my iPhone, and snap a few photos of beautiful buildings–like the new Contemporary Jewish Art Museum on Mission across from Yerba Buena Gardens which looks like the Borg Ship on one side, or the new Federal Building on 7th Street and Mission, which looks dramatically different from every angle of approach and is the first naturally ventilated building on the West Coast, using less than half of the energy of a standard office tower (according to: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Federal_Building).

Contemporary Jewish Art Museum - aka: Borg Ship

Biking also gives me a nice little exercise break in between school and work, in case I don’t manage to carve out enough time to workout in a day. I discovered that there are many places in the city that are closer than I realized. I frequently find myself enjoying a walk from Market Street to Japantown, or from the Mission to Japantown, that I never would have considered back when I was car-locked. It takes me 40 minutes at most and frequently closer to 20 minutes to walk home from just about anywhere I normally go. Although my main mode of transportation is bicycle, there are also times when I use public transportation and have been pleasantly surprised at how easy and efficient it is. Some days I am a little too tired to bike and just toss my bike onto a MUNI bus. It’s that easy. Luckily I live in a place where I have 3 or 4 good options for public transportation to anywhere in the city.

Just so that you will not think me too rose-colored in my assessment of being “Car-less in San Francisco”, there are also drawbacks that I had not quite foreseen. There are sometimes drivers who are not paying attention or being courteous on the road (an understatement perhaps). The wind was so strong in the Autumn that on some days I felt like I was moving backwards. With the wind comes dust, though sunglasses really help with that. When it rains, there is less visibility of cars and by cars, and then the wheels spit rain at my pant legs. On the other hand, when it rains really hard like it did a few times in the Autumn and Winter, you can’t stay dry even on the bus because the storm is blowing sideways and the seats on the bus are wet. I actually considered buying a pair of ski pants for just those occasions.

Beautiful Freeway Overpass

There is a lot more that I would like to say (and will say in future blog posts) about the experience of being “Car-less in San Francisco” but I am also curious about what other people’s experiences are being car-less or going car-less in SF and other cities. On the whole, it’s been a great experience and I’ve learned a lot, seen a lot, lived my life in a different and often better way. If you are interested in this topic or have your own experiences to share, feel free to comment.

It is shocking to me that in a country with 13% of it’s population (6.8 million people) living in poverty, that the embattled government could consider such an backward and ultimately futile effort at censorship. They assert that it is to “block web sites deemed insulting to the country’s beloved monarch, as well as others considered to have inappropriate content.” First of all, the Thai Royal Family is incredibly popular; even if the 1000 alleged complaints are warranted, this cannot possibly effect them. This is more likely a thinly-veiled attempt at controlling the information available to the Thai people. Secondly, I notice that “inappropriate content” is an innocuous bit of double-speak. Inappropriate can mean anything this government feels threatened by.

The internet was created to enable people to freely exchange ideas. Any government which positions itself against this is setting itself up for extinction. Clearly, the current government is on it’s way out. Perhaps in it’s attempt to monitor and contain the internet the ironically named People Power Party (PPP) writes its own elegy of corruption and fear.

This is a link to today’s International Herald Tribune article about the plans for the firewall:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/28/asia/AS-Thailand-Internet-Crackdown.php

This is a UC Davis student’s dissertation on the relationship between population, environment and poverty in Thailand:

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:BEoFbFuHFhEJ:www.agecon.ucdavis.edu/people/grad_students/papers/population-poverty.pdf+thai+socio-economic+conditions&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a

If you are interested in learning more about Thai politics, I found this Wikipedia page helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Thailand

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laela lives with jesse in brooklyn. she is a very healthy, and full-figured girl. i am writing my first blog about laela because i am a fan. she is beautiful, every bit the diva. she keeps people in their place. and if she is displeased, she may leave a little stinky gift in your gym bag or on your favorite sweater.