[IMC-Boston-Editorial] Erasing -on second thought

[Pete Stidman]

my logic was a little off there- if someone took it
down they must have a concern.  So I'll leave it down
but please air that concern so it can be discussed.  I
feel that this is important and bicycle activism does
have a place on our site.  

-Pete


--- Pete Stidman <pstidman at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hey folks,
> 
>    Just curious who decided to erase the razorwire I
> put up about the first MAPC bicycle survey and why
> they thought it should come down.  
> 
> I have put it back up because previous collective
> decisions support the general idea that subtracting
> something someone has done should not be done
> without
> discussion. I discuss this in more detail below. 
> 
> Here are my reasons in support of this razorwire:
> 
> I can only assume that there are tons of bicyclists
> that read our site, many of whom ride either for
> convenience or becuase they cannot afford other
> forms
> of transport. 
> 
> The MAPC survey is being promoted by MASSBike and
> other organizations that have a very limited ability
> to get to the kind of bike commuters that inhabit
> Boston and Cambridge.  Instead they bias heavily
> towards suburban recreational riders.
> 
> My aim in putting it up was to offset this bias,
> therefore giving people in Boston and Cambridge who
> ride everyday everywhere and who often fall below
> the
> median hh income, a rare chance to have input into
> how
> the city's bicycle infrastructure is designed.
> 
> This is also extrememly timely as bicycle activists
> all over the city have been approaching the mayor
> from
> several angles in order to improve conditions here
> and
> gass prices are rising. This creates an opportunity
> for all of the more sustainable planning options. 
> 
> (for those of you who are lucky and can afford to
> live
> in cambridge or Somerville, let me just tell you,
> Biking in Boston sux compared to your towns, there
> are
> no bike lanes whatsoever, no signs, nothing except
> some rusty old bike racks that took well over a 5
> year
> battle to put in)
> 
> If this is someone new to editing the site it could
> very well be that this is another instance where we
> need to be clearer about policy.  
> 
> In my memory, policy is currently that we do not do
> this sort of action without discussion.  This was
> established after articles in the center column were
> flipping in and out, which really screwed up our RSS
> feed.  Matt may remember this. ALthough this problem
> is technically different, the spirit of that idea,
> that others should not act negatively (defined as
> subtractive, i.e. taking something off the site)
> towards others peoples work without first gaining
> some
> support from others in the group, was meant to
> include
> all work on the site.
> 
> That said, the razorwire does require acting
> subtractively, so my reasoning behind causing a
> stink
> is that the bicycle razorwire is still current and
> was
> not allowed to stay even for 24 hours.  
> 
> -Pete
> 
> 
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