On 12/3/2017 5:04 PM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Hey, synchronicity -- last night, I went to a birthday celebration and campaign rally for a friend of mine who is running for Washington County chair. She is currently a Metro Councilor. Yes, envelopes were distributed, but I'm happy to give. She's a former Intel EE and totally over-powered for any job short of the White House.

Heh, I was so shy about asking for money. I believe I ran about the
lowest cost campaign in the last 30 years.

I sent you a link to a Google Doc with some of the campaign stuff that
worked for me, maybe your friend can use some of the ideas.

It was a real experience running for office, with unexpected
experiences, i.e. dealing with the distractions like a former mayor, who
is not one my fans, who at one point insisted that someone from our
grassroots group tried to steal his car.

You should run for something.

I got button-holed by a guy who was on the Bicycle Transportation Alliance board with me a million years ago. Nice guy, but he wanted to talk traffic circles/roundabouts and the various bicycle infrastructure projects in close-in Washington County (Intel and Nike). I was trying to get to the wine. Raptor Ridge -- fabulous Pinot. This guy is still active and trying to make a difference with the local planning departments and has a different agenda than the current iteration of the BTA -- the "Street Trust," which has become too big for its own good and too tied to large scale projects that make the world worse for cyclists like cycletracks, confusing hardscape, etc., etc. It made me want to get involved again -- until I got my wine and got over the impulse.

They served Linked-In private label wine at the SVBC party, but they ran
out of the red wine. They had good beer. I expect that in Portland, no
one would dare serve bad beer at any event. The food at the SVBC event
is always terrible, cold, soggy, low-quality, pizza.

Its funny that back in the day, the BTA was fighting city planners, including Mia Burke, who went on to start Alta -- the death star of crazy bicycle infrastructure. https://altaplanning.com/alta-planning-and-design/ She told me I was in her book, but I haven't bought a copy. https://www.amazon.com/Joyride-Pedal.../dp/0615384110 I like Mia. I just have a different vision of what makes cycling convenient and pleasant.

Ah, Alta design. Quite familiar with them of course. They have proposed
nothing crazy in Cupertino. They produce really beautiful reports! I
would think that our own public works people would have come up with
identical proposals since what can be done in terms of infrastructure is
pretty straightforward here, but I can't complain about their proposals.