Because parking in front of the church door is a religious right

[consularrider]

@83(b) 126727 wrote:

After the friends who told me about churchgoers looking them dead in the eye and threatening to run cyclists over, I’m still at the sputtering rage, unnecessary escalation, and petty revenge fantasies stage…

Ball bearings.

[Raymo853]

Seems like we need some posters that take styling and content clues from this one from the late 1960’s. Was part of a movement lead by DC Churches to stop the building of elevated interstates throughout DC.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9914[/ATTACH]

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@dasgeh 126736 wrote:

I think it’s a good point, and I think your efforts would be most effective if the people who show up are diverse.

Another tact is to worship at the church, if you’re so inclined to worship. I’m trying to find a weekend when I will work for our family.

Don’t have to go to services. United House of Prayer has a soul food cafeteria called Saints Paradise. Big portions, cheap prices. Create a bike commuter lunch club there once a week.

[Tania]

Some of the comments in this thread are really shameful.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Tania 126832 wrote:

Some of the comments in this thread are really shameful.

You mean Tim’s pun, right?

[lordofthemark]

This is so complicated. Being hateful to churches and religion I cannot approve of. But this church is a huge economic and financial player, and is built on an faith healing IIUC, and absolute power for the leader. I mean it treads along the definition of cult. On the other hand it has done a lot of real social service work, and (while I am all for densification, smart growth, and economic diversity) the fears many black Washingtonians have of gentrification is understandable (and the Marylanders who attend churches like this often have strong ties to black Washingtonians) . OTOH it sucks that they want to take it out on people on bikes, and of course the church itself develops luxury properties.

I am glad I don’t have to have an opinion on it as a District resident (since I am not one) As a WABA member, I support their strategy of calmly explaining the benefits of the bike lanes, and offering to explore compromises. I do not know if that will work in getting us a bike lane in that area now, but I think it will benefit us longer term. I also think longer term, the demographic changes (whether with amelioration to displacement as I hope, or without) will reduce the perhaps excessive power of churches like this.

[creadinger]

@lordofthemark 126849 wrote:

This is so complicated.

But it’s not that complicated… it’s a frickin bike lane. How is this so controversial? Because the church is making it complicated by making it a fight over a MUCH bigger deal that has very little to do with some paint stripes. The old white people in Wherever, CA made ridiculous arguments against bike lanes recently too and we all laughed at them. Why are we suddenly forced to feel bad because some church may lose some (illegal anyway) parking spots?

Strip away the anger and the constitutional rights BS and all you have is DDOT wants to put in a bike lane. No one has said that the church goers can’t park all over the place like they do already anyway.

[dasgeh]

I agree that the disrespect towards religion generally and this church in particular is uncalled for. Their arguments, however, deserve to be pilloried for the ridiculousness that they are.

Also, it seems that the members of this church are concerned about the city changing and have chosen this issue to fight as a proxy. It would do us to demonstrate that this issue is not a good proxy. To do so, I propose showing church members that a diverse set of people, including lots of church-going people, bike.

But fundamentally, this is about safety of people. I am appalled that certain people want to use modern Christianity to say “people should not be safe outside of our doorstep”. As a Christian, I intend to call them on this point.

[lordofthemark]

@creadinger 126861 wrote:

But it’s not that complicated… it’s a frickin bike lane. How is this so controversial? Because the church is making it complicated by making it a fight over a MUCH bigger deal that has very little to do with some paint stripes. The old white people in Wherever, CA made ridiculous arguments against bike lanes recently too and we all laughed at them. Why are we suddenly forced to feel bad because some church may lose some (illegal anyway) parking spots?

Strip away the anger and the constitutional rights BS and all you have is DDOT wants to put in a bike lane. No one has said that the church goers can’t park all over the place like they do already anyway.

Because the rhetoric, and much of the feeling (at least among church members, even if the leadership is insincere) is not about the bike lane but about gentrification. The problem is precisely that bike lanes, far from begriming a place, make a place better. In an economically rational real estate market, that raises rents.

It is not WABA’s responsibility to address affordable housing issues in DC. Heck, it is not DDOT’s responsibility either. But to the extent anyone should (and I realize there are different opinions on the extent of displacement, and proper policy responses to it) it is the Mayor and Council of DC, who are seen as supporting bike lane expansion. Note in DC displacement is not only about economic change, but racial and political change, in a city that, uniquely, was seen as the one african american majority jurisdiction with state like powers after home rule was established – and that before home rule was controlled by white southern congressional committee chairmen, in an almost colonial fashion. There is an intensity to these issues that has not yet gone away. This is, I think very very different from the situation of some wealthy homeowners in San Diego or in the Taylor Run section of Alexandria.

Note I am not saying the bike lanes should not be built (as a policy person, refusing to build a desirable amenity that is so benefit cost positive is an absurdly inefficient way to deal with housing affordability). I am merely saying that the sensitivities of the discussion are complex. That is why I support WABA’s sensible, friendly, outreach approach. This is not the time, place or issue for mass protests by people on bikes. To the extent there are people in the church who are of ill will, and are manipulating the fears of others, I suspect that is exactly what they want to see. In general it is not good to meet the adversary on the ground of their choosing. Culture war is the ground we should avoid. Policy wonkery on safety, and on parking alternatives, is the best ground to hold on to, while quietly lobbying the Council to keep them from interfering in DDOT’s work.

[lordofthemark]

And let me add, this is why my advocacy extends beyond WABA and BPAC, to support of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, including its efforts on affordable housing. Addressing inclusiveness will, IMO, smooth the path to the kinds of cities and suburbs we (many of us, anyway) want.

[jabberwocky]

@dasgeh 126886 wrote:

But fundamentally, this is about safety of people. I am appalled that certain people want to use modern Christianity to say “people should not be safe outside of our doorstep”. As a Christian, I intend to call them on this point.

To be fair, hiding behind religion to justify being a self-centered dick is pretty much what american christianity seems to be about, at least in my experience.

[jrenaut]

@jabberwocky 126897 wrote:

To be fair, hiding behind religion to justify being a self-centered dick is pretty much what american christianity seems to be about, at least in my experience.

It’s more accurate to say that Christianity is one of the things that self-centered dicks choose to hide behind. Regardless of your experience, attacking Christianity or Christians isn’t going to help anything here.

Come out to the meeting tonight (I’m going to try to attend) and we can talk about good solutions to engage the opposition. I do not believe, despite the prior meeting, that all those opposed are horrible people who want cyclists to get run over. It would actually be easier if that were the case – then DDOT would be justified in ignoring the needs of dangerous psychopaths.

[dkel]

@jrenaut 126898 wrote:

It’s more accurate to say that Christianity is one of the things that self-centered dicks choose to hide behind. Regardless of your experience, attacking Christianity or Christians isn’t going to help anything here.

Thanks for this, jrenaut. If we cyclists are tired of all being branded as scofflaws, we can’t very well turn around and brand all Christians as “self-centered dicks.”

[dasgeh]

@jabberwocky 126897 wrote:

To be fair, hiding behind religion to justify being a self-centered dick is pretty much what american christianity seems to be about, at least in my experience.

I’m sad that that is your experience. If you’re open to changing it, you’re welcome to come to my church (Clarendon Presbyterian, near Liberty Tavern, also hosts the Arlington Action Committee meetings, blesses bikes, etc).

[83b]

To be clear, I have no animosity towards religion or churches generally. And, in fact, have been a member of my fair share of congregations.

I do have considerable, longstanding, negative feelings toward the specific group of DC churches—a considerable number of which surround my home—that, solely with respect to problems caused by their driving habits:
• Disregarded a disabled man’s pleas not to immobilize him for half of his weekend;
• Park illegally en masse on Sundays, especially around the entire perimeter of the park across the street from my house, which impedes sight lanes greatly and makes it dangerous for neighbors trying to cross the street to use the park (especially given the uptick in speeding at that time);
• Yelled at marathon runners, made grossly offensive statements directed at neighborhood residents, and double parked to block in scores of neighbors cars, when a highly-popular race prevented them from illegally parking around the park;
• Block off parking spots and bike lanes illegally using orange safety cones to create unpermitted loading zones (this occurs frequently, especially for funerals) and make frequent illegal U turns out of those zones;
• Double park in bike lanes, blocking in neighborhood resident’s cars (this also occurs frequently, especially for funerals);
• Honk at cyclists and pass us aggressively for not riding in those blocked bike lanes;
• Deploy uniformed security/parking attendants or parishioners in safety vests to intimidate neighborhood residents to stay out of legal parking spots;
• Convinced DDOT to grant angled parking on certain blocks on Sunday mornings, requiring local residents to adjust their own cars twice, first very early in the morning and again in the evenings; and
• Have succeeded in, or are attempting to, force the city to scuttle the building of, or to compromise the design of, cycling infrastructure that would make city residents safer.

If people feel that coming onto a message board of fellow cyclists to vent my frustrations about these groups—given their driving habits and having just put on a show of force at a public meeting where they vocally threatened to murder or maim us and made clear they regard us as unwelcome in our own city—is shameful, then so be it; but I respectfully disagree about who it is that should be ashamed of themselves.

Despite all our bluster about the things we could do to annoy, provoke, inconvenience, or even vandalize them, no one is actually going to go out and do those things. In contrast, based on my experiences riding on Sunday mornings, some of those parishioners are not at all kidding about their willingness to casually endanger our lives.

Obviously WABA’s approach of community outreach and compromise (without compromising on our safety) is best. In addition to supporting them, I applaud them for having the patience and restraint to stay on message. And I wrote the emails that I sent to the Mayor and DDOT through their system with their approach in mind. WABA’s staff deserves just piles of praise and all of the beer.

But right now my patience and empathy are just tapped out. This bike lane fight and all of its negativity has blown up at exactly the same time as neighborhood attempts to address the massive swell of violence on Capitol Hill have had to deal with a vocal group that refuses let there be a conversation about the problems of DC’s police and justice system, and instead wants to limit us to talking about social issues like income inequality, racial discrimination, education, job training, and low income housing. My polite liberal bona fides are in serious jeopardy, because after weeks like these—where being endangered by drivers is a regular occurrence and my wife is afraid to walk three blocks to the grocery store and even mentioned wanting to move—I just can’t bring myself to care about those issues anymore.

[Author]

Posts