Editordude: Rag writer Paul Krueger had a Letter to the Editor published in Sunday’s U-T, April 18. He was responding to the article, “Layoffs, deep cuts proposed to close $146M gap” from April 15.
By Paul Krueger
After ignoring criticism for years, Mayor Gloria has finally acknowledged the overwhelming lack of public support for bike lanes.
His decision to eliminate his bike lane team is a welcome reversal of a policy that deprived neighborhoods of much-needed parking and hurt struggling small businesses.
And to what end?
From City Heights to Clairemont, and Talmadge to Kearny Mesa, residents go weeks without seeing a single cyclist on those bike paths.
And the placement of some lanes was incomprehensible. The 30th Street lanes could have easily been moved a few blocks west, with much less disruption of traffic and parking. Same for the Convoy Street lanes.
Both were vehemently opposed by business owners and residents. But the mayor dismissed those valid community concerns.
It’s unfortunate that it took a budget crisis to force the mayor’s hand, but many of us welcome the result.
Paul Krueger is a writer for the Rag and a resident of Talmadge.
Thx for posting my letter, “editor-dude”!
Bike lanes are clearly a hot issue… I’ve gotten more than 13,000 views of my letter on X, Facebook, and Nextdoor, and dozens of comments, all but one or two critical of the current bike lane system.
Nice that we’re having this conversation, and hopeful that our elected and appointed officials throughout the county are paying attention.
The bike lanes are ill maintained with broken delineators, weeds & trash plus ghost riders.
I am guessing the bike team staff will find homes in other city departments ?
Moving ADA parking spots says it all about this mayor.
Amsterdam Todd.
Guess the curmudgeons are getting their way. I guess it was sadly bound to happen.
Sorry Chris T; I knew you wouldn’t be happy with this.
I’m ecstatic! Now the the bike, rec, library, and arts people can join in and get down on Toad. He shouldn’t have run around the public with hiring, salaries, and pension.
Please watch the April 13th 2026 City Council recorded video. They have no idea where all the revenue is. Sean Elo-Rivera has chosen trash cans over children
Meh. Totally planned sunset for this – just like the electric scooters & bikes that are soooo popular – uh, Nowhere? I feel so bad for a certain un-named cretin for not getting his big assembly payoff -NOT! (yet)… But all of the hench-persons are still lurking. Odd tod should also gut any finacing / positions that have anything to do with “Complete Communities” to save some of that budget money…! What a slush fund. I can only dream that the next administration will undo some of these crimes against the taxpaying constituents. Riiiiight…
Did the City ever record use of the bike lanes? I know the ones on Voltaire are almost completely empty even on sunny weekends.
“It’s unfortunate that it took a budget crisis to force the mayor’s hand, but many of us welcome the result.”
Yes, I very much welcome the result, and I hope we see more “results” but only if voters stay strong by not voting in any new tax hikes.
Furthermore, the by-product of this monetary belt tightening hopefully demonstrates to the voters at-large just how incompetent and inept this current city government continues to be.
Toad is getting more unpopular by the day. And it’s wonderful to see him eating it. He should have managed the budget better. The public may need to suffer with some cutbacks but Toad will not listen reasonably. The trash tax court case cometh. He will try to push for another bailout on the sales tax side. 2 1/2 more years of this fraud. Consider what is still going on. The cost for Hodges, from sitting around with a thumb up our behind has doubled. More water released again, more hydro electric still not working. We’re still building the toilet water system, and lo and behold, now we’re selling excess water to save on future rate hikes while deciding on the next phase bypassing a filtration step. The public run around/ developer give away on Midway Rising. PowerSD is still out there trying become a city owned bureaucratic existence. Toad needs to get weened out. And that starts with the council vote this fall.