Random Personal Posts by Gaelen Gates

Back in the Before Times — and this time I’m talking about back before the turn of the millennium — we used to have bike messengers downtown (San Francisco, but I assume most other cities).

In the 80s and 90s, it used to be considered a relatively punk job, if you had to have a job. Your typical bike messenger had a lot of tattoos, a non-conforming haircut, and was kind of an asshole. Different groups had their own zines. They helped get Critical Mass off the ground. Some of them rode fixies. They ran red lights and sometimes rode on the sidewalk. They were almost all male. I’ve dated more than one person who used to be a bike messenger. It was… a type.

You used to see them zipping all over the city, and at lunch time, congregating in a few specific places, like that building that used to be a Shaper Image (the photo below is from foundsf.org):

This was back in the day when many documents required “wet-ink” signatures, and part of the job of any law firm’s staff was calling up a bike messenger to have documents delivered several blocks away. It was an essential service.

But then then the use of Docusign became widely accepted, even with financial services companies and other old-school holdouts. There was a pandemic. Electric mopeds became available and affordable. Here in 2025, I no longer see bike messengers downtown (or at least, they’re not congregating in places where I might see them).

What I do see is a lot of people on electric mopeds with the square boxes on the back. I believe they’re mostly delivering food. They don’t seem to hang out together or have a culture, although they do still run red lights and ride on the sidewalk.

Part of my desire to re-start a text blog was to write down things that might be forgotten by history, that I personally experienced. So that’s what this post is, I guess. I was there when bike messengers were cool.

The Olmec were an ancient civilization in Mexico that thrived from around 1200-400 BCE. They were one of the first major civilizations in the region, and are considered the mother culture of many later cultures, including the Maya and Aztecs.

They also made giant stone heads. I’ve always been a big fan of the modern-made example located at the City College of San Francisco, which is near our house, and which I run or walk the dogs past several times per week.

This one is called “El Rey” and was made by Maêsiro Ignacio Perez Salano in 2004.

It’s been a prominent landmark in my life for almost a decade. One of my favorite times was when someone put a mask on it at the beginning of COVID!

Anyway, the school is in the process of demolishing the Diego Rivera Theater, to which “El Rey” sits adjacent. It was cool a few years ago watching them move the giant “Pan-American Unity” mural out of the theater and into the SFMOMA, so I wasn’t too surprised when one day I saw them wrapping up “El Rey.”

Pretty soon they had moved it off its pedestal and onto a flatbed trailer. I was bummed to say goodbye to it!

But the good news is that it was only moving across Frida Kahlo Way, to its new home at the recently-completed CCSF STEAM building!

For some reason, as of this morning, it has been re-covered by a tarp, maybe in preparation for a formal grand unveiling. At any rate, I’m glad I’ll be able to look upon this friendly face again soon!

I bike to work on my fantastic Gazelle Arroyo C5 ebike, which I love, and my commute involves riding the length of Valencia Street. Unlike a lot of people, I actually like the center bike lane, primarily because it makes it much easier to co-exist with acoustic bikes. Side-running bike lanes are often too narrow to feel like I can pass safely, but with the wider center lane, there are plenty of breaks in traffic from the other direction to allow me to pass.

But I digress. The people who disliked the center bike lane have succeeded in getting the city to switch to side-running, parking-protected bike lanes. Which is fine! But right now, SFMTA has completely BLOCKED the center lane, preventing bikes from using it, before creating the side lanes.

This creates a fun phenomenon I call “Every Day is Critical Mass!” The bikes are mixed right in with the cars, which feels like it should be more dangerous, but which I actually prefer. Because the acoustic bikes max out at 12-13mph (and the lights are timed anyway), and the cars can’t pass them, the entire flow of traffic is limited to that speed.

This has sufficiently annoyed drivers that I’ve noticed there are fewer and fewer cars on Valencia. It’s mostly just bikes, and I’ve noticed pedestrians even wandering out into the street more. I took this on my morning commute:

Which brings me around to the title: This is great! We could have this forever, a beautiful, vibrant, car-free Valencia. It would be wonderful. We could add benches and other features. Food trucks in the middle. It could become a hub of activity, like the ones in Montreal. The merchants will of course whine and complain, even though it will increase their business, but if they live in San Francisco they can take it up with their elected representatives, and if they don’t live in San Francisco they can STFU because it’s actual residents who should guide city planning.

I know it will never happen. But it’s so obvious that it should. Take a ride on Valencia in the next couple weeks and experience it for yourself!