Common Roots Blog: Transportation Transformation
This Past Summer —
12 youth from CPA and PODER embarked on a transportation summer, living into environmentally just transportation, youth agency, and transformation. Over six weeks, youth practiced how to bike, and some learning for the first time – culminating in a five-day bike trip with California Field School from SF to Santa Cruz! In total, we biked over 100 miles this summer!
Since then, CPA Common Roots bikers created their own biking crew, Panda Force, and continue to go on rides around the city with Bicis del Pueblo.
CPA Common Roots youth, Victor, Laura, and John, shared about their transportation summer in this blog post:
Laura, Recent Lowell High Graduate —
I heard about Common Roots from participating in YouthMOJO and CPA programs. I felt motivated to learn how to ride a bike for traversing my college campus. It felt fun to practice and learn everything. I felt like I asked very good questions so that I could know exactly how to bike properly. On the bike trip, we biked a lot, and ate a lot of sandwiches and oatmeal on our breaks and in our campsite in the mornings. On the last two days, we went to the beach and kayaked. It was a very cool and new experience.
I experienced a lot of community while learning how to bike. I felt safer biking with everyone as we took up more space on the streets so it was hard for any cars to be unpredictable. I think this translates to how important it is to be in solidarity with one another, and how we help each other feel more confident to do new and scary things.
I am really grateful I was able to be a part of Common Roots and learn how to bike! It is also very cool that we have a lot of bikers in San Francisco, and a free bike repair shop with Bicis del Pueblo.
John, Senior at Lincoln High —
The first day of the bike trip, we left around 7 and loaded up and drove to a beach. We got our gears, and started biking. We biked a bunch of hills that went up in zigzags, I was dying. After 20 miles, around 6 we made it to our camp location. We learned how to put our tents up, had dinner, showered, and saw a rabbit before we fell asleep around 9. The next day, we biked on highway 1! It was kinda scary, but we stuck together and the support van helped block the cars for us.
Day 3, we reached civilization; I was never so happy to see a bathroom that was flushable and not just a hole. We also were at the side of the coast, pretty close to Santa Cruz. We had to dodge so many people and cars, and crazy uphills again. We finally got to a campsite, showered, and told ghost stories with s’mores.
Day 4, we went kayaking, and me and Fei got partnered up! We saw otters, seals, and crabs. After, we went back and had free time, people went to the beach, stayed home, night hike, skipping rocks, sun bathed, walked around the lake perimeter.
On the last day, we helped pack in a factory line, like one person threw the duffel bag to the next till it went in the van. We went to the beach to wrap up, then rode in the van back to SF.
What I learned from this experience is to never not try something before you don’t! I was about to ditch the trip last minute and stay home, but I went and it was pretty fun. If you don’t like it, then don’t do it again, but just try it once to see if you like it.
Victor, Freshman at Washington High —
Going into Common Roots, I was both excited and nervous, since I knew I was going to be with both familiar and unfamiliar people. While we were practicing biking, I wished we could bike more freely – going into the streets was progress, but with that said, the camping trip was exactly what I was looking for.
I got to bike freely, both in distance and space, with minimal stops, and even to bike alone for a little. The nature around us was breathtaking and the intense biking was both a challenge and a freeing thing. Even when we were off the bikes, we’d camp and have a ton of fun together. Just eating and chatting with everyone while the sun set or rose. When I really think about it, it’s an opportunity most people won’t have and I just feel grateful I had a chance to go. It’s amazing how the camping trip caused us to naturally bond more and I felt closer to everybody even if we didn’t interact often.
Throughout the entire trip, I learned from others and their perspectives, of the world and the people around us, such as Jacqui or Alondra, who both had such unique perspectives and openly shared with us how they saw the world. I felt like I was learning a billion new things for every sentence they spoke. Both of them shared with us their beliefs, how to interact with the nature around us, how to respect it, cherish it, and so much more. Through these conversations, I learned about how important our culture was, and how it was a huge part in the solidarity of people.
About Chinese Progressive Association: Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) is a nonprofit that educates, organizes and empowers the low-income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to demand better living and working conditions and justice for all people. CPA has been organizing with workers in San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant community since the 1970s.
About PODER: People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER) organizes with Intergenerational Latinx immigrant communities to put into practice people-powered solutions that are locally based, community led and environmentally just.
About Common Roots: Common Roots is a joint project of CPA and PODER. It was founded in 1998 as a collaborative leadership program serving low-income Chinese and Latinx youth in San Francisco. Chinese and Latinx youth have led campaigns advocating for environmental justice, safe working conditions, community gardens, and transit justice to fight against the structures of environmental racism that our communities face.
