Election-year politics meets street-safety advocacy in a Patreon preview featuring leaders from StreetsPAC, StreetsPAC NJ, and the Better Streets Chicago Action Fund. The discussion focuses on how nonprofits must avoid endorsing candidates, while political action groups can influence elections. Using New York’s 2021 mayoral race as a case study, they explain why Catherine Garcia was their primary pick, why Eric Adams later received their general-election endorsement, and how “no response” and real-world tradeoffs shape strategy. Expect practical advice on questionnaires, coalition-building, and managing imperfect outcomes.
For a long time, safe streets and transit advocacy organizations have had to play a careful game. While non-profit organizations can advocate for policies and infrastructure changes that protect pedestrians and cyclists and make transit more efficient and accessible, they can't endorse candidates for office or otherwise throw their weight around when another election rolls around.
Thankfully, that's changing. There are now a growing number of safe-streets and transit-focused political action committees and lobbying groups that have sprung up to explicitly influence and endorse candidates that they see as friendly to the cause. How did they get started? How have they wielded their influence to elect good people who will enact good policies? Does it take a lot of money to make a difference? If ordinary people want to start their own PAC or lobbying group, where do they begin? We talk to the founders of StreetsPAC in New York, Streets PAC NJ, and the Better Streets Chicago Action Fund to find out how to win elections and influence politicians.
"And then Eric Adams comes in and promises 300 miles of bike lanes and all kinds of stuff, [167.8s] and he did have good people working for him and all the rest."
Bike lanes are special lanes on the road just for bicycles. When politicians talk about them, they’re usually talking about making streets safer for cyclists and improving how people get around.
Bike lanes are dedicated roadway space for bicycles, usually marked with paint and sometimes protected by curbs or barriers. In political debates, they’re often used as a proxy for broader street-safety and mobility policies.
Concept
Streets Pack
"...Catherine Garcia really seemed to rise to the top in terms of willingness [197.6s] to tackle the issues that Streets Pack was advocating for."
“Streets Pack” sounds like a group that pushes for safer streets and better street design. The candidates are being judged on whether they’re willing to address what that group wants.
“Streets Pack” appears to be an advocacy group or campaign focused on street design and safety. The transcript frames candidates’ willingness to tackle its issues as a key factor in the election narrative.
"We got questionnaire responses from several of the leading candidates for mayor, the majority [207.5s] of the leading candidates for mayor."
A questionnaire is a set of questions candidates answer. People use those answers to see who agrees with certain goals and who has a clear plan.
Questionnaire responses are written answers candidates provide to an organization or voters, often covering policy priorities. In local elections, they can be used to compare candidates’ positions on specific issues.
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This is the War on Cars.
I'm Doug Gordon.
What you're about to hear is a preview of an exclusive bonus episode for our Patreon
members.
To hear the entire thing, sign up at patreon.com slash the War on Cars pod.
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merch discounts, and free stickers.
Plus, we will send you a handwritten thank you note.
Now, about this episode, it's an election year, a big one in fact.
But if you're in the safe streets or transit advocacy world, you have to play a careful
game.
While nonprofit organizations can advocate for policies and infrastructure changes that
protect pedestrians and cyclists, and make transit more efficient and accessible, they
can't endorse candidates for office or otherwise throw their weight around when another election
comes.
Thankfully, a handful of safe streets and transit-focused political action committees
and lobbying groups have sprung up to explicitly influence and endorse candidates that they
see as friendly to the cause.
In this bonus episode, I talked to the leaders of three of those organizations.
StreetsPak, which was founded in New York in 2013, StreetsPak NJ, which as the name suggests,
focuses on New Jersey, and the Better Streets Chicago Action Fund, which just recently got
off the ground.
My guests share stories and advice for how to win elections and influence politicians,
and how making biking, walking, and transit safer and more accessible are winning political
issues.
This is more of an advice-driven episode, and we hope you find it helpful.
Again, to listen to the entire thing and support what we do, you can sign up on Patreon at
patreon.com slash thewaroncarspod.
Thanks so much.
So in the election that brought us Eric Adams in 2021, you all had endorsed Catherine Garcia,
and she was by far the best, yes, what could have been.
She was far and away the best candidate of the bunch, much better than Eric Adams would
have.
But she lost, just by a little bit, but she lost.
And then Eric Adams comes in and promises 300 miles of bike lanes and all kinds of stuff,
and he did have good people working for him and all the rest.
And so you have to pick between him and Curtis Leawa, not much of a choice.
But he turns out to be a huge disappointment, of course, in every possible way.
So let's talk about that process of you had to play politics.
Yeah, absolutely.
And the 2021 race was really interesting.
There was a pretty wide democratic field.
And as you mentioned, Catherine Garcia really seemed to rise to the top in terms of willingness
to tackle the issues that Streets Pack was advocating for.
We got questionnaire responses from several of the leading candidates for mayor, the majority
of the leading candidates for mayor.
So that was great.
It really was a signal that we had hit a level of awareness and import in the political cycle.
And when we did the interview with her, she was brilliant.
She was incredibly well-prepared in keeping with her reputation as an outstanding manager.
So we felt strongly that she was our pick for the Democratic primary.
And for want of about 7,900 votes in a ranked choice primary, she ended up finishing second
to Eric Adams.
So for the fall, for the general election, early October, we decided to endorse Eric Adams.
Curtis Leawa did not respond to our questionnaire.
As I was saying, no response is a response.
Too busy hurting cats.
And Eric, as he had been borough president in Brooklyn for two terms, eight years, and
had always shown up for vigils, rode a bike, at least publicly on numerous occasions.
And there were some bike lanes that he supported as borough president that wouldn't have happened
without his support.
Most likely, yes.
He had some good people working for him, as you mentioned before.
And obviously, given the choice, it made sense to endorse Eric Adams also because we hadn't
picked him in the primary, there was a political calculation that, hey, we need to mend fences
a little bit here.
He's going to be the mayor.
He's kind of a transactional personality.
So we made the decision to endorse him, which many people who support or followed Streets
Pack on social media reminded us of constantly over the ensuing four years.
And politics is it's a little bit of a messy game.
It's not so pure and cut and dried.
And that was a calculation that we made.
I haven't told this story publicly before, but it's kind of funny that the day that we
did our announcement with him in the Meatpacking District, I handed one of his aides a check
for $2,000 for his general election campaign fund.
And Eric Adams, quite famously, later during his tenure as mayor, was subject to criminal
charges for fundraising and proprieties.
They never cashed the check.
Wow.
You should have put it in a bag of potato chips.
Exactly.
Very inside political.
They were soliciting illegal contributions from Turkey, funneled through straw donors.
But here they had a totally legit check for $2,000 that they never deposited.
Wow.
I just, I have to dovetail on that.
You would not believe how many politicians lose checks.
It is ridiculous because they do so much work.
They call strangers and ask them for money on the phone.
And here it is, $500, $2,000, and they can't even make it to the bank.
It's very frustrating.
Kevin, do you have any, like, you know, you have to play the political game too.
Have you gotten to that point where it's like sometimes you have to hold your nose and endorse
someone who may not be perfect, but that's, that's how it works.
It's show business.
See, you were asking about, like, you know, downsides and playing politics and everything,
but my brain works a little bit differently than other people.
And I find that to be the most fun part of all of this.
So like, it doesn't really grind my gears when we have to make compromises.
That's the process.
That's, you know, I'm a little bit of a political junkie, but I have the same feeling.
I mean, I would stick up for streets packed during the Eric Adams years and say, you know,
what did you want them to do?
Either sit at, sit it out and then not have a seat at the table when he's mayor or endorse
his opponent, which would have been suicide in so many different ways.
Like it's politics, right?
Like, forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown, right?
This is what you have to do.
And that's the way the system is supposed to work.
And at the end of the day, like we are not choosing the candidates, voters are, you know,
character flaws, trips to Turkey, New Jersey residents to be the mayor of New York City,
voters get to make that decision, right?
You should have cross endorsed over the Hudson.
You know, yeah, you know, voters get to make the choices they get to make,
and you kind of have to go along with the ride as much as you want to control the process.
And, you know, we put our board together, especially as somebody who had a little bit
of experience, just a tiny little bit of experience in the political process,
I had that conversation with my board up front.
And, you know, in the advocacy world, we have people that are really idealistic,
and I love them.
This is just, there's a time and a place to be idealistic.
And there's a time and a place to make endorsements.
And it is an, Eric, and I don't know if you guys in Chicago have seen this,
where you do get to play good cop, bad cop, right?
Like, oh, well, you know, I'd really love to endorse you.
But like, all of these activists are going to be so upset.
Can you promise me one more thing?
Are you that you're not going to vote again?
And like, there were districts where we knew a streets pack endorsement would hurt the candidate,
right?
It wouldn't help the candidate.
And so we had conversations where it was like,
hey, you know, we don't expect you to be for 100% of every bike lane and pedestrian plaza.
And again, if you're outside of an urban area,
this is going to be a very common conversation.
But are you not going to be against it?
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