On the issues: Ghost Strollers
By Jen Nossokoff
This last week my heart stopped for a moment when I learned what a ghost stroller was – a stroller painted white as a memorial to a child who was killed crossing the street.
San Francisco has some known dangerous streets and this last week a family was left shattered after a car blew through a crosswalk, striking the family and killed the child and left the father in critical condition. This tragedy happened at Fourth and King streets in SOMA, an intersection that is known to be dangerous for pedestrians.
It’s hard not to choke up as I write this piece thinking about the loss of the life of a precious 4-year-old girl. I didn’t know her personally, but as the parent of young children, it brings me to tears to think of anything even remotely like that happening to them. It is impossible not to feel the pain right in the middle of my heart.
One of the reasons that I’m running for supervisor is that I am passionate about making the City safer for children, in all capacities. One of these being that parents should be able to walk or ride bikes with their kids without the fear of something terrible happening. I don’t see enough of our current elected officials making this a priority and I’m here to change that.
Vision Zero is the City’s stated goal to have zero traffic deaths in San Francisco, yet since the project began in 2014, things have actually gotten worse. Of the nine years on record, 2022 – just last year – had the highest number of deaths: 39 people killed. How can we know that there is a problem, have a goal to solve it, yet the streets have become more deadly?
Until 2020, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death in children in America. It’s now second to firearms. Cars and guns are killing our kids and we can’t look away from the problem. If elected supervisor, I will continue to bring awareness to these issues and will never stop fighting to change policies to make the world a safer place.
We have to be better. We have to do better. And we have to work together to move the needle.
No more ghost strollers.
Until next time, Jen.
Tonight there will be a memorial for the child and rally for change at the intersection of 4th Street and King Street.
Jen Nossokoff is a District Supervisor candidate and passionate advocate for District 1, seeking to uplift the community’s voice and preserve the heart of our neighborhood. To learn more please visit JenNossokoff.com.
Categories: Commentary
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
“Vision Zero” is a total scam — much like the BRT “renovations” on Geary. VZ measures (while extremely lucrative for the likes of Mitchell Engineering) do nothing to engineer safety.
I wonder if Ms. Nosokoff has ever been to Jakarta? Lima? Cairo? In megacities, cars stop for no one. We do not know why this accident occurred, but it is clear that the attitude of the driver was clear here. As long as we have no lack of arrogant people, accidents (or “car violence” as the ideologues like to call it), will not go away.
Using this dead child as a plank to run for Supervisor is beyond incredible. While Chan has been hampered by a belligerent “nonprofit” class (especially the ethically challenged Parks Alliance), she at least votes the right way some of the time.
What will Nosokoff do as Supervisor except further increase the power of the neoliberal alliance that has brought kitsch, walls, advertising and commercial businesses to Golden Gate Park? What will she stand for? How about the unhoused? Will she stand for them? Where is her work against the horrendous plan that Chan is sponsoring to bring yet more intrusive, anti-environmental concerts to GGP? When the vote comes to make that awful ferris wheel’s installation permanent, will Nosokoff be a patsy for elites (like Melgar and Stefani) and vote to make it permanent?
Will she stand up against the arrogant bureaucrats from SFMTA, Planning, TNDC, Parks Alliance and many others who use authoritarian techniques to stifle dissent and manipulate public process?
Who is Ms. Nosokoff? Aside from meaningless soundbites, what ideas does she have?
LikeLike
Very nice Mrs. Nossokoff that you are “passionate” while also having an opportunity to use our district monthly news rag as a forum to say stuff. All politicians like to shake hands and kiss babies, or get heartfelt about the obvious.
None of which is a substitute for substantive policy. You were more on point with how you adequately described you position on the SFMTA Geary corridor issues.
I’m glad that you are running to promote values like keeping our streets safe from cars and guns, but that’s easy low hanging fruit. What candidate running for supervisor is going to say otherwise? Tell me what you think about how to handle tough issues like affordable housing, or the empty businesses because out of town LLC firms sit on empty properties, or how to figure out how to mitigate all of the low level criminal activity that has been occurring post-pandemic.
I agree with Harry. You don’t lend credibility to yourself when you use the obvious moral drama of living in an urban dense environment with inherently deadly streets as something to put on a poster and become the lede of whatever else you say. No one would expect you to say otherwise.
But I disagree with Harry on one matter. Supervisor Chan actually did a lot of community outreach and interjected in getting SFMTA to (surprise) compromise with the needs of the community. Thanks to Supervisor Chan the inate authoritarian instincts of an unaccountable bureaucracy actually got checked because Supervisor Chan does not look at the citizens of her district as stepping stones to some higher place in the political escalator.
You have to wonder about the real motives of politicians sometimes but not Connie Chan. Connie Chan is the real deal. We are fortunate to currently have Connie Chan as our district supervisor. In my opinion, she has been the best supervisor for district one since 2000.
LikeLike