MTS Kick Gas Festival will not Include Bicycles

San Diego’s Kick Gas Festival is being held on October 24th as part of the many activities held to draw attention to the mission of 350.org which is,

Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.

Specifically, the goal is to reduce CO2 emissions to 350 parts per million.

When we originally heard about the festival we were dismayed that bicycles were not featured as the main part of the festival. When we contacted Kathy Keehan, executive director of the SDCBC, she did admit that the SDCBC had been invited to sponsor the program and promote their mission at the Kick Gas Festival. However, Kathy didn’t think the festival would be a good fit for many reasons. For one, the SDCBC has limited volunteer and staff resources, and for another Kathy didn’t think that it would be worthwhile to spend 8 hours at the Qualcomm parking lot.

We agree. Qualcomm stadium, located in Mission Valley, is hardly the epicenter of sustainable anything.

Qualcomm Stadium. Photo from sdnn.com

The festival does seem like a terrible missed opportunity. The event could have been held in Balboa Park or the Convention Center downtown which would have allowed attendees to transport themselves in ways more in tune with the mission of 350.org. Bicycles could have been the focus at the festival, engaging more San Diegans to take advantage of the beautiful weather and open themselves up to the possibility of transporting themselves without using gasoline.

But, like they say, there is always next year.