Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/672196
MAY / JUNE 2016 | Washington Athletic Club Magazine | 29 Earlier this year, Kristi Rennebohm-Franz skidded in pea gravel while riding her bike. As she lost control and hurtled toward the pavement, Kristi became a statistic. Though the real number is nearly impossible to track, hundreds of bike accidents occur every year in Seattle. Roughly 400 of those also involve vehicles. Board chair fights for bicycle rights KRISTI RENNEBOHM-FRANZ power by downtown property-owners. If you spend any time downtown, you've seen them helping tourists, cleaning sidewalks, or assisting with public safety. Jon also served on the city's Housing Affordability Task Force and Emergency Task Force on Unsheltered Homelessness. Both positions came by mayoral appointment. A lot happens at the policymaking level, Jon says, citing police staffing, transportation services, housing policy, and land use. To help strengthen all those things, Jon meets often with government officials and facilitates conversations between DSA members and policymakers. "Those are things that impact all of us," he says. "The Downtown Seattle Association is an advocate in trying to influence public policy that affects each of those areas." A community of colleagues Jon grew up in Tacoma and attended the University of Washington, where he earned a political science degree. He went on to work for political campaigns and a King County councilmember before joining the DSA as policy director in 2008. He joined the WAC in part for professional reasons and in part for family activities. "It's a great community of my colleagues," he says of the Club. "A great place to meet people and have discussions and also to find a quiet place to catch up on email between downtown meetings." He also recently attended the Father Daughter Banquet, and his twins often use the 8th Floor gym on Saturdays. "It's also a great resource for downtown residents and families," Jon says. Thanks in part to the DSA, so is downtown itself. As chair of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, Kristi, a WAC member since 2012, is intimately familiar with the challenges facing cyclists. She regularly rides her bike to the WAC and elsewhere around town. Her nephew Max, also a Seattleite, is currently riding from Seattle to Florida via San Diego, a trip scheduled to conclude later this month. "It's really incredible," says Kristi, who was born in Seattle but raised largely in Wisconsin. "I keep telling him if I were his age I'd be doing the same thing." From Wisconsin, with bike Kristi and the other 11 members of the bike advisory board meet monthly and counsel the mayor, city council, and all city departments on projects, policies and programs that affect the city's bicycling conditions. That includes implementation of the city's 2014 Bike Master Plan and the plan's five main goals of increasing ridership, improving safety, creating connectivity, providing equity, and improving livability. "What we've found is that improving biking conditions is really about safety, connectivity and equity," Kristi says over coffee in the WAC Club Shop. "If we meet those goals, the ridership and the livability will be there. These aren't just cars and bikes that we're talking about—these are people." Kristi grew up in the 1950s in Madison, Wisconsin, one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country. She still has her first bike, a Schwinn Racer she bought in 1957 with babysitting money. That bike made its way with her to Grinnell College in Iowa and later to Pullman, where she taught first and second grade. In 2000, she received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. What we've found is that improving biking conditions is really about safety, connectivity and equity." Pedal "