Paul Dorn

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Paul Christian Dorn (born July 6, 1960) is a writer and activist in San Francisco. He is the former editor of the Tubular Times, newsletter of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), and served on the SFBC board of directors. He is the former executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition.[1] Dorn is certified by the League of American Bicyclists as a League Cycling Instructor (LCI #1237). Dorn is the author of a popular bicycle commuting website and is active as a blogger.

[edit] Activism

As a student in the English program at University of Massachusetts, Boston in the early 1980s, Dorn joined the International Socialist Organization (ISO). He was active with the ISO for 10 years in Boston and San Francisco, giving frequent presentations and contributing articles for the group's newspaper Socialist Worker.

In the mid-1990s, Dorn became involved with bicycling activism in San Francisco. At the time, the bike community was emerging as a political force in the city. Informed by his experience in the Trotskyist movement, Dorn consistently stressed the importance of organization in cycling advocacy, in contrast to less focused spontaneous activism, such as Critical Mass. He chaired the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's taskforce for Golden Gate Park, and in 1997 was active with the SFBC in responding to the city government's attempted crackdown on Critical Mass.[2][3]

In 2000, Dorn was the primary author and a campaign steering committee member for Proposition F[4][5] [6], a petition-qualified ballot measure to extend the popular Sunday and holiday closure of John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park.

Dorn lived for several years in Davis, California, and was active in the small city's acclaimed bicycle culture[7], and also served as the visual art critic for the Davis Enterprise.[8]