Text messages from Mayor John Whitmire reveal he has strategically shaped the narrative around bike lane removals — guided more by complaints from people in his orbit and social media noise than the traffic data and public safety concerns he has claimed guide his decision-making since taking office in 2024.
The texts, obtained through a public records request filed by the founder of a pedestrian safety nonprofit, also reveal Whitmire’s skepticism toward projects implemented under the previous administration. In private exchanges with adviser Marlene Gafrick, Whitmire labeled supporters of those initiatives as activists, “anti-car folks” and “bullies.”
“I was in [the] barbershop this morning and everybody [was] complaining about 11th Street,” Whitmire texted Gafrick on July 3, 2024, referring to the “road diet” in the Heights, a traffic engineering term for reducing the number of vehicle lanes on a street to slow traffic and create space for bike lanes, crosswalks or other safety improvements…