We don't tend to pick on the more fragile pols, like Supervisor John Avalos, but when we saw the San Francisco Bike Coalition's endorsement brochure we couldn't help but call out the happy-go-lucky Avalos -- the group's No. 1 pick for mayor.
The candidate slate, which was recently distributed in the mail, features the group's top picks for mayor -- Avalos, Supervisor David Chiu, and Mayor Ed Lee -- in that order. But oddly enough, Avalos is the only candidate not wearing a bike helmet.
Look:
We really couldn't make sense of this, so we asked Avalos to explain -- and sure enough, he had his reasons.
"I didn't want to muss my hair," Avalos tells us.
Well, he does have nice hair. Still, if Chiu is willing to look like a third-grader on his way to school for that photo, Avalos should be willing to have his hair tousled a bit.
Avalos swears his helmet was dangling from his bike handle in this photo -- but that doesn't really count, because nobody can see it! He also swears he always, always, always wears his helmet when he rides around town -- if not to save his life, then to save his marriage.
"My wife would kill me if I didn't wear my helmet," Avalos says. "I'd feel vulnerable without it."
