"Why calm traffic, add a traffic signal or other lighting, or just enforce traffic laws when you can just get rid of the crosswalk and the pedestrians? No pedestrians, no pedestrian safety issue!"

Mike Fong from Councilman Ed Reyes' Office told me that the councilman's office wrote a letter to the LADOT requesting that this crosswalk remain.

The person I spoke with at the DOT confirmed some of my worst suspicions about traffic engineers in this City (and possibly elsewhere). They pretend to use calculations and science to plan the way the roadway is used - but really they are liars who have developed many onion-like sheathes of "expertise" they use to keep their jobs.

Peel back one layer of expert opinion for being totally full-of-it unsubstantiated, crap - and you find another and another until finally, they come clean and admit that it is all politics and arbitrary decisions by random bureaucrats in their department.

The DOT staffers I have gotten to know have always blown me away with their clear understanding of matters hiding cloaked behind a thick veil of bullshit they have to present to everyone in City government and public life. I love 'em, but I hate the way they plan the uses of the public right-of-way.

1) The traffic engineer, Sophia Fong, posted the signs and then went on vacation. (June 3 - June 17) The street was due to be resurfaced and the DOT reevaluated the crosswalk and determined that it was unnecessary. (citing the studies that indicate that crosswalks unsupported by signals are less safe than no crosswalks)

2) Martha Stephenson, Sophia's supervisor, has intervened at the 11th hour and she is going to have Sophia take the signs down. (N. Broadway and Sichel) The Crosswalk will be reinstalled when the BOSS has finished resurfacing the streets.

Now...if we can just put our powers to work and get Franz out of jail!

Martha Stephenson is Sophia's supervisor. 213-972-4997

When all else fails, call Assistant GM John Fisher @ 213-972-8424

I, too, called the number on the sign. Luckily I was not placed on hold...a woman answered the phone. I told her why I was calling and she said, "Oh, are you for or against it?". I said, "against the removal, but I'd like to know more about the actual safety concerns". She said, "I don't know." I replied, "is there someone who might know?", she transferred me to a voicemail of an engineer...the vm had no message other than "please leave a message", so I did. Damien, they'll be calling you...theoretically.
Overall, an extremely unsatisfying and uninformative conversation. And so it goes.