Streetsblog Los Angeles

(Earlier this week, Gloria Ohland reviewed what happend at last week's T.O.D. Conference hosted by the Urban Land Institute.  Today, Stephen Box takes a different look, and examines what was missing. - DN)

The Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Summit, held last Friday at the Hollywood & Highland's Renaissance Hotel, was as notable for what didn't happen as it was for what actually took place. As could be expected, hundreds of people representing local governmental authorities, agencies, and departments mixed it up with consultants of many flavors along with politicos of all stripes. This was, after all, a celebration of the future of TOD.

The ULI-TOD Summit also, inadvertantly, served as a metaphor for what's wrong with the TOD landscape in our community, in our city, and in this country; a focus on the big picture at the expense of the individual or personal experience. In other words, high-altitude, big-picture solutions that lack attention to details.

This Summit came complete with Senator Barbara Boxer's lunchtime announcement of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's endorsement of LA's 30/10 plan to leverage anticipated transit revenue in order to fast-track a dozen significant regional transit projects. Definitely huge! Along the way, the feds were represented, the state was represented, the county was represented and the City of LA's City Council President Eric Garcetti joined the feeding frenzy to add his blessings to the TOD lovefest. Attendees rubbed elbows with financiers, developers, consultants, innovators, real estate brokers, contractors and all of the many partners who work together to bring the magic of TOD to life, or at least to the ribbon cutting ceremony.

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Robust Attendance at ULI Event Indicates Developers, Investors and Feds On Board

The Urban Land Institute held a well-attended TOD Summit (as in transit-oriented development, or TOD) in Hollywood on Friday that signifies the quiet revolution going on in the world of transportation and development in Los Angeles. First, US Senator Barbara Boxer keynoted the lunch, announcing that the US DOT would admit both Phase 1 and 2 of the "subway to the sea" into the preliminary engineering process and conduct environmental review of both phases simultaneously - jumpstarting the subway project and greatly improving chances it will win federal New Starts funding.

Second, ULI released a positive analysis of the economic impacts of SB 375, the legislation requiring Californians to cutback greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 through transportation and land use strategies, and to reduce emissions another 80 percent by 2050. This has become a politically volatile issue, and the oil companies are funding a campaign to get a measure to repeal AB 32, the landmark companion legislation that established the GHG reduction targets, on the ballot this fall.

Boxer also announced Congress would be including a strategy to fund LA's "30-10" plan to build all 12 rail and bus rapid transit projects funded by Measure R in 10 years in the upcoming reauthorization of the federal transportation bill. While there are a number of loan and bond programs that allow the federal government to provide funding for single transportation projects, there is no mechanism for funding an entire program of projects such as Mayor Villaraigosa has proposed with 30-10.

Both the 30-10 plan and SB 375 push the city and LA County toward a more compact and sustainable urban form focused around a rail system and non-motorized transportation. And the robust attendance at the conference indicated the degree to which developers and investors as well as the Obama Administration are interested in promoting transit, infill, mixed-use, TOD, and complete streets programs.

HUD's Shelley Poticha, senior advisor for HUD's new $500 million Sustainable Communities program and the morning keynote speaker, spoke about how HUD, the US DOT and the US EPA are all integrating their funding programs to promote sustainability and livability. Among the initiatives that HUD is considering, she said, is a new definition of housing affordability that will consider not just the cost of housing but also the cost of transportation, and that will reward those housing projects that reduce a household's transportation costs by providing good transit access and the option of walking and biking.

Throughout the day speakers talked about TOD projects in Los Angeles, about how to work with neighborhoods to build support for these projects, and how to find more funding for transit operations. There were afternoon tours of several projects, including the new Hollywood and Vine apartment, condo and W Hotel project, which features business conference rooms for residents as well as a hundred balconies and rooftop terraces with firepits, swimming pools and bars providing dramatic views of the Hollywood Hills, city and ocean. And there's a new Trader Joe's.

The panel of developers, mayors and others who spoke about the SB 375 analysis said that the Sustainable Community Strategy, or SCS, that is required under SB 375 will provide the certainty that both developers and investors need in order to build more mixed-use loft, live-work, and TOD projects near transit. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has begun working with its 189 member cities to develop an SCS by 2012.

Many of SCAG's member cities, including Fullerton and Ontario, have already begun dramatic upzoning around transit stations, and SCAG is tripling the funding in its Compass Blueprint Demonstration Program to provide for initiatives supporting mixed use, infill, TOD, walking and biking. Recent SCAG analyses for SB 375 show that cities across the region have been updating their general plans to reflect the planning priorities of SB 375.

For example, SCAG models show that more than half of all new development by 2020 will be built near transit stations across the region, and that the only new road capacity that is planned - with the exception of the 710 tunnel through South Pasadena and the proposed High Desert Corridor from SR 14 to the 1-15 - will be either HOV or HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes.

"SB 375 tells developers where they should be building - near transit stations, not in the greenfields," said Renata Simril, senior vice president of infill and mixed-use development for the national builder Forest City. "Time is money for developers and investors, and if we have the certainty that we are supposed to build near transit stations, then that is where we'll build."

Last year at the Alternative Car Expo (to most known as the AltCar Expo), there was much excitement about all the motor vehicles that were trying to be sold as the new alternative to cars. Huh? There was a small area in a room off to the side and hidden from through traffic that was set up for the real alternatives and the Greensters had their own "park" set up,  demonstrating that one can carry lots of stuff on a good bike without having to waste the resources that manufacturing a car does. Unfortunately their excitement was drowned out by the oohs and aahs coming from the big room as the "green" crowd clamored around dozens of motor vehicles (Alt-Car?) that ran on batteries, good wishes, great intentions, and a continued commitment to the misuse of large amounts of public space.

What a difference six months makes! Now, the real crowd pleaser, the attention getter, the main draw at Hollywood Rent A Car on Hollywood Boulevard is not a motor vehicle but a bicycle! Huh? Who would have thought!

Bechir Blagui from Hollywood Rent a Car, who is committed to bringing electric car rental to Hollywood but gets no support from the city, somehow got turned on by the idea of bringing electric bikes to his shop and renting them out. The idea came to fruition very quickly and one day as I passed his shop, I saw the bikes in the front window and I squealed. Bechir came out, smiled up to his ears and said "Here, take it for a spin."

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One of my favorite transportation rhetorical devices has always been the relationship between Transit Oriented Development, or TOD, and its evil brother, Transit Adjacent Development, TAD.  TAD breaks all the rules that make TOD work, but because they can look similar they often get confused.  Unfortunately, TAD can give TOD a bad name.

From Reconnecting America, a national non-profit that advocates for more and better TOD nationwide, explains the difference between TAD and TOD in this article in Mass Transit Magazine. 

TAD is TOD gone bad, development that is adjacent to transit but breaks all the rules that make TOD work, like making public spaces the focus of building orientation and neighborhood activity; creating pedestrian-friendly street networks that directly connect local destinations; and providing a mix of housing types, densities and costs.

Other definitions of Transit Oriented Development include "restriction of automobile parking," "affordable housing elements" and "bicycle access."

Reading some of Stephen Box's criticism of Metro and the W in recent weeks, it got me to wonder.  Is the W, the diamond of Metro's TOD programming, really transit oriented or merely transit adjacent?  We've already seen how some of Metro's other "TOD" projects undermine themselves by having an abundance of automobile parking, even more than the state average; or desperately announce to the public their free parking.

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Last Wednesday we premiered At What Price, a short film that I wrote and directed and that was shot 100% sustainably in East Hollywood.

Sustainability typically is limited to "no plastic" and "no styrofoam" but we explored sustainability further. Much further.

We wanted to involve the community and make the neighborhood be part of our sustainability commitment. Oftentimes, film productions come into town, tow cars, disrupt peoples lives, trash the streets and then leave town. We wanted to be different. We asked the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council to help us and to endorse our sustainable production. They did. We asked a local arborist Cassandra Pruett and LA's Park Czar Alfredo Hernandez, to help us with tree planting after our shoot is over. After all, we wanted to leave the community better then we found it.

The food for cast & crew was brought fresh from local farmers markets, the food was mostly Mediterranean or raw to avoid cooking and the catering area had a team of compost experts from CaterGreen namely Allan & Herminia. We had a footprintologist on set to keep us honest and the shooting location as well as the casting and production meetings were near Transit Corridors.  Everybody used stainless steel water containers and the utensils and dishes were washed and sanitized. Half the cast came to set via Metro and the others walked or rode bikes.

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Three weeks ago I asked the world for help in fulfilling Rebel Without A Car Production's commitment to producing a film sustainably. Our goal was to shoot locally and in partnership with the community.

It all seemed so doable when we were brainstorming and imagining a world of "Big Stories told with Little Footprints!" but when the production got going and I realized that all the grip & electric, all the camera and audio, all the food and all of the production supplies would need to be transported on bikes, I began to sweat.

There was a brief moment when I imagined myself riding solo through the streets of Hollywood in the middle of the night, laboring to keep the production moving, all the while cursing Enci's commitment to shooting "At What Price" sustainably.

That's how I found myself posting a video, calling for help, hoping that someone, somewhere would come and join me. In a moment of optimism, we named our substitute Teamsters "The Greensters" and the journey began.

Time was running out and I received a couple of emails, a couple of calls and a few nods and expressions of interest. I was happy for any interest, I was hopeful for help, and I was under pressure!

The day of reckoning came and history was made in East Hollywood!

Greensters showed up from all over, Beverly Hills, Orange County, Highland Park, Silver Lake, K-Town, Pasadena, Hermosa Beach, Marina Del Rey. They arrived on Xtracycles, they pulled wagons and trailers, they came on bikes of all shapes and sizes. DJ Chickenleather, who usually gets up at the crack of noon, even on his day off, arrived with a homemade bamboo trailer that looked suspiciously like a re-purposed Pier One patio display. It was all good!

We were a team. A team of Greensters and we had some history to make. Oh yeah, and a film.

The Greensters proceeded to pickup the rentals for the film shoot, getting in line with the Teamsters and their Studio trucks.  The Greensters moved a lot more quickly and a lot more efficiently. They put the Teamsters to shame. (One guy with a big truck is no match for a swarm of Greensters who divvy up the load and "Ride Loaded!")

Ron "the Sherpa" Durgin served as Transpo Captain and planned the routes, organized the Greensters and led the convoy down Santa Monica Boulevard and to the location in East Hollywood, riding an Xtracycle loaded with gear and a the filmmaker who documented the journey!

Jeremy Grant also rode an Xtracycle as did Erik Knutzen and by the end of the production, they had quite a few converts. I had anticipated more cyclists with trailers and wagons but the Xtracycles proved to be the transpo solution of the future. No matter how we started off, within moments the Xtracycles were at the front of the pack while DJ and I rode caboose, debated philosophy and interviewed each other.

Last year the City decided to ease its restrictive rules that limited when and where cabs could pick up passengers in a Downtown Pilot program.  Cabbies and the LADOT must have been happy with the results, because the program has expanded to Hollywood beginning this week and ending in January 10, 2010.

So far, everyone seems excited about the taxi program, with Council President Eric Garcetti, the Councilman for Hollywood, going so far as to say the program will, "make it easier for people to enjoy the world-class attractions, shopping and dining in this community, and it alleviates traffic congestion."  The same NBC piece quotes leaders of homeowners and business groups claiming the program will reduce car-dependency.

And that's the real question, will being able to "Hail-a-Taxi" in Hollywood reduce V.M.T. and car dependency?  After all, a trip made in the back of a cab or behind a steering wheel will go the same distance.

I think the largest argument in favor of "Hail-a-Taxi" being a progressive step forward is that with our subway service not running late at night, people traveling to Hollywood for a late-night event can take the train to the event and not have to run out afterwards to catch a train home.  Taxi's can also help solve the "last mile" problem for train riders.

For the argument that cabs are going to be bad for traffic congestion and alternative transportation is that for many people cabs might replace bus or train trips and actually increase the amount of car traffic on local streets.  While there was a concern last year that the ordinance would lead to a rash of double-parked cars in the Downtown, it seems as though those fears were unfounded.

There hasn't been a lot of research on the impact of "Hail-a-Taxi" type programs have on VMT, so it's up to us.  If you live in or near Hollywood, or are a regular visitor; keep your eyes open and let me know what you think of "Hail-a-Taxi" in Hollywood during and after the pilot program.  The comments section will remain open, or you can email me at damien@streetsblog.org.