Streetsblog Los Angeles

The Long Beach City Council I-710 Oversight Committee’s latest meeting was a lengthy one that attempted to quickly go over the more recent updates about the 710 expansion project that is planned to run from Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach all the way to the 60 freeway in East Los Angeles.

The general update was focused on the redistribution of the EIR that was approved earlier this year following a resounding rejection of the RDEIR that was attached to the project, particularly given it lacked a zero emissions aspect. That new EIR — which mainly avoided the deeply flawed 5A and 6A options that had 10 general purpose lanes extend the entire length of the expansion — has since had its 90 days of public comment review with some 3,000 comments attached.

This update was to expand upon the geometric engineering plan — to be finished within the next few months — and the environmental updates that involves mainly leaving behind a smaller footprint, such as avoiding the Los Angeles River. Or, as Jerry Woods of the Gateway Cities Council Government put it, “go over a lotta more details than before.”

Read more…

In closed-session meeting yesterday evening, the Long Beach City Council unanimously voted 9-0 to pursue litigation against the City of Los Angeles for its recent approval of the BNSF-led Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) railyard.

The move was not shocking by any means.

Cheery graphics and videos have done little to quell Long Beach's strong opposition to the SCIG Railyard as presented. Click on the image to go to the "SCIG Overview" YouTube video.

The city had already previously filed an unanimous appeal (with Councilmember Suja Lowenthal absent) in accord with major community groups back in March against the Port of Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners following their unanimous approval of the project. Citing an alarming amount of evidence that the FEIR was ultimately fabricated on many grounds, the city felt obligated to attack BNSF’s stance that the rail yard project ultimately benefits West Long Beach residents.

Mayor Bob Foster has been vitriolic in his outspokenness against the project, with one of his quotes–”It is very hard for me intellectually to accept that you value the life of a kid on this side of the city border more than you do a kid in my city”–finding itself  on every major newspaper in the country, even on the pages of the New York Times.

7th District Councilmember James Johnson  led the Long Beach charge against the project–he held his own public meeting after the Port of L.A. decided to not hold one in West Long Beach, the neighborhood which is vastly affected by the project. He was also the sole councilmember to speak during the Los Angeles City Council meeting when the project was formally up for final vote.

“Los Angeles has taken the wrong approach,” Johnson said when speaking with Streetsblog. “Long Beach has shown time and time again that green growth can bring jobs to our region while improving, not degrading, our neighborhoods.  I thank Mayor Foster for his leadership and my Council colleagues for standing with me to protect Long Beach families, including nearby veterans, students and children.” Read more…

(Want to celebrate Bike Week but can’t make an event? You can help out Bikeside with their L.A. Bike Survey or Bike Nation Long Beach as outlined below. – DN)

After the announcement in August of last year that Bike Nation will create one of its largest bike-sharing programs ever–250 kiosks throughout the city–all was quiet on the share-a-bike front. Claiming a kiosk would appear downtown in February ultimately resulted in… a display of what the bike actually looks like.

Bike Nation will probably stick with the Convention Center as a logical location for kiosks. But where else might they go? Suggest your favorite coffee shop or even where you work.

New word has finally broke out and Bike Nation is encouraging Long Beachers to suggest where they should place those 250 kiosks, a move that is honestly cool and rather exciting (even though, as a fixie dude, a bit turned off by the bulky, GPS-equipped bicycle contraptions they’ve conjured up). Of course, a similar web-app appeared for Bike Nation’s Los Angeles system last August. Thus far, there are no Bike Nation bike or kiosks on the ground in the City of Angeles.

But there is a small system in Anaheim, and that’s reason to hope that the nation’s only completely privately funded bike share company is slowly readying for a larger roll out.

But back to the app.

The web-app–which after a little over a week of activation has some 11 nominations, with the vast majority being located in the downtown area–allows people to register for free and make their suggestions within the boundaries of the city. And note: make sure you register for the “Suggest a Station,” not the overall Bike Nation registration which will have you sign up for a membership that will throw either $75/year or $35/mo on your card. Read more…

This? all photos by Joe Linton

The Southern California Streets Initiative, the local non-profit that staffs and edits Streetsblog Los Angeles, has voted to support local journalism outside of the city limits to Long Beach and Santa Monica. Thanks to local support from Santa Monica Bike Center and Long Beach Community Foundation, we’ve been able to do this without reaching into our regular operating funds.

Or this? Photo: Gary Kavanagh

Our goal is to expand coverage into Santa Monica and Long Beach, and with your help, these dreams will come true. We’re proud to announce we’re raising funds for both a Streetsblog Long Beach and a Livable Streets/Green Living news website in Santa Monica (which would be sort of a cross between Streetsblog and the old Green L.A. Girl website). This is where you come in. Your gift can help determine which city gets its own Livable Streets news site first.

We’re holding  the “Long Beach v.  Santa Monica” Livable Streets Contest. Whichever city raises the most funds between April 15, 2013 and the end of this month wins and will be the first city to get its own Southern California Streets Initiative either Streetsblog Long Beach or <Un-named project> Santa Monica. Regardless of which city wins, we’ll continue trying to raise the funds to bring each city its own Livable Streets news site.

There’s a lot of ways you can contribute:

• Make a donation to Streetsblog Los Angeles by clicking here. Make sure to designate the funds to go towards “Los Angeles” and indicate the city you’re supporting in “why you support this work” section.
• Make a monthly donation. If fifty people make a $5 monthly donation, that creates a $3,000 funding stream for your local website.
• If you’re a major donor or potential advertiser for either site, email me at damien@streetsblog.org. Your commitment will count towards picking the Livable Streets Fundraising Champion.
• Write a check to Streetsblog Los Angeles, 11539 National Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90064.

If you don’t care about Santa Monica or Long Beach, shame on you! But you can still contribute to support Streetsblog, and and we’ve got some great prizes, including a Dahon Folding Bike and a Bike Commuter Pack courtesy of Planet Bike..

Oh, and for those keeping score at home:

Santa Monica: $450

Long Beach: $100

The all-too-happy rendering of the "new" Pike. Picture courtesy of EWB Development

In an entirely silent fashion, EWB Development–the nation’s largest outlet developer–suddenly created a small page that not only renamed the complex (“The Outlets at The Pike”) but touts that the dismal Pike shopping complex will be the new outlet hub for Los Angeles County and Southern California.

While it remains unclear how Vermont-based EWB became attached to the Ohio-based DDR-owned property that is home to 330,000 sq. ft. of retail space, it was quite clear that outlets are the newest attempt to reinvigorate the desolate space. A Restoration Hardware Outlet “Coming Soon” banner was plastered in front of what used to be the Club V2O nightclub–taking up one of 21 available spaces, of which EWB has listed Sperry, Coach, H&M, J. Crew, and a variety of others as coming soon.

The outlet concept is one that is inherently tricky given that most successful outlets lie not within major city centers, but along well-traveled paths on the way to city centers (think Cabazon on the way to Palm Springs or Primm on the way to Las Vegas).

If one tacks this onto the fact that Long Beach’s most successful areas–the Promenade, Belmont Shore, Retro Row, Broadway–are entirely or almost entirely devoid of chain stores, Long Beach faces a problem times deux. In fact, EWB’s Pike brochure lists the fact that there is “no competing national retail in close proximity” as a bonus point to incoming retailers–but one should raise an eyebrow as to why, in a city center full of tens of thousands above-average income folk, such brands haven’t succeeded. And it is most certainly not like they haven’t been here before: we all remember the slow disappearance of national consumer identities along Pine Avenue, two blocks up, with Z Gallerie having been the last remnant of such a presence.

This is not to say the change is being perceived as entirely pejorative or that the plan won’t work. Social media posts of the Restoration sign were met with general applause and at this point, Downtowners and Long Beach in general is begging to see something go in–and if that means outlets, so be it. Even during Grand Prix weekend, the empty halls of the Pike were a depressing sight.

More interestingly is the fact that EWB is not pitching this to Long Beachers–and this isn’t, per se, a necessarily bad thing. Read more…

Bixby Knolls/Los Cerritos are getting closer to the reality of Long Beach’s master bike plan making tangible changes to the northern neighborhoods. And rightfully so: Pacific Avenue is a main arterial for those on two wheels and the bike lane proposed on San Antonio will connect those to Pacific Avenue from the north.

Proposed roundabout at Pacific, Country Club, & 36th. Photo courtesy of Bike Long Beach. Click on the image for a larger version.

The plans have been delayed mainly due to community dissension and planning issues. The former is a given with such projects: at a meeting earlier this month, motorists expressed concerns about the loss of parking, the inability to make turns at proposed signals, and the insertion of two roundabouts (one at Pacific & Bixby and the other at the tri-section of Pacific, Country Club Drive, and 36th).

City Traffic Engineer Dave Roseman said that, although the concerns of citizens are of course considered, the ultimate goal is pedestrian, cyclist, and motorist safety.

The roundabouts installed throughout Belmont and Bluff Heights have proven mightily effective, with traffic not only flowing more fluidly but accidents reduced by a staggering 80%. The proposed roundabouts are aimed to do the same as studies have repeatedly shown that unnecessary stop signs and traffic signals actually increase danger amongst everyone on the road, be they motorists or otherwise.

This is not to say they entirely ignored what many motorists complained about. The signal proposed at Wardlow and Pacific–to be finished soon–initially called for a right-turn only clause for southbound Pacific traffic. There was a rather large outcry over this and the signal has become entirely traditional with no turn prohibitions.

When expressed concerns about bicyclists having to jockey with left-turning traffic–beforehand, the right-only clause permitted cyclists to easily continue heading south on Pacific–Roseman expressed little concern in return. Read more…

City of Long Beach RFQ Civic Center Project by Damien Newton

Following years of discussions and revisionist meetings amongst architects and historians, Long Beach released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) soliciting project teams to renovate the city’s dilapidated civic center complex.

Photo: City of Long Beach

The public-private project–spanning almost 16 acres–seems to have a larger scope than what had been previously discussed in 2007 after studies concluded that the current brutalist-style City Hall structure held significant seismic deficiencies. Many, including a host of architects last year, wanted to approach the project with finances in mind; in other words, retrofit the building for instead of throwing down a large chunk of change for a full renovation.

It appears the latter is the preferred choice now, with the Don Gibb’s structure not only exorbitantly more expensive to retrofit in current dollars–$170 million compared to the projected $82 million back in 2007–but functionally obsolete since it lacks the proper space to hold the city’s employees. The city pays $2.13 million every year alone for off-site leases to house additional employees.

2nd District Councilmember Suja Lowenthal–a longtime advocate for reinventing what she called “the public living room”–was forward with her assertion about the center following the release of the RFQ: “Quite frankly, our Civic Center design lacks human scale, is difficult to access and does little to assert the importance and value of the public realm. This project is worth considering because a new Civic Center would emphasize a mixed-use, walkable environment that is more compatible with the existing urban fabric and small block development of the Downtown core.”

The project will be a warm welcome for downtown residents who find the space plagued by a large homeless presence and a seemingly absent civic engagement with people. Read more…

Trees being installed last July. Photo courtesy of BHCA.

First there were fire hydrants and now there are trees and plants–simple yet beautiful trees and plants.

Call me overly obsessed about the simple things (this is easily the fourth or fifth piece in which I’ve discussed Long Beachers doing seemingly small things that have large impacts) and I could very well respond that you’re right. But that’s not necessarily a pejorative thing, on any urban landscape level.

Take the Belmont Heights Community Association (BHCA), led by its President Dianne Sundstrom and a few Belmont Heights folks, including my favorite Long Beach historian of all time, Maureen Neeley of HouStories.

They saw Broadway–a street with which many have gripes, of which I am included in continually speaking out–and noticed issues that make it the opposite of a Complete Street: speeding traffic, people either can’t cross or are too afraid to do so, and it overall lacks a sense of safety (particularly important given the large amount of families and schools that make Belmont Heights one of the most desirable neighborhoods to live in).

Though, as Sundstrom put it, “Fundraising is a difficult and lengthy process,” they still kept up a battle to safety-guard Broadway for almost a decade and the results have finally come in after they planted 6,000 plants this past weekend (that’s not a typo: six-thousand plants).

The beautification project, spanning Broadway between Park and Nieto, was initiated almost 10 years ago by residents.

“The primary goal was to slow traffic in order to create a safer area for pedestrians, including students at Lowell and parishioners at St. Bartholomew’s Church,” Sundstrom said. “A secondary goal was greening and beautifying the area.” Read more…

Click on the image to see a larger version of the map.

For readers and Long Beachers alike, they have known of my dream to bring a ciclovía to our city, my dream of shutting down a large stretch of street to make way for cyclists and skaters, walkers and runners.

According to officials, it wasn’t a matter of discussion but one of money. And according to my own experience with Tony Cruz, it wasn’t just about money, but about the space itself–where the hell would we put one without causing a cramp in the neck of the police department and city planning?

And at least for me, I believe a ciclovía holds this strange philosophical power–you invert a street to be used for people’s feet and bikes and skateboard, not cars–that when enacted, suddenly shows off a very tangible benefit–that our urban landscape thrives most when people are exploring it at a human scale.

Now, we have the chance to show off just what type of event this could be since this coming Thursday, Long Beach will finally get its first ciclovía.

Okay, okay, so I slightly misled you, dear reader. But in all fairness, the fact that the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach is opening up its race circuit–which runs the length of Shoreline Drive and Seaside Way in its entirety–to everyone but motorized vehicles and your four-legged friends (sorry, they don’t trust you’ll pick up after your critters and we don’t necessarily blame them, particularly when cars will be reaching speeds of 180MPH right where your pup might alleviate itself). Read more…