Streetsblog Los Angeles

There are few things more moving and powerful than a ghost bike planting.  Last night, the Eastside Bike Club, cooks from the Bike Oven and other cyclists made the somber ride to the spot where Jocelyn Young was struck by a hit and run driver in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Photo: Carlos Morales/Eastside Bike Club

Young’s tragic story was picked up by Bike Portland, because she graduated from University of Oregon and lived in Portland.  Bike Portland adds the life details to the story missed by the local press and shows how much the world has lost from Young’s passing.

Andrew Plambeck attended UO with Young and reacted to her death today. “We had a lot of close mutual friends. She was such an always-on wonderful presence. Always warm and cheerful. So, so sad. Another wonderful, unique person killed senselessly in the road.”

Meanwhile, Nicholas Avila, who was booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving under the influence and was released from the Pasadena Police Jail yesterday pending charges.  Unless charges are filed, the police cannot hold a suspect and the Pasadena Star-News reports that the police are making sure their case is airtight before presenting their case to the District Attorney’s office.  There’s no stated reason why Avilia isn’t charged with vehicular manslaughter.  The police are currently interviewing witnesses and collecting video information.

Young was riding with her boyfriend when she “fell off her bike” for unknown reasons.  Avila then allegedly ran over Young, causing injuries that would kill her in the hospital.  While Young lay dieing in the street, Avila fled to his house in Alhambra, where he was arrested after another driver followed him to his residence.

Last night, Young’s memory was memorialized with a ghost bike.  While the bikes are a powerful reminder that we still have a long way to go to make our roads safe for all road users, I think we can all agree it’s a type of traffic calming that we could do with less of.

(This is the last part of our Bike Week 2011 Series on people’s biking experiences in different corners of L.A. County.  Our last entrant is from our “Pasadena Correspondent” Brigham Yen, who is a little different than our other writers this week in that he doesn’t represent a formal biking organization but still brings a wealth of information to his writings. – DN)

I rode my bike over to US Bank, located at Colorado and Oak Knoll, the other day and found myself scrambling to find a place to lock my bike as there were no bike racks on the block. I wasn’t alone. There were numerous other bikes haphazardly locked against anything resembling something solid, such as tree trunks and lamp posts. I assume most of these bikes belonged to people who were patronizing Sabor² Cafe adjacent to US Bank.

Because there are few places to lock one's bike on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena, this person locked his/her bike to a tree. Photo: Brigham Yen

I eventually found a bike rack inconveniently around the corner in the back on Oak Knoll (by the entrance to a parking garage) and had to walk back to the bank, which made me wonder why there weren’t bike racks in front of the building to begin with (where the businesses were located). Read more…

For the second time this year Streetsblog rolled in to Pasadena to take to a stage and talk Livable Streets.  We didn’t quite pack the house as we did back in January, but we did have a fun night showing Streetfilms to roughly 50 people with CICLE, New Belgium Brewing, and REI as part of Bike Week Pasadena.  Thanks to a raffle, we even made a couple of bucks off the fun.

Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties we ended up bouncing between a couple of DVD’s to sho          w a series of the best bike Streetfilms.  Since we jumped off script, I’m embedding all of the films we were scheduled to show with a brief comment after the jump. Read more…

It seems as though everyone is releasing their calendars for Bike Week, it’s time for Streetsblog to release ours.  In addition to our regular coverage throughout Bike Week, Streetsblog will actively taking part in two events.

The first is actually a pre-Bike Week ride for the Westside.  Over the years we noticed that there were no Bike Week events for West Los Angeles outside of a handful of stations on Bike to Work Day.  Thus, Streetsblog will be hosting the first annual Westside Ride to the Pier on Saturday, May 14.  We’ll start at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church at 11555 National Boulevard and ride down Barrington to Venice Boulevard.  From there, we’ll head east to Abbot Kinney and turn left down to Washington Boulevard.  From there it’s a straight shot to the ocean.

We’ll meet at 10:30 at St. Andrews.  Anyone who is interested in returning back to the Westside instead of hanging out at the beach, there will be a return ride that leaves about a half hour after we arrive at the Pier.  At the start of the ride, we’ll have some goodies from Clif Bar, Luna Bar and Trader Joe’s.  There’s no charge for the ride, but I certainly won’t stop someone from donating for Streetsblog.

Our second event is a night of Streetfilms hosted by C.I.C.L.E., REI and the Pasadena Playhouse District as part of Bike Week Pasadena on Monday, May 16 at 6:30 P.M. The DVD’s for the event arrived last week, and I watched through the series this weekend.  Join us at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena at 6:30.  You bring the streets, I’ll bring the films.

To see a full-size version of this image, click here.

I have been saying for years that Pasadena needs to give Fair Oaks Ave an extreme pedestrian-cyclist make-over along the street from at least the South Pasadena border (by the Raymond Restaurant) to Old Pasadena. The need for this make-over seems obvious when you consider: 1) Fair Oaks Ave looks like a mini-highway as you drive or, god forbid, walk down it, and 2) that the Huntington Hospital (a huge employer) adds a substantial presence to the built environment in Downtown Pasadena, but is tenuously connected at best to the area for pedestrians and cyclists, diluting if not completely negating its potential positive effects on the urban environment. In other words, the synergy is lost.

That’s why I am particularly excited to learn that South Pasadena (actually a separate municipality but closely tied to Pasadena both historically and culturally) will hopefully jump start the process for Pasadena (by giving us an inspirational nudge) as construction begins this week on a major revamp project along Fair Oaks Ave, called the “Fair Oaks Corridor Improvement Project,” that goes right through South Pasadena’s downtown district. The improvement plans entail the following: Read more…

Visit the Streetsblog Flickr Page for more images from last night.

Last night’s event, “Planning the Future of Our Streets” was a smashing success.  Over 100 people packed the Crenshaw Family Forum for a symposium and interactive planning session.  Our thanks go to all the presenters, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, James Rojas, Mayor Bill Bogaard, Mark Gangi, Linda Immediato, Felicia Williams, and Erlinda Romo, the staff of KPCC that handled the logistics and CICLE, Pasadena Magazine, KPCC and the American Institute of Architects for bringing out such a great crowd.

James Rojas took much better notes than me, and his review of last night can be found directly below this sentence.

Pasadena’s Streets and Sidewalks in the Hands of the People.

Last night dozens of participants created new ways to use and design Pasadena’s streets and sidewalks at KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum Radio Station. Read more…

Image too small? Click here.

Back in Jan 2010, I wrote about my disdain for the current suburban-styled Ralphs supermarket that sits in the middle of Pasadena’s urban downtown financial district along Lake Ave. This particular Ralphs that many of us Pasadenans shop at is surrounded by anti-pedestrian characteristics that actually harm the built environment as it pertains to pedestrian activity. The potential for creating a better community in this section of Pasadena sits tragically unfulfilled. That’s why I’m still not happy with it.

Along Lake Ave, the market is fronted by a large surface parking lot, which we should all know by now is not the best way to induce pedestrian activity. In fact, surface parking lots are so anti-pedestrian, most drivers would rather circle around and around, wasting time and gas, just to be a few parking spots closer to the store entrance (we have all been guilty of this). Not only that, but the fact that the Lake Ave Gold Line station is just two short blocks north of this Ralphs means that this particular section of Pasadena is “supposed to be” pedestrian oriented, right? But it’s not.

Read more…

(Note: KPCC, who runs the Crawford Family Forum, wants you to RSVP for the event to make sure we’re not “sold out.”  The event is free and open to the public.  You can RSVP by clicking here.)

Thanks for the poster: American Institue of Architects, Pasadena and Foothill Chapter

“Planning the Future of Our Streets,” the interactive presentation on sidewalks and urban planning being held at the Crawford Family Forum at 474 South Raymond Street in Pasadena, is right around the corner.  The event runs from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. on Tuesday, January 18th.

The event is co-sponsored with KPCC, American Institue of Architects, Pasadena and Foothill Chapter, and Pasadena Magazine with support from the City of Pasadena, Cyclists Inciting Change through Live Exchange, Gangi Architects, and the Pasadena Playhouse District.

The evening will kick off with UCLA Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris leading a discussion of pedestrian planning, focusing on why more people aren’t choosing to walk in Los Angeles County and beyond.

Once we’ve discussed why sidewalk planning is important, the audience will take over.  Guided by James Rojas, the audience will create its own model (or models, pending the number of people who show up) of what they would want the perfect street to look like.

To end the evening, a panel discussion, led by Pasadena Magazine’s editor-in-chief Linda Immediato, will lead a panel discussion with Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, Mark Gangi of Gangi Architects and of AIA Pasadena Foothill Chapter, Felicia Williams of C.I.C.L.E. and Erlinda Romo with the Pasadena Playhouse District.  This team will wrap up te evening’s events and lead a discussion about what we can do with what we learned.

All pictures from last night's meeting by Brigham Yen

(Brigham Yen is a real estate agent and voice for sustainable transportation based in the city of Pasadena.  We’ve always welcomed his comments in the comments section, and double welcome his coverage of the Cordova Road Diet meeting last night.  What did I tell you yesterday?  We’re going to start moving in to Pasadena in the coming weeks.  You can read more of Yen at his personal real estate blog, viewable at Brighamyen.com)

As the rain continued to pour down on the streets of Pasadena on Monday night, causing havoc for commuters and pedestrians alike, the Cordova Road Diet meeting went on as scheduled for 6:30 P.M. at the Pasadena Convention Center.

The meeting was held in a large conference room that had more than enough room for the 6 residents (including myself) who braved the wind, rain, and cold to voice their opinion on making Cordova a safer street for both cars and people (including pedestrians and bicyclists).

The meeting summarized the objective of the road diet, including a reference to a national transportation study that road diets were shown to reduce pedestrian and bicycle collisions as cars were compelled to slow down due to the narrowing of the roads and the creation of “bump outs” at intersections that reduced the distance for pedestrians when crossing the street as these bump outs would be off limits to cars.

The Principal Traffic Engineer for the city, Norman Baculinao, stated that “Cordova is a perfect candidate for a road diet because it has a traffic count of close to 10,000 cars a day.” Read more…