Streetsblog Los Angeles

(Chief Beck, you got next? – DN)

Back in September 2009, when Streetsblog San Francisco editor Bryan Goebel interviewed
newly arrived SFPD Chief George Gascón, he invited him out for a bike
ride. Gascón accepted. Sixth months later, we’re pleased to report that
the chief made good on his promise.

With Andy Thornley of the San Francisco Bike Coalition
serving as a trusty guide, Gascón embarked on a short, breezy excursion
from the Marina, exploring the local streets for a couple of miles.
 The chief’s message isn’t complicated. "We all need to co-exist," and
motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists need to respect each other’s
rights and safety, he says.  He’s working toward fostering that goal
through education and establishing a liaison to the cycling community.

Though the ride was a historic first in San Francisco and a step
forward for mutual understanding, it was also seen as more of a starter
ride. Advocates hope to take the chief on a grittier bike trip –
perhaps down bustling Market Street — in a few months.

(Editor’s note: "Muni Rider Profile" is a somewhat regular series at San Francisco Streetsblog, which is just what the title suggests.  Because this profiled person has moved to L.A. and is riding our Metro system, I thought I’d include it here.  If you want to see more of this kind of story, please let us know in the comments section.)

Riding
the 28-19th Avenue northbound towards the Richmond on a recent weekday
afternoon, Pamela Moye has almost nothing but good things to say about
Muni.

Aside from the occasional long wait for an M-Ocean View
train, Moye, a schoolteacher, said her experience with Muni has been
overwhelmingly positive.

"I love public transportation in San Francisco," said Moye. "It’s super easy."

What
accounts for Moye’s sunny appraisal of Muni, a system that’s subject to
near-universal griping among San Franciscans? Moye, it turns out,
benefits from the perspective of being a former San Francisco resident
who now lives in Los Angeles, car-free.

"People think I’m
crazy for riding the bus in LA," she said. Though she doesn’t agree
with that assessment, Moye said she knows far fewer people who ride
transit in her new home than in San Francisco.

Moye left San
Francisco in 2002 to pursue a teaching job after attending San
Francisco State. She was back in town on the day we spoke to complete
work on her degree seven years later, and was happy to reminisce about
her days living on 5th Avenue and Geary.

"Living in San
Francisco turned me into a non-car owner," she said. The cost and
hassle of parking, insurance, and gas pushed her towards giving up her
vehicle, and she hasn’t looked back.

After growing up in
Idaho, she found the bus her key to exploring San Francisco. "Riding
the bus is a great way to learn a city," said Moye. When she arrived
here, she said, if she had a free afternoon, "I would just get on a bus
and ride."

Now, when friends and family ask for suggestions
on what to do during visits to San Francisco, Moye tells them to take
the 38-Geary from one end of the line to the other, from ocean to bay,
one of the best ways to see a broad cross-section of the city. (Jane
Jacobs wrote about taking a similar approach to learning New York City
when she first arrived, randomly choosing subway lines to ride to new
neighborhoods every week.)

Moye has continued this practice
in Los Angeles, a city (and region) famed for its dependence on the
automobile, though it has increasingly focused on expanding transit service.

Moye
said she always felt secure riding buses here. "I never saw anything, I
always felt completely safe," she said, noting that she often rode the
bus late at night.

Read more…

(Editor’s note: Because the LADOT uses the lawsuit barring bicycle projects in San Francisco as reason to "go slow" on bike projects, I thought checking in on the status of that lawsuit with the folks at SF Streetsblog could be enlightening.  Also, Michael Rhodes contributed significantly to this story.)

A San Francisco judge issued an order [PDF]
modifying the three-year-old bike injunction late Wednesday afternoon,
refusing to dissolve it completely, but allowing the "most easily
reversible" projects to go forward. It means 10 of the 21 first-year
Bike Plan projects — or about 3.7 miles of new bike lanes — outlined by the MTA
can begin, and when completed, will mark the most significant
improvements bicyclists have seen on the streets of San Francisco since
the injunction was first issued in June 2006.

"With the huge demand for biking improvements, we’re
disappointed that the Court didn’t completely remove the handcuffs, but
we’re pleased that some streets can now be improved for biking," said
Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the SF Bicycle Coalition. "A
three-year backlog means San Francisco has some serious catching up to
do and we are eager for this dark cloud over sustainable transportation
to be completely lifted."

In his order, Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch said the completion and certification of the Bike Plan EIR
had "changed the circumstances," but he disagreed with the City
Attorney’s argument "that the proper response is to unconditionally
dissolve the injunction" before the outcome of a hearing now set for
June to determine if the 2000 page document fully complies with CEQA.

Continue…

Born in the streets of Oakland, scraper bikes first gained attention as a trend in bicycle customization that spread with viral speed, thanks to YouTube. Since the Scraper Bike video debuted two years ago, they've become much more: a practical means of greening urban space, a social movement, and a rallying point for young people organizing against violence in their communities.

Tyrone "Baby Champ" Stevenson, who styles himself the Scraper Bike King, says the first scraper bikes were created by Oakland teens who coveted, but could not afford, scraper cars -- souped-up sedans painted with bright colors and with rims so large they scrape the undercarriage. Scraper bikes are such a hit that many teens skip the cars and keep pedaling well past the age of 16.

On July 25, Stevenson organized the second annual "Bike 4 Life" ride to call for an end to violence in Oakland's neighborhoods. "We're trying to bring together a gun truce," he says, "because a lot of people in our community are dying from guns." This Streetfilm features scenes from the ride and more from Stevenson about the movement he helped launch.

Recent pilot programs in New York City and San Francisco demonstrate something that Livable Streets Advocates have known all along: by opening "car space" to the public, one can dramatically reduce car traffic and increase livability and sense of community.  While it's true that the concepts demonstrated by our friends to the north and the east are seemingly alien to the folks at City Hall these days; we've learned that once Livable Streets activism reaches the tipping point, things can happen quickly. Thus, we need to continue to celebrate and highlight some of the success stories in other cities.

The New York example is the more dramatic of the two case.  The above video, narrated by Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton, is a tour of Broadway's car-free squares.  As Mark says, the counterintuitive truth is that taking away space for cars can improve traffic while making the city safer and more enjoyable for everyone on foot. There are sound theories that help explain why this happens -- concepts like traffic shrinkage and Braess's paradox which are getting more and more attention thanks to projects like this one.

When the plan to create these plazas at the expense of car-travel lanes was first announced, some of the local press in New York predicted doom for Broadway travelers.  One paper even went so far as to call the soon-to-be-created traffic disaster "Carmageddon."  Unsurprisingly, Carmageddon has been forestalled.

Read more...

The entire family of San Francisco city agencies responsible for
maintaining its streets made an unconventional decision to close a
portion of a street to cars and convert the new space into a simple,
yet elegant, public plaza.  The project combines all the important
elements of plaza creation that have been successful in New York City
and elsewhere: take space from cars, use simple treatments to convert
the space into a pedestrian sanctuary, including movable furniture and
leftover granite blocks from city salvage yards, and engage commercial
interests around the plaza to help maintain and care for the new public
realm.

Though some neighborhood constituents voiced skepticism that the
plaza would be empty at best, or filled with miscreants and vagabonds
at worst, the plaza’s success is hard to dispute. In fact, so many
people are using the new space and enjoying the tables and chairs, the
businesses around the plaza have contemplated leaving the furniture out
later than sunset, which was the initial closing time agreed upon
between them and the Castro/Upper Market Community Betterment
District.  This film takes an in-depth look at the construction of the
plaza with some of the agencies responsible for it, and includes some
entertaining man-on-the-street interviews.

(editor's note: Upon his announcement of his campaign for Governor, Streetsblog SF took a look at the transportation record and plan for Gavin Newsom.  Rest assured that if any L.A. based pols decide to make a similar run, then they'll get a similar look from L.A. Streetsblog)

So Gav made it official yesterday that he's running for Guv by tweeting it to his more than 283,000 followers, announcing it on Facebook, and even running a strange pseudo-article with a lot of donate hyperlinks in the Huffington Post, all of which made a splash among bloggers and traditional media icons.  All the hullabaloo aside, I need convincing on Gav's record on the issues important to this blog.

For his transportation platform, he leads with the right foot, making a strong link between transit improvements and climate change, job growth, and energy independence.

We must leave the era of the car behind and refocus our investment and energy on building smart, environmentally sustainable transit options

Creating robust mass transportation systems will connect our local and regional economies, create jobs, give Californians better affordable transit options and ease traffic congestion.

Amen, brother.  I couldn't have said it better and I hope all environmental and transportation advocates will hammer on those points this election cycle, namely that any candidate who claims green cred must embrace transit and that public transportation equals jobs. No governor serious about addressing climate change can stand by idly (or sit by in a hydrogen Hummer) as all state funding for transit is zeroed out and environmental review for highway projects is thwarted.  Any candidate for governor that wants my vote will immediately reverse the trend away from funding transit operations and widening highways.

So I'm sure the very first platform point will be a solution for restoring desperately needed transit operating money?  Hmm, not so much.  He leads with "innovative technology," claiming that he's modernized Muni with NextMuni and Translink. While it's important to give riders information and make their transfers more fluid, we learned in the kerfuffle over 311 work orders to MTA that more than 60 percent of total call volume to service were questions about bus and train schedules, which NextMuni provides for much less money.

Gav acted on this matter and came up with a cost-cutting solution, but only after Supervisor Bevan Dufty made it a priority.  In fact, if it weren't for Dufty, the matter of various agencies milking MTA for more than $83 million in work orders by 2010 would have slid by the wayside.  Gav didn't seem to have a problem with SFPD and 311 draining the monetary gains that Prop A afforded the MTA until the press picked up on it. 

Putting out fires is not my idea of visionary leadership. 

Read more...

Welcome
to town Chase.  I’m super impressed you have been reading Streetsblog
San Francisco and made an ad that reflects some of the knowledge you’ve
acquired here. This is obviously a shout out to the car-free community.
Might the admen understand the incredible cost savings of ditching the car
for a bike, which can save you more than $9,000 every year in direct
vehicle costs, not to mention the health savings from an active
lifestyle and the peace of mind of contributing fewer greenhouse gases
to a dangerously warming planet?

Or maybe this is an
homage to the cyclist as hero, walking into the sunset after defeating
the highway lobby in Washington and securing billions for transit in
the re-authorization of the transportation act.

I’m not sure a big bank like that has the time in between taking billions of taxpayer bailouts and spending them on new airplanes
to focus on the subtleties of the message they’re sending to the more
than one-hundred thousand San Franciscans who ride weekly.

What do you think, Streetsblog Nation?

(Editor’s note: I left all the San Francisco references in the article because it reads better than my attempts to re-write it.  Rest assured, I’ve seen the same billboard here in L.A., although I didn’t have my camera on me at the moment – D)

Dave Burdick yesterday offered up his choices for the Top 5 videos featuring a bicycle on the Huffington Post. While it’s nice to see the mainstream blogosphere types showing some love for two-wheelers, c’mon man! Robin Thicke bouncing around NYC on a crappy bike to "Disco Beethoven" is the world’s number one bike video?! I think not.

The Mercedes Benz-ollieing, sidewalk-riding, pedestrian-buzzing Thicke is an ass. As a former pedestrian and cycling advocate in New York City who worked hard to dispel the cyclist-as-sidewalk-riding menace myth, I’d like to see someone hit Thicke with a nice, solid cross-check. Stereogum has it right calling Thicke a "Dick on a Bike." Bottom line: If you’re going to promote bad behavior on bikes, at least let it be talented bad behavior.

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