Streetsblog Los Angeles

Man, it’s been years since we had meetings on the Bike Plan. Fun!

• Wednesday – The City Council Transportation Committee meets to hear a discussion of VROOM, speed limit increases! Hooray! Finally, someone is looking out for the beleaguered scofflaw drivers of Los Angeles. Much more on this tomorrow. Read the full agenda, here. 
• Wednesday – All eyes in the local biking world will turn back to NELA, as the Department of City Planning hosts its first community meeting on the environmental studies for the Bike Plan at 6 p.m. Get the meeting details here. Learn more about one of the streets in the center of the study, North Figueroa Street, by clicking here.
• Thursday – From NELA, the eyes of the community turn towards “Center City.” Bike activists get to celebrate Valentine’s Day by going to a meeting. That’s cool. We love our bikes and all. Details: here.
• Saturday – There’s one Parklet opening left (for now). The last of the four “pilot projects” opens in El Sereno this weekend. Get all the details, here.

Did we miss something? Is there something we just need to include next week? Email damien at streetsblog . org with suggestions.

The big event on the calendar has to be the Move L.A. event at the end of the week. And not just because it has a party for Bill Rosendahl at the end.

• Monday: The City of Santa Monica hosts a community workshop for their pedestrian master plan. They say the goal is to make the entire city a safe and enjoyable place to walk, but to do that they need your help. Read the press release in our calendar section.
• Tuesday: The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s Civic Engagement Committee meets at 6:45 pm on the last Tuesday of each month. This month’s meeting will take place at the Pitfire Pizza on Second and Main in Downtown L.A. on Tuesday, January 29th, focusing on the upcoming March elections. Email bikinginla at hotmail dot com to be added to the discussion list.
• Wednesday: The Transit Coalition moved it’s monthly meeting for one month only. Remember, they now meet in Union Station and reservations are necessary. The subject of this week’s meeting is “Regional Rail, Bob Hope Airport, HSR.” Get more information about registering at their website.
• Thursday: Pasadena gets in on the whole “Bike Boulevard” trend with the opening of the Rose City’s first official bike boulevard at 3 p.m. at the corner of Marengo Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard. Patch broke the story and has the details.
• Friday: Friday, February 1st marks Move LA’s 5th Annual Transportation Conversation from 8 am to 3:30 pm in the old ticketing area at Union Station. If you bring a bike, you get in for free. Get more details here, and we’ll have a full write up later in the day.
• Saturday: The Parklets are coming! The Parklets are Here! The long awaited Highland Park York Boulevard Parklet Grand Opening and Community Celebration will be at 1 p.m. on York Boulevard, just east of Avenue 50. Get the event details here. Learn more about the Parklet, here. This is the first of three Parklet unveilings occurring in the next week.

Did we forget or miss something? Is there something we need to know coming up? Email damien at streetsblog dot org.

It’s a full week. Expect more and more campaign and election events as we get closer and closer to the March primary. We’ll resume our normal publishing schedule tomorrow.

• Tuesday – L.A. Streetsblog resumes normal publication.
• Tuesday – The Southern California Association of Governments presents a free workshop on bicycle planning at 10:00 a.m. as part of its “Toolbox Tuesday” series. You can take part in SCAG offices throughout the county. For more information, click here.
• Tuesday – Streetsblog, LACBC, L.A. Walks and Bikerowave present the CD 11 Livable Streets Candidates Forum at 7:00 p.m. If you can’t join us in St. Andrews, we will be Live Streaming the event at Streetsblog T.V. Event information is here. Our Live Stream channel is here.
• Wednesday – Caltrans hosts a pair of scoping hearings on the Downtown Los Angeles Streetscar. Scoping hearings help an agency narrow down what agencies should be covering in their environmental reviews. The first hearing is at 10 a.m. and the second at 6:30 p.m. Get the rest of the details here.
• Wednesday – The City Council Transportation Committee meets to talk Expo Parking, better traffic signals in Pac/Pal and more. Read the agenda, here.
• Wednesday – The Transit Coalition Monthly Meeting has been moved to next week. For more information, visit The Transit Coalition website.
• Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday – One week after the I-710 Big Dig team released the alternatives analysis narrowing the potential projects down to six (including one highway tunnel option) they’re hosting a trio of “convenings” in communities along the corridor. Read the announcement at Streetsblog for all the information.
• Thursday – In South L.A. it’s not the Big Dig that raises peoples’ hackles. It’s the Crenshaw Line. As the Crenshaw Subway Coalition notes a new mayor could create enough votes to turn the light rail into a below-grade project, the Crenshaw leadership Council meets with Metro staff to discuss the state of the project. Get the details of the meeting, here.

Did we miss something? Is there something we need to know for next week? Let us know at tips@la.streetsablog.org

City departments are starting to shake off the holiday rust and there’s a lot of important meetings on the agenda. The city’s progressive Bike Parking Ordinance finally gets a hearing at City Council, the controversial Wyvernwood complex holds a public hearing and the end might be in sight for the Ara Najarian re-nomination to the Metro Board of Directors.

• Tonight – The LACBC’s East L.A. Bike Ambassador team is meeting tonight at 6:00. Get the meeting details, here. Learn more about the program by reading Streetsblog’s coverage last week.
• Tuesday – The City Council Planning and Land Use Committee meets at 2:30 p.m. to discuss, among other things, the long-proposed changes to the city’s zoning regulations which dramatically increases the amount of new parking required in new development. We’ve been waiting almost a year for this hearing, and it’s finally here.
• Tuesday – The Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee meets to hear a presentation from the Eastside Transit Oriented Development Sites Update (MTA), a brief presentation
  regarding the four sites available for development, and to receive the Committee’s input on the list of land uses identified by community stakeholders. Read the full agenda, here.
• Wednesday - A public hearing scheduled for Jan. 9, 2013 at 10:00 am will discuss the recently released Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Wyvernwood Mixed Use Project. For more on the hearing, visit our friends at Mis Neighbors.
• Saturday – Our friends at Boyle Heights Beat host regular meetings with the community to discuss what is being covered and what they should cover in the area. Its a fun chance to talk about the community and journalism with the next generation of great writers. Get the meeting details, here.
• Saturday – Community Services Unlimited will be holding a Garden Gateway workshop from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn how to prune and care for fruit trees and find ways to make brussels sprouts yummy. The event will take place at CSU’s mini urban farm in Expo Park.
• Saturday – The Bike Ride for Safety and Justice will take place at 4 p.m. in honor of Benjamin Torres, killed in a hit-and-run in Gardena late last year. This short monthly ride is intended to honor his memory and those of all killed in hit-and-runs. For more about the incident that took his life, click here.
• Next Monday – Streetsblog has extensively covered the controversy surrounding the re-nomination of Ara Najarian to the Metro Board of Directors. Najarian has been targeted by fellow Board Members because of his principled opposition to the I-710 Big Dig and his nomination was initially denied.  Next week, the nominating committee meets again, and Najarian has vowed to seek re-,re-nomination and has the support of many of the committee members. As the Metro Board turns… Get the meeting details, here.

Did we miss anything? Is there something that NEEDS to be on the calendar for next week? Email damien at streetsblog dot org.

As we get towards the end of the year, things tend to slow down in the events category, but there’s some hot ones in the calendar…including our modified “end of the year” party at Eco-Village where we say goodbye (or see you later) to Joe Linton.

• All week until next Monday – Orange 20 has agreed to continue the poster show and sale from Saturday’s ARTCRANK through the entire week until Monday. You can buy some hot posters (some are viewable on LAist,) or bid on the “paper bike sculpture” created by Nona Varnado. One of the posters, and the proceeds of the silent auction, benefits Los Angeles Streetsblog. But don’t let that stop you from buying one of the others. I like the one with the bear…
• Tonight – We don’t usually preview every “Service Sector Council” meeting for Metro, because, well, because it would be overwhelming. But, given the fireworks last week on Ara Najarian’s re-appointment to the Metro Board of Directors, maybe this one will turn out to be really exciting. More on Najarian and the politics of the I-710 in a bit. Get the meeting details and agenda, here.
• Tonight, Tuesday – Speaking of Metro, the MTA hosts two more “updates” on the High Desert Corridor Project. Will one of L.A.’s largest proposed highway construction projects move forward as a road project, rail project, or some sort of hybrid project that includes a protected bike lane? Get the meeting details, here.
• Wednesday – The Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee meets to hear all sorts of proposals that relate to car parking and meter usage. Exciting? Maybe. Read the agenda, here.
• Sunday – Joe Linton is leaving us. But he might be coming back. But he might not. He’s already posting stories about bike projects from New Jersey on Facebook. Either way, we’re going to celebrate Joe and say “see you later” before he does or doesn’t move to New Jersey and never come back. We canceled our end of the year party so we could help Joe throw his “engagement/going away party.” Join us. And feel free to donate to Streetsblog while you are there. Our calendar listing, Facebook page.

“The Week in Livable Streets Events” is going on hiatus until 2013. Continue to email events to damien at Streetsblog dot org.

There’s important events almost everyday this week, and then it ends with ARTCRANK, a great place to do some holiday shopping or just enjoy some beer with friends at Orange 20 (and raise a little cash for your favorite independent media site).

• Monday – We have to give City Planning some credit for trying to reach out to Westside Neighborhoods BEFORE coming up with a plan for the area around future planned Expo Stations. Sure, it would have made more sense to do this years ago, but better now than before foundations are being pored. Tonight they’re talking the future of the area around Sepulveda and Exposition. I live right by there. It could use some sprucing. Get the meeting details, here.
• Tuesday – Caltrans is holding a scoping hearing at their downtown headquarters about expanding transit access between the San Joaquin Valley and DTLA. Learn more about the project and get meeting detail here.
• Tuesday - After purchasing Union Station last year, Metro is making plans to upgrade the station to a world class transit facility. The property surrounding Union Station is permitted to have up to 6 million square feet of development – and the Master Plan will create a careful blueprint for growth that honors the rich history of surrounding communities. Read the rest of the calendar post here.
• Wednesday, Thursday – Public meetings begin on the surprisingly progressive High Desert Corridor environmental review which now includes a real look at freight and bicycle options. Good news? We’ll find out. Get the meeting details, here.
• Saturday – In Santa Monica, they’re holding a “Family Bike Fest” at the Civic Center Autitorium. Sound familar? Gary Kavanagh devoted an entire column to it, and we also have this nifty flyer. The event starts in the morning, but lasts all day.
• Saturday – Join the LACBC for a roughly 3.5-mile ride along Lankershim (proposed bike lanes), Colfax (existing bike lanes) and the Chandler Bikeway (bike path). We are also doing outreach to promote the proposed bike lanes on Lankershim and Cahuenga. See Ride Lankershim page and Facebook event for more details.
• Saturday – It’s ARTCRANK at Orange 20. Los Angeles, the wait is over. ARTCRANK is taking the City of Angels by storm on Saturday, December 8. And we’re doing it at the newly-minted Best Bike Shop in L.A. — Orange 20 Bikes. We’ll be packing the house with bike-inspired poster created by local artists and more fun than would be allowable by law anywhere else in the world. And the proceeds benefit Los Angeles Streetsblog. Win, win! Get more details at the ARTCRANK website.

Are we missing something? Got a hot event for next week? Email damien at Streetsblog dot org.

There’s a good diversity of events on the calendar this week:Expo Design, bikes and Metro, the Streetcar, Critical Mass. Enjoy.

• Tuesday - The Department of City Planning is hosting a pair of community workshops to discuss how Expo can improve the West L.A. communities where it will travel. The first is this week and is located near the future Palms Station. The next is a week from today and will be more focused on the Sepulveda Station. Get the details, here.
• Wednesday – The agenda I have is a little lacking in specifics, but the Metro Bicycle Roundtable is back. It looks like they’re going to discuss Metro and bicycles. No word if there will be a discussion of roundtables. Get the who, what, when and where, here.
• Thursday – Do you want to have lunch and talk about the proposed Streetcar for Downtown? Shiraz Tangri, Legal Counsel, Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc. will speak at Town Hall about how a streetcar can help create a better connected, more vibrant downtown. This November, downtown residents will vote on whether to approve a community facilities district that will tax property owners to fund the LA Streetcar project. It costs $25, which seems steep to me for a BYOB lunch event, but it should prove interesting. More details, here.
• Friday – Critical. Mass. 7:00 p.m. Wilshire/Western
• Sunday – Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? Ahh, it’s the first of our Holiday themed events on the calendar. The LACBC holds it’s Holiday Tour de Taste at 9:00 a.m. in Culver City. Enjoy.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

It’s a short week, so there’s only a couple of  days worth of events on the calendar. But there are some big meetings in the week’s second half and a big ride from C.I.C.L.E. on Saturday. All events listed are open to the public.

Wednesday – The Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee meets to discuss funding for CicLAvia amongst other things. Here’s the agenda.

Thursday – The City of Los Angeles’ Pedestrian Advisory Committee meets with a full agenda including lots of funding opportunities for the city. Read their agenda, here.

Thursday – Speaking of pedestrian advocacy, L.A. Walks and the KAOS Network are hosting a forum on pedestrian advocacy in Leimert Park just hours after the Pedestrian Advisory Meeting. Walking advocacy is heating up. Calendar Listing, Facebook

Friday – Speaking of advisory committees, the Caltrans District 7 Bicycle Advisory Committee meets to discuss bicycling on state highways, including an ongoing discussion of the PCH. Get the who, what, when, and where at our calendar page.

Saturday - WINE, ROBOTS and HOT SPICY TOMATO SAUCE! Come tour downtown L.A. on your bike and learn about places that manufacture and create right in the heart of LA! This expedition, open to all cyclists, will navigate the streets of downtown and expose riders to institutions that pride themselves on products made in the City of Angels. Calendar listing. Facebook.

Did I miss something? Is there something big coming up? Email damien@streetsblog.org

Not just Damien is back, but so is “The Week in Livable Streets Events”! Huzzah! This week features a handful of big lectures and events at UCLA and some spooky bike rides. Boo!

• Monday - Bonhams Los Angeles holds its inaugural Urban Art auction. This auction, the first of its type to be held in America, features historical works by pioneering graffiti artists, as well as pieces by contemporary artists who have redefined the genre. Details.
• Tuesday – UCLA hosts a free luncheon lecture on local climate change. Professor Alex Hall will provide an intimate briefing of his recent mid-century temperature study explaining how and why LA will be a hotter city. He will also be able to discuss upcoming studies that reveal further chapters of our local climate story. Details.
• Tuesday – How should the LACBC interact with candidates during the upcoming municipal elections? Their civic engagement committee meets Tuesday night to talk it over. The meeting is open to the public. Details.
• Wednesday - Prof. Pucher argues that cycling and walking are the most environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable of all transport modes.  He then provides an international overview of cycling levels and trends among many different countries in the developed world, noting that even technologically advanced countries with high per capita income and high levels of car ownership can have high levels of walking and cycling and much lower levels of car use than typical in the USA, Canada, and Australia. Flyer.
• Wednesday – Boo.
• Thursday – The Eastside Bike Club hosts the Dia De Los Muertos ride to honor friends and family that have passed away over the last year. The ride serves as a small bike parade with Carlos Morales riding the Day of the Dead bike. Details. Facebook.
• Friday – The UCLA law school holds a free, all-day conference on the future of transportation and transit in Los Angeles and the world. Contributor Lindsey Miller will be there, so if you can’t make it check back here next week. Get the free registration here.
• Saturday – The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition hosts the spookiest Sunday Funday ride ever. How spooky? So spooky they couldn’t hold it on a Sunday. The fun starts in Santa Monica. Boo. Details.

Did I miss something? Is there something really cool happening next week? Email damien at streetsblog dot org. Or, click here.

Here we are at the week that connects Carmageddon to CicLAvia. It’s bound to be a strange one, right?

• Tuesday – At 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, Mobility 21 hosts a “rally for Measure J” in Downtown Los Angeles. With just over a month left in the election season, business and labor interests are finally beginning to turn their attention to the extension of the 2008 Measure R transit tax. We have the poster announcing the event in our calendar section for details.
• Tuesday – Every quarter, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation holds a “Bicycle Plan Implementation Team” meeting to update the cycling community on what projects have been completed, what projects will be completed between meetings and the status of environmental and planning studies on future projects. This quarter’s meeting is tomorrow at 1 p.m. Get the meeting details here, or download the agenda, here.
• Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday – Metro hosts a series of meetings on their East San Fernando Valley Corridor Plans. The weekday meetings are at night, and the Saturday meeting during the day. Make sure you double check the times and locations before you head out, all of which can be found in the Streetsblog calendar section.
• Thursday – The Los Angeles Department of Transportation is hosting three meetings to update Westsiders on their community transportation plan. If you can’t make the meetings, next week’s will be live streamed. If you are free this Thursday night, click here for details.
• Sunday – It’s CicLAvia. I know, they’ve been quieter this time. Maybe they’re waiting for the Carmageddon noise to quiet down. Anyway, get all the details on the five hours of Nirvana at the official website.

Did we miss something? Is there something we need for the calendar next week? Contact damien at streetsblog dot org.