Streetsblog Los Angeles

Reader Erik Griswold noticed something outside of what was originally intended. While the media’s full-court press coverage of the tragic shooting of police officers and the ongoing manhunt have certainly captivated the media, the press frenzy in front of LAPD headquarters also tells a different story.

Sometimes a buffered bike lane isn’t enough. If ever an L.A. street needed a truly separated bike lane, with parking between the bike lane and the street, it’s 1st Street between Main Street and Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Instead of bumping the buffer, LAPD and LADOT should separate the car traffic from the bike traffic through a physical separation. In incidents such as this one, it would also provide a little extra security for LAPD headquarters.

Friends,

As I type this my wife has entered her twenty-first hour of something called "pre-labor." Assuming this is the real deal; it's time for me to sign-off for a little bit and be with her so that we can welcome the newest Livable Streets Activist into the world in style.  Given the quality of my writing today, it's probably for the best.  Earlier today I got the "Silver Streak" mixed up with the "Silver Line."  Somewhere, a So.CA.TA.  member is laughing at me.

My plan for today had been to do a major write-up of everything that happened on Park(ing) Day, and write a voter guide for tomorrow's Second District Election. 

I know the people "in charge" of Park(ing) Day are collecting links to the news stories that have come in from blogs and traditional outlets, so visit the Park(ing) Day L.A. website and I'm sure they'll have news.   Nationally, Streetfilms has films up for with both San Francisco's and New York's Park(ing) Day highlights.  That's nice and all, but did any of those Streetsbloggers bike fifty miles to get their story?  (I figure I can get away with trash talking my bosses in my "paternity leave" post.  Better enjoy it while I can.)

As for the Second District Special Election, you can find links to seven of the ten candidate's responses to our questionnaire by clicking here or by searching stories tagged "CD2 Special Election"

While updates might not be coming as frequently as usual over the next couple of weeks; we are planning to have some guest writers on board and I'll be checking in from time to time before I return full-time.  Give us a couple of days to get organized (the baby is coming a couple of weeks early) and L.A. Streetsblog will be back and publishing before you know it.  On the off-chance that this isn't the last leg of the pregnancy, I'll be back tomorrow.

On a quick personal note, thanks to everyone that has wished my family well in the last couple of weeks and months.  Anyone that thinks of Los Angeles as the stereotypes portrayed on television and the movies has never met the dedicated, wonderful, loving people that I've been blessed to know in the last two years.

Sincerely,

Damien

Rumors have been swirling that the Metro Board is actually going to do a final vote on the 2009 Long Range Transportation plan, less than 24 hours after it was first released to the public, to head off opposition that was planning to make a stand at the June 25 Metro Board meeting.  I repeat, these are only rumors at this point, but it bears watching. It does say on the agenda that the Board could adopt the LRTP this afternoon, but for a Board already under fire for the contempt it showed the public two weeks ago, it's more than disheartening see them rushing the process again,

For those of you that don't religiously scour the Streetsblog comment section, a copy of the changes to the LRTP are available here.

Just a reminder I'll be live tweeting today's events.  You can follow my tweets at twitter.com/lastreetsblog.  The meeting is scheduledto start at 1 P.M.

(Update, 1:22 P.M.: On behalf of the Mayor, who isn't here yet, Richard Katz just announced that the vote on the LRTP will be put off until the July Board Meeting.  Apparently there's no vote necesary for that sort of thing, but it's still good news.)

While almost all of the races in yesterday's city-wide elections were foregone conclusions before the ballots were counted, there are still a couple of important races yet to be decided.  Ironically, the races that are yet to be decided are the races between Fifth District City Councilman Jack Weiss and Carmen Trutanich for City Attorney and the race to replace Weiss in the Fifth District which has been narrowed down to Former state Assemblyman and West Hollywood City Councilman Paul Koretz and Century City area homeowner activist David Vahedi.

These races will be decided on May 19, roughly two months and two weeks from today.  In that time, Streetsblog will put together surveys for each of the four remaining candidates for the two offices and report back their answers in un-edited responses as we receive them.  However, this being a blog, a medium for two way communication, I'm asking for your help.  What questions do you want to see the candidates answer concerning transportation, development and Livable Streets before the May 19th runoff?

It might not seem obvious at first what value a survey of City Attorney candidates by transportation reform advocates could have.  However, "enforcement" is the third of the three "e's" of transportation planning joining "engineering" and "education;" so people may want to get the future city attorney on record right now concerning their visions for lawful and safe streets in Los Angeles.

In the case of Vahedi and Koretz, we already know a good deal about their transportation plans.  The Los Angeles Times ran a series on all the Fifth District Cadidates' views on both the Expo Line and development in more general terms.  Of course, the blog "BikingInLA" invited all candidates to write a statement on cycling issues in Los Angeles.  Vahedi responded.  Koretz has not.  In addition to what's already out there, what do you want to know from the candidates?

I'll post the surveys before I send them out on March 18.  Streetsblog will do the same for the candidates to replace Wendy Greuel in the Second District once the details of the election and the candidates are known.

Last month, the LA County Board of Supervisors issued an edict that all taco trucks would now have to move every hour taking a firm stand against the free market and for increased vehicle miles traveled.  Hilariously, the first taco truck that was ticketed was actually owned by the same people that owned the adjacent restaurant and used the truck as a takeout window. 

Recently James Rojas, whose model of downtown appeared earlier this week in Streetsblog, wrote a piece for the Planning Report proposes a solution to the taco truck problem which would allow local government to collect some money and legitimate taco trucks to stay in business. Rojas' piece is reprinted in its entirety here with the permission of the author.

Latino Urban Forum's James Rojas Supports Permitting L.A.'s Street Vendors

A recent move by the L.A. County Supervisors has sparked a debate about the benefits that mobile food vendors bring the community.

The county of Los Angeles recently passed a law prohibiting street vendors (i.e., taco trucks) from lingering too long in one location, engendering controversy between the public and the brick and mortar businesses who claim to be threatened by these street vendors. In the following TPR exclusive, James Rojas, of the Latino Urban Forum, makes the case that the county's new restrictions on street vendors may be overlooking the solutions to problems of walkability and pedestrian-friendly streets that these "mobile" businesses offer the region.

Many major cities in the United States have developed street vending policies, often managing a variety of urban needs in the process. For example, the city of Portland believes that vendors provide valuable street amenities for pedestrians, but requires street vendors to meet design standards in order to maintain the city's pedestrian-friendly aesthetic. New York City allows street vendors to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in city neighborhoods that have high obesity rates among its residents, providing a creative, portable solution to a problem often caused by a failure of planning and neighborhood development.

Read more...

Earlier this week I posted an article on the reforms coming to the city's official Bike Advisory Committee which implied that the BAC was out of touch and didn't do very much.  Not surprisingly, some members of the committee took exception to that characterization.

At the most recent BAC meeting, the committee passed a set of recommendations to the city's Bike Master Plan which is in the process of being updated.  Via friend of the blog Kent Strumpell:

1.  IDENTIFY WHY MANY POLICIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN PREVIOUS BICYCLE MASTER PLAN HAVE NOT BEEN IMPLEMENTED.

Develop strategies and performance indicators to make implementation more effective.

2. ROUTINE ACCOMMODATION/COMPLETE STREETS POLICY

The bicycle master plan should include policy language, with authority over all necessary departments, that will result in the inclusion of bicycle accommodations in all roadway projects to the greatest extent possible.  This will require integrating bikeway planning at the earliest concept, funding and design stages of projects.  This policy should be fully integrated into the day-to-day procedures of project planning, design review and standards, in much the same way that sidewalks are included in road projects, in order to prevent situations where bicycle facilities are omitted as an unfortunate oversight.  Inclusion of bicycle accommodations should be institutionalized and codified into project implementation procedures, plan check steps, etc. and not left to the discretion of individual employees who may or may not have the required expertise.

3. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF REPAVING AND RESTRIPING OPPORTUNITIES; PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE.

a.  Each time arterial and collector streets are resurfaced they should be re-striped to add width to the curb lane without compromising safety; consider designating these streets with wide curb lanes as future Class III routes. In addition, designated Class II lanes should be added where there is enough width.

b.  When any road repairs are done by the City or other agencies such as utilities, the road shall be restored to at least its original quality, with particular attention to surface smoothness and re-striping suitable for bicycling.

c.  Pavement cuts for utilities often create depressions and raised edges that are a hazard for cyclists.  These can develop over time as a poorly compacted patched areas settles.  Any pavement work, including that done by city departments. contractors or utilities, should abide by strict pavement surface standards.  These standards should stipulate that the disturbed area is adequately compacted so it will remain even and free of depressions for years.  A plan for maintaining non-city pavement work to the above standard, designating who is responsible, should accompany B permits.

Read more...

Yesterday morning the Times’ Bottleneck Blog made its re-debut with Times’ transportation writer and “Road Sage” Steve Hymon at the wheel.  Now I’ve been somewhat critical of some of Hyomn’s writing in the past, so I wanted to give it some time before I reviewed his online efforts.

First off, Hymon deserves a lot of credit for the effort he’s putting into the blog.  He’s been the lead content provider for the blog for a little under 30 hours and there are already 13 different stories posted. 

I feared that the blog might become a lobbying tool for greater road investment, but a breakdown of those first 14 stories shows that even for the Road Sage LA transportation isn’t just about cars anymore.  Instead of just highway stories, there were stories about why the city doesn’t do a good job promoting transit, the struggle over the Expo Line and even stories about traffic calming.  Of course the Times’ hasn’t turned over an entirely new leaf on transportation, it looks like there’s going to be a daily update on gas prices as part of the writing.

Hymon ends his first post with a call for help, stories ideas and entries for pothole of the week.  Let’s see if we can help him out by giving him lots of story ideas about buses, trains, bike and sneakers.

One simple request: I need your help. Shoot me an e-mail with your thoughts, ideas, questions, rants, photos. I want this blog to be informative. I am also determined to make it fun, whether the topic is driving, taking mass transit, cycling or — gasp — walking.

I’m presently looking for nominees for “Pothole of the Week," which I’d like to make a regular feature. If you want to nominate your favorite crater, send me a photo (in the JPEG format) and brief, poetic description with the exact location. The e-mail is steve.hymon@latimes.com.

Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne write the blog Homegrown Evolution, chronicling their adventures as urban gardeners and farmers. Kelly and Erik recently released their first book The Urban Homestead from Process Media.  Last Friday, Erik, who is also a board member of the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, sat down with me in their garden to talk about their new book and sustainable transportation.  The part of the interview about transportation appears here.  The part about urban gardening is at Emerald City.  If you’re interested in getting your own copy of Urban Homestead make sure to order it at Homegrown Evolution.

DN: There’s a chapter in the book on transportation.

EK: Indeed.  There is a chapter in the book on transportation.  I’m biased...I’m very biased.  Here’s a little ax grinding.

Transportation for me is riding a bike...maybe about riding a bus...but really about riding a bike.  Because, well, just because it’s riding a bike.

DN: Uh-huh

EK: It’s a challenge.  I love a challenge and that’s what it’s all about.  I just like being in traffic riding a bike, and it just happens to have these nice side effects. 

It's like permaculture, you get a good feed back loop.  You get somewhere and you get exercise.  It's not just physical exercise, it's mental exercise because it's a challenge to do it.   We're not talking about a relaxed brain state, we're not having a margarita at the pool, we're talking about a highly focused brain state--the kind of focus you get gliding through heavy traffic. Brain wave studies of Tibetan monks have shown that when they are meditating they are in a focused state--not a relaxed state--I imagine somewhat like what it's like to ride a bike in Los Angeles. Riding a bike for me is a kind of meditation--really the only way I can stop the constant restlessness and chatter in my mind and focus intently--riding balances mind, body and soul.

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LaBonge and Council President Garcetti Out for a Ride

Maybe you’ve noticed that Councilmember Tom LaBonge’s face and bike showed up at Metro's Bike Week Kickoff on Monday and the Blessing of the Bikes on Tuesday.  Well, if you assume that LaBonge is just hopping on his bike a couple of blocks from the event before pedaling up to the cameras, you’d be wrong.  Metblogs’ Mack Reed relates a conversation he had with LaBonge at a traffic light after the Councilmember biked up to him.  There is no indication that LaBonge had any idea that Reed writes for Metblogs.

“G’morning,” he says. “You just come up over the hill?”

“No, I’m coming down from the Observatory.”

“Hunh. We’ve been trying to get that back road down the other side reopened. The road’s still damaged.” …

“That’d be great - but honestly, it’s nice just to have the roads on this side reopened. It was a drag when they were closed for so long after the fire.”

“Where do you live?”

“Silver Lake.”

“What street?”

I tell him.

“You’re Tom LaBonge, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Mack Reed, we’ve met.”

“Oh, yeah, hi, how are ya. So, you think we need bigger bike racks around the neighborhood? Maybe in front of Gelson’s?”

“I’m sure there are a lot of riders who’d appreciate it, definitely. Me, I’m happy just locking mine to a post.”

“What else do you need, you need anything else?”

To see the rest of the conversation, click here.

Image: CD-13/Flickr