I Can’t Give the 3rd Street Farmer’s Market Too Much Grief.  There Was An Empty Bike Rack 100 Yards Behind Me.

I’ve been planning for awhile to start a weekly column about how bike unfriendliness of LA culture is reflected in the poor to terrible bike amenities at public places.  Given the recent discussion of LAMC 12.21 that popped up in the comments section in the story about buses to Dodger Stadium, it seemed like a good time to start.  But here’s the deal, I want these stories to come from you so it doesn’t appear that this weekly column is "Damien complaining about places that he doesn’t like."

While government buildings, arenas, public parks and transit stations are all great places to write about; your local grocery store can be just as good.  Just write out your experiences, take a picture, send them to me at damien@streetsblog.org and let me know if you want to be credited with your real name or some other alias.  If you’d like, we’ll also throw in a plug for your blog, website, myspace page, or whatever you’d like.  Lastly, make sure to have some sort of contact information for the place so we know where to send suggestions for improvement. 

If you’re still not sure what I’m looking for, the Bottleneck Blog actually does a good job discussing the North Hollywood Train station’s shortage of bike parking.  While he doesn’t give us contact information for Metro, Steve Hymon does make a point that seems to be missed on a lot of public officials.  Just because a place has some bike racks doesn’t mean it’s doing enough to provide safe and convenient bike parking.

If I don’t get any submissions by next week, I’ll write a story about the restaurant that wouldn’t let me park my bike in their parking lot and directed me to a bike rack that was big enough for three bikes and already had five chained to it.  But after next week, it’s up to you…