Apparently Occidental College’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute has more in store for the City’s New Planning Director, Michael LoGrande, than just a question and answer session at tonight’s event.  It looks like they’re going to mix in a little advocacy, too.

Yesterday, UEPI posted a petition at Change.org urging  LoGrande to “Do Good Planning” as head of City Planning and insure that the city grows in a way that creates more opportunities to walk, bike and take the bus and rail rather than drive, revitalizes neighborhoods without displacing current residents and builds affordable places to live near work, family, schools, and shops.

The petition also notes that now is the perfect time for the city to change the way it plans to grow and redevelop.  Between the so-called Great Recession and the new city transportation network that will emerge over the next thirty (or ten) years as a result of the Measure R transit tax, change is in the air.  If city planning doesn’t change too, then L.A. could miss some of the opportunity that Measure R creates.

UEPI has an attainable goal of two hundred signatures.  Since we have 183 signatures at the Livable Los Angeles petition asking for Mayor Villaraigosa to conduct a national search for the next LADOT General Manager, Streetsbloggers ought to be able to push this petition over the top.