Day: April 4, 2011

The second part of our new series introducing and interviewing the members of our local board of directors. While I don't think anyone that reads Streetsblog with any regularity needs an introduction to Joe Linton, he provides some interesting perspective not just about CicLAvia and advocacy, but also about the role of the Internet and blogs in changing the way people communicate and advocate.

Last week’s stakeholder extravaganza in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee brought out the best and worst ideas about how to reform the transportation sector. We highlighted some of the good stuff earlier. Now for the bad and the ugly.

The media loves drama, of course. As your high school English teacher explained it, if Hamlet doesn’t get pissed about his dad’s murder or if Atticus Finch doesn’t step up to defend a black man falsely accused -- that is, if somebody doesn’t say no, you’ve got no story. So the vociferous opposition of a handful of people to a handful of bike lane projects in New York City has been dramatized, through a series of news stories and op-eds, into a full-blown citizens’ backlash against the complete streets movement.

So there's this event next Sunday.  It's some sort of big bike ride or something....ahhhh, CicLAvia....

We wrote last week about how critics of transit projects often demand that urban developers contribute to the funding of new infrastructure, while interchange-profiteers like Wal-Mart and Olive Garden are rarely asked to pay a cent.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill