Month: April 2011
Streetsblog LA
The Big Parade
The Big Parade is a two-day walk through Los Angeles that will start in downtown, at the famous Angel's Flight Stairway, and finish at the Hollywood Sign above Beachwood Canyon. Day One ends - and Day Two begins - at the famous music Music Box Stairs - site of the Oscar-winning Laurel & Hardy film of the same name - in Silverlake. It will take place May 21 and 22, 2011.
There’s also going to be a prologue on Friday, May 20, led by Bob Inman, covering the stairways between Eagle Rock and downtown.
Most important: This is a community walk. That means we stay together as a group, and it means that YOU CAN DO IT! Why? Because we break the walk into segments so that walkers of all ages and levels of fitness can join us at specific times (of course, anyone is welcome to meet us at any point along the way - and all are invited to join us at the end to celebrate the walk).
A core group of will be doing the entire event. But - as the name "Big Parade" implies - the true nature of the journey is community-based. In addition to passing dozens of landmarks, we will be joined by community members, both individuals and in groups, as we pass through the city's most diverse neighborhoods. The walk is broken into specific segments.
April 16, 2011
James Rojas Visists Baltimore: Open Baltimore Interactive Model
(Note: This is the second installment in our four-year series about how Baltimore, Maryland. Our first installment, "Baltimore Getting Serious About Bikes" appeared in May, 2008. - DN)
April 15, 2011
CD 36 Candidate Survey: Matt Roozee
The first CD 36 Candidate to return our survey is independent Matt Roozee. At the heart of Roozee's bid is a belief that the government must focus on fixing the economy before working on other important issues. As Roozee states on his campaign website:
April 15, 2011
Come Out and Play: Let’s Help CicLAvia Become More Friendly to Kids and Walkers
CicLAvia was amazing last Sunday. When you think that less than a year ago it wasn't certain Los Angeles would every have an open street festival and now we're having over 100,000 people take to the streets, it's double-amazing.
April 14, 2011
Small Victories Update: City Closer to Legally Allowing Front Mounted Bike Seats
"That was the easiest hearing I've ever been to," joked Alexis Lantz of the Bike Coalition as the two of us packed to leave hearing room 1010 in City Hall. Five minutes earlier, Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl opened the City Council Transportation Committee meeting with a ten second vote approving some parking districts followed by a hearing on doing away with Los Angeles Municipal Code 80.27, a law banning front mounted bicycle seats. Two of those five minutes were taken up by me, as I explained the process of mounting a baby seat (commonly known as a car seat) in to a European style bucket bike.
April 14, 2011
Portland Can’t Add Bike Parking Fast Enough to Please Businesses
Opponents of transportation progress would have you believe there is nothing so sacrosanct as the relationship between businesses and parking spaces. While customer access is quite valuable for merchants, in many cases, car parking isn't the best way to provide it. As this story from Portland illustrates, it's time to rethink how we allocate space for street parking.
April 14, 2011
State of the City: Mayor’s “New Contract” Not Just About Education
What a difference a few years makes. For the fourth time since Streetsblog has been publishing in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave a "state of the city" address to talk about where the city is and where he hopes to lead it in the coming years. When we first covered this annual speech in 2008, the Mayor barely mentioned transportation other than a promise to ask the MTA Board to work on ways to build out the transit system. He didn't even call the agency Metro.
April 14, 2011