Yesterday afternoon, Occidental College and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition hosted a forum for the three candidates on the ballot vying to replace Ed Reyes in Council District 1. The debate was quite a bit more spirited than the CD 11 debate held two weeks ago, and Streetsblog L.A. caught up with the candidates afterwards. You can watch the entire forum at Streetsblog TV
Second up is Jose Gardea. Gardea is the Chief of Staff to Reyes and oversees an office that is known as one of the most progressive on transportation in the city. The Chief of Staff strongly made the case that it's important to continue to work that Reyes' office has advanced the last eight years.
In the interview above, Gardea discusses the advantage of having a "staff full of planners" instead of lawyers and politicos. Much of the current staff in CD1 are planners, and Gardea pointed out Jill Sorriel, a certified planner who worked on the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Plan for the office, in the audience. Even Rosas took time in his remarks to praise Sorriel.
Gardea also discusses the past, present and future of CicLAvia. He's looking forward to exploring the new route on April 21.
