L.A. Councilmember O’Farrell Opens New Sunset Plaza Bike Repair Stand
This morning, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell opened a new public bike repair stand. The repair stand is located at the Sunset Triangle Park Plaza.
The Department of Transportation (LADOT) crews put the finishing touches on the installation while O’Farrell stood with LADOT and local business owners.
An audience of a couple dozen supporters cheered as O’Farrell hammered in the final pin.
The bike repair stand is a new feature of the LADOT’s recently announced Bicycle Friendly Business Districts program. The stand is sturdy, vandalism-resistant product called Fixit, made by a company called Dero.
From behind, the repair stand looks like a roughly 4-foot-tall vertical black cylinder. At the top of the cylinder are two horizontal metal poles. To put the bike on the stand, the seat-stem goes in between the two poles.
Alongside the cylinder is a bike pump, also enclosed in its own (shorter) metal cylinder. The valve-head of the pump is secured to the larger cylinder via a magnet.
The front of the cylinder has a large oval hole. Hanging inside the hole are bike repair tools, secured to the stand via metal cables. The tools include a tire lever, screwdrivers, wrenches, and allen wrench set.
The tools are available during the day, but are locked up each night.
LADOT requires a nearby business owner to sponsor each repair stand. The sponsor is required to commit to lock the tools each night, and unlock them each morning.
The Sunset stand is sponsored by the recently-opened Pine and Crane Taiwanese-Chinese restaurant, located directly on the plaza at 1521 Griffith Park Boulevard.
Pine and Crane’s owner Vivian Ku was on hand to celebrate the new bicycle repair stand. She hopes it will attract cyclists to the area, and encourages cyclists to come in and try out Pine and Crane’s dan dan noodles! Pine and Crane is open for lunch and dinner, every day except Tuesday.
The repair stand is located adjacent to the plaza bike parking, directly in front of United Bread and Pastry Filipino bakery, just east of Pine and Crane.
L.A. city has ten of these stations; the first four are being installed this week.
Two are already on the ground in North East Los Angeles: one at Hermosillo Bar on York Boulevard and another at Organix L.A. on Colorado Boulevard. The fourth will be at Kaos Network in Leimert Park.
LADOT has a few more sited, but are still looking for hosts for the last three.
If your business is interested in hosting an on-street bicycle repair stand, contact LADOT: Elizabeth.Gallardo [at] lacity.org
As reported earlier at SBLA, the plaza itself is undergoing some renovation.
The city recently repaired cracks in the concrete and gave the plaza a new coat of bright green paint. The city’s People St. program reported that they’ll be repainting the polka dots very soon.
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