A Positive End in the Conflict Between Councilman Cedillo and #Fig4All?

The most closely-watched story of 2014 for Livable Streets advocates was the ongoing battle between Councilman Gil Cedillo and the advocates themselves over the future design of North Figueroa Street. However, 2015 is a new year and the hot debate may be cooling off with the groundwork for future collaboration being laid.

The first sign came last week.

One day after advocates rallied outside of the Councilman's apartment building to protest comments delivered at a December City Council Meeting, the Council office met quietly with staff from the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. At the meeting, staff presented some draft concepts of road improvements for the five blocks being considered for Mayor Eric Garcetti's "Great Streets" proposal for North Figueroa.

The Mayor's Office has long-stated that Great Streets improvements will become templates for larger improvements along L.A.'s iconic corridors.

Following the meeting, the LACBC sent a message to its Northeast Los Angeles advocacy arm, "Ride Figueroa," that stated:

Later in the week, at a meeting of the Highland Park Neighborhood Council, Cedillo's staff announced it was working with the city to remove an application for parallel parking the city was including in an application to Metro. The batch of applications had been approved by the City Council in a December meeting, where local advocates and Cedillo sparred during the public comment period. The new application to Metro, now excluding the parking changes along North Figueroa, will be heard by Council soon.

In an email to Streetsblog, Cedillo spokesperson Louis Reyes explains the reasoning behind the change.

"Although our project was ranked number one [and] included multiple components that would increase street safety on Figueroa, we were driven by an application deadline that did not allow us to properly vet the project thoroughly with the community," Reyes writes.

"Therefore, we are going to conduct additional stakeholder outreach in order [to] achieve consensus on a specific proposal. We encourage bicyclist[s] to participate and educate other community members [on] the merits of bicycle lanes."

Just yesterday, the Mayor's Office itself weighed in with its enthusiasm for the yet-to-be-made-public plans for North Figueroa. In a post on the Great Streets tumblr, the Great Streets team celebrated their collaboration and explained why the progressive transportation plans are being kept under wraps for now.

Is rapprochement for Cedillo and the #Fig4All advocates just around the corner? That likely depends on the proposals put forward for the Great Streets Initiative on North Figueroa and whether or not both sides can put the rhetoric and battle scars from 2014 behind them. But, at least for now, Cedillo's office has extended the olive branch and his harshest critics are holding their fire, willing to wait and see what happens next.