Interview with Glendale City Councilmember Alek Bartrosouf

In June, Glendale voters elected city planner Alek Bartrosouf to their City Council.

Councilmember Bartrosouf is now one of five Glendale City Councilmembers, serving alongside reelected environment/mobility champion Dan Brotman. It is a council that has advanced many worthwhile livability projects, but has also been divided on some promising housing and transit initiatives. The council reflects a diversity of viewpoints within the 30-square mile 200,000-resident city, which includes plenty of fairly dense multi-family housing, not far from plenty of sprawling car-centric suburbs.

Streetsblog interviewed Bartrosouf over email this month, and added links to background on a few projects/sites mentioned.

SBLA: Tell readers a bit about your background – perhaps including where you grew up, what led you to becoming who you are today.

I am a lifelong Glendale resident, with a degree in Urban Planning from UCLA and have been in the world of transportation planning and advocacy for many years now. My foray into civic engagement started in my early 20’s, when I started the Coalition for a Green Glendale, working on elevating sustainability in local decisions and ultimately started the city’s first community-run gardens.

Over the years, I got more involved in city issues, was appointed to the Transportation and Parking Commission by then-councilmember Laura Friedman, got involved in taskforces and advisory committees, and grew a very intimate understanding of how the city works and its political dynamics.

You’ve worked on green transportation professionally and as a volunteer. Tell readers about your transportation work experience – present and past. Please include some accomplishments you’re especially proud of.

My transportation work began at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, where I was a program manager helping develop and strengthen our volunteer programs and campaigns. I really enjoyed my time connecting with people who wanted to make the city (Los Angeles) a better place by engaging with their elected officials and city hall. I was especially proud of our Neighborhood Bike Ambassador program that I helped develop during my time there.

Since then, I have worked for the Southern California Association of Governments, City of Santa Monica, and City of Los Angeles. Before shifting to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation [LADOT] working on Government Affairs and Project Delivery, I worked as a Transportation Deputy for Councilmember Mike Bonin.

A theme that carries across my work experience is constituent services, and working directly with communities that stand to benefit from simple changes that make our streets safer. That type of engagement goes a long way, and it helps to have good people on your team to communicate in a way that makes sense.

How do you typically get around?

Truth be told, it really all depends. I truly am multi-modal. I always bike to get to my gym, I always walk to the grocery store, and I always drive long distances. Unfortunately, I have been driving a lot lately when I have multiple events to attend and I have to criss-cross town quickly. When I am not in a rush and it doesn’t require multiple transfers I’ll take transit, Metro Micro, or Metrolink.

What are the main issues you campaigned on? What issues did you find resonate with Glendale residents?

I campaigned on the issues that people really care about. Folks can learn more about my priorities at alekforglendale.com – but the main themes are transportation safety, sustainability, and good governance. Having campaigned now for myself and other candidates in the past, the #1 theme has always been traffic safety, which is partly why I decided to run and bring my professional expertise to the table. I am the only urban planner on the dais now at city council and happy to bring that perspective to city hall.

I also really care about sustainability. We aren’t talking anymore about what to recycle anymore or debating whether climate change is real. We need to ensure our city is resilient to an increasingly wild climate. Wildfires, water scarcity, growing electricity demand, and a hotter environment are all issues we need to be able to tackle independently as a city, in addition to this larger conversation about climate change.

I think we can all get behind that.

Your campaign statement notes that there are “many low-cost safety improvements we can deploy in Glendale to calm traffic and reduce collisions without compromising throughput and exacerbating delays.” What sorts of low hanging fruit improvements are you most interested in?

I’m most interested in quick-build interventions around schools.

LADOT did a great job deploying curb extensions at key intersections near schools to make it easier for kids to walk to school. Given our resources are spread thin during this current budget slump we are in, I want to be careful about these types of investments and ensure our dollar stretches to the most benefit possible. So I would rather deploy quick-build safety interventions at ten locations this year than build concrete for one location in five years. I want us to be quicker on our feet and address the issues now.

We also have an adopted Pedestrian Master Plan, and are close to adopting a new Vision Zero and Bicycle Master Plan. I have been around long enough to know how long these improvements can take once a plan is adopted. I want to see quicker results.

Tell readers a few projects, programs you’re interested in pushing for. Start with walkability.

Just some ideas:

• Implementing Pedestrian Master Plan specific interventions at known problem intersections
• Better shade near transit-rich corridors and urbanized locations and less-affluent areas
• Better transit amenities
• Updated regulations on the use of HAWK signals, flashing yellow, and adopting a policy that more quickly converts outdated crosswalks to high-visibility crosswalks.

Bikeability?

• Adopting a Bicycle Master Plan
• Start looking at roadway improvements that develop a bicycle network. There is a lot of potential near the River Bridge, connecting to Dreamworks/Disney, and the existing Burbank Channel.
• Decriminalize sidewalk riding (existing law in Glendale)
• Adopt a robust neighborhood traffic calming program to reinforce calmer streets

Transit?

• Better transit stop amenities
• Shade, shade, and more shade
• Develop a First-Last Mile Strategy for the incoming BRT [Bus Rapid Transit] stations in Glendale

Housing?

I’d like to do away with Glendale’s requirement that multi-family garages be subterranean. It removes us from the possibility of creating small-lot subdivisions (aka single family homes separated by inches). Enabling that housing type creates more ownership housing options for people entering the market, and for younger families that want to stay in Glendale.

Any other initiatives you’d like to share with Streetsblog readers?

I’m really interested in the urban fabric, and open spaces that grow community organically. I’m working with my colleagues to finally get a dog park in Glendale, and identify additional locations for more parks in south Glendale after we already acquired the Joann Fabric lot on Central. We can do better with activating our sidewalks and public spaces for more engaging and interactive experiences.

There are some big green transportation projects and programs underway on the way in Glendale: a future bike/walk bridge to Griffith Park, new NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit, speed cameras, and probably others. What’s your take on these – how will they affect Glendale? What other city projects are underway that you would like to get the word out on?

These are great examples, all of which will definitely introduce some change in the city that in many ways hasn’t changed much in the world of transportation. In a growing city, I think we need to double-down on investments like this to encourage other modes of transportation as much as possible. We cannot continue to rely on the status quo when our city is growing and more people are finding that their only safe option to get around is to drive.

There are a few additional projects in the works that can address safety deficiencies along Verdugo Road, Wilson, Glendale Ave., Sonora, Victory, and others. I encourage folks to check out our Public Works website to learn more about what is happening in our city.

Glendale has experienced some backlash toward livable transportation projects; one example is the criticism that led the city to remove the Brand Avenue pilot project. What’s your sense of that criticism? What do you think it takes to have more Glendale folks support safer and more multimodal streets?

I think context and framework matters. Not every project is the same, and not every project is designed with the necessary context and framework to make it successful.

I am not always fond of how projects are implemented, and now as a councilmember, I hope to work with staff on how to best approach these nuanced issues. Ultimately we need to do a better job of showcasing benefits, understanding tradeoffs, and helping communicate how any proposed changes are delivering what constituents have been asking for or want addressed. I also think it helps to now have a transportation planner on the city council. I think these types of conversations will be a little easier to have.

This is the question Streetsblog generally ends our interviews with: If you had a magic wand and could change one thing overnight – regarding your city, streets, transportation, equity, livability – what would you change?

I’d like to see our city equitably (geographically) have community hubs where people can gather and grow community. Public spaces that are natural and easy to get to by foot and are spaces for kids to be merry and for adults to relax and enjoy their time off from work.