Dana Gabbard

This Sunday, St. Vincent Meals on Wheels is holding its 23rd annual Walk/Bike-A-Thon fundraiser along the beach bike path in Santa Monica

Metro's new policing contract is hopefully a first step toward effective responsible policing. For the enormous amounts of money Metro spends on policing, passengers and taxpayers deserve better.

Today is the day. While many were happy about the Gold Line Foothill Extension opening earlier this year, I think the level of excitement about today's opening of the Expo Line extension to Santa Monica is several magnitudes greater. As Kathy Seal eloquently detailed in her recent post, this project was made possible by authentic grassroots activism, exemplifying the famous quote by anthropologist Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

I first became aware of the Rail Users' Network (RUN) some years ago when they held their Board meeting in Los Angeles and invited local transit activists to attend and observe. While I was already a member of several rail advocacy groups including National Association of Rail Passengers and RailPAC, I found appealing RUN's broad scope, dealing with passenger rail issues both national and local, and appreciated its strong customer focus. After joining I eventually also began contributing articles to the quarterly newsletter and more recently was elected to the Board.

Today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. author Charles Hobbs will have a signing for his new book Hidden History of Transportation in Los Angeles.

Traditionally Southern Caifornia Transit Advocates does a day-after-thanksgiving study tour , usually to explore service in far-flung areas outside urban Los Angeles (Santa Barbara, San Diego, Victorville, Bakersfield).

Thursday at noon the Metro Board is holding a workshop on the recent audit of the security contract it has with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD). The unit of the LASD that handles the contract is known as Metro Transit Services which has an online presence on Facebook, Twitter and nixle.

Are reduced fares on the way for users of LADOT’s TAP on DASH bus service?

On Saturday August 16th Southern California Transit Advocates will be making a return visit to Metro's TAP Lab. This will be an opportunity to learn about the status of the program and implementation of the changes that will facilitate the fare change that will take place September 15th. Participants will meet up at 10 a.m. in the lobby of the Metro Headquarters Building adjacent to the Patsaouras Transit Plaza. Members of the public are welcome to be part of the tour. Kudos to SO.CA.TA member Ken Ruben for arranging the tour and Metro staff member David Sutton for the invitation. The tour will last two hours.

(In the absence of a "Week in Livable" Streets Events, we're going to highlight some of our favorite events coming up this weekend - DN)