Downtown LA

After two months of delay, and after being pushed to second on today's agenda behind the Westside Subway, the Regional Connector finally had a moment to shine at the Metro Board of Directors.  The environmental documents approving the Connector passed seven to zero.  The official twitter account for the Regional Connector celebrated by noting that the "Regional Connector has gone from a study to a project.  How cool is that?"  Given that the Connector is perhaps the most important project in the region, connecting all existing and future transit lines, the final passage of the environmental documents is very cool.

Planners who traveled to Los Angeles over the past four days to attend the American Planning Association’s National Planning Conference were greeted by a very different L.A. than the one they visited at the last APA conference in L.A. over 25 years ago.

In an announcement that caught even some CicLAvia organizers by surprise, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced this morning at the "CicLAvia opening" that CicLAvia partners Bike Nation will establish a permanent footprint in Los Angeles this December.  The cost to the city will be minimal, as Bike Nation promises to pay for all of the 4,000 bikes and 400 kiosks coming to Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Venice Beach and Westwood.  Bike Nation estimates it could take a full year to complete the installation.

Oct. 24, 1990.

(Friends of Susana's have set up a ChipIn account to collect funds to help with medical bills.  You can donate, here.)

Earlier today, AEG announced the completion of the first draft of environmental documents for Farmers Field, the proposed football stadium for Downtown Los Angeles.  The document, available on City Planning's website, is a mammoth 10,000 pages and the ceremonial handing over of the documents to the city at today's event involved 13 overflowing three ring binders.

Last week, the Metro Board of Directors decided to push a motion to approve the final environmental documents for the Regional Connector until April so that negotiations between top Metro staff and representatives of the Financial District could continue negotiations over what kind of tunneling method will be used to complete the below-ground connector through the District.

For the second time in just over a month, the Los Angeles Times devoted a good portion of its real estate to hitting the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. A lot of the piece hits the same points as last month's editorial on the same topic, but transportation writer Ari Bloomekatz goes into greater detail and includes interviews with Film L.A. and even a brief recap of Carlos Morales' run-in with a film crew last week.