Long Beach
Streetsblog LA
Bike-Friendly Incumbent Faces Energetic New Comer in L.B. Mayor’s Race
We've got another election coming up this Tuesday, and while most cities in LA county residents won't be doing any voting,
there is one important election in America's Most Bike Friendly City.
Yes, Long Beach is having a mayor's race, though so far it doesn't
appear to be terribly exciting. The incumbent Mayor Bob Foster has so
far raised $250,000 for his reelection,
vastly outpacing his lone challenger, Stevie Danielle Merino.
Nonetheless, the election provides an opportunity to reflect on the
role of the mayor in improving the state of bicycling and
transportation so far, and what the outcome of the election will mean
for Long Beach residents. Even for people who live outside of LA
County's second largest city, Long Beach provides a useful (and local)
case study in how civic bureaucracy can be penetrated to achieve a
worthy cause. Without further ado, let's meet the candidates.
April 12, 2010
Long Beach Signs On To Some Good Ideas
A month ago, I had a few ideas
about how Long Beach could go about improving its budding network of
numbered bikeways. As it turned out, a few of the suggestions I made
are slowly beginning to appear on the street lights and signposts of
Long Beach. Is this a happy coincidence, or has the City of Long Beach drawn some inspiration from the pages of Streetsblog?
April 6, 2010
For Cyclists, It’s a Bridge to Nowhere
The Port of Long Beach is green. Very green. And no, we're not talking about the unsightly tint the port used to give the Alamitos Bay. Port administrators are making a concerted effort to make the giant shipping facility as environmentally friendly as it can be.
March 15, 2010
Encouraging Signs in Long Beach
Long Beach's ambitious campaign to become the Most Bicycle Friendly City in America is well underway. The Second St. sharrows debuted to much fanfare last summer, followed by bike boxes nearby on Second st. and Marina ave. Recently, the city has selected contractors for its Vista Bike Boulevard and Broadway/Third St. bike lane projects, with completion to come in four to five months. In the meantime, a new numbered bikeway project has been quietly debuting across the city.
February 24, 2010
Bike Boulevards: The SLO Solution
(editor's note: Welcome our newest guest blogger, live from Long Beach, Drew Reed. Reed is a writer, film editor, and cycling activist
based in Long Beach. He blogs about cycling issues in Long Beach and
the greater LA area at LA Loyalist. We first met Drew when we interviewed him about his experience traveling the country to go to the inauguration of Barack Obama. - DN)
February 5, 2010
The “Bike-Ped.” State of the Union Has Some Interesting Information for L.A. County
For the second time in three months, a national coalition of bicycling and pedestrian advocates took a look at how federal funds are being spent on projects designed to keep cyclists and pedestrians safe as they move themselves from one place to another. For the second time in three months, Los Angeles was shown to be well behind the curve when it comes to spending money on "non-motorized transportation" as the state likes to call it, or "people powered movement" as those that transport themselves do.
January 29, 2010
Long Beach’s Leap Toward Livability – Part 2 of 2
(There's a lot of great bike and walk improvements happening in
Long Beach, so L.A. StreetsBlog has covered it in two parts, for now. Last week's article featured the past and present; today's features exciting plans for the future.)
October 9, 2009
Long Beach’s Leap Toward Livability – Part 1 of 2
(There's a lot of great bike and walk improvements happening in Long
Beach, so L.A. StreetsBlog will cover it in two parts, for now. Today's
article features the past and present; next Friday will feature
exciting plans for the future.)
October 2, 2009
Forecast for Ports Is Low, What Does That Mean for Widenings?
This morning's Times brought the grim economic news that traffic at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are struggling. In fact, the ports have lost the momentum that brought them to annual record highs traffic numbers as recently as 2006. In fact, the soonest the ports can expect to reach the 2006 numbers would be 2013, and that's a best case scenario.
August 17, 2009
Let’s Name the Long Beach Shared Lanes
The new Sharrowed and painted travel lanes in Long Beach have caused quite a stir; but the relatively new concept of painting a shared-lane has yet to draw a catchy adn easy-to-use name. Since Streetsbloggers are nothing if not inventive, I was thinking that we could do our part by coming up with the best name for a travel lane marked with Sharrows and green paint as seen in the above picture.
July 15, 2009