West LA

The newly-forming "Westside L.A. Neighbors Network" is suing the city to block approval of streetscape plans for four streets, falsely alleging they will include road diets. They should, but they don't.

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting the Mar Vista Farmer's Market with my seven-year-old son. Seeing a group gathering petitions for Restore Venice Boulevard's demands that the road diet on Venice Boulevard be immediately ended, I turned off to go in through the side. Earlier in the week, a tweet condemning the person who wrote the weird, racist flyer that was the last straw for a friend and neighborhood councilmember was misinterpreted as being a condemnation of everyone who opposed the road diet. I'm sure I phrased it poorly, but my attempts to clarify had fallen on deaf ears. A lot of people involved in the Restore Venice Boulevard Movement were convinced I, a Board Member of the Mar Vista Neighborhood Council, had called them all assholes.

At last Saturday's open house on the Mar Vista Venice Boulevard safety improvements, responses were mixed, with LADOT reporting a majority of comments were positive.

For those of us living near the Great Streets/Vision Zero pilot program in West Los Angeles, every day brings new developments in the back-and-forth between advocates for safe streets and advocates for car commuters frustrated by delay. The road diet turned a six-lane road with a bike lane and car parking into a two-lane road with a parking-protected bike lane. The pilot project is set to run for one year, with reports coming in every three months.

The Venice Boulevard Great Street aims to transform Venice Boulevard between Beethoven Street and Inglewood Boulevard from a car-centric street full of fast-moving traffic to one more friendly towards all road users. The project broke ground this morning.

Paul Koretz has delivered is the worst section of the Expo Line. Koretz’ section has a mile-long gap in the bike path. Koretz’ section has kids walking in the street because of a missing sidewalk between the Palms Station and Lycée Français High School.

Tomorrow night, the Mar Vista Community Council will hear from the public about a proposed mixed-use housing project slated for 12444 Venice Boulevard.

This week, the Motor Avenue Improvement Association will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating two great new parklets on Motor Avenue. The festivities will take place on Thursday August 11 at 1 p.m. at 3376 Motor Avenue in Palms. The parklets are part of the city of L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT) innovative People St program, where communities can request plazas, parklets, and/or bike corrals.

Last week, a new parklet opened in downtown L.A.'s South Park. The next People St parklet installation is already underway on Motor Avenue in Palms. The parklet pictured is in front of C&M Cafe at 3272 Motor Avenue, a block south of the Metro Expo Line Phase 2 and the Expo bikeway's Northvale gap. Motor was improved with a road diet and bike lanes in 2012.