Eastside

Yesterday, C.I.C.L.E. announced that they are ready to take the next steps in advocacy when they announced their "North East L.A. Campaign."  Generally, C.I.C.L.E. has focused their advocacy efforts on helping people get, and stay, on their bikes by providing classes, workshops and social rides.  However, the group hasn't spent a lot of energy on traditional advocacy concerning engineering and enforcement issues.

During our ride on Friday, Steven Frien wondered a couple of times why there wasn't talk of having a bicycle lane on 1st Street running parallel to the Gold Line on First Street .  Later in the day, during The Source's review of our review of the Gold Line, Steve Hymon upped the score by asking why there wasn't better bike planning along the entire route.  After all, we know how much bike parking there is at every station, wouldn't it be nice to have a bike network to keep those racks full?

The reviews are in on yesterday's opening of the Gold Line: the day was a rousing success.  Press accounts were universally positive.  Sometimes they focused on what a glorious and succesful day yesterday was by itself.  Other times they took a more universal view.  I wasn't at the opening, I'll make a point to ride the line during business hours sometime in the next two weeks, but I know you were so feel free to fill the comments section with your stories and opinions from yesterday's Golden party.

Overall, we had a favorable impression of the future Gold Line and see how it will be a boon for the communities through which it passes. However, there were some safety concerns we had, especially at the Little Tokyo and Indiana Stations.

Our friend and light rail enthusiast Darrell Clarke brings us video of a ride on the Gold Line Eastside Extension from the front of the cab.  Clarke took the video during the "preview" Metro held for press last Friday.  Thanks to Clarke's placement near a speaker, this video is a perfect substitute for actually having been at the event yourself.  You can listen as Metro gives its Eastside Tour even as you look out the front window of the train as it travels though the Eastside to the Atlantic Avenue stop.

Yesterday, a twenty-five year battle between the Los Angeles City Council and the development group Monterey Hills Investors may have reached the end of the road. The Council agreed to pay a settlement of $9 million for the land known as Elephant Hill. Instead of housing a 24-home subdivision as MHI planned, this twenty acres of green hillside in El Sereno will be preserved as open space.

Two weeks from today, November 13, a group of activists will pedal out from Union Station for points east to see for ourselves whether the soon-to-be-opened Gold Line East Side Extension passes our safety check.  The extension will open two days later on the fifteenth.  The ride is currently supported by L.A. Streetsblog, the Bus Bench and the L.A. Eastside Bike Club and will begin promptly at 7:30 A.M.  We'll cover the whole route of the extension, stopping at every stop to take pictures and discuss what we see.  Later in the day I'll post the "findings" of our ride here and I'm certain Browne will have plenty to add at the Bus Bench as well.

The start date is now November 15. Metro’s planning a party. Photo: Randall Fleming Metro has finally announced the opening day of the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, which is Sunday August 15th The announcement states “Free rides on the entire Metro Gold Line from Pasadena to East Los Angeles will be … Continued

(Editor's note: Originally, this was going to be a post written by Dana Gabbard about Metro placing their public Gold Line Eastside Extension documents online.  As I was writing the introduction, the story got away from me.  A deep hat tip to Dana for his help with this article and you can see the Metro presentation on the extension at the Transit Coalition Website.)