Hyperion

For almost two years, the controversy surrounding the redesign of the Hyperion Bridge has been a leading story at Streetsblog. However, with the battle over the future road design of the bridge being decided by lawyers and judges rather than planners and politicians, the story has moved from the public spotlight to inaccessible private meeting rooms.

Flanked by community and safe streets advocates holding signs reading "Save Our Sidewalk" and "Safe Streets 4 All," Don Ward leaned into a microphone to announce the battle over the redesign of the Glendale-Hyperion series of bridges was not over just because the City Council has given the project a green light.

In a unanimous 11-0 vote, the Los Angeles City Council approved the city Bureau of Engineering's (BOE) single-sidewalk pedestrian-killer design for the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge. Though the item was not approved at the Public Works Committee last week, the City Council approved the item today with no public comment, after brief misleading characterizations by Councilmembers Tom LaBonge and Mitch O'Farrell.

The city of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering's (BOE) sidewalk-deficient Glendale-Hyperion Bridge design was heard today in the L.A. City Council's Public Works Committee. As at the earlier Public Works Board hearing, the BOE trotted out dire Level of Service predictions and threats that the city would lose $50 million if the project is delayed. Councilmember Tom LaBonge and Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell's staff spoke in favor of BOE's unsafe design, and against a road diet option that BOE's earlier traffic predictions had shown was feasible.

Above is a graphic created by Don Ward to show just how crappy the Bureau of Engineering's Glendale-Hyperion Bridge plan is. The unsafe design was recently approved by L.A.'s Board of Public Works, and will soon come before City Council. Streetsblog USA profiled the board's approval as a sign that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's commitment to great streets may be illusory.

In a hearing at City Hall this morning, the mayor-appointed Board of Public Works unanimously approved proceeding with the city Bureau of Engineering's (BOE) recommendation to eliminate one of two sidewalks on its Glendale-Hyperion Bridge retrofit project. The latest version, announced earlier this week, has not changed significantly since 2013 when BOE pushed a similar unsafe design, leading to a backlash, and the formation of an advisory committee to re-think the dangerous design.

Thanks to a powerful grassroots effort, organized largely on the Internet with an assist from Los Angeles Walks and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, one of the city's most depressing road-design projects is becoming an example of what happens when a community demands better from the city's engineers.

It's an encouraging sign that Streetsblog readers have come to expect high quality coverage of Livable Streets issues in the region's flagship paper. Today's piece in the Los Angeles Times by Laura Nelson on the Hyperion and Glendale Bridge seismic retrofit and redesigns has a couple of news bits that you won't find in Streetsblog's exhaustive coverage of the issue.

I am sometimes puzzled by how disconnected an infrastructure plan can be from what is good for a community.