car free

Last Wednesday we premiered At What Price, a short film that I wrote and directed and that was shot 100% sustainably in East Hollywood.

Last weekend the Eco-Village sponsored a weekend of events designed to empower the residents within and surrounding the Eco-Village and reclaim their streets.  On Friday night, they hosted Portland architect and activist Mark Lakeman, founder of the City Repair movement, who encouraged those listening to think of themselves as villagers empowered to take control of their streets instead of vassals to the bureaucracy known as local government and DOT's.  On Saturday, they took his words to heart and went to work on their own street at Bimini Place.

This week's newest offering from Streetfilms highlights the fantastic tradition of "Sunday Streets" in San Francisco.  As Ben Fried notes in the New York write-up of the film, in both cities last year's ground-breaking idea is this year's "traditional event."

Today's Los Angeles Times published a mostly glowing review of the crown jewel of New York's recent efforts to make the Big Apple a more-friendly city to cyclists and pedestrians by Tina Susman.  While the story isn't a new one for regular readers of all the Streetsblogs, and perhaps an uninteresting one for those who's advocacy efforts don't extend outside of Los Angeles; there's a lot that can be learned from the piece.

(editor's note: The idea of opening streets to bicyclists and pedestrians by closing them to vehicular traffic for temporary car-free parties has become such a mainstream idea in places such as New York and San Francisco that even Fox News is joining in on the fun.  Head's up Mayor Villaraigosa!  Below is NYC Streetsblog's Brad Aaron's coverage of the coverage is below.)

Three weeks ago I asked the world for help in fulfilling Rebel Without A Car Production's commitment to producing a film sustainably. Our goal was to shoot locally and in partnership with the community.

A couple of years ago, the City of Pasadena considered banning bicycles from what they're now calling the "Rose Bowl Recreation Loop" because of the conflict being created between cyclists and car drivers.  At the time the city sided with the drivers citing their "commutes" as more important than the cyclists and pedestrians using the loop as a public space.  Pasadena's plan was hotly debated, but eventually shelved.

Public Radio station KPCC, 89.3 on your radio dial, is looking for stories about car-free living and the fiscal impact of owning and riding a bike instead of driving a car. I've heard some people worry that Streetsblog and similar websites end up becoming an echo-chamber for like minded people; well here's a chance to tell your story to a larger group of people.

For anyone that's so interested in the Livable Streets Movement that they missed the results of the NBA Finals, the Lakers beat the Magic on Sunday and yesterday the city celebrated with a mostly privately funded victory parade and rally.  The Times estimated that a quarter of a million people attended the party, but what was far more exciting to me was the precedent such parades have for the city.  You see, yesterday proved that you can open streets to people by shutting them down to cars and the world doesn't end.