Antonio Villaraigosa
Streetsblog LA
Mayor Villaraigosa Invites Angelenos to CicLAvia
This morning, mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a press conference to invite the city to participate in CicLAvia, L.A.'s first open streets festival, on October 10th 2010. The mayor spoke fondly of his trips to Copenhagen and Mexico City and contrasted their bike-populated streets to those of Los Angeles. The mayor related the story that he had returned from Mexico City, where he had seen their ciclovía event on the Via Reforma. He asked his staff "why don't we do this here?" and they connected him with the nascent CicLAvia efforts... and the result will play out on seven miles of Los Angeles streets next month.
September 22, 2010
Villaraigosa Pushes Metro for Bike-Friendly Policies
Nobody is going to get Los Angeles mixed up with Portland or Copenhagen anytime soon, but a new motion that will be heard and voted on at this Thursday's Metro Board Meeting by Los Angeles' newly-minted bike-friendly Mayor would move Los Angeles' transit agency several steps closer. While some activists have worried that the Mayor's office isn't reaching out on bicycle policy, that he's taking a "look before you leap" approach, the Mayor's Office has worked closely with the staff at Metro and has taken input from Metro's bicycle roundtable meetings before moving this motion.
September 21, 2010
Living on Earth, a National NPR Radio Show, Looks at Cycling and L.A.
It's a story that's told so often, it's almost cliche. Biking in Los Angels is hard, and dangerous. More people are taking to two wheels in the Car Culture Capital, but they're taking their own life into their hands. If only Los Angeles were run by people who cared about bicycling, the city could be a cycling paradise. I mean, consider the weather and reasonably flat terrain...
September 7, 2010
Push for 3 Foot Passing Law Finds a New Booster
At least eleven states have laws requiring drivers to leave three feet between their vehicle and cyclists while passing. If the Mayor of Los Angeles has anything to say about it, California will join those states before the year ends.
August 25, 2010
Helmets Ready! Mayor Hosts First Bike Summit
Despite the Monday 9am hour and the picture perfect weather, a
standing-room only crowd assembled in the Metro Board Room for city of
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's first Bike Summit. Alongside
Mayor Villaraigosa were Department of Transportation (LADOT) General
Manager Rita Robinson, Metro CEO Art Leahy, Department of City Planning
(DCP) General Manager Michael LoGrande, and Police Department Deputy
Chief Kirk Albanese sitting in for Chief Charlie Beck.
August 17, 2010
Mayor Using “Google Moderator” to Reach Out Before Summit
Showing a little bit of tech-saavy, to help reach out to the notoriously technorati sprinkled throughout L.A.'s bike scene, Mayor Villaraigosa is using Google Moderator to rank questions for the Mayor in advance of Monday's Bike Summit. You can go directly to the web-page set up for the Summit by clicking here.
August 13, 2010
Rise and Shine, Mayor Announces “Bike Summit” for August 16
(Note: You can read full copies of the statements of everyone quoted below here.)
August 5, 2010
Villaraigosa on HuffPo: I Like to Bike in Los Angeles
Bicycle advocate and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took to the Internet to talk bike policy in the aftermath of this weekend's crash. While there's nothing groundbreaking in his essay; it's nice to see our city's political leader take a stand for bicyclists.
July 19, 2010
Language Is Important
It's been a common theme when Streetsblog covers crashes to note the soft bias of the writing and headlines in more traditional news sources. This bias nearly always deflect guilt away from the people who cause the crashes. It amazes me when I watch coverage of a tragedy where change is demanded, say for example when a fifteen year old died of a drug overdose at a "rave", versus the ho-hum when there is a traffic crash.
July 19, 2010
Dangerous Taxi Driver Causes Bike Crash, Broken Arm for Villaraigosa
Well, that didn't take long.
July 18, 2010