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Recently, Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz joined Mayor Eric Garcetti and others at a preview of the Expo Line Phase II, which extends that light rail line from its current terminus in Culver City, all the way to downtown Santa Monica. Afterwards, a press conference for this long-overdue project was held at the nearly-completed Palms Station, where they gave speeches and celebrated this milestone toward providing better mobility and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Elected officials, labor leaders, and Metro's CEO assembled this morning to call on Congress to pass a long-term transportation bill. In order to highlight the ways that transportation infrastructure funding benefits communities, the press event showcased the bluff-top construction site of the city of Santa Monica's California Incline retrofit project.

When, in mid-May, the Mayor’s Office put out a call for proposals offering up to $20,000 in Great Streets Challenge Grants for applicants seeking to foster community via imaginative uses of public space, I’ll admit my heart sank.

It's July. That means a new budget year for government agencies, where there is some turnover: some new faces, new officers, and new committees.

This afternoon the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee discussed a motion questioning the effectiveness of LAPD's "jaywalking" enforcement. The pedestrian enforcement motion, 15-0546, was authored by City Councilmember Mike Bonin, who chairs the committee.

This morning, Metro joined the L.A. County Community College District's press event announcing a $15 million California Career Pathways Trust (CCPT) grant from the California Department of Education. The state education funding goes to L.A. County community colleges for career and technical education, internships, and training.

Donald Shoup, parking's one and only rock star, is retiring from UCLA this year. Tomorrow, the college is sending him off with a fundraiser retirement dinner atop parking structure number 32. You can attend, and hobnob with Shoup himself, by donating to the Shoup Fellowship fund for future UCLA planning students.

Over the weekend, Joe Linton provided the perfect long-weekend reading for Livable Streets Junkies, an interview with the parking rock star Donald Shoup. The retiring professor had so much to say at his Streetsblog exit interview, that we're splitting the piece into two parts. Part II will run on Thursday or Friday of this week.

Donald Shoup is one of my heroes. He’s the authority on parking: how it shapes cities, how it enables driving, and how cities can fix the problems that parking policies create. He has a legion of followers who proudly call themselves Shoupistas. Shoup is retiring from UCLA this year. The college is sending him off with a fundraiser retirement dinner atop parking structure number 32 on Saturday May 30. You can attend, and hobnob with Shoup himself, by donating to the Shoup Fellowship fund for future UCLA planning students.