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This morning, the Metro board of directors voted unanimously to hire Phillip A. Washington as the agency's new CEO. For the past six years, Phil Washington was General Manager and CEO of the Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD.)

L.A. Observed is reporting that Phillip A. Washington will be the new CEO of Metro. Phil Washington is currently the head of Denver's Regional Transportation District.

There is an item that was bounced around at the Metro Board last month regarding freeway projects and whether they are "regional" or "subregional" facilities. Lakewood City Councilmember and Metro Boardmember Diane DuBois is pushing for L.A. freeway-widening projects to be classified as "regional" rather than "subregional" projects. Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin raised some issues over this re-classification. The final decision is likely to come back to the Metro Board for a showdown in April. 

Today, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve two new city programs that aim to stem the tide of hit-and-run crimes. According to Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch Englander, hit-and-run crashes killed 27 people in Los Angeles in 2014, and 80 percent of recent hit-and-run crimes remain unsolved.

Streetsblog L.A. was a media sponsor of yesterday's Future Build Los Angeles 2015 conference which showcased "trends, people and forces remaking the built environment." The event was hosted by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) L.A. in partnership with VerdeXchange.

I was a little worried that there might be pitchforks at last night's transportation town hall. The event was hosted by L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and held at the Tarzana Recreation Center.

The most closely-watched story of 2014 for Livable Streets advocates was the ongoing battle between Councilman Gil Cedillo and the advocates themselves over the future design of North Figueroa Street. However, 2015 is a new year and the hot debate may be cooling off with the groundwork for future collaboration being laid.

Earlier this week Metro CEO Art Leahy tendered his resignation as of April, 2015. Today, in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way, we invite you, our readers, to pick Leahy's successor.