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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa responded to an open letter from the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition concerning the incident from May's Critical Mass ride where the LAPD was caught on tape kicking at cyclists and attacking a different rider recording the incident.  Instead of his press office,  Villaraigosa uses the LACBC's blog to make his official statement on the attack, video and the LAPD's follow-up.

There are few names that draw such heated debate in the bike community than "John Fisher," one of the assistant general manager's at LADOT; but the man viewed by many as the most important figure at LADOT when it comes to department policy.  After all, General Manager's come and go, but John Fisher is a fixture.

Several of the capital’s most famous cyclists will be on hand tomorrow to help Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus, celebrate the local Bike to Work Day — an event that was originally set to mark the unveiling of the new Pennsylvania Avenue bike lane, which was delayed by city officials … Continued

"I'm on the team!...I'm right here on the Love Train with sisters and brothers in organized labor, the environmental movement and the business community to make this happen right now!" exclaimed incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman at a rally yesterday for the 30/10 initiative at the Green Line Station near LAX.  (Watch her full speech, Streetscasted here.)  The 30/10 initiative would use federal loans and grants to leverage the half cent sales tax passed by L.A. County voters for transit projects to complete a thirty year program in 10.

Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), two of the nation's best-known advocates for greater investment in the built environment, today joined several House Democrats in calling for federal action on a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) -- even as questions about how the bank's scope, and Congress' resistance to raising sustained new transport funding, continued to dog the debate.

Over at CicLAvia's blog, Joe Linton, who is no stranger to Streetsblog readers, has an interesting article featuring a dozen "Sadik-Khan"  like projects that could, and should, be done by the city of Los Angeles before next year's Street Summit.  After her inspiring perfomance at this year's Summit, NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan promised to come back next year and see how we're doing.  To, to the city of L.A. I say, "Tick-tock city!  That's only ten more months!"

As Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tangled with a senior GOP senator today over the White House's $500 million-plus request for its inter-agency office of sustainable communities -- a new project aimed at channeling federal energy towards local transit-oriented and smart growth plans -- an influential Democrat joined her fellow senator in raising questions about diverting highway money to the effort.