Results tagged “plan”

As city staff gears up for a series of public meetings seeking input on the draft master bicycle plan for Los Angeles, cyclists are coming together, advocating for the process to be extended into 2010. "The plan is 6 months late, and we only have six weeks to submit comments?" noted Dr. Alex Thompson on his bicycle blog the day it was released.

The long-awaited final draft bicycle plan, all 212 pages, was released by the Department of Transportation today. This comes after last May when bikeway maps from the plan were released, causing an array of emotions from cyclists across the city. Now that the complete plan is available, we're sure that more criticisms and praises will be heard.

Culver City has been working on a Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative that's currently in draft mode. The city's location between the Cheviot and Baldwin Hills as well as the Ballona Creek and eight major roads and freeways "has led to the development of an irregular (broken-grid) roadway network which presents unique challenges for non-motorized transportation."

For the fourth time in recent months, the City Council's Transportation Committee tomorrow will take on a handful of bicycle issues continued on from last week's meeting. Consultants from Alta Planning are slated to speak about the bicycle plan, which has recently become an unpopular subject with many cyclists. The LAPD will also be present to talk about their relationship with the bicycling community. Also on the dock is the continuing look at reviving a version of the defunct bicycle licensing program, which many believe should be left to the private sector.

At the Transportation Committee yesterday, the city presented its Bicycle Plan proposal, which maps potential fixes to L.A.’s streets to make riding easier and safer for cyclists. The verdict? “Flawed,” pretty embarrassing” and an “egregious waste of money” were among some of the comments from bike and community advocates, Sierra Club members and neighborhood councilmembers. “No matter what people tell you, we are not involved in the process,” said bike activist Stephen Box, who also commented on several other items discussed at the meeting. “I’m calling on you to…call it dead,” he told Transportation Committee Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Bill Rosendahl.

While the housing crisis is a national issue, how the problem is dealt with sometimes comes down to local response. Yesterday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took part in the Los Angeles Business Council's Mayoral Housing Summit, and spoke to those gathered regarding his thoughts on the issue. The event's focus this year was on a regional emphasis for addressing the housing crisis and on the issue of "housing affordability and availability" and aimed at "attract[ing] the county’s major employers, mayors and elected officials as well as business leaders from across all 88 L.A. county cities."

Today is the regularly scheduled Metro Board meeting. But there's nothing regular about it. Two very important measures that could give long lasting positive changes to public transit are up for a vote: an increase of the county's sales tax to raise money for projects like the "Subway to the Sea" and the long range transportation plan which would give the region a vision to work towards. The sales tax increase, which has a lot of political support, still depends on a few state votes up in Sacramento, so even after today if Metro passes the measure, we still have to wait for the state politicians to give it a thumbs up as well.

Today LA will be taking another look at a water recycling program that could help the city become not only more efficient in usage but lead us towards freedom from costly and precious state-level water sources. Currently, 80% of our city's water is imported.