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URGENT ALERT!!! LADOT THREATENS TO CUT ALL BIKE PROJECTS, EVEN THE WHOLE BIKEWAYS DEPARTMENT!!
NEED CYCLISTS TO ATTEND CITY COUNCIL MEETING MONDAY May17, 10 am!!
WHEN: Monday, May 18, 10:00AM
WHERE: Council Chambers: John Ferraro Council Chamber, Room 340, City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street 90012
Public testimony will be permitted.
Here's what's going on:
Los Angeles is facing a perilous budget crisis. All city departments are being asked to submit plans on how they will cut spending, and LADOT have proposed to eliminate the entire Bikeways staff. Not just lay off some people, but cut it altogether.
A May 4th Inter-departmental Correspondence titled Shared Responsibility and Sacrifice signed by LADOT General Manager Rita Robinson and addressed to the Budget and Finance Committee, contains the following text under the heading, Transit Capital Programming:
"Discontinue bikeways function, including bicycle path maintenance, bicycle programs, and school bicycle and transit education.
Discontinue work on Safe Routes to School."
That LADOT would even consider eliminating Bikeways programs as their solution to this budget crisis is a vivid example of how out of touch the Department is. With more people riding bikes than ever before, with a vibrant cycling culture developing and with congestion and climate change consequences screaming at us, this is exactly the wrong time to cut the entire bikeways staff. If you think cycling doesn't get enough attention in Los Angeles now, wait until we have no staff at all to look out for our needs. Fortunately, this is at the proposal stage, so we have an opportunity to affect the outcome.
ATTEND THE MEETING ON MONDAY!!! NEED TO BE HERE IN NUMBERS!!
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
Numerous bicycle projects are underway which will be curtailed or compromised by this short-sighted move, including:
- The update of the city's bicycle plan, already behind schedule.
- Numerous bike lane projects.
- The Expo Bikeway, in which the city must complete its environmental review by the end of the year (to keep pace with the light rail project) or the bikeway may be delayed for years.
- The sharrow study, which should lead to an implementation plan for this much-needed bikeway enhancement.
I would make it clear that before getting rid of this grant-writing office at the DOT, they should remove money from the USELESS, POINTLESS, WASTE OF FUNDS (that the mayor has a hard onfor) ATSAC program.
Automated Traffic Signal blah blah blah program sucks up loads of money and produces, at most, a 5% faster throughput of cars in downtown. What a waste! Cut where it counts!
Personally, when it comes to choosing between teachers and bikeways, I'm going to go with the teachers. Same goes for welfare programs for the truly needy, and most of the other programs the city is likely to cut. I can get by on my bike on normal city streets. I've been doing so for 30 years. I don't want to see bicycle programs cut, but the city and the state are in absolute crisis and we can't keep solving our economic problems by voting for more bond measures (which is nothing more than state and city debt). It is time to dial back the size of local and state government across the board or we are dire trouble. It isn't my favourite thing to see cycling programs get cut, but I'm curious just what we should be cutting instead.
Cutting across the board assumes that all is funded equally. Well it isn't. Automotive transportation gets the LION share of LADOT attention and funding. So cutting bikeways programs is not fair. They could cut one stinking automotive project and still not reach 1/10th the amount of measley funds dedicated to bike infrastucture.
If this is about the kids and services for the needy then you can't deny how important public transportation and bike-able streets are for those very people. They need this more than spending money on making streets more drive-able. Cut the budget for automotive infrastructure and give half that money to bicycle and public transportation and the other half to services for the poor... they both serve the same agenda!
I do think that having viable ways of getting people around without an automobile is going to become a critical issue. It's short-sighted to stop all projects that are necessary to help strengthen communities for the future.
That being said, I have to wonder if we'd actually notice if the bikeways department of the LADOT was eliminated. No proposed bike projects have been physically manifested for years, the Bicycles Master Plan – a FUNDING document – is M.I.A., and even basic upkeep of the Orange Line bike path is apparently beyond their abilities.
These so-called "bike" projects should be part of the overall transportation matrix of Los Angeles, and the funding needs to be approached that way. If the LADOT (and other agencies) continue to address bikes like they're a niche activity, they're not going to get very far.
the reason that these bike projects never happen? because cyclists havent been so vigilant in the past to go down to city hall and raise a stink.
talk about a hit on the poor and disadvantaged of our society? keep it hard for them to be mobile and participate in society. cutting funding for cheap means of transportation is an incredible disservice to not just the poor but to everyone who wants to enjoy a life with more personal mobility and less money spent on that mobility.
cut funding for automotive-centric initiatives and increase funding for cheap, clean and HEALTHY transportation alternatives.
I'm posting a ride for this meeting. I hope everyone can join me!
for people like myself who can't attend please please please send an email before the meeting; i've made the process easy for you lazy people, just copy and paste appropriately:
A May 4th Inter-departmental Correspondence titled Shared Responsibility and Sacrifice signed by LADOT General Manager Rita Robinson and addressed to the Budget and Finance Committee, contains the following text under the heading, Transit Capital Programming:
"Discontinue bikeways function, including bicycle path maintenance, bicycle programs, and school bicycle and transit education. Discontinue work on Safe Routes to School."
Numerous bicycle projects are underway which will be curtailed or compromised by this short-sighted move, including:
* The update of the city's Bicycle Plan, already behind schedule.
* Numerous bike lane projects.
* The Expo Bikeway, in which the city must complete its environmental review by the end of the year (to keep pace with the light rail project) or the bikeway may be delayed for years.
* The Sharrows study, which should lead to an implementation plan for this much-needed bikeway enhancement.
Please consider:
* With more people riding bikes than ever before, with a vibrant cycling culture developing and with congestion and climate change consequences screaming at us, this is exactly the wrong time to cut the entire bikeways staff.
* This city faces rising health problems, obesity and high pollution problems. Encouraging cycling is an easy and cost-effective way to start reducing these problems.
* Cycling is not being prioritized in Los Angeles, if there is no staff at all to work on more infrastructure to create safer streets for ALL users, more injury and deaths will occur.
I can't make this meeting. I will try to kick out a letter here tonight, and repost on Westside Bikeside. Hopefully Council has the good sense to realize that LADOT is too backward to realize what's good for them.
I will be there! I'm sure cutting education isnt the only alternative to cutting bikeways etc. and if that's what they are saying they're full of shit. http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2007/05/citys-annual-calligraphy-budget-550000.html Give me a fucking break. Why cut something that requires so little funding, and has such a huge beneficial impact?? And especially after all the Bike Week hype and the probability that cycling is going to appeal to more people as the economy gets worse. rar. ok i'll save it for tomorrow. eat yr Wheaties!
Fuckin so disheartening.... Mowery needs to step down. She's not a fighter.... we need a bulldog repping bikes in the LADOT. All these lame excuses..... fucking sick of it.....
Its not about kids vs. Bike lanes. Why not cut funding for sync traffic signals? Were getting more entrenched in a car culture that we will sorely regret in 5 years when people start riding to work. It happened the last time gas hit $4, and it will again soon. I know a lot of people who wish it were safe to right but feel safer in their cars. These people aren't going to speak up until they can't afford to drive, and by then you can believe they're going to be as outraged as we are now.
Priorities are: parking for businesses and keeping traffic moving. We need to change that for the next wave of cyclists. Think of the future and ask yourself what types of spending are going to help our citizens get out of this recession! The LADOT sure isn't.
Downtown.... surrounded by union members. Everyone is pissed about budget cuts..... so far there are 5 ridazz representing.... looking for Box and Dorothy from the LACBC.... organizing comments...
Great work guys. I've been watching and you certainly made yourself heard. There will be plenty more chances, and we'll be ahead of the game this time. The only reason LACBC got the notice out so late was because one of their board members got the LADOT budget leaked. It wasn't public information yet.
1) LA is BEHIND other cities in terms of bike infrastructure. Bike infrastructure is already less than an afterthought in L.A.
2) There is no other transportation infrastructure project that offers more bang for the buck than bike infrastructure.
3) With very little help from the city, grassroutes organizations like Midnight Ridazz, LACBC, and The Bicycle Kitchen, have greatly increased bike ridership with very little help from the city.
It is irresponsible to defund bikeways projects when LA is so far behind in bike infrastructure. LA needs to SUPPORT the members of the community who are working so hard to improve our city. The city of LA needs to do ITS PART to make LA roads greener safer and more effective!
i know so many people who want to ride their bikes to work but are rightfully terrified to do so. commuter cyclists arent the only people who want a better bike infrastructure.
DONT FORGET!
YOU SPEAK FOR MOTHERS AND FATHERS WHO WANT SAFE STREETS FOR THEIR CHILDREN
YOU SPEAK FOR COWORKERS WHO ARE TOO SCARED TO RIDE TO WORK
YOU SPEAK FOR THE WORKERS WHO COULDNT MAKE IT OR DIDNT KNOW
DONT FORGET TO SPEAK FOR THEM! MAKE A BETTER CITY FOR THE CYCLISTS OF TOMORROW!
Just to make it clear, If the LADOT cuts the bike department. The money will not make its way somehow to the LAUSD. It will be used to add and remove crosswalks and make valley speed limits faster.
I have a suggestion.
Scrap the new 405 widening project. It will only make traffic worse while its being done and when they open the new lanes in 2015 it will be so long from now that it will reduce traffic just enough to bring traffic back to 2009 levels.
I say we scrap the ladot, and start again. We need those MTA hired security officers to rough them up a bit maybe.
Portland "does it" by having a left leaning populace and a lot of people who deliberately moved some place that's green and pretty, and has less congestion that other cities.
Hopefully in 10 year mofos will ask: how did LA do it?
And they willl say cause its full of people who are active, vain, and love the sun.
Biking became sexy there and everybody wanted in. Plus LA is flat and the weather is great. And this guy in a bunny suit made everybody want to ride a bike.
i'm glad i attended this crucial meeting.
i arrived at around 11:15am, was immediately asked to speak without any preparation whatsoever, said my piece, and left at 11:22am. it was incredibly nerve racking speaking in front of about 30 council members and hundreds of spectators.
can LACBC be more aggressive? more publicity?
i went to the hollywood farmers market on sunday and the lapd had a small booth set up between the food stands. they had a pathetic pamphlet about bicycle safety and how it is CORRECT to ride up against the curb, like the illustrated pamphlet indicates. it was disgusting (although aimed toward kids).
i spoke with the officer about bicycle education and he went on a tangent about how there are so many other issues to be concerned. he seemed a bit clueless.
anyhow, thanks for throwing me into the fire as Alisson "Manos".
and as is becoming a post CC Ridazz tradition... User1 led us on a little after party mission to the very top of the pyramid cap on the city hall building...
Next time I'm coming with a speech written out. I'm not doing an outline and thinking I can wing it. I'll have a one minute version and a two minute version.
yeah that's a great idea about the 1 min and 2min version..... meh. I had a speech written out but then I tried to add some shit based on earlier comments and just ended up rambling....
Oh yeah, major props to the peeps that made it! We were out numbered by the union, but I think we made a difference. And a big thanks to Mel was it? Great guy to have speak for you.
Yeah the roof tour was awesome. Always dig taking noobz up there! Makes it all worth going to City Hall!
LACBC is always looking for volunteers and very open to people stepping in and making projects happen. In other words, they make it pretty easy to turn "they should do ..." into "we are doing ..."
trickmilla responding to a comment by meandmybluebike
05.18.09 - 6:23 pm
I had a blast going up to the roof! The little hole in the very tippy top of the pyramid: so cool.
I thought i could wing it and refer to a few points i had jotted down and all that came out was jibberish.. So funny. I just looked at all of those council people looking at porn on their blackberries and i went blank.
This simple but dramatic act will amount to bypass surgery on the heart of New York. It will become the most visible component yet of Mayor Bloomberg’s citywide attempt to make New York’s streets calmer, greener, and safer. And it will establish the front lines of a growing movement to tilt the balance of asphalt power away from the automobile and toward cyclists and pedestrians."
Live and learn on the comment period. I think we gotta go back in a week or two and address Albanese's comments and get a follow up on the hummer incident....
Vigilant.... we're just going to become stronger speakers and more comfortable addressing power. We can all participate and actually affect change.... its right there. Combine that with our presence in the streets it can go a long way....
I'm all in favor of a comment workshop. Very few of us are the kind of accomplished public speakers that have the ability to speak off the cuff, so I think it starts by writing down what we want to say, examining it and sticking to our scripts.
Make it personal and conversational, but get the point across in a concise manner.
almost more importantly, if we organize, we can repeat points when necessary to drill in a certain points and conversely take care to each focus on different things so we can each spend a good amount of time making one point clearly, instead of individually trying to cover everything.
that was really interesting this morning.. thanks for the texts and twitters.. I also was not prepared to speak (but def more prepared by a couple minutes than Annie who was awesome ;) and my heart was in my throat... I don't even remember more than a couple sentences of what I said..
I would LOVE a comments workshop.. I think that's a great idea!
and I encourage everyone to make time for these things if you can. It is really an interesting process. and if you cannot afford the time to go, which I totally understand as well, please write emails and call for these things when they pop up.. I'm sure we'll be seeing more..
Hey, I've worked in politics before, and I'd be glad to give a little workshop on how to effectively make a comment in these hearings.
The first thing I'd say is to address the powers of the body you're speaking to. Nothing easier for a politician to do than pass your statements off as "Not my problem". Doing a little research beforehand and sticking to one or two "homerun" points or messages is also a good rule to live by.
The whole thing is a dog and pony show, but if we can use your comments and the council's responses to gather more support for our causes (and broadcast them on the webernetz) then you're being effective.
The problem is, with how well you all are doing in City Hall, the bar is getting raised on what the expectations are. Victims of your own success and all.
In my past life I testified on behalf of transit/pedestrian/bike issues back east. I'd be happy to help out too. The one thing I think we need to work on is to have something to ask for big picture in the long term to hammer with every testimony no matter the topic.
But take a second to feel good. 90% of life is showing up, and we're showing up in big ways.
hey we didnt look half bad! Ubrayj thanks for posting this! Daymen and Joseph would love to do the comment workshop with you guys. what's up? lets make it happen!
Roadblock responding to a comment by ubrayj02
05.19.09 - 6:23 pm
The City Coucnil not only saved cuts proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to special funds--that's where bicycle funding sits and was threatened to be completely eliminated--but they also directed LADOT not to propose cuts to the the bikeways department before consulting them.
We'd love to have a westside comments workshop at the bikerowave. if someone with political experience wants to come thay would be great. Also LACBC has begun hosting "SPOKE workshops," for people who want to participate but don't live in downtown.
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Ridazz Roulette!
The unions are here in FULL FORCE. and there are the Ridazz all up early crispy sweaty and right up in the front stankin up ya whole area.
Shit is intimidating I'll tell ya that.
good words ladies!
and as is becoming a post CC Ridazz tradition... User1 led us on a little after party mission to the very top of the pyramid cap on the city hall building... 
Sounds like the opposite of what New York is doing (http://nymag.com/news/features/56794/:
at night