An Update on Additional Bike Parking Racks in Westlake/Pico-Union!

After a year and a half of working with Councilman Reyes and LADOT, more and more bike parking racks are being installed around Los Angeles. So far, a large amount have been installed in the neighborhoods of MacArthur Park and Pico-Union, thanks to LACBC and City of Lights’ advocacy efforts. As discussed in previous blog posts, the neighborhoods that needed racks the most frequently lacked racks, a common environmental justice issue.

La Curacao-Popular Latino Department Store for Day Laborers to Buy Bikes at-One of our Requests

We were very excited to see the installation of racks in front of CARECEN Day Laborer Center last month, as well as the recent installation in front of the IDEPSCA Downtown Community Job Center where BiciDigna is hosted. We had requested these two sites, in addition to the Van Nuys IDEPSCA Day Laborer Center. Yet, we don’t want to forget that this was a neighborhood wide campaign. The goal was to get bike parking racks not just at worker centers, but also at widely used stores, consulates, immigration services providers, and other key community sites in the area.

We are proud to let you know at least 45 racks will be installed in the area, with potentially more, once installation backlog clears. We had originally only requested 35-40 locations (click for entire list of requests here), but thanks to LADOT’s strategy of blanketing an intersection directly adjacent to an approved request, we were able to leverage our requests and bring 28 additional racks to the neighborhood than we had initially imagined.

That is a 62% increase from our requests! ¡Órale!

More statistical goodness: Almost 100 (73, to be specific) racks are actually hitting the streets of a low-income neighborhood! Click here for Westlake locations where LADOT has recently (as of Summer 2010) installed racks.

La Tecleña Restaurant, a new, welcome additional rack to the neighborhood, close to our Salvation Army request.

 

Bike Parking Rack Installation Press Event This Thursday!

On the heels of the amazing event that just happened this weekend (Ciclavia), City of Lights is happy to announce that we will be hosting a press event this Thursday to celebrate the installation of our bike parking requests at the CARECEN day labor center! As mentioned before, this has been a long time coming (the 35-40 requests were submitted in January).

Installing the racks (which has already been happening over the past month) sends a strong message of welcoming towards bikes in the neighborhoods of Pico-Union, Westlake,  and Rampart Village where many low-income immigrant cyclists live and work. Having a safe space to lock up is crucial as these cyclists depend on their bikes for survival and to make a living.

This is a necessary first step towards making these cyclist heavy neighborhoods more bike-able, as they currently suffer from a disproportionate lack of bicycle infrastructure and amenities. Many thanks to the Office of Ed Reyes, CARECEN, LACBC volunteers, and LADOT for helping us make this happen!

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Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
Contact: Allison Mannos
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Office line: 213-629-2142

LOS ANGELES COUNTY BICYCLE COALITION INCREASES BIKE PARKING RACKS FOR LOW-INCOME CYCLISTS IN PICO-UNION

Bike Parking Racks Installed at CARECEN Day Labor Center

LOS ANGELES, CA. October 14, 2010 –Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s (LACBC) City of Lights program will be celebrating the installation of various bike parking racks in the Pico-Union neighborhood, including 2 at a key site, the CARECEN day labor center. About 50-100 Spanish speaking cyclists use the center daily to find work.

There has long been a gap in bicycle infrastructure and safe streets for low-income immigrant cyclists. The LACBC addressed this need by creating the City of Lights program in early 2009. The volunteer-driven program empowers Latino immigrant cyclists through community building, bicycle advocacy, and education, including a bicycle parking rack campaign in 2009 that generated 40 sites for rack installation. Recently 600+ educational Spanish bike resource guides were distributed and a successful bike ride was held.

“Advocating for bicycle infrastructure in all areas of the County, not just affluent areas, is the key to making Los Angeles safer and welcoming for all cyclists,” said Jennifer Klausner, Executive Director, LACBC. “Through City of Lights, we are able to create more secure places for Latino immigrant cyclists to lock up their bikes in their neighborhoods.”

“The safety of our bicyclists, especially in my district, is just as important as that of our drivers and pedestrians. We need to do everything we can to ensure their safety,” said First District Councilmember Ed P. Reyes, who has spearheaded legislation to make Los Angeles a more bike-friendly city.

“LADOT is proud to partner with LACBC, CARECEN, and Councilmember Reyes in providing adequate bicycle parking opportunities to some of the Angelinos who are most in need,” said Rita L. Robinson, LADOT General Manager.

About Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
Founded in 1998, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) works to build a better, more bike-able Los Angeles County. LACBC is the only nonprofit, membership-supported organization working exclusively for the millions of bicyclists in Los Angeles County. Through advocacy, education, and outreach, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition brings together the diverse bicycling community in a united mission to make the entire L.A. region a safe and enjoyable place to ride.

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Ciclavia is coming to Westlake and Boyle Heights!

Ciclavia, a car free celebration of city streets, will be happening in 2 weeks here in LA! TenTenTen, or October 10, 2010, cyclists, pedestrians,  rollerbladers, futbolistas, and other Angelenos alike will be able to participate for free in a 7 mile route that extends from East Hollywood to Boyle Heights, courtesy of hard working volunteer friends at Ciclavia.

The idea behind Ciclavia originated in Latin America, with the Cicloton Familiar and Ciclovía in cities like D.F., Mexico and Bogotá, Colombia. They have long provided ways for people of different economic and racial backgrounds and neighborhoods to interact and enjoy much needed public space in their own streets. City of Lights wants to encourage all of you to attend and spontaneously start a game, a bike ride, or even the friendship of a lifetime.

¡¡¡Pues, vamos a verles en los calles a las diez de octubre!!!

 

City of LA Bike Plan Meetings Start Tomorrow!

This is really important for all social justice advocates to attend! The City of Los Angeles Bicycle Master Plan Update is happening right now. This happens every decade and dictates what bicycle infrastructure, i.e., bike lanes and policy will be set for the next 10 years. What does this mean for low-income and/or immigrant cyclists, though?

The current Bicycle Master Plan Central/South LA maps don’t have as many proposed bike lanes as LACBC/City of Lights would like to see, but what’s more is that the low-income areas within these maps, such as South LA, Pico Union, and Mid-City don’t propose many new bike lanes either. This is especially problematic considering that many of the denser, older neighborhoods low-income cyclists live in have some of the most dangerous and traffic choked streets.

The Bike Plan is very much an environmental justice issue.

The City of Los Angeles is busy collecting the last round of input on the plan before the plan goes to the City Council for approval later this year or early next year. Public Input closes on October 8th, 2010. Now is the time to come the bike plan meetings and educate yourself about the plan and how it will affect low-income cyclists in your communities. The next meetings are:

Thanks to the City of LA translating their fliers and attempting to expand outreach to the most marginalized cyclists this draft, City of Lights was able to present at the CARECEN day labor center today and will present at the IDEPSCA Downtown and Hollywood centers tomorrow morning to collect more comments from jornalero cyclists. Attached here are the CARECEN workers’ comments we will be turning in tomorrow at the Central LA meeting.

 

¡Éxito!: Primera Vuelta de La BiciDigna

What an awesome ride we had with all the BiciDignarios last weekend! We planned the ride out with workers from the CARECEN and IDEPSCA centers, with the workers collectively deciding what route and destination the ride would be. City of Lights provided the Safer Streets Map (found in our Documents for Download page and in our Spanish Resource Guide) for guidance of slower traffic streets during the meetings. We were able to help workers tune up their bikes and create working loaner bikes for those that wanted to ride who lacked bikes beforehand. This helped reduce the amount of problems on the ride, since most of the workers have well-loved, albeit worn down bikes.

We brought back the bike trailer, speakers, and salsa/cumbia music this summer for another lively ride through the streets of Koreatown! (Cue Celia Cruz right now.) As a result of the workers’ planning, we took 4th St to tostadas and futbol in Pan Pacific Park and 6th St. back to the CARECEN Center in Pico-Union. There was a lot of excitement for the ride this time, with a higher attendance then last year (30 total to be exact), and City of Lights plans to listen to the workers’ feedback in helping coordinate more much needed community building activities in the future!

 

Bike Parking Racks to be Installed 10/14 at the CARECEN Day Labor Center!

As some of you may recall, City of Lights started a campaign back in Summer 2009 to get the Pico-Union, MacArthur Park, and Rampart Village neighborhoods surrounding the CARECEN Day Labor Center saturated with much needed bike parking racks. Many places that the cyclists we worked with, such as markets, consulates, and social service offices lacked the U-shaped bike parking racks that would allow them to lock up and feel safe and welcome.

CARECEN Day Labor Center Where Some of the New Racks Will be Installed in October

This resulted in City of Lights and community volunteers obtaining the proper specifications for rack placement from LADOT with the help of Councilman Reyes’ Office and measuring key community sites. For a complete list of our requests, click here.

After submitting 35-40 requests to LADOT in January 2010, we waited for months in limbo while LADOT lost a key Bikeways staff member and the City of Los Angeles’ General Services, entangled in a deep malaise of bureaucracy, failed to quickly renew the bike parking installation contractor.

As of September 2010, we now have new Bikeways staff who are chipper and helpful, a renewed contract, and some day laborer cyclists who are about to be pleasantly surprised when the racks hit their neighborhood.  Stay tuned for our bike parking press event at the CARECEN Center coming out in October!

 

Vuelta de la BiciDigna!

The LACBC, in partnership with Bicidigna, will be hosting a ride from Macarthur Park to Pan Pacific Park on Saturday, September 18, from noon to 3 p.m. Cyclists will follow a low-traffic route planned out by the Bicidigna members (we call them “Bicidignarias”) based on our Safe Streets map, which the LACBC distributes as part of Ciudad de Luces. The ride will include music (we will bring our trailer with speakers and music) and culminates in a soccer match at Pan Pacific Park with food. Come celebrate community, cycling, and public space with us!