Gary Slossberg For LA City Council District 13

All the locations mentioned below are within two blocks of each other.

There’s a cute Spanish style multiplex up the street from where I live. And it’s boarded up with plywood and a chain link fence. Sort of detracts from the charm.

Charmless Spanish Style employs City’s own Design Standards.

Maybe this sounds like a symptom of a bad economy. But that’s not it. It’s been left this way for 7 years. It’s owned by Ronald McDonald House. They bought it in along with 5 other residential lots up the street in order to build a bigger hotel for guests who bring their sick children to the nearby Children’s Hospital. They built the hotel but left this particular parcel of land to waste away. (RMH is a worthy organization and what I am attempting to demonstrate is in no way belittling the important role they serve to the families of sick children.)

Understandably, the residing neighbor on the North side of this property is not a big fan of the dilapidated building. She takes excellent care of her property. She and husband are constantly painting over gang tags next door and hearing trespassers rustling around inside the units. The residing neighbor on the south side of the property says he hears people in there too from time to time doing, “…God knows what”.

Craftsman copies styles from the City’s nearby Light Yard.

A block away sits another abandoned property; a charming, old craftsman house on Virgil. It’s been abandoned for years. I could see inside before they nailed boards onto the windows and doors. The inside was covered in tags. Another neighborhood council member informed me that it was being used by squatters for prostitution and drugs. Now this house has a 9-foot tall chain link fence that surrounds its perimeter. One of the sides of the fence has a gaping hole.

Almost as unattractive as the City's Light Yard down the street.

A block in the other direction is a vacant double sized lot on a small, residential street. It’s been vacant with a breached chain link fence for the past 7 years. It sits there taunting the children who play in the street because there is no nearby park. Less than a block away from that vacant lot, is the DWP’s light yard which looks similar to a vacant lot only it is less attractive. The city thought that historic route 66, right across the street from a Carnegie Library, in one of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles would be a great place to store light posts for the rest of the city. Behind a 12 foot high, razor wire fence that is patrolled nightly by a security guard, sits the worst offender of all: the light yard owned by the City of Los Angeles.

Child walks by city light yard on way to school.

Unidentifiable substance behind the fence. Hope it's safe for the children on their way to school.

If we can only hold landlords as accountable as we hold our own city agencies then I suppose things could get worse than they are now. It would be nice to think that property owners care about the community more than they do about their profits but this is not usually the case. But when the city’s own example of how to maintain property is such a hideous eyesore (located smack dab in the middle of 3 elementary schools no less), the standard for what everyone else needs to do to comply has been set. Why shouldn’t gangs and squatters look at this neighborhood and feel right at home. They can literally run recession proof businesses with no overhead and, at the same time blend in with the image the city puts forth in her own properties. Maybe the city’s plan is to attract all the crime to my neighborhood so it is more centralized.

Written by Stephen Box, Hollywood Resident and Bike Activist http://SoapBoxLA.blogspot.com

The most elegant solution to L.A. traffic is simply to pedal to where you need to go. If cycling is not for you, at least give some respect to those who choose to ride. Here’s why: Cyclists are the “indicator species” for a healthy community.

Cyclists favor well-maintained streets free of potholes and debris. They prefer streets with moderate vehicle volumes and speeds, an environment that is likewise safer and more hospitable for drivers and pedestrians.

Surveys in San Francisco found that local businesses benefited from “traffic calming” through their districts, which included accommodations for cyclists.

Finally, an increase in the number of cyclists in a neighborhood – which means more eyes on the street – has a direct relationship to a reduction in crime.

In other words, what’s good for cyclists is good for your community.

As for supporting cyclists, one of the simplest things you can do is to make sure that your neighborhood offers cyclists a place to park their bikes.

The simplest and most effective bike rack is the inverted U which is inexpensive, simple to install, holds two bikes securely, is space efficient and requires no maintenance. They simply need to be located in a highly visible, convenient and well lit area and they will fill up with bikes.

The City’s Department of Transportation offers three excuses for not putting more inverted U racks in our neighborhood.

1) “The City of Los Angeles has no money for bike parking.” Good try but not a good excuse. Funding is available but the City doesn’t apply for Safe Routes to School or Bicycle Transportation Account funding for bicycle parking. Both programs dispense millions of dollars each year and the City of Los Angeles has failed to simply put bicycle parking on their list of priorities.

2) “There isn’t always room for bike parking.” Again, good try but not a good excuse. Our streets are littered with newspaper racks along the red curb no-parking zones, all of which are great spots for the inverted U racks parallel to the curb. A little survey work and I assure you that there is plenty of room for abundant bike parking. Some cities even attach a ring to parking meters so that bikes can be secured but here in Los Angeles, it’s actually illegal to lock a bike to a parking meter.

3) “There isn’t any way to get developers to include bike parking in their projects.” Actually, LA’s municipal code already requires projects over 10K square feet to include bike amenities including bike racks at a minimum of 2% of parking and as close as the handicapped parking but even the City of Los Angeles violates this ordinance in its facilities, demonstrating that the real issue is simply political will.

All of the talk from our leadership about a bikeable city is tested when we look for the bike parking.

If you want to change the character of your community, look around and try to find the bike racks. If you’re shopping, ask the merchant to put bike racks in so that people can ride to the store. If you’re a parent, ask the school administrators to put racks in so the kids can ride to school. If you visit your Councilman at his office, ask for the bike parking and if there is none, ask why not. Most of all, remember that the developers in your community will do what we insist they do.

Parking for cyclists is a little thing but it goes a long way to supporting cycling and in encouraging cyclists.

It’s time to ask our City leadership to set the example by providing bike parking at all city facilities and to follow through on their commitment to enforcing the law by requiring developers to include bike parking in all projects.

“See you on the Streets!”

p.s If you’re interested in more information on bike parking, visit Bicycling Info.