Latino Urban Forum
Meetings, activities and events that promote our mission as of
July 16, 2007
1. Urban Planning Discussion Series for CD14
2. LA RIVER: River Improvement Overlay ( RIO ) Meeting
3. LA City Housing Element
4. Does LA have the funding to END THE GRIDLOCK?
5. Northeast Open Space Coalition Meeting
6. How do Great Streets Get Made?
7. 2008 APA State Conference Brainstorming
8. ART: American Parking Space
9. ART: Landscaping America : Beyond the Japanese Garden
10. Malibu Public Beaches Safari
11. Article: Bike Paths for All
PLANNING PANEL DISCUSSION SERIES - THIS AUGUST & SEPTEMBER!
Councilmember Jose Huizar will be hosting a series of four planning-related panel discussions for the community in August and September. The panel discussions will lead up to planning charettes which will kick off this fall in El Sereno, Eagle Rock and Highland Park . Each panel discussion forum will include presentations by subject matter experts from the public and private sectors. Anyone interested in planning and economic development will not want to miss this summer
series!
Forum #1 - PLANNING 101
DATE: Weds. Aug. 8, 2007
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: El Sereno Senior Center 4818 Klamath Place , 90032
Forum #2 - SMART GROWTH, URBAN DESIGN & TRANSIT
DATE: Weds. Aug. 15, 2007
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock 2225 Colorado Blvd. 90041 (parking at Bank of America)
Forum #3 - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & ENCOURAGING MOM & POP BUSINESSES
DATE: Weds. Sept. 19, 2007
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: El Sereno Senior Center 4818 Klamath Place , 90032
Forum #4 - HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND REVITALIZATION
DATE: Tues. Sept. 25, 2007
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock 2225 Colorado Blvd. 90041 (parking at Bank of America)
Visit www.latinourbanforum.org or Myspace.com/LatinoUrbanForum
and http://latinourbanforum.blogspot.com/
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"How does the eastside impact the river rather than the river impact the eastside"
The Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (LARRMP) was adopted on May 2007 by the Los Angeles City Council largely from the efforts of Councilman Ed Reyes and support from eastside residents and organizations. Many of us worked hard making sure the interest of our communities were being heard and incorporated through outreach. The following are meeting dates and locations involving the Eastside:
Saturday, July 21, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Glassell Park Community Center
3750 Verdugo Road
LA, CA. 90065
Saturday, August, 4, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m
Goodwill Center
342 N. San Fernando Road
LA, CA. 90031
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Council District 14
Boyle Heights Office
2130 E. First Street Suite 202
LA ,CA 90033
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LA City is updating its Housing Element. Please attend if you are interested in shaping the Housing Element. Contact Naomi Guth (info at the bottom) for further information.
Capacity for Residential Development
Wednesday, July 18th
9:00 - 11:00 am
Livable Places
634 S. Spring St.
Special Needs and Access to Housing
Wednesday, July 18th
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Beyond Shelter
1200 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 600
Housing Preservation
Thursday, July 19th
2:00 - 4:00 pm
City Hall, Room 1040
Housing Preservation
Thursday, August 16th
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Location TBD
Week of Monday, August 20th - Friday, August 24th:
Housing Preservation
Thursday, August 23rd
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Location TBD
Naomi Guth
City Planning Department
City of Los Angeles
200 N. Spring St., Room 721
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tel: (213) 978-1363 (direct)
Fax: (213) 978-4656
Email: Naomi.Guth@lacity.org
Friday, July 20, 2007 at 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Does LA have the funding to END THE GRIDLOCK?
Westside Urban Forum: Last year Californians approved $20 Billion in transportation bonds and Metro just approved a fare increase. How much will LA County receive for its critical needs, moving both people and goods? And will the bond funds survive the budget process in Sacramento ? Join us for a lively discussion with Metro Board Chair Pam O'Connor and California Transportation Commissioner Larry Zarian moderated by Norman Emerson, president of a southern California firm focusing on infrastructure planning, funding and public policy. Do we have enough to really address our transportation needs? What else can we do? What does this mean for important Westside transportation projects?
After Wednesday, July 18, 2007 the price increases by $10.00. Please RSVP to the Westside Urban Forum
Location: The Regency Club
10900 Wilshire Blvd. 17th Floor
Los Angeles , CA
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Saturday, July 21, 2007 @ 10:00 a.m.
Northeast Open Space Coalition Meeting
Latino Urban Forum has worked hard in preserving open space in North East Los Angeles . We are happy that the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Board will be considering the long-awaited NELA Open Space Plan in the next month or so. Conservancy staff have agreed to present the plan to the NELA/OS Coalition on.
This is an excellent opportunity for us to preview the proposal prior to consideration by the SMMC Board. We hope that you will be able to
attend and give input and comments on the Plan. Please let us know whether you will attend, so that we can arrange light refreshments.
Location: Audubon, Debs Park
4700 N. Griffin Avenue
Los Angeles , 90031
Wednesday, July 25,2007 (6pm)
HOW DO GREAT STREETS GET MADE?
This is a panel discussion organized by AIA/LA & ASLA on how the streets in LA are designed, funded and built through the city process.
Moderator: Barbara Romero - Special Projects Manager (MRCA)
Panelists: (invited)
Emily Luddy Gabel, FASLA - City of Los Angeles Urban Design Studio
Lance Oishi - City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street services)
Jay Kim - City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation
Deborah Weintraub, AIA - City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering
Mia Lehrer, ASLA - Mia Lehrer + Associates
Katherine Spitz, AIA, ASLA - Katherine Spitz & Associates
Location: Los Angeles River Center
570 West Ave 26
Los Angeles, CA 90065
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Thursday, July 26, 2007 @ 7:00 p.m to 8:30 p.m.
2008 American Planning Association State Conference
The 2008 APA State Conference will be held in Hollywood next year. A volunteer committee has been formed to help plan the conference. Many of us have volunteered to organize workshops on Cultural Planning Issues in LA and the state. We want to develop a strong cultural planning agenda that can address issues and as well as highlight stellar projects that provide innovated solutions to land use problems in communities of color. Please contact James Rojas
Location: 725 S. Spring Street #12
LA, CA. 90014
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ART
"Landscaping America : Beyond the Japanese Garden ,
June 17-Oct 21, 2007
This exhibition explores the history of Japanese American gardens and gardeners. The exhibit runs from. The opening day of the exhibit will be on Father's Day. We'll have live music and BBQ food vendors on the plaza.
Location: Japanese American National Museum
368 East First Street .
LA, CA.
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Friday, June 1, 2007
Pavement Paradise : American Parking Space
Eighty-one percent of Downtown Los Angeles is covered with surface parking. The average car is parked 95% of the time. What are the consequences of devoting huge amounts of land to cars that sit empty most of the time? Questions such as these are posed in the Center for Land Use Interpretation' s exhibit Pavement Paradise: American Parking Space. This exhibit "about the liminal, substanceless, and static space of automotive transience" is on display at CLUI - Los Angeles .
http://clui.org/clui_4_1/ondisplay/parking/
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The Los Angeles Urban Rangers announce:
"MALIBU PUBLIC BEACHES" SAFARIS
August 4-5th & 11-12th, 2007
Tired of Zuma and Surfrider? Want to find and use the other beaches in
Malibu ? The twenty miles that are lined with private development? The
"Malibu Public Beaches" safaris will show you how to find, park, walk,
picnic, and sunbathe on a Malibu beach. Each 3 1/2-hour safari visits
two or three beaches and explores natural history, jurisdiction, and the
identification of public and private property. Skills-enhancing
activities include a public-private boundary hike, an accessway hunt,
sign watching, and a public easement potluck.
We will offer two safaris in west Malibu and two in east Malibu :
** West Malibu beaches - SAT Aug 4 (9:30am-1pm) , SUN Aug 12 (1:30-5pm)
** East Malibu beaches - SUN Aug 5 (9:30am-1pm) , SAT Aug 11 (1:30-5pm)
Safaris are free, but space is limited. To sign up, please email
info@laurbanrangers.org with tour date, name, and # of people. For
further information on the safaris and the Los Angeles Urban Rangers,
visit http://laurbanrangers.org/.
A "Malibu Public Beaches" guide will be downloadable from our website in
early August.
Articles:
Neal Peirce
A New Two-Wheeled Course?
July 8, 2007
Anne Lusk of Harvard's School of Public Health has a startling -- many would say quixotic -- ambition for America 's cities. She'd like to equip them all with cycle tracks.
Cycle tracks? Does she mean the painted buffer lane for bikes you see on some streets? No! Those lanes are easily blocked by vehicles attempting to park. And they leave cyclists within inches of fast cars and monster trucks; if there's any error, you know who get hurts, often badly.
Cycle tracks, notes Lusk, are actually a separated part of the roadway yet distinct from the roadway, distinct from the sidewalk. In their purest form
-- Odense , Denmark , where 50 percent of all city journeys are by bicycle -- the paths even have their own traffic signals.
What actually separates the cycle track? It can be a long, narrow curb. Or a line of cones or concrete barriers. Or metal stanchions. Or a line of trees and other vegetation (an on-street greenway).
Another solution, tried on relatively wide streets in Bogota , Paris , London and elsewhere, is to move the parking lane several feet from the sidewalk, creating a new lane for cyclists between the sidewalk and parked cars.
Brooklyn-based bicycle advocate/blogger Aaron Naparstek has an excellent online video celebrating that solution (www.streetfilms. org/archives/ physically- separated- bike-lanes/).
OK, why should we go to all this trouble -- and years of reconstruction, and unquestionable expense?
Global warming is the biggie: bicycles are zero emitters of CO2 emissions that are shaping up as the planet's greatest peril in this century.
Then there's the obesity epidemic. For public health, cycling does help millions; it could help tens of millions of Americans stay slimmer.
As a New Yorker interviewed in Naparstek's video says: "I've lived in 10 different cities around the world. ... The thing about a separated bike lane is you feel totally separate. Which means you get a ton more people on the streets -- mothers, kids, even at rush hour you think nothing of it."
That dovetails with Lusk's point -- that in today's America , cycling is too often the preserve of athletic men who don't mind heading out into the fast-moving main lanes of traffic.
Great for those guys if they think they can handle it, says Lusk. The most extreme among them, she notes, don't even want to have a white painted bike lane.
But if the numbers of Americans who bike regularly remain overwhelmingly male and macho, she warns, huge portions of the American population -- women, seniors, children on their way to school, and men who use more caution -- will never join in. We'll never save the energy, reduce the carbon emissions, lighten the vehicle traffic, make the health gains we could.
Opponents of cycle lanes argue that they are a bad idea because earlier research showed them to be more hazardous than sharing the road with regular motor traffic.
Lusk replies that the research cited is dated, based on earlier-style bike tracks with less safe curb cuts and intersection crossings.
Just check around the world, she says -- to China , Canada , Norway , Sweden , Australia and elsewhere -- to find positive examples of cycle tracks that draw entire populations, all ages, both sexes, into daily, overwhelmingly safe use.
It's time to stop assuming, she insists, "that what works for men will work for the rest of the population." The clear fact, she argues, is that women tend by nature to be more cautious. They simply won't try biking (or encourage their children to bike around town) until it appears to be, and is, a lot safer.
The pitch for exclusive bike lanes does come at a moment of potential serious change, as societies seek to reduce many short car trips that account for a growing share of auto emissions. A big potential is seen, for example, in getting more people to haul groceries in bike saddlebags or tote their small children in bike seats. From "active elderly" to children biking to school, major new user groups are being developed across the world.
Amsterdam has built five new bicycle garages in recent years and now plans a 10,000-bike garage in the center of the city. Paris is putting thousands of low-cost rental bikes at strategic spots across the city this summer, aiming to cut traffic and reduce pollution.
It is true -- the U.S. has a long way to go to get serious about bike usage, including dedicated cycle paths. Even leading cycling cities ( Eugene and Corvallis , Ore. , for example) lack contiguous grids of separated bikeways.
But who is to deny that our towns and cities (and environment) need bicycling opportunities, safe routes that serve both sexes and all ages? The debate should be about the how, not the whether.
Neal Peirce's e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com.
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Urban Eats:
Farmer Markets in the Hood!
Tianguis: South Central Farmers Market.
Support Community Sustainable Agriculture (C.S.A.)
Music, high quality produce,
www.southcentralfarmers.com
Date: First Sunday of every month (May 6th)
Time: 10:00 am. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: 41st and Alameda
Caracol Farmers Market
Date: Sunday June 24, 2007
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
To post events, activities or meetings that promote planning, cultural or dialogue contact James Rojas at 213 892-0918 or email Latinourbanforum@yahoo.com Please submit post in a word document·
