The Santa Monica Patch Posts, A Year Of Writing

In other news, I got a new bike! It's pretty.

As I was writing columns for Patch, I'm sure those readers that have stuck with this blog even in times of drought, have no doubt noticed a lot less material posted here. Well my first professional writing stint, for Santa Monica Patch is over, so I will try and get some more original content up here again. I'd also like to remind any blog readers that don't also follow me on the twitterverse, the Twitter is always a good place to find me. I try to keep regular bit's of micro blogging happening there regularly as well posting material I find interesting or links to where else my writing can be found.

To conclude my contributions to the Santa Monica Patch column Green City, I'd like to post up links to the series in it's entirety for anyone interested in the content. Items are posted in order of last to first.

One of my favorite parts of writing this column, titled Green City, was seeing some direct impact in the community because of my writing. The post SMC's Bike-Parking Problems in particular. It got picked up by Santa Monica College students, who rallied around needing more bike parking. A dedicated group formed a committee on the subject, my article was placed on the first agenda, and now a few months later the school is on the verge of instigating a new bike parking master plan and new funds are being allocated. I'll have more details on that if the plan passes, which I hear also includes some provisions for skateboard parking, awesome!

It's kind of a mind trip looking back at the material, especially the first few posts, it feels like ages ago now, and some of my thoughts have evolved since then. If you have been reading along, you've probably also caught some increasing concern and awareness on the connection to all of these topics to world energy issues, particularly oil supply.

This line of thought has been influenced by a lot of reading material I've been going through in the past year, and it will continue to shape my thinking and writing going forward. I have come to the conclusion our energy problems, in transportation primarily, are going to get a lot worse, a lot faster than most people were thinking or preparing for (including myself from a year ago). There will be more on that later, but here are the posts:

Green City (official page does not include link to my last post, Bike Action Plan & Energy Resilience)

Bike Action Plan & Energy Resilience
Reimagining Lincoln Boulevard
Overcoming Jevons Paradox
Alt-Car Alternatives
SMC's Bike-Parking Problems
Taking the Bus: Why It Matters
Bike Action Plan Enters Home Stretch
Pedestrians First
The 'Carmageddon' Transportation Showdown: Lessons Learned
City 2.0
Santa Monica Has New Bike Racks but Proper Locking Technique Is Key
Taking the Sustainability Message Across Party Lines
The Food Truck Revolution
Finding New Spaces for Community Gardens in Santa Monica
How SM Could Become the Cycling Envy of the Nation
Counting Food Miles
The Deeper Problems Behind the Rising Gas Prices
Why Bike Racks Matter to Santa Monica's Buy Local Efforts
The Shared-Use Revolution
Road Rules: Addressing Traffic Safety in Santa Monica
Living Car-Free in Santa Monica
Debunking the Myth That Downtown Needs More Car Parking
Lessons Learned from Long Beach's Bike Planning
Would Bergamot Village Be Well-Suited for Sustainability?
City Aims to Spur Bicycle Use

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Santa Monica Bike Action Plan Up For City Council Vote Tuesday

The Santa Monica Bike action plan is up for council approval on Tuesday. It is item 8-B on the agenda and will come up at some point into the 6:30pm session of the council. I know it's been a long process getting to this point, but it would be great if we could get a nice turn out to support the plan and make any final comments. If you're going to come out, be sure to show up before the item comes up so you can get your chit card in to speak. There is usually a person that can help you get your comment request in, on the second floor by the cards at a desk on the left when you come up the stairs.

I'll compose some more thoughts on this whole thing before the council meeting, but I wanted to get up the reminder about the time right away. 2.5 million dollars of city funding allocation, leveraged with many more millions in other grants, has the potential to really make a lot happen very quickly. Let's get this thing passed and start making the awesome happen!

Tuesday November 22nd
City Hall Council Chamber
Item 8-B: Review and approval of Final Bike Action Plan – recommendation to review Draft Final Bicycle Action Plan; adopt a resolution adopting the Negative Declaration for the Bike Action Plan; adopt a resolution adopting the Bike Action Plan for the City of Santa Monica; and approve the proposed budget changes.

To write to the whole council, use this e-mail:
council@smgov.net

Santa Monica Bike Action Plan Goes To Planning Commission Tomorrow, One Of The Last Chances For Input

The Santa Monica Bicycle Action Plan makes it's way back to the planning commission tomorrow night (Wed Nov 9th) with a few modifications from the last time around. A few concerns of mine in the previous draft have been addressed, boosting the priority and language for bike share and a Ciclovia style event, 2 big ticket items that previously seemed weakly suggested in the 20 year vision and not the 5 year part of the plan.

This will be one of the last opportunities to give input and shape the plan before it goes to a council vote on Nov 22nd. Unfortunately I've been slammed with a mandatory overtime situation with work and will be unable to attend. I will be composing some further thoughts for the commissioners via e-mail.

If you cannot attend in person, I encourage you to write the commissioners, either to give general support for show enthusiasm to advance bicycling, or give specific feed back or concerns about things you'd like to see addressed in the plan. The agenda includes links to the staff report, which summarizes things and describes some of the changes in the plan, and also includes a link to the latest full draft of the plan.

As I mentioned to Planning Commision Chair Jim Ries, at this point my general impression is that we have a solid plan and vision for building a real viable bike network, one that will be the envy of many communities, but the devil will be in the details of implementation. The plan is more big picture, and does not necessarily define the fine grain details of particular striping on individual resets. To avoid situations like the recent bike lane on 2nd that was panned by myself and some others because of it's obvious conflicts, I suggested more involvement with local cyclists at the engineering stage. At least until such time it seemed apparent the engineers "get it", and I don't think we aren't quite there yet, but getting closer.

We're almost there, it's the final stretch, and I cannot wait for the plan to be ratified so we can move onto next steps of making the awesome happen.

Contact info for planning commission

WEDNESDAY, November 9, 2011
CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS  7:00 P.M.
ROOM 213, CITY HALL