TALKBACK - Contrary to an article in last week’s CityWatch (“LA’s Future: Secret Planning, Less Participation”), the City of Los Angeles is not pursuing a stealth effort to revamp the City’s transportation blueprint.
The Department of City Planning’s work on the new Mobility Element of the General Plan has involved some of the broadest and deepest public outreach seen on any citywide planning issue in recent years – an initiative that is currently engaging neighborhood councils and community members citywide in meaningful discussions about how best to improve our mobility, and the look and feel of our streets.
No matter where you go in Los Angeles, the conversation quickly turns to how terrible the traffic is, and how a city that once epitomized freedom of movement via our freeway system has become a city of gridlock. However, the City and the region have made steady progress in changing our car-centric image in the past thirteen years since we last updated the City’s Transportation Element (now renamed the Mobility Element).
We opened a number of new rail lines and dedicated busways, connecting the Valley to Long Beach, the east side to the west side, along with the spaces in between. We adopted an ambitious Bicycle Plan, and the City was recently recognized as being well on its way to becoming a “Bicycle Friendly Community.” We have had five successful Ciclavia events, and survived two Carmageddon weekends.
Because Los Angeles County voters approved Measure R to fund transportation improvements, we need to take the steps to align all City policies with this major public investment. The Mobility Element will be the official policy shaping transportation decisions in our city and will link transportation investments with decision-making on development and land-use.
The City is also now required under state law to integrate “Complete Streets” principles into its Mobility Element, to make streets safer and more accessible for all roadway users. To accommodate all modes, we will be proposing a series of “Complete Street Networks” that will prioritize certain modes on certain streets.
These networks will be accompanied by new street designs that will discourage speeding and improve safety on our streets. The project will also result in a list of priority transportation projects that has been publicly vetted and can then be used in future funding applications for long-delayed improvements.
The Los Angeles Department of City Planning, in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, embarked on the update of the Mobility Element in the fall of 2011. The first year of this three-year process was dedicated to envisioning our transportation future with Angelenos. We began by launching an innovative new online town hall, ideas.la2b.org, which has engaged hundreds of participants, many of whom have rarely weighed in on City issues in the past.
The new on-line tool, enhanced by complementary social media tools, has sparked a robust citywide conversation that is shaping the Mobility Element’s policies.
In addition to these online conversations, the City has been using more traditional outreach methods: we’ve hosted four regional community workshops, and attended nearly 40 meetings with neighborhood councils, community-based organizations, and citywide events. City Council offices have been spreading the word about the project through their e-newsletters, and we’ve posted fliers on transit shelters, bus benches and at every public library across the City.
We also developed the “Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods” Activity Kit [[http://la2b.org/participate/kit/ ]] to engage neighborhood councils in a deeper discussion of mobility priorities. We mailed a set of these Activity Kits to every neighborhood council in the City and have received responses on the Kits from 23 neighborhood councils so far, from all corners of the city. It’s not too late to return your neighborhood council’s Kit to City staff.
Here is a snapshot of the responses we’ve heard so far from neighborhood councils:
“Safe for pedestrians, bicycle riders, and drivers…well-[lit] streets, well maintained streets…local access to rapid transit, walking distance to local services”
“…The car is king in LA, so plan for it. If you take away our streets for parks, biking, and buses, then don’t densify our community, which adds more cars.”
“Buses, cycling and walking would be coordinated and easy to use going from one to another.”
The input we’ve received is being used to develop the Mobility Element’s goals, objectives, policies and programs, which will be available later this fall for your review. The environmental review process for the Mobility Element cannot begin without defining the project description, which is currently being shaped over the next few months through your input.
After the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been completed, the Mobility Element will be considered by the City Planning Commission and the City Council during 2014.
You can follow the progress of the project and join the town hall conversation (to be live again in November 2012) at ideas.la2b.org. For more information about the Mobility Element Update, please contact Claire Bowin ([email protected]) or Jane Choi ([email protected]).
(Claire Bowin is with the City Planning Department of Los Angeles.)
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 85
Pub: Oct 23, 2012