Just around the corner from the intersection of Wilshire and Lincoln is St Monica, a Catholic school and community which has found a few million dollars to build a few hundred underground parking spaces on its site. You know the spiel: Car parking produces car traffic, car traffic produces unpleasant bike rides, and a few other nasties. With the deadline of 30 December 2009 the city has posted a DEIR (725 California Avenue) and the planner in charge who wants to hear from you is Steve.Mizokami@smgov.net. The documentation is available and has been studied by a committee of Santa Monica Spoke and we are happy to presents a detailed response to the work done so far.

The point of this effort is to make sure that the laudable attempt to make parking easier for car drivers is matched by an equal effort to make cycling and walking and transit use easier for former car drivers. This is how we are “good stewards of the earth” and “make transportation patterns more efficient”. The point is also that as a private school St Monica is an interesting example for the kind of mitigation your usual state school is exempt from. (State schools are apparently not subject to AQMD regulations that apply to normal employers)

School and church are very enthusiastic about their building project, and the motto reads: Better space for our Ministries to transform the world. Imagine: A New Era for St Monica. But somehow our neighbors have not yet understood that “Providing more parking (yay!)” is just a way of creating more driving (boo!). A better space for cars may then actually transform the world for the worse. Again, when you watch the promotional Video for the campaign, you will learn that “The new parking structure tells the community that we want to be good neighbors.” No, dear neighbors of St. Monica, the new parking structure tells the community that rather than thinking of ways to reduce the use of the car, you have raised $ 15 million (Phase 1 total: $27 million) to park them underground. Show us your bikes, and then we will know who is the good neighbor.

Soon the statue of St Monica is due to come back in front of the church, transformed from a simple stone statue to a proper bronze figure, so I hear. As the Saint is moved onto the pedestal, we wish she may get a glimpse of the poor state of the bike parking located behind her. Imagine: A New Bicycle Era for St Monica. The details of our response to the project are here.

The Budget Process is in full swing, and I think I can hear some bike bells ringing. If you cannot make it to the budget meetings then the Web Form or an email to budget@smgov.net could do the trick.

And if you are able to make it to the meetings (Calendar here), bring an empty stomach, and have a good look around: They have food, and at Ocean Park I counted approx 35 city employees being present and waiting to be called upon to give detailed answers. A bit curious, really, as employees seemed to outnumber citizens.

Car Free Fridays are coming to Santa Monica, and our ride on the 29th of May is scheduled to precede the ceremony when the city of Santa Monica receives the award as a bicycle friendly city. Congratulation folks, well done! Now the hard work is starting.
The route is in place: We meet at Santa Monica College, in front of the Library off Pearl Street, just across the Road from Sustainable Works. @ Meet at 8:00am ride at 8:10 sharp. The route takes us around John Adams School, across town around Lincoln School. From Lincoln we will leave at 8:35, then back to SAMOHI, and arrive at City Hall @ 9:00 for refreshments and weighty words.
Join us, all ye early risers, and let us start this important political process with a bit of a show of force. Bring a bell, a whistle, and all your friends. The bronze medal is our foot in the door, California Legislation to reduce Greenhouse Gases will be our lance, and us being just like normal people will make the bicycle an irresistible winner. To get there, we will compile our very own bicycle wish list for the future.

The LACBC board met earlier this week at the Encino Velodrome, and has voted to establish an ad hoc committee to study LACBC chapters:  more news soon! We are now officially a chapter of the LACBC (applied for), or rather: A Chapter In Waiting

by Scott David Reiter
We need to have another meeting soon, perhaps a chatroom format may be more comfortable?
We need to help coax the public mind off combustion. We need to seamlessly integrate biking into all the transportation modes. Going somewhere should be, well, as easy as riding a bicycle. Santa Monica will now work towards the Gold Medal of bike friendliness, and not just settle for the Bronze. I feel that we can surpass Portland and claim our rightful title as America’s Most Bikeable City. Heck, let’s take that even further, and develop a whole new industry opportunity. Maybe we can encourage development of low cost, planned community of hotel pods as an even cheaper alternative to youth hostels, with centralized cooking and hygiene facilities, a serious piece bicycle infrastructure. Money not spent on high priced hotels can benefit local businesses. The bicycle tourist as a economical opportunity: this could be big! It includes rides and walks of all that makes Santa Monica great: From the beautiful beach into the mountains, art, architecture, including the Wilshire Palisades Building and its “Ship Steaming to Sea” profile, Camera Obscura, etc.
Let’s move forward!