Trader Joe’s sets a TOD Standard - Bike Parking!

It’s been a little more than three weeks since Enci sent the tweet heralding the arrival of Trader Joe’s in Hollywood but lamenting the fact that it would be sans Bike Racks. The Tweeps responded, the news spread through the Facebook crowd, and Trader Joe’s started getting phone calls. Lots of them.

It would seem that convenient, safe, and effective Bike Parking would be the norm, not the exception but such was not the case and so the battle unfolded, with Enci calling for a boycott and Trader Joe’s playing dumb.

Trader Joe’s, like any large company, organization, bureaucracy, has mad skills in the fine art of the “Anyone but me!” line of defense when dealing with the public, the customer, the stakeholder, the reason for their existence. They went to work.

They started by blaming their failure to provide Bike Racks on the City of LA, claiming that it required a permit and that it would be completely inappropriate to put bike racks on Vine, in front of the building. I pointed out that it was not true.

They then shifted the responsibility to their Landlord, Legacy Partners, saying that it was the developers responsibility to put in Bike Racks, not theirs. I again pointed out that it was not true.

I spoke to Legacy Partners, attempting to remove any obstacles, and was informed that Bike Racks on the street would be a problem for aesthetic reasons. I pointed out that the building would look a lot nicer if it was surrounded by people, bikes, signs of life! Legacy then changed tack, claiming that their Development Agreement with the Metro and the CRA forbid Bike Racks. I pointed out that it was not true.

I spoke to the Metro, they had no prohibition against Bike Racks and unfortunately, they also had no requirement in the Development Agreement for Bike Racks.

I spoke to the CRA, they had no prohibition against Bike Racks and, again unfortunately, they had no requirement in the Development Agreement for Bike Racks.

I spoke to LA’s City Council President Eric Garcetti, pointing out that LA’s largest Transit Oriented Development opened with no Bike Racks, all in violation of LAMC 12.21-A16. He smiled and said that they had a great plan for centralized bike parking somewhere else on the W Hollywood’s four and half acre lot. I pointed out that it was not true.

Somehow LA’s largest Transit Oriented Development made it all the way to the finish line with no Bike Parking standard in place for tenants, even though the City of LA requires it.

Somehow the Metro, the CRA, the City of LA, Gatehouse Capital and Legacy Partners are able to put Federal, State, County, City money to work developing the neighborhood, yet do it with complete contempt for the people who don’t arrive in a motor vehicle.

It’s been two weeks since the TJ’s in Hollywood opened, it’s been two days since Director of Construction installed the Bike Racks. They look great and they are a victory for a few reasons.

*We’ve got Bike Racks and can lift the boycott! Now we can shop at Trader Joe’s!

*We’ve established a Bike Parking standard for the Trader Joe’s Corporation! No Wave or Wheelbender Bike Racks, simple inverted-U racks that are properly installed and spaced and protected and accessible and visible and convenient and effective. This is the Bike Rack Standard for Trader Joe’s.

*We’ve established a Bike Parking standard for the Metro and for the CRA. Transit Oriented Development must have a Bike Parking standard for the project as a whole and for the tenants. Centralized Bike Parking is a non-starter, a figment of Garcetti’s imagination, implausible, unacceptable, a simple violation of the “convenient and practical” rule that governs design.

*We’ve established a Bike Parking standard for the neighborhood.

This is not the first time Enci has tangled with the City or with Property Managers over Bike Parking. There was the City National Plaza and their threat to impound bikes, there was the Museum Square incident that saw her bike booted and there was the successful Bike Rack campaign at LAPD Headquarters.

From the Los Angeles Municipal Code: (LAMC 12.21-A. 16)

16. Bicycle Parking and Shower Facilities. (Added by Ord. No. 167,409, Eff. 12/19/91.) Off-street parking spaces for bicycles and facilities for employee showers and lockers shall be provided as follows:

(a) In the C and M zones, for any building, portion thereof or addition thereto used for non-residential purposes which contains a floor area in excess of 10,000 square feet, bicycle parking spaces shall be provided at the rate of two percent of the number of automobile parking spaces required by this section for such non-residential uses; provided, however, that at least one bicycle parking space shall be provided for any such building having a floor area in excess of 10,000 square feet of non-residential use. If the calculation of the number of required spaces under this paragraph results in a number including a fraction, the next highest whole number shall be the number of spaces required.

(b) The bicycle parking space requirements in Paragraph (a) shall also apply to any building, regardless of zone, owned by the City of Los Angeles and used by the City for government purposes which contains a floor area in excess of 10,000 square feet.

(c) All bicycle parking spaces required by this Subdivision shall include a stationary parking device which adequately supports the bicycle. In addition, at least half of the bicycle parking spaces shall include a stationary parking device which securely locks the bicycle without the use of a user-supplied cable or chain. Devices which hold the bicycle upright by wheel contact must hold at least 180 degrees of wheel arc.

(d) Each bicycle parking space shall be a minimum of two feet in width and six feet in length and shall have a minimum of six feet of overhead clearance.

(e) Bicycle parking spaces shall be located no farther than the distance from a main entrance of the building to the nearest off-street automobile parking space.

(f) Bicycle parking spaces shall be separated from automobile parking spaces or aisles by a wall, fence, or curb or by at least five feet of open space marked to prohibit parking.

(g) Aisles providing access to bicycle parking spaces shall be at least five feet in width.

(h) Signage which is clearly legible upon approach to every automobile entrance to the parking facility shall be displayed indicating the availability and location of bicycle parking.

(i) Showers and lockers shall be provided as required by Section 91.6307 of this Code. (Amended by Ord. No. 177,103, Eff. 12/18/05.)

LAPD HQ - now serving cyclists!

It took six months but the Los Angeles Police Department finally added curbside bike parking and sent a clear message to the cycling community that they are welcome at the $500 million headquarters on 1st Street, just across from City Hall. Critics called foul at the ribbon cutting when they discovered that the LAPD bike parking was behind a tower, hidden by planters and trees, behind a wall, all in violation of the basic Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) standards.

The LAPD's failure prompted cyclists to appeal to the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee (LABAC) who not only called on the City of LA to investigate the absence of appropriate bike parking at the LAPD monument to crime prevention, but the LABAC passed a motion declaring the Ronald F. Deaton Civic Auditorium off-limits for meetings until the situation had been corrected.

All of this was in stark contrast to the stated intentions of then-new LAPD Chief Charlie Beck who declared that one of his first priorities was to forge a strong working relationship with the cycling community and to work on developing policies to better establish, articulate, and enforce policy that protected the rights of cyclists. Unfortunately, when the rubber hits the road, or the bikes hit the racks, cyclists who attended meetings at the LAPD HQ were offered only inhospitable accommodations, even as the LAPD executed stings to catch bike thieves.

For all of the LAPD's good intentions, the simplest way to prevent bike thefts is to properly secure bikes where they are visible, something that wasn't possible at the LAPD HQ. At the last meeting of the Cyclists/LAPD Task Force, cyclists locked their bikes at the top of the courtyard, demonstrating that when it comes to bike security, location matters.

So it is that only six months after the doors opened on the LAPD HQ, the welcome mat finally goes out for the cyclists!

As for the racks, they are the larger "Bike" bike racks, 6' long and in the shape of a bike. They have the same two-bike capacity as the traditional inverted-U rack but with a clear cut message and a tad of flair. We should be pleased and I am. I'm very pleased and I'm encouraged by the message it sends.

At the same time, I think it's fair to evaluate the racks and to seize the opportunity to pursue excellence.

On that note:

1) Bike Racks traditionally run parallel with the curbline, not perpendicular. Granted, the sidewalk here is wide but there is so much real estate, why not establish a standard?

2) First Street is a "No Stopping" zone from Spring to Main so why squeeze the bikes together so tighly, why not spread out?

3) The City of LA had bike parking standards that specify a minimum distance of 48" between parallel racks and yet these four racks have distances of 48", 47", and 43". Why does the City of Los Angeles aim for the minimum requirement and then settle for falling short?

4) The bike racks are out in the open, that is certain, and pedestrians, cyclists and motorists can all see them clearly. This should discourage thieves. Yet the most important eyeline, from the front door of the buildings, is blocked. From the eastside entrance of Deaton Auditorium, none of the racks are visible. From the westside entrance of Deaton Auditorium, two of the racks are visible. From the front door of the LAPD HQ, the racks are obscured to the point that it's unreasonable to expect anyone in the lobby of HQ to notice anything out of the ordinary on the sidewalk in the distance.

Ultimately, it took some time, they might have been installed better, but the effort of the LAPD to respond to the cycling community speaks volumes and it is greatly appreciated.

Hey Dude! Where am I supposed to store my stuff?

The real conflict on the streets of Los Angeles isn't between people trying to get somewhere, it's between people who think their right to store private property on the streets of LA supersedes the rights of others to safely get to their destination.

Witness the brouhaha on Topanga Canyon Boulevard over the bike lanes that have been engineered and funded, only to get the veto from the local LADOT Traffic Engineer because he would rather use the curb lane for traffic during rush hour and then for parking during the off-hours. This is referred to as "peak-hour parking" and it is one of the most common excuses used by the LADOT when they argue against implementing bike lanes or sharrows. Curbside parking takes precedence over humans on their way to a destination.

Sunset Blvd. is a very popular route for cyclists and the bike lanes are a hotly contested real estate all the way through Hollywood, East Hollywood, Echo Park, Silver Lake and on into DTLA. For all of the traffic encountered on a ride from the westside to the bestside, the real conflict occurs as cyclists dodge the doors that open from parked vehicles, or the valets who put their signs and cones in the bike lanes or the armored car outside the Bank of America or the Bands' vans outside the Echo or the too-wide Catering trucks or the too narrow parking lane or the 18 wheelers outside the Olive Motel or any of the many other surprises that occur because the curb lane is not for travel but for the storage of private property.

No developer can make it through the community engagement process without promising and over-promising parking not just for those who live or work or shop at the development but for those who will be impacted by the project and simply consider parking as the currency of land-use negotiations.

Dr. Donald Shoup of UCLA has risen from academic obscurity to rock star status as a result of his work studying the economic impact of free parking on a community. Always guaranteed to both entertain and inform, Dr. Shoup is also capable of inflaming the sensitivities of those who feel the very fabric of all they hold near and dear threatened as Dr. Shoup extols the evils of free parking. His best selling book "The High Cost of Free Parking" challenges the notion that our streets are designed for the storage of private property. He is also responsible for California's oft neglected and poorly enforced parking buyout law, a scheme that requires employers who provide employees with free parking to consider it a perk, a benefit that has a cash value. Once that value is determined, the employee has the right to elect to take cash instead of the parking space.

We live in a society that tolerates homeless people but criminalizes homeless cars. The County of Los Angeles has seven parking spaces for every registered car, all on the off chance that you might want to shop at the Montclair Plaza on Christmas Eve and, heaven forbid, there better be a convenient parking space there for you! This commitment to stimulating the asphalt industry has resulted in an urban heat island effect that has seen the temperature in areas such as LA's West Valley increase over time as the streets widen, as the parking lots increase in size and as the continuing development of auto-centric infrastructure perpetuates the "Pave paradise, put up a parking lot!" mantra that positions the storage of personal property as one of the basic rights of a civilized country.

As communities evaluate the allocation of public space and discuss the purpose of streets and the impact of parking on their neighborhood, the real opportunity for conflict typically arises when curbside parking is discussed. Events such as Park[ing] Day LA have become popular challenges to the status quo, causing people to reconsider the primacy of curbside parking. Park(ing) Day is an annual event celebrated around the world that involves people of all walks taking curbside parking space and turning them into parks for the day, all in an effort to stimulate discussion on everything from urban planning to the environment to community to public space allocation to the need to make streets more people friendly.

Through it all, small battles get fought, little accommodations are made, and the status quo gets tested. Sometimes it's simply a matter of reclaiming words such as the phrase "closed streets" which the LADOT uses when referring to the restriction of motor vehicles. Community activists now call a street with no motor vehicle traffic an "open street" because it has been freed, the neighborhood is no longer under seige. A "closed street" is one full of motor vehicles and void of humanity.

Sometimes the small shift is in allocation of space. We live in a city where taxis, FedEx and UPS, tour buses, morticians, catering trucks, delivery trucks, school buses, and other special purpose vehicles all get special curbside accommodations, after all, they're key to the smooth operation of our city! But when a local merchant suggests taking a curbside parking space and using it exclusively for the storage of bicycles, we discover the proverbial line that dares to be crossed.

Known as a Bike Corral and consisting of a traditional curbside parking space filled with bike parking racks and surrounded by bollards to protect the bikes, Bike Corrals are popular land use solutions in many large cities such as San Francisco and New York City. Here in Los Angeles, the proposal to install a single Bike Corral in Northeast LA resulted in a hearing at the City Council's Transportation Committee where the critical implications of this assault on all that LA holds near and dear (curbside parking for motor vehicles!) were dissected and reviewed by our City Council leadership and LADOT elite.

The battle isn't over, the "camel's nose" proposal to convert a curbside parking space into bike parking must still go through the City Council and then it must be studied, reviewed, analyzed, and reported on, perhaps resulting in a permit for permanent residency on York Avenue. That's right, a permit!

Chair of Metro Board says "I see bike racks!"

Ara Najarian, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metro and the Mayor of Glendale, wrote a post for the Metro's blog, The Source, defending the Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park Transit Oriented Development against claims that it failed to accommodate cyclists. First of all, I'm pleased that he is paying attention, I'm also pleased that he responded to the criticism of the Metro's most recent foray into the land of TOD. But I'm distressed that he took information from his staff at face value and that he failed to notice that it merely confirmed my charge, that the Metro's new transit-oriented development being built just west of downtown Los Angeles falls short of the LA Municipal Code minimums for bike parking. Regardless of the requirement, the Metro's "zero bike facilites" at the Phase I component is insufficient. It fails.

Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park TOD Phase I, the initial phase of a two-phased development effort, will contain  90 units of affordable rental housing above approximately 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and residential, retail and commuter parking.  The commuter parking will consist of 100 spaces, partially funded by Metro, that are intended for use by Metro Rail commuters.  The total development costs for Phase I is approximately $45 million.  The second phase of the development will be constructed directly over the Metro Rail station entrance, and will be comprised of 82 affordable housing units, a retail component and associated parking.

Phase I will have a residential element, a retail component, and a full complement of commuter automobile parking but no bike racks, no bike lockers, no bike room. This is completely unacceptable. No matter how you spin it, this fails. Najarian explains, in his blog post, that for Metro commuters, the Phase I location is an inconvenient location for bike parking so the Metro plans to include it in the Phase 2 project. What about the people who live in Phase 1? What about the people who shop at the Phase 1 retail? Has nobody at the Metro ridden a bike? Cyclists should have bike parking available in all locations. There is commuter automobile parking in Phase 1, why not for cyclists?

Phase 2 will purportedly include the bike racks and lockers, but based on the Metro's most recent performance at the Eastside Extension and the Hollywood & Vine TOD, the public has little reason to expect anything other than bike parking as an after thought, if at all. The current Metro standard is to install bike parking where it fits, not where it belongs. That must change.

It is the ultimate demonstration of hubris that the Metro elects to pass on bike parking on Phase 1, instead postponing any accommodation in its declaration "Bicycle parking was chosen to be designed into the second phase of the project, which provides bicyclists with the same convenient access to the Westlake/MacArthur Park subway portal and multiple bus lines serving the station. Both bicycle lockers and racks will be placed in a visible location."

I stand by my original charge, that the Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park Transit Oriented Development fails to accommodate cyclists. All promises of any pie in the sky schemes must be tempered by reality. Are they on paper or are they vague verbal commitments? Does the Metro have any Bike Parking standards that the public can rely on or are we limited to  vague verbal commitments? Does the Metro include any reference to bike parking in its real estate contracts with its development and operational partners or does it rely on vague verbal commitments.

The bottom line is this, the Metro considers bike parking as an afterthought, not as an intregal element that gets positioned in the early stages of planning. That must change.

Metro repeats the TOD mistakes of the past

LA's cyclists just got snubbed by the Metro again, this time at the Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park Transit Oriented Development (TOD) which broke ground on Monday, promising safe and affordable housing, economic development, improvements to the subway station and nearby streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, street trees and underground utilities. Whew! Where will all of this goodness end?

Missing from the long list of elements, including 172 units of housing and 30,000 sq. feet of retail is any hint of accommodation for cyclists. No Bike-Room, no Bike-Repair, no Bike-Share, no Bike-Shop, no Bike-Lockers, no ride-your-bike-home if you live here, ride-your-bike-to-the-station if you take the Metro, no ride-your-bike-to-the-stores if you shop here, nothing.

The basic tenets of TOD projects are simple. 1) Accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians. 2) Connectivity and traffic calming. 3) Balanced mix of housing, shops, schools, public services. 4) Parking Management strategies to reduce land allocation to automobile parking. 5)  An environment that is convenient, comfortable, and secure with features including common space, washrooms, vendors and Wayfinding and multi-modal navigational tools.

It's very simple.  With a budget of $45 million there is no excuse for the Metro to fall so short and yet, once again, it does. Phase I of the MacArthur Park Metro Apartments project promises 100 automobile parking spaces for the Metro passengers alone. This in addition to the parking provided for the tenants and the merchants and the shoppers. Yet, nothing for the cyclists?

This significant failure is disturbing for several reasons:

1) It furthers demonstrates the need to overhaul the Metro, to engage in a bit of silo-shaking and to get the Metro's Real Property Management, Operations, Planning and Executive Departments in sync. The Real Estate department repeatedly enters into uninspired relationships and leaves it to Operations to make it happen, a scenario that recently failed miserably at the Metro's Hollywood & Vine project. The Metro's Bike Manager is in the Planning Department but based on the implementation of bike facilities Hollywood & Western or on the Eastside Extension, it's evident that Planning is far from relevant. Through it all, the Executive Department rides herd on departments who love press conferences and ribbon cuttings but who play hot-potato with the street level responsibilities and accountability.

Metro: Bike Parking is the standard. Put out a new press release, this time replacing "100 parking spaces for Metro customers" with "Secure Bike Parking for 100 Cyclists!"

2) It demonstrates the need for the Metro to get in touch with the community. This neighborhood, as much if not more than others, needs safe and secure bike parking. To fail to recognize the demographics of MacArthur Park is downright cavalier. To fail to understand the needs of the neighborhood is simply irresponsible. Dan Koeppel, in his insightful Bicycling Magazine "Invisible Riders" article, takes the reader on a journey into the lives of cyclists who simply ride to stay alive, to earn money, and to support their families. These days we call them the Workforce Cyclists. Koeppel visited with them in MacArthur Park as he researched his article. They die on the streets in numbers greater than any other demographic. They ride bikes that are the key to their economic survival. They need safe and secure bike parking.

Metro: Know your neighborhood. Revise those Phase I plans and make sure there is a home for cyclists at the Westlake/MacArthur TOD, both casual and membership.

3) It demonstrates the need for the Metro to develop standards. Somehow, real estate deals get brokered, developers partner up, plans get drawn, contractors get hired, materials get purchased, projects get built and somewhere long after the ribbon cutting, the Metro's Bike Planning department comes wandering along asking "Is there any room left for the cyclists?" First and foremost, any Metro projects need to include cyclists and pedestrians as the premiere user groups, not motorists. From the beginning, there must be standards for accommodations that specify ingress, egress, storage for casual, membership, and long-term bike parking, and security standards that include basic Crime Prevention Trough Environmental Design (CPTED) standards.

Metro: Develop and Implement design standards. Lose the ineffective one-sheet and develop robust design standards and requirements that apply to all Metro projects.

4) It demonstrates a need for the Metro to account for its choice of partners. MacArthur Park Metro Apartments is a joint venture between Metro, McCormack Baron Salazar, Los Angeles Housing Partnership and Polis Builders. McCormack Baron Salazar also developed the Hollywood & Western TOD project with the Metro, a project that still has 50% vacancy on the ground floor five years after completion. The recent brouhaha over the homeless encampment, the lack of supervision and maintenance, the empty Metro Bike facility and the missing bicycle racks leave one wondering "What does it take to ruin a relationship with the Metro?" Perhaps its not the choice of partners but instead the lack of oversight, either way, surely the hope of the future is not more of the same.

Metro: Develop and Implement oversight standards for property management. Real Estate to Planning to Operations to Partners to Executive, there must be some accountability.

5) It demonstrates clearly the need for the Metro to take responsibility for its impact on our communities. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is responsible for much, much more that transportation. The Metro's every move sends a ripple through our communities with tremendous land use impact. It is imperative that the Metro accept this huge responsibility and use its financial gravitational pull to draw the many agencies, authorities, departments, developers, and constituent groups into its sphere of influence so that we collectively work together to not only move people but to add character and substance and value to the places we enjoy at the ends of our journeys.

Metro: Be a good Steward! You own the land, you move the people, you control the money, and you have the authority. With all of this power comes equal, if not greater, responsibility.

This is an incredible opportunity for the Metro to establish a commitment to greatness, to pause and to reevaluate the Westlake/MacArthur TOD, and to reconsider the omission of cyclists in the planning mix. It's a small but significant adjustment that sets the tone for the future. Opportunity taken, we're established a standard for excellence; opportunity passed, we've cast the die for mediocrity.

It's up to the Metro.

Metro's Hollywood & Vine "Bike Room" draws the crowds!

Opening night for the Metro's Hollywood & Vine "Bike Room" drew overflow crowds of the Hollywood elite, all anxious to take part in the Metro's ongoing commitment to Transit Oriented Development. They arrived in lovely private automobiles that were parked by the valets on Hollywood Boulevard, they arrived in taxis that competed with the Metro buses for the prime real estate on Hollywood Boulevard, they arrived in limos, they even arrived on foot, and if the bike parking had been in place they might have even arrived on bicycles. No matter, there's always time in the future for the cyclists, most importantly, the beautiful people were there to celebrate the "Bike Room" ribbon cutting and to be part of the TOD scene!

The W Hollywood is a $600 million Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that features the W Hotel, complemented by the W Residences, justified by the W Apartments, perched atop the Metro's Hollywood & Vine Red Line Station, and wrapped around the Hollywood Boulevard public plaza. Critics might suggest that the public plaza is the "posterior" of the large complex, pointing to the lack of integration and connectivity as evidence to its "backside" status. (The public are asked to take Hollywood to Argyle and then to walk down to the "Motor Court" entrance to access the W Hotel. Delphine has no signage on the plaza side, instead aiming for the motoring public on Hollywood Boulevard. Those that arrive by Metro get little enticement to stay and become part of the W experience.)

As for the "Bike Room," critics have asked how a TOD project of this size can spend over a decade getting to the finish line, only to find that Metro Planning is just now asking "Where do the cyclists go?" It's only now that Metro Planning is looking to the other Metro Departments such as Real Estate, Operations, Rail, and Security and asking the tough questions such as "Who's in charge?"

None of which matters in the least to the crowds of Hollywood's finest who turned out to celebrate the impending arrival of the "Bike Room" and to celebrate the idea that pedestrians and cyclists and mass transit passengers are all "transportation heroes" at the Metro's Flagship Hollywood & Vine Red Line station.

Nestled discretely in an eastside nook, just opposite the rest rooms, is the "Bike Room." Take a look at the plywood wall (all dressed in black!) and the hasp lock (understated yet powerful!) and the fact that it is obviously closed. (Hollywood exclusivity only makes people want more!) Nothing says "Yes!" like being told "No!"

Truth be told, in spite of the overwhelming success of the "Bike Room" opening, I have a few suggestions for the Metro, which I offer in the hopes that the Hollywood & Vine Red Line station can improve and become the standard against which all other TOD projects are measured. Most importantly, this journey at Hollywood & Vine is also an opportunity for the Metro to examine its own (dis)organization and to improve systemically so that it becomes the Transportation System capable of planning and executing the 30/10 plan that would fund a dozen mega-projects, all executed within a decade by the same people who can't get bike racks installed at a Metro Station. Here are my observations and recommendations.

1) Metro Systemic Failure: The "Bike Room" non-start demonstrates that the Metro wasn't paying attention to its development partner from the beginning. The W Hollywood opened several weeks ago (complete with pictured employee bike parking) and the Metro is just now grappling with the need for to develop a plan for the proposed membership based bike parking system for the Metro station. This is not the visionary work LA needs from the Planning Department of the Metro. In fact, it demonstrates the need for the Metro to integrate and synchronize its many departments who all had a piece of this (in)action, from Real Estate to Planning to Operations to Rail to Security to Financial to the Executives who allow these people to operate without oversight or accountability. "Tear down these silos!"

2) Bike Room Location Conflict: The "Bike Room" is currently located on the east side of the plaza, in conflict with the W Hollywood and Drai's, both of which use the red carpet area as entrances to their venues and the open plaza as a holding area for crowd control. The "Bike Room" would be best used as storage for the space heaters, the barricades, the stanchion poles, and the velvet ropes that Drai's and the W use on a regular basis. The "Bike Room" is a very inhospitable room in a very inhospitable location and to stubbornly insist on shoe-horning a bike storage facility into a small room with 24" thick walls and no windows is the recipe for failure. Give it back and negotiate for a better space that will hold a flagship "Bike Room" worthy of a flagship Metro Red Line Station.

3) Install Public Bike Racks First: The "Bike Room" does not address the basic needs of the casual cyclist who needs to lock up a bike at the Hollywood & Vine Metro Station. Bike Racks must be the basic and minimum "end-of-trip" accommodations that are part of all Metro Stations. To operate without basic Bike Racks is cavalier and irresponsible. Simple Bike Racks give the most ROI for bike parking, are the most basic foundation for multi-modal transportation, and are the opening move. Fancy key-fob, private access, membership based "Bike Room" proposals fail to resonate in an environment that lacks the basics. "Start with public access inverted U racks."

4) Consider the Humans: Site surveys must take place when the public is using the common area, the public plaza. A significant amount of surface space on the west side of the plaza is made of vented grates. The women who frequent the W and Drai's tend to wear high-heels and they avoid the grates. To install inverted U racks on the cement area on the west side of the planter reduces the walkway leaving a small amount of cement and a wide swath of grates. In addition, this area is the access to the gate for the Living Room and Delphine's patio. One would presume that when the finishing touches are put on the patio area, perhaps as summer gets closer, this west side of the plaza will enjoy crowds similar to the east side. Is it necessary to put the cyclists at odds with the public simply because of especially poor planning?

5) Send in the Negotiators: It is apparent that the developer got away with little, if any, community benefit in this deal. Renegotiate now or prepare to accept defeat. The public plaza could stand to lose a planter or two, it is poorly laid out and the fact that those on a site survey are always "in the way" demonstrates that this looked good on paper but fails the simple "people" test. Take out the westside planter, put in parallel bike parking with endcaps to protect against crowds passing by, cover with an awning, and move on.

6) Get a Room: There are lots of street level spaces on Argyle. Start there and negotiate for a real facility, one that people will write home about. Set the standard for innovation. Create a "Bike Room" that offers all of the services that Hollywood needs. Would this be a location for a bike share for tourists? Would this be where people get information? Would this serve as a hub for Bike Culture? Would this be a place that offers education and encouragement for locals? Would this be the location of a Bike-Share for W guests? Would this be the location for a Bike-Share for the W residents? Would this be an opportunity to create a presence in Los Angeles for other transportation innovations such as electric bikes, cargo bikes, a bike delivery service, and a pedicab service? These questions and others should become part of a commitment to raising the standard, not lowering it, and now is the time to "Get a Room" and to fill it with ambition and innovation.

7) Protect the Walk of Fame: Both Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue are part of Hollywood's legacy. People come from all over the world to visit the Walk of Fame. Treat it with respect and take care of it. Curbside inverted U racks are great and they are always a welcome sight when looking for opportunities to lock up a bike. But curbside racks are no substitute for a bike corral that is visible, safe, effective, and protected. The W Hollywood has four sides to a five acre property. Concentrating all bike parking efforts on the northside public plaza means that Trader Joe's is opening with no bike parking. If there is no plan in place now, the solution will end up being inverted U racks on the Walk of Fame. Hardly worthy of the Metro, Gatehouse Capital, the CRA, the City of LA, Legacy Partners, the W and the cycling community who continually accept promises of "Don't worry! We've got a plan!"

8) The Bike Stops Here: Based on results, often harsh but always fair, the Metro has an abysmal track record for bike parking. Witness the Hollywood & Western "Metro Bikes" fiasco that never opened. It resulted in years of activity including the purchase of racks that have since disappeared, the hiring of an operation partner who was paid but never performed, the partnership of the CRA, the City of LA, the Developer, none of which resulted in one bike ever getting parked. Consider the recent Eastside Extension and the bike racks at the Soto Station and the Mariachi Plaza. Both stations had racks installed and in both cases the racks failed to meet the feeble Metro Bike Parking standards. The Metro doesn't spec the standards, the contractor doesn't meet the standards, the Metro doesn't inspect and the contractor doesn't correct. This casual approach must stop.

The Metro's Hollywood & Vine Red Line Station is in the middle of LA's largest Transit Oriented Development. It is here that the Metro's performance as a robust and comprehensive Transportation System must be evaluated and it is here that the Metro demonstrates its commitment to multi-modal transportation. Good, bad, or indifferent, the Metro's Hollywood & Vine Red Line Station bears witness to the Metro's relationship with the cycling community.

CityWatchLA - Metro Betrays Community

CityWatch, Mar 30, 2010

Vol 8 Issue 25

Metro Bikes at Hollywood and Western promised to serve the cycling community of Hollywood by offering bike storage and minor bike maintenance support, all as part of the Metro's multi-modal commitment to a robust and comprehensive Transportation System. Instead, it betrayed the community and demonstrated the need for a swift and thorough reorganization of LA County's regional transportation authority, the Metro.  It has been years since the Metro offered up its Hollywood & Western Red Line station property for development by the CRA which then brought in McCormack Baron to build the Metro Hollywood low-income housing and retail Transit Oriented Development (TOD) known as Metro Hollywood.

The Metro negotiated a "community benefit" component into the TOD project, the City of Los Angeles offered up the services of its General Services and Transportation Departments and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) signed on as the operator of Metro Bikes. What could go wrong?

Apparently, everything.



Several years later, the property is still empty, save for the occasional transient tenant such as the census workers who recently used it for training or the homeless who favor the comforts of the patio area.

When negotiated, the property had an estimated rental value of $3 per foot. Quite a score for the "negotiator" if only the Metro's Real Estate, Operations, Planning, Rail, Security and TDM departments could get it together and figure out who was in charge and who was accountable.

Adding to the confusion, the CRA and the City were all Metro Bikes partners when it sounded like a successful venture but when the project fizzled, nobody was in charge.

Somewhere along the way, calls to the property manager started getting referred to City Council President Eric Garcetti who had become the de facto "boss" of the two empty storefront locations on the west side of the TOD. This new relationship was confirmed in last year's CD11 press release that announced new plans for the Metro Bike operation.

Still, we wait.

The promise has been broken, the checks have been cashed, the money has been spent, the equipment has been delivered, the equipment is now gone, and the partners have all scattered.

It is imperative that the Metro demonstrate a commitment to "connectivity" that starts within the Metro organization, not in our communities. There is no chance that the Metro can connect the people of LA with a comprehensive and robust Transportation System if it can't even connect the many Metro departments within the One Gateway tower.

It is also imperative that the Metro develop oversight and accountability mechanisms so that the plans and standards that are promised to the community become a reality, not just another casualty to the Metro's silo battles.



(Stephen Box is a transportation and cycling advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net)

CityWatchLA - City Hall Rock Stars and NCs have Priorities Screwed Up

CityWatch, Jan 26, 2010
Vol 8 Issue 7

Neighborhood Councils have a charming tradition of deference at their meetings that allows elected officials, their representatives, and city staff to move to the front of the agenda for their comments and presentations. After all, "They're very busy, with places to go, with things to do, with many responsibilities!"

As for the riff-raff, the stakeholders who simply volunteer their time and talent and energy to improving the quality of life in their communities, apparently our existence is of lesser value in the grand scale of things, and typically the people who most need to hear what we have to say are long gone by the time we get to speak.

Along comes the City of LA's Budget crisis, a financial emergency of epic proportions, and the handwriting is on the wall: "The City of Los Angeles must act decisively, it must act effectively, and it must act quickly if it is to survive the current financial crisis. This means a real evaluation of LA's Bankruptcy options, a real review of LA's Pension scheme, and a real analysis to LA's commitment to the delivery of services and a systemic reorganization that ensures that LA has a future as a Great City."

It should also mean that all neighborhood council meetings start off with "The Budget" as the first item on the agenda, after all, advising the Mayor and City Council on the City Budget is one of the neighborhood council's most basic responsibilities.

In many cases, neighborhood councils have risen to the occasion, most recently when reps from over 40 councils gathered for a one-topic session where they took on the City Budget and confronted the possibility of bankruptcy, the significant impact of LA's pension obligations, and the impending threat to the continued delivery of services to the people of Los Angeles.

In that meeting it became apparent that the Budget Crisis demanded more study but the reps voted to start by taking a stand in opposition to the sale of revenue producing capital assets (specifically LA's parking meters and parking structures) as a short-term revenue gap solution.

It was hoped that the reps in attendance would take the proposed motion to the community and come back with support. In some cases, such as Sunland Tujunga and Greater Wilshire, motions were passed within days, but that was the exception, not the rule.

The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC) met four days after the "Emergency Budget Meeting" and on the agenda was a discussion of LA's Budget Crisis and a motion to "stand in opposition to the sale of revenue producing capital assets (specifically LA's parking meters and parking structures) as a short-term revenue gap solution."

Wendy Greuel, the City Controller of Los Angeles, the largest city in the most populated state in the most powerful country in the world, showed up and became the dominant player in a passionate and emotional discussion of her recent audit of the neighborhood council funding system.

This discussion became the substance of the evening and the subject of LA's Budget Crisis was simply overshadowed by Greuel's presentation of her audit.

In her cover letter introducing the audit, Greuel says:

"At the request of DONE, my office recently conducted an audit which examined how the department oversees neighborhood council expenditures,” Greuel wrote. “The findings showed that, while engagement and activism have grown, there has been a systematic failure of accounting and fiscal oversight of the neighborhood councils by DONE.”

Somehow our elected officials have become the equivalent of "local royalty" and an appearance by Wendy or Eric or Tony is certain to draw a crowd, a deferential crowd that is pleased to share an evening of scripted and managed political "handling," steering clear of information and controversy and accountability and responsibility. This takes place because we allow it to take place. It's our fault for allowing it to happen and it needs to change.

Most importantly, our elected officials need to get their priorities straight and if LA's City Controller thinks that an audit of neighborhood council funding is of greater importance than LA's Budget Crisis, then the City of LA is in big trouble. Of course, we already knew that and the evidence supports our conclusion.

Imagine if VANC had waited until Greuel showed up and then engaged in a discussion of LA's budget crisis and a call to action on the proposed motion. Imagine if that discussion and proposal had taken place with the participation of LA's City Controller. That would have been a powerful experience and an informed process and a dramatic opportunity to take action and to immediately put it in the hands of the City Controller.

The next day, City Controller Wendy Greuel could have released a letter saying "At the request of VANC, my office is conducting an audit which will examine how the City of Los Angeles oversees its budget. The findings will show how we got into this Budget Crisis and will lay down specific recommendations for addressing the threat of Bankruptcy, for confronting the Pension crisis, for ensuring the delivery of services to the people of Los Angeles and for reorganizing the City of Los Angeles so that we can function in the style worthy of a Great City!"

But that didn't happen. Instead, Greuel engaged in a robust discussion that included the intricacies and complexities of providing sandwiches for a neighborhood council meeting and the importance of getting a good sign-in sheet so that the number of sandwiches can be matched to the number of attendees. No mention was made of a policy on "seconds" or on "extra cheese" requests. Whew! This LA City Controller business must be exhausting stuff!

The City Charter says very specifically, in Sec. 909., "Annual City Budget Priorities." Each neighborhood council may present to the Mayor and Council an annual list of priorities."

This is a very good time for the neighborhood councils of Los Angeles to seize this opportunity and to get busy preparing this list of priorities.

Now is the time to offer advice on REVENUE to ask the hard questions such as "Why do the cities surrounding Los Angeles come home with higher per-capita transportation and safety and stimulus funding? Is Los Angeles looking outside Los Angeles for an increase in revenue or is it simply looking for more resident pockets to pick?

Now is the time to offer advice on BANKRUPTCY and to ask the hard questions such as "Is it possible?" and "Is it an opportunity to improve our position or would it have a negative impact?" and "What is the timeline for a decision and an action or is it simply something that happens to us rather than with us?"

Now is the time to offer advice on LA's PENSION obligations and to ask the hard questions such as "Can LA's budget be balanced under the current obligations?" and "Can the current pension obligations be renegotiated?" and "Is the City of Los Angeles obligated to continue with current commitments or are there other options?"

Now is the time to offer advice on the DELIVERY OF SERVICES and to ask the hard questions such as "Can the budget be balanced by reducing the delivery of services and if not, why is it the priority discussion?" and "Are there existing department priorities and objectives and how can the community participate in them?" and "Are city departments evaluated and held responsible according to their objectives, their priorities and their performance?"

The City Charter also says, again very specifically, in Sec. 910, "Monitoring of City Services." Neighborhood councils shall monitor the delivery of City services in their respective areas and have periodic meetings with responsible officials of City departments, subject to their reasonable availability."

Good Advice and Honest Communication fall under the category of "City Services" and the neighborhood councils need to meet with the people who have the information that we need if we are to work together to navigate this LA's Budget Crisis.

Neighborhood councils must meet with Miguel Santana. Neighborhood councils must meet with Sally Choi. Neighborhood councils must have real conversations with the people who are in charge and with the people who are advising them.

I want the people who occupy elected positions, their representative, and the people who work for the City of Los Angeles to move to the back of the agenda and I want them to sit through the meeting, I want them to listen to the stakeholders discuss the "delivery of services" in their community and I want them to come to our neighborhood meetings prepared to engage the public and to inform and advise us on LA's Budget Crisis and I want them to work with us so that the neighborhood councils can advise the Mayor and Council on the City budget. I want us to work together.

And yet, has one neighborhood council presented a "list of priorities for the City budget?"

Years ago, 56% of the neighborhood councils responded to the Mayor with their priorities for the City budget but as of last count, the number of councils who have taken an official position on the City budget and submitted it to the Mayor and the City Council is reported by the Mayor's office to be "zero." Perhaps they are wrong, it would be great to hear from the neighborhood council(s) that have reviewed the budget and agendized and discussed and taken a formal position on the budget priorities and delivered it to the Mayor and the City Council. Until then, the count is zero.

Perhaps it's time to look for the people who aren't involved in city politics and to engage the experts who surround us.

Dr. Donald Shoup of UCLA is currently in New York City presenting his "High Cost of Free Parking" book to an audience that refers to him as a "Parking Rock Star" and who go standing-room-only to get his advice. How about Los Angeles?

Allison Yoh, also of UCLA and formerly of the Metro Board, was on the Rand Corp team that developed "Moving Los Angeles: Short-Term Policy Options for Improving Transportation" which included many traffic congestion relief proposals that are also revenue generators. Why isn't Los Angeles looking to the transportation and funding "Rock Stars" for advice?


Surely there are additional "Rock Stars" out there who can offer counsel and advice to the City of Los Angeles and who can help us navigate the treacherous journey ahead. Who knows, they might even already be involved in the neighborhood council system. Of course, our elected officials will have to stay for the entire meeting if they want to hear from them.

(Stephen Box is a grassroots democracy advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net)

CityWatchLA - Sunset Boulevard: Rack ‘em!

CityWatch, Feb 24, 2009
Vol 7 Issue 16

Six months ago, Jason Michaud went to the City of LA's website and ordered bike racks, intending to offer a free beverage to customers who rode their bikes and locked them in front of Local, his new 40 seat diner on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake.

Since then, business is doing well. He now has 10 employees, seven of whom live within walking distance.

What he doesn't have is the bike racks promised by the City of Los Angeles.

Instead, he received a notice from the City of Los Angeles demanding that he add six parking spaces for cars, something that he reckons will set him back $2000 a month and that will have a devastating impact on his small business.

Ironically, Michaud opened Local with grand intentions of operating a sustainable business featuring locally sourced product, using recycled and biodegradable packaging, staffing with those from the neighborhood, advertising in the community newspapers and catering to a local clientele by encouraging them to walk, ride a bicycle or take mass transit.

"I still plan on executing those intentions," Michaud explained. "But it's much more difficult than I had envisioned and I'm not getting much help from the City. I'm a line cook who opened a restaurant and I'm just trying to figure it out."

It would seem that when a business operator works to get people out of their cars and onto their feet, a bike or a bus, the City of Los Angeles would support them rather than simply demanding "What about the parking spaces?"

There are 10,000 restaurants in the City of Los Angeles and yet there are only 3,000 curbside bike racks. Meanwhile, there are seven parking spaces for every vehicle in LA County.

If the leadership of our City is serious about supporting walkable, ridable and transit friendly communities, they'll start putting the same energy into providing the amenities that support pedestrians, cyclists and transit passengers as they put into the creation of more parking spaces.

The City of Los Angeles will be well on its way to becoming the "Greenest, Cleanest Big City "when it gets serious about getting into the business of supporting good behavior, good businesses and good people who simply want to improve the quality of life in their communities. (Stephen Box is a transportation activist and a cyclist advocate. Box writes for CityWatch.)

Good for Bikes, Good for Business! Bike Parking!

Hollywood sits right square in the middle of the universe. At least it does for me and based on the abundant crowds of people and the rampant development and the gridlock traffic, it's true for many others also.

Hollywood is the land of promises, the land of dreams, the land of hope.

It's the kind of neighborhood that urban planners had in mind when they estimated that as much as 30% of the traffic congestion is caused by motorists circling the block and searching for a parking place.

It's the kind of neighborhood that traffic engineers had in mind when they estimated that half of all motor vehicle trips were only a couple of miles in distance.

It's the kind of neighborhood that cyclists have in mind when they suggest that they would be more likely to ride their bikes if only there were end-trip accommodations. (that's another way of saying "Where are the bike racks?")

A couple of years ago, Chicago's Mayor Daley declared his city the greenest big city and went to work supporting healthy activities such as cycling by promising to install ten thousand bike racks. One can track the progress of the bike rack installation online and search by zip code and by ward and by neighborhood. The Department of Transportation has a Department of Bike Parking. Very promising!

Meanwhile, here in Los Angeles, the Department of Transportation's Bikeways Division just presented a contract to the Public Works Department for payment after a four year journey to install 700 bike racks. All this in a city with 6500 miles of streets. At a rate of one bike installed every two days at an average one per nine miles of street, it appears that the contractor did the work on foot.

Of course, this is the land of promise, not of action. This is the land of dreams, not of reality. This is the land of hope, not of results. This is the land where the LADOT paints the orange bike rack markers outside the City Council President's office 8 months ago and then never returns to install the bike racks. They then get away with complete failure to complete a simple bike rack installation.

All this on Hollywood Boulevard, the "Walk of Fame," a pedestrian oriented district and a transit hub, a community with such potential if only there were some bike racks upon which to rest a weary bike. Between La Brea Avenue and Western, there are approximately half a dozen inverted U bike racks, one of the simplest, cheapest and most effective forms of bike parking and yet so rare.

The intersection of Hollywood & Western has a few opportunities for bike parking, none of them good and all of them serving to advertise why riding a bike in Hollywood is a bad idea.

The CRA's Hollywest (Ralph's) development on the NE corner has bike parking at less than the LAMC required minimum but who's gonna bust the CRA. They elected to go with the wheel-bender bike rack and chose to instal it so that the bikes extend into the walkway. The inability to lock the frame of a bike to the rack is advertised by the remains of a bike, a wheel that remains locked to the rack.

The Metro Village (Red Line) development on the SE corner also has bike parking with two typically unused wave racks on the street level and the more popular and effective inverted U racks in the center behind a wall. There's also a bike locker for two but that's a VIP situation and the waiting list is a year long. The inverted U racks have a bike carcass still attached as a reminder to all that leaving a bike at the Hollywood & Western Red Line station is at your own risk. With empty storefronts and a patio that now serves as a campground, the station is far from a secure location for bike parking. Too bad. Such promise if only the racks were in a better position.

The Mayer Building on the SW corner has security bars on the windows and little orange paint marks that promise bike parking in the future but other than that, there is no evidence that riding a bike is an encouraged or supported behavior at the SE corner of Hollywood & Western.

The Thai Hot Dog has the best promise for bike parking with a wrought iron fence that is stretched for several yards. Patrons of the 24 porn shop have plenty of opportunity to lock up their bikes under the brightly illuminated signage and in front of the heavily trafficked popular business. Who would have thought?

Bike parking is such a simple amenity and it goes such a great distance in changing the character of a neighborhood. Putting bike racks up front in plain sight is not only a great security measure, it also encourages and reinforces cycling as a viable transportation solution.

The inverted U rack is the simplest and cheapest but there are other racks that are a bit more stylized while still offering the basic two points of frame contact and an opportunity to secure the frame with a U-lock, all while securing the bike out of the traffic lane of the pedestrians.

A little wayfinding goes a long way and serves to normalize cycling by reminding people that cyclists also have a place in the neighborhood.

Bike racks don't have to be boring and plain, they simply need to work.

Sometimes they take on a whimsical or artistic flair.

Sometimes they are a part of the public art in a public space.

They simply need to run parallel to foot traffic and offer two points of contact for the frame.

They can be converted parking meter poles.

In some lands they even protect from the elements. (I know, we don't even do that for people!)

Car spaces can be converted into bike parking with great success and look at the capacity !

Great racks in great locations are good for cyclists and good for the neighborhood and good for business!

Bike parking can also be innovative and opportunistic, such as this out of commission boat that uses the sliding racks like the ones that have been sitting unused at Hollywood & Western for a couple of years.

These bike racks have been kept under lock and key where they're safe, since 2005. Not one has been stolen.

These are some of the loneliest bike racks in the city of Los Angeles. The next closest racks are a mile to the west and a quarter mile to the east.

When in doubt, add some more racks.

Why can't we get along?

Apparently we can!

For the nature lover in all of us!

While the City of Los Angeles is full of examples such as these of weak and ineffective attempts to provide bike parking, the City Council went to work and put into place an ordinance specifying the City's bike parking standards. All that's required is the political will to implement this legislation.

From the Los Angeles Municipal Code: (LAMC 12.21-A. 16)

16. Bicycle Parking and Shower Facilities. (Added by Ord. No. 167,409, Eff. 12/19/91.) Off-street parking spaces for bicycles and facilities for employee showers and lockers shall be provided as follows:

(a) In the C and M zones, for any building, portion thereof or addition thereto used for non-residential purposes which contains a floor area in excess of 10,000 square feet, bicycle parking spaces shall be provided at the rate of two percent of the number of automobile parking spaces required by this section for such non-residential uses; provided, however, that at least one bicycle parking space shall be provided for any such building having a floor area in excess of 10,000 square feet of non-residential use. If the calculation of the number of required spaces under this paragraph results in a number including a fraction, the next highest whole number shall be the number of spaces required.

(b) The bicycle parking space requirements in Paragraph (a) shall also apply to any building, regardless of zone, owned by the City of Los Angeles and used by the City for government purposes which contains a floor area in excess of 10,000 square feet.

(c) All bicycle parking spaces required by this Subdivision shall include a stationary parking device which adequately supports the bicycle. In addition, at least half of the bicycle parking spaces shall include a stationary parking device which securely locks the bicycle without the use of a user-supplied cable or chain. Devices which hold the bicycle upright by wheel contact must hold at least 180 degrees of wheel arc.

(d) Each bicycle parking space shall be a minimum of two feet in width and six feet in length and shall have a minimum of six feet of overhead clearance.

(e) Bicycle parking spaces shall be located no farther than the distance from a main entrance of the building to the nearest off-street automobile parking space.

(f) Bicycle parking spaces shall be separated from automobile parking spaces or aisles by a wall, fence, or curb or by at least five feet of open space marked to prohibit parking.

(g) Aisles providing access to bicycle parking spaces shall be at least five feet in width.

(h) Signage which is clearly legible upon approach to every automobile entrance to the parking facility shall be displayed indicating the availability and location of bicycle parking.

(i) Showers and lockers shall be provided as required by Section 91.6307 of this Code. (Amended by Ord. No. 177,103, Eff. 12/18/05.)

It was up to the LADOT Bikeways Division to develop the standards for bike parking and they did not disappoint!
While cities such as Chicago fumble along with commitments and results, Los Angeles demonstrates its unique approach to supporting the cycling community by putting pen to paper towel and drafting some almost accurate plans for bike parking installation, closing any back doors and putting to rest any insinuations that the LADOT is insincere in its support of cycling as a valid means of transportation.

(The paper towel is actually the bike rack plan offered by LADOT Bikeways to facilitate the installation of the bike racks at the Griffith Observatory. It's hard to imagine how it resulted in the re-installation and then the re-re-installation of the racks. It looks so simple, complete with the minor error included!)

Let there be no doubt. The evidence is in! The LADOT Bikeways Division is committed to supporting the cycling community!