Here come the cyclists - "Call for Backup!"

If you ever find yourself craving a lecture on private property, a charge of trespassing, a threat of physical force, a claim to your property, and a complete insult to your intelligence, hop on a bicycle and ride over to the Museum Square building on Wilshire Blvd. Enter the parking lot on the west side of the property and try to lock up your bike. For some reason, the simple sight of a cyclist at this "professionally" managed building is enough to inflame the sensibilities of those in charge, sending the property manager and security guards into combat mode, calling for reinforcements and applying the "bicycle boot" to the offending bikes.

To be fair, this behavior is hardly unique to the Museum Square property, and is actually so prevalent that it leaves one wondering if the first day of Security 101 training consists of "Whatever you do, make sure you harass the cyclists. If you don't, they might feel welcome and then they'll come back. That will be the beginning of the end."

Our most significant "standoffs" with security have occurred when we arrived on bikes at the Harmony Gold Theater, the Arco Plaza, the Dorothy Chandler, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, Raleigh Studios, the City of LA's Marvin Braude Constituent Services Center, locations where the bike racks were either full, insufficient or broken, or simply non-existent. The "standoff" typically results when uniformed (tempted to write uninformed but that would more appropriately apply to the property manager) security forces anticipate our desire to secure our bikes in a safe location and block our efforts with threat of seizure.

Seizure?

At Harmony we brokered a truce, at Arco we acquiesced, at the Dorothy Chandler we simply ignored, at the Academy we folded, at Raleigh we cooperated, at Braude we prevailed. At the Museum Square, they have twice applied the "bicycle boot" requiring an appeal to the management for the release of the offending bicycle. (This "punishment" is also reported at Hollywood & Highland and at Westfield - Fashion Square)

Through it all, we discovered that a follow-up call to those who have a financial stake in the operation of the building or facility typically prompts an apology and an acknowledgement that their in-security forces were inappropriately zealous. This "reversal" usually follows the discovery that their staff are threatening to seize personal property and that the City of Los Angeles actually has a Municipal Code that dictates the minimum amount, the structural type, and the location of mandatory bike parking. It at this point in the conversation that some crafty property managers point out that their building is of such age that surely the muni code wouldn't apply. (Mr. John Cotter of Museum Square smugly applied this exemption) Of course, the recent building permits for the recent remodels/improvements require them to bring the facility up to code and this leaves their Certificate of Occupancy in jeopardy, a condition that does not bode well for their job security.

1) Safe, secure, and effective bike parking is simply smart. It efficiently reduces the need to accommodate motor vehicles. A simple bike corral (convert a car parking space into a protected bike parking space) will hold a dozen bikes, easily a wise trade-off and yet somehow unfathomable to those who sit and stare at parking facilities and ponder "How can I squeeze another motor vehicle into this vast wasteland of car parking?" Are the people who hassle cyclists aware that many of these facilities are also engaged in Transportation Demand Management strategies that will reduce the number of vehicle trips generated and purportedly encourage pedestrians, cyclists, mass transit passengers? Effective Bike Parking is the simple beginning of a TDM program. Aggressive and threatening behavior is the best way to kill a TDM program.

Property Managers - encourage cyclists by installing and maintaining effective bike parking.

2) There are standards for bike parking. First, "Location, Location, Location!" Second, visibility and space. Third, bike rack design. All three count, two out of three results in stolen bikes. It is imperative that the property managers engage professionals and demonstrate a simple commitment to excellence. Treat your guests and employees and patrons with a little respect, the same respect that your guards demand, and install bike parking that works. It's cheaper to do it correctly and it's so easy to demonstrate your professionalism by hiring professionals.

Property Managers - respect cyclists by providing quality bike racks in an appropriate location.

3) Bad bike racks encourage crime. The "broken windows" theory of crime prevention holds that simple and small signs send a message to criminals that an environment is either a good target or a bad target for crime. Broken bike racks, stripped bikes, racks in bad locations, seclusion and isolation are all salt licks for criminals. The Arco Towers were recently in the news as the location of a serial bike thief who spent several days stealing bikes from the same location. The bike racks are isolated, they are wheel-bender racks, they are poorly located. Based on results, often harsh but always fair, the property manager of the Arco Towers has known since last year that there was a problem but it just wasn't a priority.

Property Managers - protect cyclists by discouraging criminal activity on your property.

4) Community Policing is everybody's responsibility. Criminals look for soft targets and crime in LA is down in most categories but bike thefts are up 29% in LA, 57% in the Downtown area. Why? Because it's so easy. Because the bikes are a commodity. Because stolen bikes translate into quick cash and there is little risk of getting challenged or caught. LAPD Senior Lead Officers typically make the rounds of homeowner associations, community groups and neighborhood councils, maintaining relationships, giving updates, encouraging community policing and offering advice. Invariably, the SLO will advise the audience to remove valuables and lock their cars, depriving potential thieves of any target. Never have I heard them give any advice on how or where to lock a bike. Yet, this is the crime that is skyrocketing in Los Angeles.

Property Managers -partner with cyclists and make safety and security a priority.

Most of all, consider this; what's good for cyclists is good for the community. Improve the quality of life in your neighborhood by installing a decent bike rack and by treating cyclists with respect. Everybody benefits!

btw:

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.)

CityWatchLA - Brisbane has one, LA needs one. What’s the story?

CityWatch, Sept 8, 2009
Vol 7 Issue 72

At its heart, my Down Under Walkabout was simply a quest to connect with the people and the places that make up my past, my history, and my own personal story.

Having started in Melbourne, the Capital of Victoria, then moving through Sydney, the Capital of New South Wales, I finally arrived in Brisbane, the Capital of Queensland, the State where I was born.

My visit to Brisbane was a serendipitous journey, as I discovered the “City Machine” exhibit at the Museum of Brisbane (MoB), conveniently located on the first floor of Town Hall. Guests are invited to discover the city by examining the building blocks that make up the complex wholeness and the connectivity that keeps Brisbane humming. In short, Brisbane sets a new standard for Walkabout storytelling.

I initially visited Brisbane’s Town Hall aiming low, merely intent on visiting the Council Chambers for a moment or two of reflective contemplation on the inner workings of the city of 2 million and to catch the Lord Mayor and the City Council in action.

I was pleased enough to witness a motion to “Adjourn for afternoon tea!” The vote was unanimous and I appreciated the precision with which they concluded a lengthy debate over some monstrous funding issue exactly at 4 pm.

But as impressive as that moment in municipal synchronicity and bipartisan politics was for me, the MoB exhibit was what resonated. Overwhelmingly powerful in its effective presentation, it tells Brisbane’s story from the birth of the city, to the organizational growing pains that took it through its childhood, to its maturity as a world-class city, to its future.

Archival documents, photos, video, artifacts and relics tell the story of a community that grew in response to both crisis and opportunity, with the first demand being Public Health.

The parallels between the origins of Brisbane and Los Angeles are uncanny, with both communities organizing around the Public Works challenge of providing clean water to the residents.

In Brisbane, this resulted in the formation of the Public Works Department and in LA, it resulted in the hiring of the first municipal employee, an Indian woman who dipped water from the Zanja Madre and delivered to the local households. Thus was born the DWP.

Brisbane’s “City Machine” exhibit takes on the challenging task of turning the dry fodder of archival materials into a fast paced journey from the past to the present and into the future. Starting with simple public health challenges that motivated community organization and then moving to transportation needs, into public safety needs, and then into communications, the MoB puts a spin on the journey that brings it to life and engages the audience.

Through it all, it is rapidly apparent that as fast as the tools change, the challenges of a city remain the same. The rapid growth and maturation of the community is constantly presenting infrastructural and organizational challenges that require a highly sophisticated “City Machine” that connects, that communicates, that responds, and that has a clear mandate on purpose and on function and on process.

While both Brisbane and LA began with similar challenges and similar responses, it’s painfully apparent that the same “City Machine” metaphor has failed miserably for Los Angeles.

This past weekend, LA’s Birthday Party, typically celebrated with a 9-mile walk from San Gabriel to El Pueblo to honor the original Pobladores, was compromised by the poor air quality resulting from the Station Fire. The walk was cancelled and festivities were reduced to the minimum, proverbial icing on the municipal cake, and ironic in timing.

As Brisbane celebrates its 150th Birthday with an exhibit that honors the “City Machine,” Los Angeles cancels its Birthday celebration as it grapples with its failure to respond as a "Machine" to the Station Fire.

The Station Fire, now in its 13th day, started in Altadena and spread rapidly, throwing communities into evacuation mode and challenging the LA “City Machine.”

This time of crisis should have been the moment at which Los Angeles came together, functioning as “the Machine,” a complex assembly of many parts working in sync, communicating, connecting and concentrating energy, creating a “wholeness” and providing the leadership of LA with the mechanism to weather the storm.

Instead, the local community played a game of “Where’s Tony?” while the many departments of the City of LA followed disconnected mandates that left the locals self-evacuating under the direction and control of multiple agencies, all the while wondering “Who do you call?” as they faced life-and-death challenges.

In a situation such as the Station Fire, one would hope that the City of LA would provide proactive and effective communication to the community, instructing them on the roles the many City Departments would play in the management of the emergency, and delivered in a variety of mediums to ensure connection with the community.

One would also hope that the Department of Transportation would be on the scene, maintaining a large perimeter to keep the spectators from interfering with the evacuation and with the helicopters collecting water from the reservoir. In addition, it seems reasonable to expect that the LADOT would maintain a tight perimeter in order to keep open evacuation routes and direct local traffic.

It would also seem reasonable to have General Services and Rec & Parks on the scene, coordinating the opening of evacuation centers and communicating with the LAUSD so that people, animals and vehicles could be accommodated quickly and efficiently and safely.

A City the size of Los Angeles surely has an emergency communication network more sophisticated than a Sheriff’s car with a loud speaker rolling down residential streets, leaving a wake of “What did he just say?” as residents spent more time chasing rumors than in simply coordinating emergency response efforts.

With Community Emergency Response Teams, the Red Cross, LA’s Emergency Management Department, Neighborhood Councils, and Neighborhood Watches all standing by and ready to act, it seems that all that is missing is the mechanism for deploying the full force of “the Machine” and, of course, a leader who is available and empowered to direct “the Machine.”

Most of all, it seems fair to expect that when the largest City in the most populated State in the most powerful Country in the world is threatened with an emergency the size of the Station Fire, that it would be clear who was in charge, what the emergency plan was and how it was to be implemented.

Instead, community members from the neighborhoods most affected by the Station Fire charge that the Mayor was nowhere to be found, that communications were reactive and insignificant, that the many departments of the city who had a piece of the emergency plan were disconnected and ineffective and that there was a huge hole in the “wholeness” of LA’s “City Machine.”

All of which is in dramatic contrast to my experience in the Museum of Brisbane where the City went on record as positioning their ability to mobilize the full force of the city as the culmination of their journey and as the foundation of their vision for themselves as a world class city.

So far, my Down Under Walkabout has taken me to Melbourne, which has presented itself as the City on the Move, to Sydney which has presented itself as the City with a Vision, and to Brisbane which has presented itself as the City Machine.

As I return to my home in Los Angeles, I find myself asking “What’s LA’s story?” What is the narrative that defines us, that allows us to identify ourselves in the context of our relationship with each other, that connects us with our collective past, with our shared present and with our unified vision for the future.

These are challenging times for Los Angeles for many reasons, but most of all because we are in dire need of a leader who can deliver and direct a “City Machine” that functions effectively, with the many complex parts humming in sync, connecting us, and taking us into the future.

(Stephen Box is a transportation advocate and an observer of Los Angeles’ political and government system. And, he writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at Stephen@ThirdEyeCreative.net) ◘