MetroRiderLA

This Saturday, Pam O’Connor will talk about her year as Chair of the Metro Board, Metro’s future transit plans, and other issues… and take your questions as well, as the Southern California Transit Advocates continue their 2008 Speakers’ Series. Kymberleigh Richards, SO.CA.TA’S Public and Legislative Affairs Director, will be moderating the chat so you’re more likely to get your questions answered than Metro’s Pam chats.

From the link:
Pam O’Connor, member of the Metro Board of Directors, will be the guest speaker at the August 9 meeting.

Ms. O’Connor, who has just completed a one-year term as Chair of the Metro Board, has served on the Santa Monica City Council since 1994 and has served three terms as that city’s mayor.

Southern California Transit Advocates holds general membership meetings at Angelus Plaza, 255 S. Hill St., in the fourth floor meeting room. The meeting begins at 1:00pm and Ms. O’Connor will speak at 2:15pm. The general public is welcome to attend.

The location is transit accessible by about 50 bus lines and the Red/Purple Line, or if you insist on driving, parking is $5.00.

It should be of no surprise that I’m late on this, but as I’m sure many of you know, this Thursday, May 22nd, The Seaside Institute is holding a workshop called Street Smart: Streetcars and Cities in the 21st Century based on the book of the same name. The workshop will be held at The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.

A summary of the event from the Seaside Institute:

The spectacular success of the Portland streetcar has revolutionized the way cities think about transit and development by stimulating $3.5 billion in investment in two new neighborhoods near Portland’s downtown. The brand new Seattle streetcar is having similar success in South Lake Union. San Francisco’s F-Line streetcar has played an important role in the rebirth of the Embarcadero as a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood since the freeway was taken down. And streetcars have promoted economic development and investment in walkable, higher-density, mixed-use neighborhoods in communities as diverse as Tampa, Little Rock, and Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Streetcars are a boon for pedestrians and streetlife, link disparate places into “someplace,” connect to regional transit systems and promote ridership, and create sustainable communities where it’s possible to live without a car. Streetcars are cheaper than other rail transit (affordable even for small cities), fit easily into built environments, they’re energy efficient, and they are strong and proven economic development engines for revitalizing neighborhoods.

Hear about the success of the most robust new streetcar systems at the last of four national workshops, hosted by the national nonprofit Reconnecting America and the Seaside Institute. Speakers from around the country will talk about the political and funding strategies that are getting new streetcar systems built, and all the benefits of these public-private partnerships.

The workshop begins at 7:30am on Thursday with a continental breakfast provided. Council members Jose Huizar and Jan Perry, along with Glenn Wasserman from the Community Redevelopment Agency, will kick things off at 8:00am. Gloria Ohland, author of the book that inspired the workshop, will then talk about why streetcars are more important now than ever. The rest of the day will consist of a number of panel discussions with business leaders, politicians, and stakeholders about the previous successes of streetcars in places like Portland and the potential for that success to be repeated in Downtown Los Angeles.

Unfortunately I’m posting this so late that online registration has closed, but apparently it’s still possible to register via fax, phone, or at the door. Residents, businesses, and property owners in the City of Los Angeles can attend the event for $25. Students get in for free. For all others, entrance to the workshop is $75. Breakfast, lunch, and reception is included in the price.

This MetroRider is likely to attend, so stay tuned for a report.

Pam from Santa Monica took a break from chatting with us last month as Metro’s software gurus worked on improving the
chat interface.  It seems the work is done and Pam is returning tomorrow to chat about toll roads, congestion pricing, taxes, and public transportation.

Also returning is the ill-fated Anti-Pam Chat held by none other than MetroRiderLA.  The APC started last month, but failed to attract many chatters, most likely because there was no actually Pam Chat held.  Hopefully if you’re tuning into Pam’s chat tomorrow over at Metro Interactive you’ll open up the MetroRiderLA Forum in another tab or window and chat with us concurrently.  The plan is to critique the questions asked and Pam’s answers to those questions, and perhaps come up with some good questions of our own.  In addition to the Shout Box located on the sidebar, I’ve started a new thread on the forum where you can share your thoughts for the Anti-Pam Chat.

So tomorrow at noon make sure to load up your browsers and head to both the Pam and Anit-Pam Chat for some chatteriffic Metro chatting.

Confession. I bought a Nintendo Wii. There are already too few hours in the day to do what I need and want to do (as evidenced by the sporadic posting around here lately), and yet, I bought a Nintendo Wii. As if writing a Metro blog wasn’t enough of a distraction from trying to make my freelance graphic design business the kind of venture that pays my bills, I had to go and buy a Nintendo Wii.

So here’s how my Wednesday was shaping up. I had a plate full of work, a lack of sleep from the previous night, a Nintendo Wii cooing my name in the other room, and on top of all that, some dude was supposed to talk about urban rail over at Metro Headquarters. Talk about a dilemma. Do I do the responsible thing and work through lunch, ensuring (at least temporarily) my financial future? Do I abuse my home office and take a nap? Do I falter to the Wii’s incessant pleading and waste the rest of my day playing fake doubles tennis against a bunch of virtual Weebles? Or do I put blog before work and go check out Jeff Kentworthy, co-author of Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence, over at Metro HQ.

Yes loyal readers, I sacrificed work (easy), napping (harder), and the Wii (damn near impossible), to learn about the advantages of urban rail. The following is a record of what I learned as to ensure my choice was not in vain.

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Jeff Kenworthy, co-author of Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence and professor of Sustainable Cities at Curtin University (Australia), will be speaking tomorrow (Wed. April 30th) at noon in the Metro Board Room at One Gateway Plaza (the Taj Mahal).

This special talk is sponsored by the L.A. Eco-Village, CRSP Institute for Urban Ecovillages, Sierra Club, Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust, and So.CA.TA.

He’ll bring us up to date on all the latest research on rail in the major cities of North America, Australia, Europe and Asia comparing high, median and low rail cities with respect to a variety of quality of life issues, competitiveness with cars, comparative urban form, and economics. Lots of inspiring pictures on how to do things differently in Los Angeles. The presentation will help us see that urban rail systems are a critical element in building effective multi-modal public transport systems that create a ‘virtuous circle’ in public transport and compete more successfully with the car.

The talk also shows that cities that are more rail-oriented tend to develop better qualitative features of the urban environment such as more livable, attractive and congenial people-oriented public spaces.

This sounds like a very interesting event for those interested in urban planning, automobile dependency, and the future of rail in Los Angeles.

Elsewhere:

• The Ten Myths About Automobile Dependency by Peter Newman & Jeff Kenworthy [PDF]

Today I decided to be all green and jump on the Purple Line to go the Wilshire Center Earth Day Celebration down at Wilshire/Western.

I’m not a particularly “green” dude in that I don’t really care about Mother Earth and Gaia and Saving The World and all that crap. I do, from an economic standpoint, appreciate the logic of conservation and dislike the idea of unnecessary waste. I don’t own a car because I don’t think it’s a very effective or economical mode of transportation in Los Angeles, nor do I like the burden of having to store and maintain a 2-ton multi-thousand dollar piece of machinery on my own. I work enough, thank you very much, and I like to get paid for my work, not pay out the ass for it.

This being said, my transit oriented lifestyle has invariably led me to terms like “green” and “sustainability” as well as events like “Earth Day”. I’ll admit, this is the first Earth Day anything I’ve been to since probably 3rd grade when my class made various ecological shapes out of construction paper to paste on the halls of the school. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I walked out of Wilshire/Western and onto a car-free Wilshire Boulevard.

What I got was a bunch of hippies selling crap.

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