I just blogged earlier this morning on the blog for UCLA Transportation about the launch party for Bruins for Traffic Relief, the student transportation/transit advocacy org on campus. I was a member last year, and learned a LOT about the ins and outs how transportation and land use decisions are made in the city.
Students, I learned, can have an immense amount of influence by bringing up issues that might otherwise be ignored, or simply unaddressed.
The article:
Bruins for Traffic Relief launch party « Be A Green Commuter Home
- Sirinya MA '09
Bruins for Traffic Relief launch party « Be A Green Commuter Home
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Categories:
Events,
Organizing,
Student Work,
transportation
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comments
City official gives up his Hummer in a race to City Hall - latimes.com
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Categories:
Sustainable,
transportation
BruinPlanners is under construction
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Categories:
Meta
Pardon the dust... Niall, David and Jeremy are playing around with various themes, appearance settings and images to refresh the look of the site. Should be spiffy and new-looking later today!
Chilled by Choice
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Categories:
Green Building,
Sustainable
This was a neat little piece on people who choose to live in unheated homes from a couple of weeks ago in The New York Times. An extreme manifestation of green urbanism, perhaps? They certainly minimize their home heating-related emissions, but the experience of the woman on the last page seems to imply a tradeoff (she has to keep her sink dripping and toilet constantly running so as to keep the pipes from freezing).
Of course, these people could avoid both high heating bills and frigid temperatures just by moving to LA... ;-)
Photo credit: Beatrice de Gea/The New York Times
UMore Park: a master planned sustainable community
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Categories:
Design,
Green Street,
land use,
Master Plan,
Sustainable
The University of Minnesota is planning a 5,000 acre development that will house 20,000-30,000 people when it's all said and done. The street layout is a modified grid that includes mixed land use. The plan also includes a jobs and housing balance which will create better walk-ability in order to reduce auto dependency. It's set to be fully built out in 25-30 years. So will it be the northern Seaside, Florida?
Take a look here: http://www.umorepark.umn.edu/
LA City to Eliminate Neighborhood Council Budgets?
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Categories:
Governance,
Organizing,
Public Finance
LA CAO Miguel Santana will propose the total elimination of neighborhood council budget allocations (plus the sweeping of all rollover funds in council budgets) tomorrow, February 1st at 1pm at the City Council Budget and Finance Committee Council Chamber. Room 340, City Hall. If you can't make the meeting, email the members of this committee to share your opinion:
Councilmember Bernard C. Parks, Chair COUNCILMEMBER.PARKS@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Greig Smith COUNCILMEMBER.SMITH@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Greig Smith COUNCILMEMBER.SMITH@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Bill Rosendahl COUNCILMAN.ROSENDAHL@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember José Huizar COUNCILMEMBER.HUIZAR@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Paul Koretz PAUL.KORETZ@LACITY.ORG
Councilmember Paul Koretz PAUL.KORETZ@LACITY.ORG
From Budget LA Press Release:
Neighborhood Council Representatives
Deliver Statement to City Hall
"Honor the City Charter!"
LOS ANGELES – Neighborhood Council representatives from throughout the city are headed to City Hall to call on the Mayor and the City Council to honor the City Charter which established the neighborhood council system and which mandates appropriate funding. They take with them a BudgetLA Statement that says "At this time of financial crisis for the City, the solutions require a partnership between the elected officials at City Hall and the elected representatives of our 90 neighborhood councils."
Neighborhood Councils exist to advise the Mayor and the City Council on City Budget priorities, to monitor the delivery of services, and to involve the community in the governance of the City of Los Angeles. The Charter goes so far as to call for periodic meetings with responsible officials of City departments.
As the CAO's "City Restructuring Proposals" are considered by the Budget and Finance Committee on Monday afternoon, Neighborhood Council leaders will stand in defense of the neighborhood council system and will position the NC system as a Funding Solution, a Communication Solution, and as a Community Building Solution. Ultimately, the NC system is an ASSET, not a LIABILITY, and it is protected by the City Charter. To that end, neighborhood councils stand as partners with the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Staff in working together for "An LA that Works!"
BudgetLA has hosted two emergency workshops which have drawn 110 different members from 47 different neighborhood councils, all focused on working together to take on bankruptcy, pensions, the delivery of city services and the reorganization of the city system. The BudgetLA position starts with two basic premises, that "everything is on the table and must be considered as we work together to solve the budget crisis, and that neighborhood councils must be at that table as partners in the process.
The NC reps have taken a full-spectrum approach to the budget crisis and believe that it is essential that the community engage with our elected officials as well as city staff to pursue Revenue innovations along with Pension reform while maintaining prioritized delivery of City Services and the implementation of Organizational improvements, all of which work together to guarantee that Los Angeles take its place as a Great City.
This past Saturday, BudgetLA opened with Alex Rubalcava who addressed LA's future on "The Road to Bankruptcy." It also featured Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's GM, BongHwan Kim and his "Vision for Neighborhood Councils" presentation. Visit CityWatchLA for a details on Saturday's BudgetLA workshop. BudgetLA will meet again on Saturday, February 13 and on Saturday, February 27 at Hollywood City Hall. Both BudgetLA sessions will start at 10:00 am.
Press Conference
Monday, February 1, 2010 12:30 pm
City Hall Rotunda
200 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Budget & Finance Committee
Monday, February 1, 2010 1:00 pm
City Council Chambers
200 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Deliver Statement to City Hall
"Honor the City Charter!"
LOS ANGELES – Neighborhood Council representatives from throughout the city are headed to City Hall to call on the Mayor and the City Council to honor the City Charter which established the neighborhood council system and which mandates appropriate funding. They take with them a BudgetLA Statement that says "At this time of financial crisis for the City, the solutions require a partnership between the elected officials at City Hall and the elected representatives of our 90 neighborhood councils."
Neighborhood Councils exist to advise the Mayor and the City Council on City Budget priorities, to monitor the delivery of services, and to involve the community in the governance of the City of Los Angeles. The Charter goes so far as to call for periodic meetings with responsible officials of City departments.
As the CAO's "City Restructuring Proposals" are considered by the Budget and Finance Committee on Monday afternoon, Neighborhood Council leaders will stand in defense of the neighborhood council system and will position the NC system as a Funding Solution, a Communication Solution, and as a Community Building Solution. Ultimately, the NC system is an ASSET, not a LIABILITY, and it is protected by the City Charter. To that end, neighborhood councils stand as partners with the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Staff in working together for "An LA that Works!"
BudgetLA has hosted two emergency workshops which have drawn 110 different members from 47 different neighborhood councils, all focused on working together to take on bankruptcy, pensions, the delivery of city services and the reorganization of the city system. The BudgetLA position starts with two basic premises, that "everything is on the table and must be considered as we work together to solve the budget crisis, and that neighborhood councils must be at that table as partners in the process.
The NC reps have taken a full-spectrum approach to the budget crisis and believe that it is essential that the community engage with our elected officials as well as city staff to pursue Revenue innovations along with Pension reform while maintaining prioritized delivery of City Services and the implementation of Organizational improvements, all of which work together to guarantee that Los Angeles take its place as a Great City.
This past Saturday, BudgetLA opened with Alex Rubalcava who addressed LA's future on "The Road to Bankruptcy." It also featured Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's GM, BongHwan Kim and his "Vision for Neighborhood Councils" presentation. Visit CityWatchLA for a details on Saturday's BudgetLA workshop. BudgetLA will meet again on Saturday, February 13 and on Saturday, February 27 at Hollywood City Hall. Both BudgetLA sessions will start at 10:00 am.
Press Conference
Monday, February 1, 2010 12:30 pm
City Hall Rotunda
200 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Budget & Finance Committee
Monday, February 1, 2010 1:00 pm
City Council Chambers
200 Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Good Infographics - TTI Congestion Info
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Categories:
transportation
Designer Oliver Munday, looks at traffic in a few major U.S. metropolitan areas, and what the municipalities are doing to combat the congestion. See it here: http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1001/ibm-traffic/flash.html
Check this out...
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Categories:
Design,
transportation
this is a good waste of time:
http://weburbanist.com/2010/01/18/more-than-fit-to-sit-15-clever-bench-ads/
http://weburbanist.com/2010/
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