Workin' on bikes at the Bikerowave (Photo credit: Alex Thompson, licensed through Creative Commons.)

 The Bikerowave is now looking for a new space! According to co-founder Alex Thompson:

We seek 800+ sq. ft, with high ceilings, and potentially a store front.   Bikerowave is based in West LA, so locations West of the 405 and North of Washington Blvd are ideal.  Unfinished industrial space, and odd spaces are welcome.  Our present rent is $1350 per month, and we probably be unable to pay more than $2000 per month.  If you have resources or leads, please email locationhunt@bikerowave.org.

I know it’s a rough time in our local and national economy, but if you spot any possible storefronts that might be perfect for the Bikerowave, drop them a line!

Palm Trees outside Union Station, photo taken by yours truly!

That’s right, guys. It’s now February and Los Angeles has now experienced maybe–maybe–two weeks worth of winter. According to the National Weather Service, yesterday was a wonderful 77 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, with the rest of our fine city peaking in the mid 80s. In the middle of winter.

How are you enjoying our notoriously fine weather?

The LA County Bicycle Coalition has a post up about the news. And all I have to say is this:

Hallelujah.

Huzzah! Right? Right?

Not so fast:

But Cortines said he does not want to make the cuts now because state lawmakers have not yet crafted a deal to address the state budget deficit, and he doesn’t want to disrupt classrooms halfway through the school year. He also noted a high number of district teachers have expressed interest in early retirement.

In a written statement to teachers, faculty, staff and the community, Cortines warned that this decision only delays the inevitable need for layoffs down the line.

“To guide us in our difficult decision making, we will have a plan to present to the Board of Education and community by the end of February 2009,” Cortines wrote. “I want to be clear that this plan will not be comfortable and will result in layoffs at every level of the district.”

Bummer. Thankfully my brother just got out of the LAUSD, but it’s a sad state of affairs when we’re laying off teachers. Any of you a teacher in the LAUSD? Any have less than two years worth of experience? (That’s who the layoffs are targetting.

I can count 8 firetrucks and 4 LAPD cars over on Coronado and Wilshire. There are more coming.

Anyone else in the area hear it? Know what it was?

(Note: I am not a douchey “I HATE ALL CARS” commuter and I also don’t think this project should exclude those who drive to work. By all means, everyone should participate!)

KCET’s “SoCal Connected” division is doing a piece on commuting in the large and lovely city of Los Angeles. They’re asking people to either submit photos or a video of your commute method, the distance, and the length of time it takes for you to get there.

There’s a great example of the kind of video they’re looking for on the Streetsblog article and on KCET’s SoCalConnected Page. The SoCal Connected team had given 5 cameras to five different commuters in LA for them to document their journey both to and from their place of work. They’re asking for the same type of content from citizens:

We’d like to add your photos and video of your commutes to our map next week. Here are two ways to contribute:

Shoot and upload a video to YouTube. Once your video is up, tag it with “KCETCOMMUTE” and send us a message at our Youtube account KCETOnline.

Shoot and upload a photograph to the SoCal Connected Flickr Group. No need for special tagging or messaging, just join our group and it to the pool!

Make sure your videos and photos clearly indicate where they where taken – intersection is great, but full street address is better – so that we know where to put it on the map!

I think I’ll make a video tonight! I commute a little over 6 miles in each direction by the power of my trusty bicycle. How do you commute in LA? Ever made any significant changes to your method of transportation?

Yesterday’s action fair was organized by quite a few grassroots organizations and heavily promoted through JoinTheImpact’s activist network. All of this was also advertised under a national protest against DOMA: the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Signed into law in 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton, it prohibits same-sex marriages from EVER being recognized by the federal government, effectively delegating the decision to individual states. President-elect Barack Obama promised during his campaign to repeal the law and the event was organized to remind Obama (and his supporters) of the promises made.

Display of LGBT activist pins at the LGBT Action Fair

The fair was held in the West Hollywood Community Center and about 15 various organizations set up shop to explain their purpose, recruit new activists, and show off their unique methods of spreading awareness and empowering the community.

I showed up around 4pm (due to two catastrophic tube failures during my ride to WeHo) and was surprised to find the hall full and brimming with activity. (This only exponentially increased in the next two hours.) I was surprised because I expected this movement to be dying out. It’s been over two months since Prop 8 was passed; even if the Supreme Court still hasn’t heard the full arguments against it and even if there’s still a chance that it will get overturned, time dilutes passion. And with few things left for the citenzry to actual do themselves, the new civil rights movement was bound to lose steam.

But this simply isn’t true, and the LGBT Action Fair proved that grassroots political action is alive and well.

Gabriel Avila of the YPC discusses the importance of youth activism

Gabriel Avila, who represented the Young Professionals Council, a part of the Gay and Lesbian Center, was on hand to help recruit a vital demographic that will help keep this movement alive: youth. “The Young Professionals Council is concerned primarily with empowering the youth in Los Angeles,” he said. “The truth is that, while 80% of our funds come from patrons over 60, we need the youth energy to stay alive.” The YPC spoke to people about how to get involved in a grassroots organization, how to use the Gay and Lesbian Center in LA to provide for the gay youth in the city, and how the Center provides outreach to the community.

The Courage Campaign was also present to help give people an outlet to express their distaste with Proposition 8. I spoke with one of the organizers, David Fleck, about why the Courage Campaign was so interested in supporting the marriage rights of Californians. “We’re essentially the California equivalent of MoveOn.org,” Fleck explained. “Our primary goal is to help other organizations. We believe that California should be a progressive state. And when we take the rights away from a minority, we believe that progressive state has been threatened.”

“We don’t just support marriage equality,” he continued. “We support a wide range of issues; it’s just that this one is an immediate concern of ours.” The group was present at the fair and had interested parties pose for individualized photos that read, “Please Don’t Divorce _______________.” (Fill-in-the-blanks, of course.)

The Courage Campaign's visual project.

The event closed with a few enthusiastic guest speakers in West Hollywood Park, including mayor Jeffrey Prang, as well as a live presentation of Marc Shaiman’s “Prop 8: The Musical.” And it was a smart move ending the event on such a positive note. (Not that the event was ever negative.) The LGBT Action Fair demonstrated the tenacity, the effectiveness, and the rare power that a grassroots organization can bring to a movement. Even though the event was scattered with different methods of spreading awareness, providing different techniques as an outlet for anger and passion, and was home to a variety of opinions on the status of our movement. However, everyone had the same goal and, for a group so disparate and varied, this is precisely what the No on 8 campaign missed out on. By not including virtually any grassroots organizations in their campaign, a golden opportunity was missed: the opportunity to tap into a wealth of talent, ingenuity, creativty, and passion.

The quest for human rights was bursting with passion in West Hollywood this weekend. Let’s hope that those who are battling for our rights in the courts and on the streets start recognizing this.

Young Professionals Council website: http://laglc.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=YC_YPC

Courage Campaign website: http://www.couragecampaign.org/

Damien over at Streetsblog just broke the news that, thankfully, Police Chief William Bratton has recommended that the LAPD discontinue our fractured bicycle license program and the stilted enforcement of it that has followed.

In the chief’s own words:

I recommend that we follow other large municipalities and discontinue our bicycle licensing program. Additionally, I have directed that Emergency Operations Division develop correspondence implementing an immediate moratorium on the enforcement of Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) section 26.01 requiring that all bicycles within the City be licensed. It is important to note that per Information and Communications Services Bureau, they were only able to identify five such citations issued by Department personnel. If this recommendation is approved, the Department will move forward with eliminating the City’s bicycle licensing

requirement (LAMC section 26.01).

As someone who spent nearly two weeks trying to get a bike license after I saw my fellow riders get slammed with fairly expensive tickets for not having one, I am elated that our police chief is finally making some much-needed sense. The tickets, which carried a fine of $160, became a new department priority back in August and I was personally a witness to the absurdity of the ticket process on a Midnight Ridazz ride, where ridazz were harassed for not having licenses.

Since that incident, I was once pulled over by an LAPD officer and asked to show my bike license. (No, seriously. Seriously.) Of course, I’d already been to the Parker Center downtown in Skid Row Central Division three times before that and managed to finally catch the department prepared the third time. (Yes, you read that right. Two previous times I’d tried to obey the law and license my bike and the Parker Center simply did not have a single license to give out. !!!!!!!!!!!)

If the system were more organized, available online, available everyday, available at every police station, and wasn’t used to harass riders, I might support it. But it was enforced without logic and without public safety in mind.

If the department does discontinue the program: Good riddance.

You can read the full report here. (pdf)

If you don’t know me at all, which is probably the case for 98% of you, O HAI! Anyway you look at it, there’s a common theme: Good lord, I love the internet. So when there were open calls for writers for LA Metblogs, I jumped at the chance to work alongside people I’ve come to know and respect. And here I am, your newest writer for LA Metblogs!

I’m hoping that I can bring my own unique experience of living in LA (I was born here) to you guys in the hopes of connecting us and creating a greater understanding of this large, (sometimes) intimidating, and (always) fascinating city.

Hello all! My first REAL post will be on Sunday. So if you go to the DOMA/anti-prop 8 rally in West Hollywood on Saturday and you see my grimey face trying to snap photos, say hello. :)

And now, a giant picture of said face:

Thanks for the opportunity, and I’m excited! EXCITED!!!!1!!1!1!