Streetsblog New York City

Eddie Solis leaves the Metro Red Line, which serves as one part of his hour-long commute from his day job in Hollywood to his home in Boyle Heights. Much of the inspiration for his band It's Casual comes from his observations as a car-free bus and subway rider, and a skateboarder. Photo courtesy of Eddie Solis

A few weeks ago, the hardcore band It’s Casual posted “The Red Line” music video on Youtube and quickly caught the attention of local and national blogs for it’s simple yet creative critique of Los Angeles freeways. A resident of Boyle Heights, guitarist and vocalist Eddie Solis sat down with Streetsblog to talk about how his car-free lifestyle inspires his music and how he encounters the smell of Boyle Heights tortilla factories on his morning walks.

You do a lot of music that’s very transit oriented; can you explain why you went that route?

Sometimes I think there’s a lot of content out there that’s too, I want to say, too fiction. Kind of make believe. And I notice all my favorite music that hits home to me in my heart and that I kind of step back and see these bands still going… are bands that write timeless music with timeless contact that basically come from the truth of actual events and someone’s perspective. So I said I really want to find an avenue and report on it. And I go, wait, you know what, my daily commute. I see LA different because I take the bus and subway everywhere. And the freeways are just sitting there, and people are in their cars just frustrated about it, but I’m just like sightseeing everyday. So I took that concept and said, “You know what, I’m basically going to report on what I see and interpret it.”

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Watch here without subtitles.

After sponsoring Streetfilms of the first two CicLAvias, the open streets festival in Los Angeles based on Bogota’s Ciclovia, Streetsblog LA faced a dilemma: How can we continue to cover this event that draws over a hundred thousand Angelenos to the streets?  The answer: Make a Streetfilm that was accessible to Southern California’s large Spanish-speaking population.

¡Viva CicLAvia! consists of two parts. First, narrator Mara Corina Arellano Colin explains the history and concept of Los Angeles’s amazing open streets party, including footage and photos from similar festivals in Bogota, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Brussels and Miami. While the narration is a great explanation of the benefits and culture of CicLAvia, the soul of Social Impact Consulting’s efforts are the interviews with participants.

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The song and video vent anger at conditions on Los Angeles’ freeways and depict the benefits of finding other ways to travel. Lead singer Eddie Solis screams his rage while shots of congested traffic and a physically divided city assault the senses. Finally, Solis shouts “THE RED LINE” over and over again while rocking out in a subway car.

The best part is that Solis is legitimately car free, or “unlicensed” as the band’s myspace page says. In addition to a “hard plastic seat,” Solis also travels around on his trusty skateboard.

Last week Streetsblog LA talked with UCLA Professor and parking guru Donald Shoup about ExpressPark, the new parking pricing system coming to downtown Los Angeles.

Damien Newton: Los Angeles is changing the way it does parking in its downtown. They’re calling it the ExpressPark system. Let’s start with the basics — what is the program and what are your thoughts?

Donald Shoup: For the first time they’re stating how they’re going to set parking prices. Instead of basing it on council decisions or emotions or people’s feelings, they stated a principal. Parking at a meter will be at the lowest price they can charge and still have one or two open spaces on every block.

If they get that price right, then those spaces will be well used because almost all the spaces will be full. Yet there will be spaces readily available because one or two spaces will be open.

Can it get any better than that as a goal for the parking system?

The key is, can you set the right price without looking at the results even though the results are what’s going to count when setting the price.

DN: This marks a shift in policy for the city that seemed to base parking decisions based on what brings in the most revenue.

DS: It hadn’t been about that even, until quite recently.

You may remember a few years ago they doubled the price of parking everywhere in the city with a minimum price of a dollar an hour. Since most meters were at a quarter an hour, that meant quadrupling the price at most meters. That was the first time meter prices had been changed in eighteen years.

There’s been a lot of neglect of parking meters. Inertia seemed to be the main factor in determining parking prices.

They’re changing that by saying, “Here’s the rule. If half the spaces on a block are empty, we’re going to lower prices. If all the spaces are full we’re going to raise prices.” Since the price change two years ago, I’ve seen entire blocks where there isn’t one car parked. The price is too high.

I think a lot of prices would go down if they extend express park to the whole city. They’re starting in downtown, but I suspect that some prices will go down.

DN: One of the tenets of “The High Cost of Free Parking” is that money collected from meters should be returned to the communities where it was collected. L.A.’s plan returns all metered funds to the general fund. Is that a mistake by the city? Does it give you any misgivings about the plan altogether?

DS: That’s what they’re planning in L.A., they’re not planning on funneling any of the money back to the neighborhood?

That’s a mistake. When you funnel back to the neighborhood you get local buy-in and you get wonderful results.

Pasadena returns all of the metered money back into the neighborhood for decades and they turned the local neighborhood that used to be a commercial skid row into one of the most popular shopping destinations in Southern California. The meters brought in an extra million dollars a year in public services in just that little shopping district. They replaced all the sidewalks, streetlights and street furniture. They cleaned up the allays. They put electric wires underground. This was all paid for by meters.

But that’s a political issue. I think that getting the price right is also very important.

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GOOD Magazine recently examined the role that the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s City of Lights program has taken in giving voice to the overlooked and under-represented bicyclists. A program that started by handing out lights to immigrant cyclists and has become a national model for bicycle advocacy by focusing its efforts on safety to those underserved by government.

The above film, by Spot.us reporter and producer Alex Schmidt, is intended as a companion piece to the article in GOOD. The video does a great job explaining what City of Lights is really fighting for. They’re not dedicating their lives to improving conditions and resources for immigrant cyclists because they think cycling is great and fun. They’re doing it because making it attractive and safe to bicycle gives a new freedom to a population that is by and large car-free by necessity.

Taken in concert, the story and article do a great job outlining the twin challenges faced by City of Lights. How does one get the city to address the needs of “invisible cyclists,” and how do you reach out to a long-ignored community?

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For Angelenos, Sunday was a day that we’ll never forget. Our first Open Streets party was an unparalleled success.  So much so that even the critics of the concept grudgingly came on board when it was obvious that they missed the boat on supporting and experiencing a groundbreaking day.

The Los Angeles Times estimates that 100,000 people took to the streets to celebrate CicLAvia.  Of course, that number doesn’t count all of the residents that sat on their porches or balconies and enjoyed the car-free festival environment that permeated the air.

But perhaps the image that will remain after these festivals become the norm will be L.A.’s suddenly bike-friendly mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, hopping on a bike and pedaling away from Hollenbeck Park at the start of the festival with a smile on his face and a shout of joy coming from his heart.

“Let’s Go!”  he shouted as he took off to celebrate the day. Hopefully Sunday was the turning point for Los Angeles as we all go into our clean transportation future.

(This film was shot by Robin Adams and was funded entirely through Streetsblog LA reader donations.)

On the fourth Sunday of every month, cyclists take to the streets of Los Angeles for the "Black Kids on Bikes" (BKoB) ride. BKoB is part of a series of events called "Freedom Rides," aimed at getting more black Angelenos to enjoy the unique experience of group cycling. BKoB aims to provide a safe, fun venue for kids to ride the streets. Despite the name, the rides are open to cyclists of all races, ages, and skill levels.

The ride is the brainchild of organizer James Spooner, who wears many hats. Some know him as a Bikerowave volunteer, others as a tattoo artist. Still others know him as the groundbreaking film maker responsible for the 2003 cult film "Afro-Punk."

When it comes to making a public commitment to taming lawless driving and making streets safe for biking, police departments in major west coast cities are starting to leave Ray Kelly's NYPD in their wake.

Advocates in Los Angeles recently started regular meetings with LAPD about traffic enforcement, crash responses, and other issues related to cyclist safety. Police chief Charlie Beck pledged at a City Council hearing last month to "change the culture" at LAPD with respect to cycling.

In San Francisco, police chief George Gascon has pledged to improve communication between SFPD and local cyclists. Making good on a commitment he made to Streetsblog San Francisco editor Bryan Goebel last September, Gascon recently joined a group of bicycle advocates for a short ride and agreed to go for a second ride later this year. Clarence Eckerson captured the occasion for posterity. He reports:

The chief's message isn't complicated. "We all need to co-exist," and motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists need to respect each other's rights and safety, he says. He's working toward fostering that goal through education and establishing a liaison to the cycling community.

Yes, what we're seeing in L.A. and San Francisco so far is largely symbolic, but you've got to start somewhere, and advocates in both cities say they're encouraged by the sincerity of these first steps from police.

In New York, the most common police-cyclist interactions seem to be stings that target cyclists for non-offenses, like riding outside the bike lane. While NYPD precinct chiefs say they don't single out cyclists, they also seem to base their enforcement decisions in large part on who complains the loudest at community meetings, not necessarily what poses the greatest danger on the streets. Meanwhile, crashes that injure and kill cyclists seldom result in prosecution, and the department keeps a tight lid on its investigations, shielding important information from public view.

Maybe police would see things differently if they biked down Adams Street to the Brooklyn Bridge, negotiating all the double-parked cars and impatient motorists. So here's a standing invitation to Commissioner Ray Kelly, Chief of Patrol James Hall, and traffic chief James Tuller: Come for a ride, see what it's like to bike the streets of New York.

NYCDOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is in Los Angeles this weekend for the StreetSummit, a gathering of Southern California bike and pedestrian advocates. In a lead-in to the conference, Sadik-Khan spoke at her alma mater, Occidental College, and Clarence Eckerson and Streetsblog LA's Damien Newton were there.

Speaking to a packed house of advocates, planners, and students, Sadik-Khan described how New York's streets are becoming safer and more sustainable. Damien reports that the changes happening here are raising expectations on the other side of the country:

The real message of the evening was that Angelenos, especially our government leaders and transportation bureaucrats, shouldn't be scared of trying something new. After all, the transportation planning for Los Angeles up to now clearly hasn't worked...

As Sadik-Khan talked about how easy it is to make some of these changes, some in the room got a little queasy. It's easy to paint bus-only lanes? Sorry, that takes decades of studies and environmental reviews. NYCDOT has a goal of fifty miles of new bike lanes ever year? Well, here in L.A. we can bring a Sharrows pilot program on a couple of streets to fruition a mere three years after the city starts studying it.

For more on Sadik-Khan's appearance in Los Angeles, check out Damien's write-up at Streetsblog LA.