Letter of the week Archive

Parklets: the Economic Impact

By Frank | Filed in City planning, Letter of the week

Lola's parklet on Retro Row in Long Beach
photo by Charlie Gandy

Charlie Gandy likes Mexican food

Just got this email from bike guru Charlie Gandy — he’s inviting everyone to a Sunday dinner at Lola’s Mexican Cuisine in Long Beach.

What’s the occasion? There’s a new parklet right out front that’s converted a parking place to outdoor dining. These parklets are all over San Francisco, now Long Beach is getting in the act.

Dearest Hipster Friends,

Here is a rare opportunity for us to update our urban cultural hipness cred while sipping tequila! Lola’s on Retro Row has installed the first parklet in Long Beach. Parklets transform car parking spaces into incredible dining decks in front of forward thinking restaurants such as Lola’s. Two other restaurants are opening parklets this spring.

So I see a reason to celebrate, learn and plot future parklets.
Join me and other “Parkletteers” on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 7:00pm at Lola’s Mexican Cuisine on 4th Street Retro Row, (2030 E. 4th St., 562 656 6371).

Luis and Brenda Navarro serve up some tasty Mexican dishes and their Tres Leches cake will cause your mouth to respond in ways that are primal, lustful and very, very satisfying.

Put your money where your mouth is. Lola’s Sunday night. RSVP

Meet me there!

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Glad It Was You

By Frank | Filed in Letter of the week

KC writes:

I really enjoyed reading about your trip along the Erie canal. You guys faced some pretty harrowing circumstances and lived to tell the tale. I have to say that on the front end of your trip I was jealous for the adventure, however, I am glad it was you and not me on those final two days.

Great stories.

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After the meeting, II

By Frank | Filed in Letter of the week

I really enjoyed seeing what Long Beach is doing and I could not stop thinking about the one key question for CDM.

What
is the financial benefit of blowing cars through town at 45 – 50 MPH as
opposed to 20-25? We are afraid to slow down and stop, park, etc. on
PCH in a car and on my bike it is FULL BLOWN ADRENALINE time. I start
cruising to warm up but by the time I hit Starbucks I realize I am in
the war zone and hit the after burners and try to move at 30MPH(head
down, looking every second and peddling furiously) until I hit 5 Crowns.
Crap!
Thanks for getting this elevated to the members of the local political aristocracy ;-)
M. P.

After the meeting

By Frank | Filed in Letter of the week

I’ve been listening to (and enjoying) your podcasts for several
months, it was nice to finally meet you at the Newport Beach Bike
Safety Committee meeting last evening.

I found out about the meeting via your website and it’s the first one
I’ve attended. My impression is that while there’s a half-hearted
attempt by the city to implement some bicycle safety features, there
really isn’t the commitment by the city or the level of community
involvement that I have seen in Long Beach (I have attended meetings
there as well). Hopefully I just got the wrong impression.

Thanks again for putting your podcasts together. I’m looking forward
to the next ones!

Best regards, G. K.

See Coronadelmartoday for a review of last night’s Bike Safety Committee meeting.

NYT: Bike Lane Blowback?

By Frank | Filed in In the news, Letter of the week

Got a quick note from Ben:

Hi Frank – check out this article from the Times today. Might give you some ammo for cdmCyclist.

So I did check it out and so should you. Read this tale of those that feel there are too many bike lanes in New York City, by J. David Goodman in the NYTimes.

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Hotspot Feedback: MacArthur at Coast Hwy

By Frank | Filed in Letter of the week

I sent around an email to my bike riding buddies referring to last week’s Hot Spot: MacArthur at Coast Hwy. It started like this:



“Be a gravel truck,” that’s what Pete Van Nuys insisted during the League of American Bicyclists’ Traffic Skills 101 class I took last year.

Then I heard from Pete himself:

One problem with defining a line through a weaving area of an intersection, however, is the false sense of security such a line gives. Without the dotted lines and/or paint, a savvy cyclist would begin moving toward the middle of the through lane as she approaches the intersection; her “position is her strongest signal” of her intent to go straight.

Bicyclists riding at the right hand edge of that through lane invite the right hook, hence the “gravel truck” advice.
Will the bike lane/ green stripe be put into the middle of the right hand through, or better yet, the entire lane? That’s where a gravel trucker would drive. Or will the engineer think that it must go at the right edge so as not to impede through motor traffic? If it’s striped at the right side, will it really prevent the right hook from traffic diverging onto MacArthur?

Then commentary from marshallp:

I was hit in the crosswalk at Mac Arthur and PCH coming back from a ride(with one of the Amgen team guys). We were talking about the Michael Nine death. I was actually half off the bike just pushing across the sidewalk when a doc in an S class guns it, hits my rear wheel and cracked my carbon frame and knocked me over. I threw the bike forward at the last minute to avoid a total side impact to my leg – would have been real bad. Cost the guy $4,000 in frame and wheel set but I was lucky – no bodily injury of significance.

With the new city building that intersection will just get MORE dangerous. No one stops for pedestrians or cyclists and all are on the phone without hands free.

Let’s hear your thoughts.