A Great Day For Glendale

Tuesday night was tremendously energizing for advocates of bicycle and pedestrian friendly infrastructure in Glendale. First and foremost, the City Council unanimously passed the long-awaited Glendale Safe and Healthy Streets Plan, which lays out a framework for bicycle and pedestrian-related safety improvements in the city. So a hearty thank you to the city council for that.

Additionally, with the exception of Dave Weaver -- who still grudgingly voted for the plan -- all of the councilmembers spoke glowingly about bike infrastructure and their experiences with it in other cities. Mayor Laura Friedman, capably presiding over her first full city council meeting at the head of the dais, set the tone, and Frank Quintero, Ara Najarian, and, encouragingly, newly re-elected Councilman Rafi Manoukian also spoke strongly in favor of bike related projects. Mayor Friedman has been a stalwart supporter from the beginning, and councilman Quintero gave an enthusiastic report about his experiences attending the Velo-Cities conference in Seville, Spain; and about how much he has learned from the bicycle infrastructure projects in other cities such as Chicago, Vancouver and Long Beach. He also spoke firmly about how the city will implement these improvements.

LA County Bicycle Coalition Liason and PLACE Grant Coordinator Colin Bogart gave an excellent presentation, and over ten members of the community came forward to speak in support of the plan.

Including me - here are my comments to the city council:


Mayor Friedman's Comments, followed by some additional comments by Frank Quintero and the Council's vote


Councilman Manoukian's comments

Councilman Weaver's comments

I believe that Councilman Weaver's comments deserved a response, so I wrote a letter to him which I have also posted here.

Now the hard part: actual implementation. The first step is a community outreach meeting about the update of the city's bicycle master plan. I look forward to seeing you there-

BICYCLE MASTER PLAN COMMUNITY OUTREACH MEETINGS

A Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) is most successful when the members of the community participate in the planning process. In that regard, the City has planned several Community Outreach meetings that will be held at different locations within the City during April and May of 2011. The entire community is invited to participate and we are hoping for a great turnout with many comments and recommendations.

The first Community Outreach meeting is scheduled as follows:

April 28, 2011
6:00 pm
Glendale Central Library
222 E. Harvard Street
Glendale 91205

Please check back for additional dates to be posted.

The complete council meeting is viewable here.