2012 was a good year for Walk Eagle Rock, let’s take a look at some blog stats and highlights from the past twelve months:
Most Popular Posts From 2012
- Some Thoughts on Outdated Bikeway Designs
- Restoring Angled Parking on Eagle Rock Boulevard
- A Look at Eagle Rock’s Relationship with Parking
- Galco’s and Bike Lanes
- Flawed Views on Bicycling, Part 2
All these posts deal with either bicycling and parking but only two of the top five posts deal with the community of Eagle Rock specifically.
I never imagined I would write a lengthy critique of bike lane design in Los Angeles or that such post would end up being the most widely read article on this blog. It had little to do with Eagle Rock but gained a bit of traction with the bicycling community. ”Restoring Angled Parking on Eagle Rock Boulevard” and “A Look at Eagle Rock’s Relationship with Parking“, however, offer a bit of historical perspective on Eagle Rock’s main streets, which I personally enjoy looking into. ”Galco’s and Bike Lanes” and the related post “Flawed Views on Bicycling” were my response to comments local business owner John Nese made about bike parking, bike lanes and bicycling customers. The posts gained a bit of attention due to Highland Park Patch and the bicycling community linking to them.
Some Personal Favorite Posts from 2012
I enjoy writing posts that examine crash data of local streets, as I did in A Decade of Crashes Along Colorado Boulevard. The analytical posts are time-consuming to write, but they are worth it to plainly illustrate that the streets of Northeast LA sacrifice safety in the name of speed.
Crossing Colorado Boulevard reflects something I notice whenever I walk around the neighborhood– all too often the needs of pedestrians are neglected in favor of swiftly moving automobiles. Anyone who regularly walks along Colorado Boulevard will tell you there aren’t enough crosswalks. And it’s true– especially considering Colorado Boulevard the community’s main street lined with a number of local businesses that are within walking distance of many residents.
I also enjoy the simpler posts that stem from pleasant or curious observations made while walking around town, as Westdale Connection did– the kind of posts that I envisioned when starting this blog.
Peculiar Searches That Led to Walk Eagle Rock
- rock on people
- sketch of mobility walking ramps
- drawings made by children on importance of zebra crossing
- silhouette outdoor child
- shirtless biking
- paving sidewalks and providing crosswalks near bus stops
- structures which take into concideration an old
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Thanks for reading– if you have any favorite posts from 2012 feel free to share, it’ll help me get a better idea of the kind of material people come here for or enjoy reading about.
Severin, I’m hoping that you will keep readers up to date on the status of Take Back The Boulevard, and that more people asking about it will keep a bit of pressure on this committee to produce some meaningful return on the investment that has already been made. You mention the need for more crosswalks along the boulevard; this is a necessary but not sufficient outcome of whatever TBTB produces. Too many of these projects begin with a lot of fanfare and then we wait years for little or nothing, as with the Median Advisory Committee, which was supposed to generate more attractive median islands along Colorado, and which has yielded exactly nothing in two years. So I hope you’ll be one of the voices keeping TBTB honest and productive. Thanks!
As a member of the Median Advisory Committee, I feel bound to point out that, as requested by CD14, the committee of community members did come up with a detailed design for the median opposite Renarts, which was supposed to serve as a model for the rest of the boulevard. The responsibility for the lack of progress in its realization is entirely CD14′s.
Thanks for the feedback John, I’ll do my best! My understanding is that like the Colorado Blvd Specific Plan, TBTB will be an on-going process taking several years but yes it does need to be tracked. (And for clarity’s sake, I am not a member of the TBTB committee or TERA. I’m just a resident writing a blog with my views on local matters, though I happen to largely support the TBTB initiative.)
I’ll be publishing a post tomorrow (or rather later today) about TBTB. The biggest step taken so far has been expediting the implementation of planned bike lanes, I’ll give the full details in my post. I know TBTB has done more than the casual observer may notice though I definitely agree we shouldn’t be satisfied with just new crosswalks and bike lanes, the street needs a transformative change to become pleasant, safe, and convenient for all.
Well, is anyone from the committee pursuing the matter persistently with CD 14? I’ve asked my Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council representative to follow it up, but don’t the committee members themselves want to see their work come to fruition?
Of course we are pursing the matter, but any additional pressure from the community would be much appreciated.
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