As we discussed yesterday, CD12 Councilmember John Lee is facing calls to resign after he was identified as the city staff member who took a corrupt Vegas joyride.
Lee’s alleged involvement was spelled out in an indictment against his predecessor and former boss Mitch Englander.
Oddly, Lee won’t confirm that he was the unidentified City Staffer B who accompanied Englander on his — allegedly — bribe and escort-filled Las Vegas fling, which was paid for by an LA businessman. Even though he admitted as much on Monday.
Lee continues to lead challenger Loraine Lundquist as the vote count in last week’s city election crawls on. Although the situation would likely be very different if the news had broken just a week earlier before Election Day.
Meanwhile, political advocacy group Streets For All joins the chorus demanding Lee’s resignation.
You can add your voice to the call by signing the petition demanding that Lee to quit immediately.
And in a related note, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Fuerer, whose office was raided in the same FBI probe of city officials, tossed his tainted hat into the race to replace termed-out Eric Garcetti as the city’s mayor.
Which could turn out to be the tip of an iceberg that could make the one that sank the Titanic look small in comparison.
And possibly bring down much of the LA political establishment.
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The Covid-19 coronavirus continues to take a toll on the bicycle community.
The annual Bentonville, Arkansas Bike Fest has been postponed until August in hopes the virus will run its course.
Streetsblog says it doesn’t help that New York’s mayor told people to ride their bikes to avoid the coronavirus, but didn’t add any capacity to the streets to make it easier for them to do it. Like opening bridges owned by the transit authority to bicycles.
In a surprising development, the Bike League has cancelled the annual National Bike Summit scheduled to begin this Sunday in Washington DC.
Things aren’t looking good for this year’s Giro d’Italia after the entire county went into a coronavirus lockdown.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled to begin in July could face a two-year delay until 2022.
And Monterey’s annual Sea Otter Classic has been rescheduled for this fall.
Oh yeah – we are back in business! The new dates for our 30th #SeaOtterClassic are October 1 – 4, 2020. Thank you for your patience during this unexpected turn of events. We look forward to October! Please visit our FAQ page for more information.https://t.co/1XBdE4YSG3 pic.twitter.com/kE2wHh0NAe
— Sea Otter Classic (@SeaOtterClassic) March 10, 2020
Thanks to John Huntsman for link to the Sea Otter tweet.
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Santa Monica’s Broadway bike lanes will get the protected treatment.
Once again showing SaMo continues to run rings around Los Angeles when it comes to safety and livability.
https://twitter.com/santamonicacity/status/1237075769182076928
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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Akron, Ohio woman was sitting in her car when she was shot in the leg by a man in black as he rode by on a bicycle, in an apparent unprovoked attack.
A Brooklyn bike rider gets the blame for stealing a woman’s wallet from her car while she was on the other side pumping gas.
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Local
Echo Park residents are demanding action after a string of fatal hit-and-run crashes, mostly on deadly Sunset Blvd. The Sunset4All plan would be a good place to start.
CiclaValley beats the clock by biking to Newhall and taking the train back home.
State
No surprise here, as San Diego is failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks thanks to its ongoing addiction to gas guzzling motor vehicles.
Two Victorville teenagers were busted on robbery charges after stealing a bike from a 13-year old girl, and trying to steal another, as she was walking to meet her brother with a pair of bikes.
Tragic news from Bakersfield, where a bike rider was killed when a driver fell asleep at the wheel, and woke up just in time to slam into the victim.
Watsonville has approved a Complete Streets to Schools Plan to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians around 15 schools.
No surprise here, as bike and scooter rides rise on San Francisco’s Market Street in the two months since cars were kicked off.
Authorities have made an arrest in the cold case murder of a Rohnert Park teenager who was last seen riding his bike in 2016.
National
Gear Patrol recommends what they call the best commuter bikes for every kind of road and rider. Not sure they accomplished that, but there are some interesting choices here.
That’s more like it. Bellingham, Washington is trading traffic lanes for a network of wide, buffered bike lanes.
Conspiracy meister Alex Jones of Info Wars infamy was busted for DUI after a fight with his wife in a Texas restaurant, even though his BAC was just under the legal limit. Thanks to Mike Cane for the heads-up.
A “deplorable” Wisconsin driver got a well-deserved five years for killing a father riding bikes with his son, claiming he was distracted because he was looking down at his car’s radio. And didn’t bother to stop because thought he hit a mailbox.
Chicago has closed sections of the popular Lakefront Trail bike and pedestrian paths due to “recent historic high lake levels and severe storms.” But neglected to tell anyone they were closed, or why the concrete barriers suddenly appeared on the paths.
Minneapolis sets an ambitious goal of having 60% of all trips by bike, transit or walking in just ten years.
When is a protected bike lane not a protected bike lane? When the city of New York says it doesn’t exist, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Gerrard Butler is one of us, as he runs, bikes and walks throughout his day in New York. And gets stalked by paparazzi no matter how he travels.
Despite the NYPD’s nasty habit of repeatedly blaming the victims, an analysis by the New York Times shows errors by bike riders and pedestrians were blamed in just five percent of fatal crashes last year. You can probably guess who was responsible for the other 95%.
A North Carolina city bizarrely concludes that four-way stops at a pair of intersections wouldn’t do any good, because there is “no clear evidence that pedestrian or bicycle traffic is high at either of these intersections.” Except maybe that’s because it’s too dangerous to walk or bike there now without them.
Baton Rouge LA is starting the approval process on the city’s pedestrian and bicycle master plan. When I lived down there, the only master plan they had was for bike riders and pedestrians to stay the hell out of the way of drivers.
A Miami man told police he just wanted a better bike, after he was busted for violently attacking a couple to steal theirs. If you’re going to steal a bicycle, that’s about as good a reason as any.
International
She gets it. A writer for Bike Biz says a love of bicycling is the greatest gift of all.
Outside visits what they call the hiking and mountain biking Mexico of your dreams in Baja’s Rancho Cacachilas.
Canadian Cycling Magazine looks at the pretty damn funny collection of egregious bike user-errors and bad luck damage on the JustRidingAlong subreddit. Including the one we below that we’ll end with today.
A Toronto columnist calls for banning right turns on red lights, even if they do save gas and time.
The founder of a Swedish e-cargo bike maker and a bicycle delivery firm walks — or in this case, pedals — the walk, spending Fridays on a bike delivering packages alongside his employees.
British bike scribe and historian Carlton Reid says just riding a bicycle is an intensely political act in occupied Palestine, where he says the Israeli government imposes 705 obstacles to the free movement of the people.
A Moroccan man is traveling the world by bike to promote peace. Clearly, he has a long way to go — in every sense.
An Aussie study shows bike riders are more confident in their abilities than drivers. Which isn’t too surprising considering our lives depend on our bike skills.
Competitive Cycling
Road Bike Action Magazine reports on the third stage of the eight stage Paris-Nice bike race, where the finish was determined by a late crash.
Pink Bike talks with BMX and mountain bike crossover champ Anthony Napolitan.
VeloNews looks behind the scenes with the US team at the 2020 world track cycling championships.
Finally
If you’re tired of angry, aggressive and/or distracted drivers, you’re in luck.
And how to keep someone from stealing your bike seat.
Here in Germany, right on red is very rare. One added advantage is that drivers get to stop a little further back. This means that pedestrians are already into the intersection by the time a driver gets to where they start the turn. Which makes them more visible and drivers are looking in the pedestrians direction. Now here pedestrians normally obey the don’t walk signs so drivers have time to make their turn .