Is anyone really surprised to find still more corruption on the Los Angeles city council?
The LA Times is reporting that CD9 Councilmember Curren Price, a ten year veteran of the council, was charged with ten counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest yesterday.
Price, a 10-year veteran of the City Council, is accused of having a financial interest in development projects that he voted on, and receiving tens of thousands of dollars in medical benefits from the city for his now wife while he was still married to another woman, according to a statement issued by the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
He was charged with five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday.
The Times says Price, who resigned his position in the state legislature to run for the council seat, should do the right thing and resign.
Yeah, that’ll happen.
City Council President Paul Krekorian says he’ll move to suspend Price, just the latest in a long line of councilmembers to face criminal charges or resign under a cloud.
Maybe we’d have better luck getting safer streets if we slipped bag of cash to a few councilmembers under the table.
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Metro’s board will vote today on a proposal to seek grant funds and shift yet more money to a $100 million plus project to widen the 405 Freeway between Artesia Boulevard and the 105 Freeway.
Demonstrating that they have learned absolutely nothing from the failed $1 billion project to widen the highway through the Sepulveda Pass, which actually resulted in more congestion and longer rush hour commute times.
Metro, meet induced demand.
Meanwhile, Streets For All wants you to tell Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee at this morning’s meeting not to flush another $26 million down the toilet on freeway projects.
They accuse Metro of greenwashing highway expansion by putting “multimodal” in the name of highway projects including a “widening project right in front of a middle school in Whittier, and laying the groundwork for the i-605 Hot Spots program which may destroy homes.”
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Streetsblog’s Damien Newton reports that Santa Monica councilmembers RE asking for a premature report on the still-unfinished 17th Street protected bike lane and pedestrian improvements, which could shade results showing the eventual usage and effectiveness of the project.
Streets For All urges you to contact the council to object to the slightly disguised effort to rollback progress in the city.
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Boy George is one of us.
So was the original voice of Jiminy Cricket. Although playing his uke while riding with no hands might be more impressive if there wasn’t a rack holding the bike in place.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A proposal to rip out a bike lane in Kingston, Ontario is rattling local bicyclists, who fear a change in the ostensibly bike-friendly city.
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Local
The Metro Bike bikeshare system will be free all weekend, along with all Metro buses, trains and Metro Micro, to celebrate the opening of the Regional Connector line in DTLA.
State
In case you missed it, a bike-riding mom was apparently collateral damage when an out-of-control driver ricocheted across the roadway in a Lake Forest crash on Sunday.
Four Santa Barbara women have set off on a 930-mile ride from California to Colorado to raise funds to encourage more young girls to ride a bike.
A Fresno County man faces a murder charge for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a Clovis bike rider last month; he was driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash, and had signed a Watson advisement after a previous DUI conviction, informing him he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving drunk again.
You’ve got to be kidding. Business owners in Burlingame are stressing over plans to install a bike lane, fearing the loss of a whole 12 parking spaces — yes, twelve — will somehow negatively affect their business. Never mind that studies show bike lanes usually improve sales at local businesses.
A child was hospitalized with leg injuries after they were right hooked by a commercial truck driver while riding a bike in a Concord crosswalk.
National
Streetsblog discusses more effective ways to conduct driver education beyond “pedestrian-shaming PSAs, flimsy driver’s ed courses and lame signs on the side of the road.”
Alpecin Cycling advises how to boost your balance on your bike.
BikeRumor discusses the year’s best bike helmets, and how to get the best bike upgrade bang for the least amount of money.
A health website considers four weird things bicycling does to your body, like causing saddle sores and numbness “down there.”
An Alaska bicyclist complains about a proposed Anchorage vulnerable road user law, calling it “an exercise in virtue signaling” that wouldn’t do anything to protect bike riders.
No bias here. An Oregon driver got 19 years behind bars for intentionally running down a bike-riding man after getting into a physical fight with the victim, copping a plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter. Yet the local TV station somehow insists on describing him merely as a hit-and-run driver, as if the violent attack was just an “oopsie’ he drove away from.
The Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, aka RAGBRAI, has cancelled plans to attempt a world record for the longest parade of bicyclists during the ride’s Ames to Des Moines stage, saying rule changes from Guinness have made it impossible too do. Meanwhile, the paper has sent a cease and desist order to a former ride official who posted an alternate route for the stage, fearing RAGBRAI could compromise safety by having too many riders on the route.
A bike rider was apparently collateral damage in a Houston police chase when she was run down by a driver who may have been distracted by the car chase zooming by on surface streets at speeds up to 100 mph.
New York has established a nearly $18 an hour minimum wage for food delivery workers, most of whom use bikes and ebikes for their work. Yet Tech Crunch says no one seems to be happy about it.
International
A pair of university researchers explain how bike helmets and safety vests make bike riders look less human to other road users. Then again, even riding naked doesn’t seem to get a better result.
This is who we share the road with. A pair of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan cops chasing a suspected bike thief somehow managed to crash their patrol cars together, as well as hitting a parked car, allowing the suspect to slip away.
An angry London pub owner demands an explanation after his outdoor seating was replaced with bike racks with no advance warning.
Two Welsh cops were served with gross misconduct notices for closely following, if not chasing, two boys riding an ebike just before they both were killed falling off the bike — which means the cops are under investigation, but it apparently has the legal impact of a slap with a wet noodle.
A Scottish newspaper recommends the “splendid isolation” of riding your bike through the secluded Borders region.
He gets it. Britain’s top road safety cop urges the media to stop wasting time talking about putting license plates on bicycles, and focus on the real causes of traffic deaths. Which ain’t bikes.
The subject of mandatory bike helmets once again raises its ugly head, as an Irish children’s hospital consultant called for helmets to be required for all bike riders, children and adults. Never mind that helmet laws have been shown to reduce bicycling rates, at a time when the climate crisis demands putting more people on bikes.
The Financial Times talks with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is rapidly remaking the city with much less emphasis on motor vehicles. We could have that here in Los Angeles, if our elected leaders actually had the vision and political courage they profess.
A Streetsblog op-ed examines how Copenhagen constantly measures the true costs of driving and crafts policies to reduce them.
Competitive Cycling
Bicycling reports that if you want to watch the nine stage Giro Donne — aka the women’s Giro d’Italia — which starts on June 30th, you’ll need a subscription to GCN+. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
The Guardian profiles endurance cyclist Leah Goldstein, as she sets out to win a second consecutive RAAM — aka Race Across America — after dropping her male competitors like freshman English in last year’s race.
Belgian veteran pro Thomas De Gendt has pulled himself out of the Tour de France, but invites you to join him on his own 12-day tour from Flanders to the Costa Blanca, with the mountains of Andorra thrown in along the way.
A Milwaukee website offers tips on how to ride your bike to, but not in, all 11 stages of the Tour of America’s Dairyland.
Finally…
That feeling when your local bike lane only works part-time. Probably not the best idea to try to steal a bicycle from the police parking lot.
And try not to ride your ebike when you’re falling down drunk.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
