2:38pm | Los Angeles Streetsblog did a week-long feature on Long Beach last week for which I was asked a few questions about bike infrastructure and open space. The discussion seemed like a good opportunity to share some general thoughts on recent infrastructure trends in Long Beach.
1) Where in LB do you live? Are any of the bike pilot projects near you? Has the city’s new bike infrastructure made it more likely for you to take a bike ride?
I live in an old duplex in Alamitos Beach with my family just east of Downtown Long Beach. It’s a dense urban neighborhood with most amenities within walking or biking distance, including my work a half-mile away. A lot of bike infrastructure has sprung up around us, including a bike lane in front of the house and a half dozen within a few blocks. I am a die-hard pedestrian, and the new bike projects have dramatically improved the walking experience, especially in the downtown. The cycle-tracks in downtown have completely transformed Broadway and Third Street from virtual on and off-ramps to the I-710 Freeway into narrow streets with much calmer traffic. Downtown is a more livable place for those changes.
2) Have you noticed shifts in any other city policy relating to transportation and open space in the last three years?
At least over the past decade the city government has been dedicated to developing new open space throughout the city, especially in those communities dramatically underserved by existing parks. The trend towards a more balanced mobility strategy has been more recent in Long Beach, with the massive expansion of bike infrastructure. These are not just the cool and highly visible projects like the Vista Bike Boulevard and Second Street Shared Lanes in Belmont Shore but the dozens of miles on the Eastside and North Long Beach that were created when streets were restriped as they were repaved for regular maintenance.
3) The city is working on a new circulation plan, any thoughts on what should or shouldn’t be included?
The new mobility element for Long Beach is not public yet, but I am hoping that it is more directly related to the other elements of the general plan (including open space and land use). I also hope it incorporates current mobility efforts like the bike master plan and streetcar feasibility study the City Council initiated a few years ago. I would like to see some more focus on pedestrians, especially in older areas of Long Beach that have narrower sidewalks, yet carry heavy car traffic such as Anaheim Street and Pacific Avenue. There is a lot of importance on goods movement from the Port of Long Beach but little attention on its impact on the surrounding community. It would be great to see a strategy of repurposing redundant or over-engineered infrastructure for public benefit. Long Beach could find some of those opportunities along the Westside as large infrastructure projects are being proposed for realignment to support more port traffic.
4) You’ve written a lot about Open Space, especially Armory Park, in the LB Post. Do you believe the city is serious about expanding Open Space throughout the city?
The city has been building new parks in the Central Area, Westside and North Long Beach where they can leverage Redevelopment Agency dollars with outside sources, but there has been a limit to what can be done because of the built-out nature of those communities. Armory Park was a direct response to that dilemma: it will take advantage of under-used public right-of-way to create an acre of open space. Though small in size, there were enough other benefits including safety and economic development that the city has been able to augment local dollars with transportation and park grants to move this project forward. The question is whether we can find more such opportunities, perhaps on a grander scale.
5) One complaint about the city’s new bike infrastructure is that it focuses on businesses instead of communities with lower rates of car ownership. Any general thoughts?
It seems that both bike and pedestrian improvements have largely been focused on areas where such activities are more by choice than necessity. I am not sure what were the series of decisions and events that led to this direction for bike projects but there appears to be efforts to spread those improvements to neighborhoods more in need. For example, there will be bike boulevards along Daisy Avenue and 15th Street through Central Long Beach and there is a bike/pedestrian plan for improvements along the Metro Blue Line. Pedestrian improvements in Long Beach have been usually a product of an active business association, whether in the downtown or Belmont Shore, that is able to assess itself to partly fund those improvements. We need to find alternative funding sources for the less affluent commercial districts in the city to implement similar solutions. The pedestrian plazas at First and Linden in the arts district was partially funded as part of some state funded ADA upgrades for repairing sidewalks and improving curb ramps so there are opportunities out there.