Long Beach, long considered to be the plain-jane stepsister to Glamorous Los Angeles, may well surpass its glitzy sibling in the race to a sustainable future. Now declaring itself to support complete streets and sustainable communities, it's putting its money where its press releases are--and getting results.

The following Streetsfilms video says it all:



Southern California's first bicycle boulevard, first parking corral, first (official) sharrows, and more...and LA stumbles in a mire of bureaucratic inertia, having just this week approved a single bike corral as a test case--with no help from its DOT, which "has repeatedly expressed doubt and disinterest in this project."

At least now LA has a role model....

And don't say Long Beach is so small that its experiences are irrelevant...NYC's doing far more as well.

Richard Risemberg on 04.29.10 @ 02:42 PM PST [link]  

Here's a little clip--shot on an iPhone through a tinted window, but still gives you an idea of the beauty you can see from Amtrak's Coast Starlight train, which Gina and I rode to Portland and back last week.

The train runs through some of the finest scenery in the US--farm and ranch land, an Air Force base, the American River, the Klamath Plateau, and northern Oregon's rivers and forests. Every minute of the ride was worthy of the devoted attention I gave it through the windows of the various cars.... Fortunately, though I was pressed to the glass like a puppy, Gina had the foresight to pull out her iPhone--the only video device we had--and shot some of the sweeter scenery right through the windows.

The real deal was brighter green than you see here, but you get the picture...California as it was before we paved most of it over.

Here's the section of track where the Starlight descends from a Coast Range ridgeline through mostly-undeveloped ranchland just north of San Luis Obispo.

Forget the cramped tedium of driving or flying--this is truly traveling in style! (Energy efficient, convivial, and affordable too....)

Richard Risemberg on 04.24.10 @ 06:20 PM PST [link]  

"It was raining when we reached Cresson," wrote mystery writer Mary Roberts Reinhart in her book The Man in Lower Ten. "a wind driven rain that had forced the agent at the news stand to close himself in and that beat back from the rails in parallel lines of white spray.

"The Cresson trip stood out in my memory for its serio-comic horrors and its one real thrill," Reinhart wrote.

You have to imagine just a little when visiting Cresson that this used to be a summer resort for millionaires and a setting for popular mystery novels.

READ MORE

Eric Miller on 04.23.10 @ 12:14 PM PST [link]  

Go to our sister publication, Bicycle Fixation, for a brief blogged report on NC editor Rick Risemberg's trip to Portland with wife Gina Morey, an NC contributor.

We spent much of our time on two wheels, trying and photographing Portland's famed bicycle culture and infrastructure (and food and beer!), and came back pretty well pleased. Go to Dreams on the Ground, and click on the "next entry" link at the top of each post to move ahead a day.

A full report is coming soon; we'll announce it here as well. Enough to say that, while Portland is no Amsterdam, it truly outshines any other US city we know of for the number of people riding bikes in an ordinary, everyday fashion. Most telling to me was the number of $50 bikes, leftovers from the 1970s, in daily use and sporting fancy (and waterproof) $100+ Ortlieb panniers.

The transit scene looked good too, though we used the streetcar only once. Routes seemed well-chosen and buses and trains heavily patronized. Transit vehicles, as well as bicycles, often have dedicated lanes set aside for them on the street. These "road diet" treatments--lanes taken from cars and given to more efficient forms of transport--work well, and car traffic is both calmer and smoother than in LA as a result, benefitting everyone.
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A side note: Amtrak's Coast Starlight ran on time or early the entire way, both up and down. Scuttlebutt on the train attributed this to a lawsuit against Union Pacific which finally (after over thirty years) forced them to live up to their contractual agreement to give passenger trains priority on congested tracks. Amtrak's press release mentions only an "agreement," but knowing the recalcitrance of UP in past years, i wouldn't be surprised if it resulted from some sort of serious pressure.

In any case, it made the trip even more delightful than did the train itself and the magnificent scenery!

Richard Risemberg on 04.22.10 @ 05:33 AM PST [link]  

The New Colonist loves classic railroad stations, and when Gina and I arrived in Portland, Oregon, yesterday, on the Coast Starlight, we found a truly charming one in Portland's Union station:


Photo by R. Risemberg

Right between the Willamette River and downtown Portland, and a few minutes' bike ride to our hotel for the weekend. (We brought our bikes on the train, of course.)

And Portland is living up to its reputation as the US bicycle paradise: people riding everywhere, on every sort of practical bike, usually with fenders (no surprise!) and luggage. Bike parking everywhere, with bike corrals replacing car parking spots on many streets--bringing local business 25 customers where cars brought only two before. (Yes, a large majority of bike racks are in use at all hours that we've been out.)


Photo by G. S. Morey

And this week's oddly dry weather has made it easy on us Southern Californians, too.

Richard Risemberg on 04.16.10 @ 08:24 PM PST [link]  

Last Thursday night, a horde of bike punx invaded UCLA's Hammer Museum, took over the atrium courtyard, and sat around drinking, partying, and playing loud music for hours...at the museum's express invitation!

It was "Bike Night at the Hammer," when the museum invites LA's cyclists to come on in by providing bike valet parking, bicycle-themed movies, and free vegan food, along with a bar and bands--and the galleries with their Rembrandts, van Goghs, and contemporary artworks on display till 9PM.

There were bikes parked everywhere, along the walls, in storerooms, and in the loading dock area (you can easily fit a hundred bicycles in a space that parks only ten or twelve cars)--bikes of every description, from sleek fixies and roadracers to stately Dutch cruisers, and the crowd was equally diverse, with gray beards and full-sleeve tattoos coexisting in noisy harmony, and the very young band fronting a lineup of four horns and playing tabasco-hot versions of Benny Goodman classics.

We went, and it was wonderful--camaraderie, good food, great fellowship, and bikes everywhere, inside and out....

Go to our sister publication, Bicycle Fixation, to see iPhone video and stills and get a taste of the event. We plan on being there again next year!

Richard Risemberg on 04.11.10 @ 12:24 PM PST [link]  

Last week, I agreed to meet wife Gina and my father at LA Live, the new entertainment/office/residential complex that is purported to be our city's new town square. I was bicycling back from my usual Tuesday coffee with pal Chuck in South Pasadena, and my old man wanted to have lunch with Gina and me.

I'd been to LA Live only once before, when Gina and I rode the bike leg of the LA Triathlon, which ended there, as one of the sponsors was a capstone tenant of the complex. It's a maze of squares set among glass-and-steel skyscrapers, with giant video screens looming overhead and chain restaurants creating dark formica vortices at all the edges. Back then, of course, it was crowded.

That Tuesday, however, it was not...something I was unaware of at the time, as I ended up meeting them at The Pantry, former mayor Riordan's ancient diner just up Figueroa from LA Live. It was not until I saw the iPhone video (left) Gina had shot when wandering the squares with my dad (a retired structural engineer who spent his life drawing skyscrapers)...on a Tuesday, at lunchtime, the place is nearly deserted, despite its restaurants, hotels, and offices.

The Pantry, just a block away, was jamming; we had to wait to get in. When we walked my old man back to the Metro station, the sidewalks were busy, and became busier as we neared 7th Street. Every corner, every little hole-in-the-wall diner, bistro, or café, whether sublime or crummy, was alive with people.

But not a keynote, glittering, vast, well-advertised, and heavily subsidized development that was supposed to "save" downtown.

Gina says it just hasn't been accepted yet. But I wonder why....

It is, of course, all private space, all tightly controlled, with a pervasive sameness to every square inch. Highly corporate, little variety in cuisine or experience, and of course endlessly barraged with advertising.

Downtown is rich, diverse, varied, with multiples of decor, cuisine, design, and price point, and literally thousands of services from banks and corporate headquarters to florists and felafel shops.

For me--and I guess for the thronging thousands I saw on that Tuesday noon--downtown wins hands down.

Maybe it's downtown that will "save" LA Live, in spite of the latter being terminally slick....

Richard Risemberg on 04.03.10 @ 03:32 PM PST [link]