Without further delay, here are our nominees for Livable Streets Friendly Business of the year:
City Fabrick is leading Long Beach's plans to remove the Terminal Island Freeway
City Fabrick – City Fabrick is a nonprofit design studio promoting progressive urban design. They are behind many of the exciting pro-walk, pro-bike, and pro-park initiatives in and around Long Beach, including the planning for the removal of the Terminal Island freeway.
Cityworks Design Connect US Action Plan
Cityworks Design - Cityworks Design is the urban design and architecture firm that spearheaded Metro's Connect US Action Plan which calls for an extensive network of core walk and bike linkages plan for all of the historic neighborhoods around Union Station. They are also working on a host of urban design, bicycle, pedestrian, and rail planning projects, from Metro's future West Santa Ana Branch light rail to Metro's LAX Airport Connector.
Hulu and CycleHop are businesses that made Breeze bike-share happen.
Santiago Galvez (hat), owner of Jesus' Bike Shop consults with a customer while youth who hang out at the shop and sometimes help out look on. Sahra Sulaiman/Streetsblog L.A.
Jesus Bike Shop - Sometimes businesses contribute to the well-being of the community just by opening their doors. Nowhere is that more true than in the case of Jesus Bike Shop on Central Avenue in South L.A. Santiago Galvez' tiny shop not only serves the needs of every conceivable kind of cyclist that moves through the area, his ability to service fixie bikes has made his shop a magnet for Black and Latino youth. Having grown up in South L.A., Galvez is acutely aware of how few safe places there are for youth to hang out and how hard it can be to for them to find positive role models. So, he is more than happy to let them crowd into the shop to watch videos on their phones, hang out, be around bikes, lend an occasional hand when he gets busy, and ride with him to meet up with Critical Mass.
Ben Caldwell, founder of the KAOS Network, opens the pitch session by describing the origins of the project. Sahra Sulaiman/Streetsblog L.A.
KAOS Network - The KAOS Network, founded by artist, filmmaker, educator, historian, and innovator Ben Caldwell, is not technically a business — it’s an artspace — but it is one of the anchors in the transition to a more vibrant pedestrian community that Leimert Park Village is currently experiencing. Caldwell, the force behind the Leimert Park Art Walk, is one of the original stakeholders behind Leimert Park Village’s 20/20 Vision Initiative. He co-leads tactical media courses (with USC’s Francois Bar) that, among other things, re-purpose obsolete street furniture, has been deeply involved in the People St. plaza project, has a bike repair station outside his door, and hosts everything from workshops on traditional African music, dance, and arts, to the underground hip-hop artists of Project Blowed (which just celebrated its 21st anniversary), to the more eclectic musical stylings of the monthly Bananas event put on by local rapper and emcee Kyle "VerBS" Guy. Caldwell's creativity and willingness to experiment helps ensure Leimert Park Village never stops evolving.
Honorable Mentions:The Bloc is including a new 7th Street Metro subway entrance in its under-construction mixed-use makeover of a lackluster downtown shopping mall. LA-Más furnished streetscape on Reseda Boulevard's Great Streets re-do.RAC Design Build has been a big supporter of a safer Glendale-Hyperion Bridge, and worked to preserve the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge earlier, too.Spoke Bicycle Cafe showed that biking and walking are good for business - by opening their cafe on the L.A. River bike path.
Caltrans, we need complete streets everywhere, including at freeway interchanges (or maybe especially there); Public agencies and academics join forces to develop AV standards; Republicans really want to suspend the gas tax; More
BART was the first accessible transit system in the country. Advocates want Bay Area transit agencies to do better at keeping buses and trains accessible for all