SGV Connect

May is Bike Month, and we're kicking off the "Chris and Damien" era at #SGVConnect with two interviews that tie-in to bicycling in the San Gabriel Valley.

First, Chris visits La Cañada Flintridge to interview Senator Anthony Portantino. Portantino famously became an avid cyclist during the Coronavirus Stay-at-Home orders and has developed his own bicycling exercise routine. He has taken his new bicycling passion with him to Sacramento where he authored legislation that would force more communities to plan for and move on bicycle and pedestrian planning.

In our second interview, Damien talks with Wes Reutimann and Danielle Zamora with Active SGV. The conversation starts with a wrap-up of the recent 626 Golden Streets a couple of weeks ago and continues with a discussion of Active Transportation planning throughout San Gabriel Valley cities.

At the end of the podcast, Damien mentions this action alert put out by Active SGV in South Pasadena. The City Council is going to vote on a new project list for Metro funding and sadly their draft list is missing many walking, bicycling and transit projects in the city's transportation plan.

And if you want to hear more podcasts featuring Chris, make sure to check out SGV Weekly. His most recent episode featured Christine Tran and a discussion of food insecurity and battling Asian American stereotypes.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

This week, the Streetsblog team is happy to introduce you to Chris Greenspon, our new writer and podcast co-host in the San Gabriel Valley.

Many of you already know Chris from his other podcasting work as host of SGV Weekly, now in its second season. You can download or listen to past episodes at the SGV Weekly website.

As has become our tradition, we like to introduce readers and listeners to our new team members by featuring them in a podcast episode. Listen in as Damien and Chris talk about their backgrounds and their ties to the San Gabriel Valley. At one point they discuss Chris' favorite episode of SGV Weekly, "Pomona's fading graffiti reborn as exalted poetry."

If you enjoy our discussion, or want to learn more about Chris, it just so happens his most recent podcast episode is autobiographical. Listen to it here.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

Today's SGV Connect podcast is the last one for the duo of Damien and Kris. As we previously announced, Kris is moving on to a full-time position with Santa Ana Active Streets. We certainly weren't going to let him go without one goodbye podcast.

Kris has written for Streetsblog on and off for over a decade first covering Boyle Heights then after a break moving to Orange County and finally covering the San Gabriel Valley where he lived and grew up.

No last podcast would be complete without a look back at some of our favorite stories' of Kris' throughout the years. Here are some of mine:

• Pasadena Makes Progress on Getting Local Control Over State Route 710 Stub
• Santa Ana Active Streets Is Building an Equity-Centered, Resident-Led Transportation Coalition
• Cognitive Dissonance : OCTA Hikes Fares for Buses, Awards $1.2 Billion for Freeway Widening
• LAPD Threatens Closure of Painted Alleyway to Public Events Lacking Permits
• San Gabriel Valley Residents Show Support for Black Lives Matter in Multi-city Demonstrations
• Re-imagining Glendale Boulevard - Kris' first story for us, in January 2012

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Friday.

This week's SGV Connect podcast focuses on the Garvey Avenue road project in Monterey Park covered for Streetsblog L.A. last week by Jennifer Tang. Tang and fellow advocate Edwin Sun give an update on the project and discuss some of the challenges advocating for a better project on Garvey.

At Tang noted in a different piece for Streetsblog last year, Monterey Park is planning to increase car capacity on Garvey Avenue using funds that were allocated from Metro. These funds were originally intended for expansion of the I-710 and were to be used to 'increase mobility' and 'reduce congestion.' Like many cities along the corridor, Monterey Park was worried that if it moved forward a more progressive plan, that Metro wouldn't allocate the funds towards their city.

There is some good news. At a February 16 meeting, the City Council voted to upgrade a proposed bike lane for Garvey Avenue to a 'Class 4' (i.e. protected) bike lane and the plan to eliminate parking to increase lane capacity at rush hour was put aside. A plan to build multi-story parking garages moved forward.

In the podcast, we discuss an upcoming motion by Supervisor Hilda Solis to insure that cities such as Monterey Park can use their 710 funds for multi-modal projects. Since we recorded the podcast Tuesday night, Streetsblog went into greater depth on the Solis motion. You can read more on it here.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays.

Welcome to this week's episode of the SGV Connect podcast.

Kris talked this week with Kome Ajise, executive director of Southern California Association of Governments, and Ryan Johnson, associate planner at Alta Planning + Design, about the Interstate 710 North Mobility Hubs Plan. The project is trying to find potential locations around the I-710 N stub to install mobility hubs, a designated area that has two or more travel options, which can include transit, walking, bike share and micro mobility. These options would help make it easier to get around with a personal car.

The study area includes portions of South Pasadena, Alhambra, but is made up of mostly Los Angeles eastside neighborhoods. Feedback collection for the map and survey are currently closed during this iteration of the plan, Johnson said, but an updated version of both will be posted in the coming months. Anyone that wants project updates can sign up on the website.

This week, Damien and Kris welcome Joe Linton and Melanie Curry back to the podcast. Joe and Melanie are the editors of Streetsblog LA and Streetsblog California respectively and offer their insights on the big stories that shaped our coverage in 2021 and predictions on what to expect in 2022.

The wide-ranging discussion covers the legislature, highway spending, new transit construction, the return of open streets and the 626 and many other issues. If you find yourself with some free time over the next couple of weeks, plug in and check it out. As a bonus, my daughter joins me for the intro and outro to show off her reading skills.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays.

This week, Kristopher talked this week with Romeo Guzman, a member of South El Monte Art Posse, about the bike ride series "A New Cartography of Greater El Monte," that they'll be launching this Saturday. SEMAP has spent the last decade excavating the region's history, and uplifting the art, culture and social justice contributions of the region in order to "rethink how we tell the history of the place and dig into its radical roots," Guzman said.

This work has resulted in a "3,000+ digital archive, the book East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte, high school curriculum (on-going), new murals, and radical new cartography through walking and bike tours."

The first ride in the series will focus on the youth, art and popular culture of the region.

Guzman will be leading the ride with author, journalist and SEMAP founder Carribean Fragoza and SGV Weekly podcast creator Chris Greenspon. Folks who can't attend in-person can browse the SEMAP archive online.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays.

Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

In this week's episode, we caught up with Alhambra Council Member Sasha Renée Pérez, who we spoke with in January two months after her election win.

With still less than a year in office, she's been active in leading Alhambra on many fronts, including adopting Hero Pay for frontline workers, supporting efforts around the Active SGV pop-up demonstration on Poplar Boulevard, and passing resolutions to form a Vision Zero working group and study the viability of rent control and just cause eviction protections. In this interview, Perez touches on many of these issues, including how community engagement has evolved in the City, and lessons on how to make change in the City.

She will also be honored on Thursday evening as Active SGV's elected official of the year for 2021.

Thursday is Noche de las Luminarias, the annual event by Active SGV celebrating the people, projects and policies that are making the San Gabriel Valley a better place to live, work and play. This year's event is sold out, but you can check the Active Blog for more information.

Other winners for this year include (click links for more details on winners)

The Cub House

Eco Urban Gardens

Christina Davila

The City of Glendora

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays.

Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

This week's SGV Connect features an interview with Felicia Friesema with Foothill Transit.

The focus of our interview is mostly on the Foothill Transit Forward although there is a lengthy aside in the middle about the ways in which public comment has changed and improved during the pandemic and what steps agencies can take to continue to improve the general public's access to decision makers in and out of the boardroom.

Foothill Transit Forward is a study that will evaluate all aspects of the Foothill Transit system and determine where improvements can be made to create a more effective, efficient, equitable, and sustainable service.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays.

Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

Welcome back to the SGV Connect podcast, this week Damien talks with Active SGV about a pop-up bike lane in Alhambra, but first Kris checks in with some of the leaders of a mutual aid organization in El Monte.

Kris speaks with Araceli Franco and Nickolas Segura of Memories of El Monte, a mutual aid community space in El Monte. The space is volunteer-run by locals and natives of El Monte and offers activities like mental health and college planning workshops, and even hosts a food distribution.

Franco and Segura talked about the roots of the space, their personal connections to the area and how they hope the space can be a transformative and revolutionary space for change. For folks who have interest in hosting activities at the space, Memories of El Monte have a form folks can fill out.

Second, Damien talks with Francisco Ojeda with Active SGV about the pop up bike lane on Poplar Street in Alhambra. The 1/2 mile project was on the ground for a couple of weeks, while Active SGV and the city collected resident and road user feedback in an online survey. Read more about the project at this article Kris wrote last month.

SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. "Foothill Transit. Going Good Places."

Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays.

Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.