jeremygrant.com

LA DOT Senior Bicycle Program Coordinator

Must be living in LA (or be willing to move), use a bicycle as primary transportation, willing to work with state legislation, capable of using Metro bus and train with their bike and should have a strong relationship with the bicycling community in LA. Applicant should be organized, self motivated, focused, responsible, honest and precise.

We are looking for someone who is outgoing with a positive attitude.

The right candidate for this position must believe in equality — racial, economic, religious, etc. prejudice will not be tolerated. This position requires a lot of problem solving and working on improving an environment that is adverse to bikes. This will demand a lot of time and effort networking with the public as well as private and public entities. We ask that candidates be dedicated to standing up for the rights of the cyclist on the street.

Visit the LA DOT page and inquire for this employment opportunity.

* Location: Los Angeles
* Compensation: Salary negotiable based on experience.
* This is a full-time job.
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Other employment opportunities with the City of Los Angeles:

CORRECTIONAL NURSE
(treats cyclists from critical mass rides)
FIREARMS EXAMINER
(examines bullets from road rage incident)
HELICOPTER MECHANIC
(fixes helicopters overworked by emergency/traffic situations)
POLICE LIEUTENANT
(teaches newbies how to knock people off bikes & write bogus tickets)
VETERINARY TECHNICIAN
(fixes that cat you barrel rolled last summer)

PostingID: 1234567890
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Just kidding! this is not losangeles.jeremyslist.org

In times as bad as these it’s nice to see that many people still have jobs and that really most people’s problems relate to budgeting or the increase in price of gas, Starbucks or the newest Rolls Royce.  Once in a while I come across someone with a job that hates it, does a bad job at it and generally has a bad manner with ‘clientele’.  I ‘get’ that being 19 and stuck at the Jamba Juice for $8 bucks an hour sucks when you could be a the head honcho, big baller, or whatever. Yeah, trash duty is gross and the customers are irritating sometimes… that’s how it is unless you change something. Like this inventive rapper/smoothie artisan:

- from (@rickrockbeats)

When I see someone that has a ‘more professional’ job and they have that bad attitude it just floors me. Working in architecture the project is not always going to be the best type; but, I’m happy for the work and do the best job I can. No matter the project I will put everything into it for it to succeed in the end. From billion dollar urban mega design bling to the toilet paper dispenser in the restroom — all with a smile on my face. Some people just complain and show up for the paycheck…

When I first met Michelle Mowery, Senior Bicycle Program Coordinator for LA DOT, at the Harbor Area Bike Plan public meeting it was like I was at the counter of Jamba Juice all over again. I started to ask questions and give my recommendations for improving the plan I was met with a weird / aggressive / defensive response from Michelle. I stated that “there should be more community control of the plan and process” and “frame cycling as a positive thing for the community, environment and businesses”. Mainly I wanted the language to be stronger and be more promising. Michelle kind of went into a quiet rage; mumbled something like “it will never happen” or “it can’t be done” and she walked off. Dropped her Jamba Juice apron and hat and just walked away.

I must have looked a little stunned because Helene Bibas, from the Department of Planning, basically told Michelle to calm down and that she wanted to hear what I had to say. She let Michelle walk off and then she listened to everything I had to say. I could tell: Helene didn’t like all my ideas but we did discuss a lot and I have to say we both came away with a better sense of how the bike plan should work. I wanted to accomplish the same with the coordinator of the bicycle program. In fact, I have been witness to Michelle’s attitude before (on video / in meetings) and I did my best to approach her objectively and openly hoping to avoid any conflict.

Why is the one person in charge of the bicycle program so negative bicycling in Los Angeles? “It’s too dark or cold to ride in winter.” Give me a break, it’s like paradise here and there is something called “lights”. “I don’t ride to work everyday.” Then move closer and make it easier on yourself. “Bicyclists should ride safer.” What the heck, some road rager nearly kills me and I have to ride safer? “My hands are tied.” Find someone to untie them or call for help! “We can’t do that because it will mess up the cars.” Traffic calming has shown only to improve things for everyone, duh. “Bicyclists should be whiter.” What!? Yeah she says that… I totally missed it, my eyes glaze over and ears deafen at the sound of her voice; but, Dr. Thompson heard it all:

BILL ROSENDAHL: Alta Planning is reportedly one of the finest consulting groups in the world for bike planning. How is it that the City of Los Angeles kicked off the Draft Bike Plan process with Alta but did not incorporate the robust Bike Plan process that Portland used/is using to develop their own Bike Plan? For example in Portland Alta maintained eleven working groups, and they used community bike rides to engage and survey.

MICHELLE MOWERY: With all due respect the City of Portland is 450,000 people. It’s a homogeneous community that is very white, and very progressive with respect to transportation. They have a trolley system that works very well, as well as their transit overall. We are a very diverse, disjointed city of 4 million people. They are 30 years ahead of us in the development of their, well, they’re not quite 30, they’re more like 20 years ahead of us in the development of their bikeway. So we’re a step behind Portland in what we’re trying to do. Granted, several of us would like to see a lot of changes in the city happen very quickly, but again we have a very diverse city with a lot of needs.

- michelle mowery believes la’s racial diversity resists bike friendliness, westsidebikeside

I had asked around at the public ‘meetings’ why there was only presentation and the taking of public comment. Why couldn’t we have more meetings with some actual dialog. The default answer was money. Now Michelle has changed her tune and cited our ‘diversity’ as the problem. In speaking with Michelle at the multiple public presentations on the bike plan she did nothing but deflect my comments with excuses, contort the discussion into issues I should solve, and she even stomped away so she would have to listen to my ideas. Often times after our dialog ended I felt that LA’s bike problems were all my fault.

Do we really think that more money or a less ‘diverse’ community is going to change the way she treats the dialog between her office of ’senior coordinator’ and the cyclists she serves? All the money in the world is not going to change the way Michelle perceives cyclists in LA. Diversity is something that kind of forces us all to find some kind of common bond. In LA that commonality is CARS. Why cant it be bikes?

It can.

Crenshaw Crush – photo by (enci)

If we are going to get anything done in this city we need an optimist — not a negative, ‘wear your helmet’ ninny troll parasite living off the lost future of the bike plan. It’s obvious Michelle must hate her job — why doesn’t she just quit and find a better one? Or retire and polish the lugs on her Colnago?

To that point of having more outreach: various groups across the city have been putting their own free time and effort into improving the bike plan and reaching out to the public. if Michelle loves her job so much why doesn’t she put some free time into it too. why hasn’t she attended any of these open and public meetings arranged by these outside groups? If you noticed the whole DOT, Planning and ALTA crew ended the meetings promptly and drove away in their cars as soon as they could. In it for just the paycheck?

LA Bike Working Group – photo by (enci)

If we consider all streets a street cyclists will ride it doesn’t matter the color or language of the cyclist.

Free the streets!