Public commenter Mikie Friedman explained to City Council on Monday why Lime is unlikely to fulfill a crucial part of its new contract with West Hollywood — a clause requiring the scooter company to disclose any pending bankruptcy. Rival company Bird gave the city no advance warning when it filed for Chapter 11 in December.
Bird let the city blindly go ahead with phase two and didn’t say a word about about going into bankruptcy. And you trusted them, and I don’t get why you still trust Lime. All along, they’ve refused to cooperate. Are they going to change now and start monitoring the scooter riders, paying the penalties, and picking up the abandoned scooters? Have you checked their record in other cities? Will Lime swoop in with their own scooters to replace the ones that Bird has removed? The contract says they can only have 200 scooters, but will they dump more here without permission again?”
“I worry about our pedestrians tripping over and being hit by scooters, and we continue to spend our tax money on Block by Block and ABM to do Lime’s job. Now, the new clause: Lime must give you advanced notice if they’re going into bankruptcy. Listen up, here’s some important considerations for you: no matter what they tell you, Lime won’t release that information ahead of time because that would send their venture capitalists scrambling to recoup their investment money before it’s gone.”
“Lime’s CEO says they’re profitable, but he has never released independent verification of that. The CEO also says they rely on RFPs, so they have to charm cities in order to get their scooters in. Lime has private stock which is selling at 4 cents a share, but they’re having trouble qualifying for the IPO they really want to go public, and news of a bankruptcy would endanger their chances of getting an underwriter for that IPO.”
“Please don’t sign anything. Find out their true financial health from independent sources. I saw that you asked for statistics on accidents, but safety is more than just the number of accidents. You have to trust the people you’re working with. Do you? So for your safety and ours, dump the scooters and the contract too.”
@wehoonlineMikie Friedman Says don’t trust the scooter companies
I agree with these comments. The lack of enforcement has been disappointing. But then again as a pedestrian I get nearly hit by cars on a daily basis and no one enforces that either.
Also: You guys don’t need to write the word “period”, after you type a period. It really doesn’t strengthen your argument.
When I arrive late at night at the Hollywood/Highland Metro Station, a scooter is a lifesaver for getting home, especially when buses are running less frequently. Micromobility serves a vital purpose in making our city more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
It is hard to believe we are even still discussing this proven hazard. Thank you to the activists who are not letting this issue fade away. Please don’t give up. Soon, Sepi, Erickson and Byers will all disappear from our lives. I wonder how Sepi’s various “injury” claims against the City are going. How about an update on that.
It’s time for the scooters to go once and for all. Too many riders want the privilege and convenience but don’t want to follow the rules. Ground them all – they did it to themselves, which is truly unfortunate for those who did operate them responsibly.
There are some exciting new updates coming where users can actually be charged for not parking correctly after their trip (dependent upon local regulations obviously) and new tech where zones can be classed as low speed, no ride, no parking etc and also where the scooters can detect sidewalk riding (in jurisdictions where this is not permitted). Of course it all relies on the user also doing their bit to ride responsibly, however they are no worse than cyclist who disobey traffic rules or cars who park all over bike lanes.
Since the discussion ever began regarding scooters coming into WEHO, I’ve never understood why City Council and the Sheriff’s Dept. have bypassed normal safety procedures & full citations when using these on sidewalks and endangering people. Scooter riders should be using bike lanes where available and the streets. YES, they are fun to ride, however, they are a form of transportation and people need to adhere to common sense laws. I happen to own one, enjoy it fully, and find it a great way to use locally and bypass much traffic at certain times when not using my car close… Read more »
Mikie does another eloquent job at conveying common sense to a group of political and bureaucratic amateurs who have no idea how much these behemoth tech conglomerates charm and edge their way into contracts over which small municipalities have near zero ability to hold those corporate players accountable for the contract provisions they promise. With rare exception, the only two people on the dais who ask any substantive questions are Lauren Meister (often) and John. Heilman (sometimes). The rest have zero comprehension about their role other than to use their offices as springboards.
alan, you wrote, “
political and bureaucratic amateurs who have no idea how much these behemoth tech conglomerates charm and edge their way into contracts over which small municipalities have near zero ability to hold those corporate players accountable for the contract provisions they promise.”
EXACTLY!!!!
Except that John Heilman is too weak to contradict the squad of 3.
She certainly did and with results!!!! And the sorriest take-away from this is that both companies had every chance to supervise their product and stay in business. Another episode of The Little Rascals.. “Let’s rent scooters and Petey can be in charge.” Let’s hear it for Mikie Friedman and all her supporters who knew she was absolutely right!
Let’s all pledge to stand up to the political bullying that wants to dismiss commentary here, and commentary in council public comment by using lazy name-calling tactics. With zero objective analysis, they will dismiss commentary that runs afoul to the toxic ideological brain rot as right-wing, racist, MAGA and more. I was recently accused (on another site) of seeking to defund women merely because I questioned the expenditure of $6,800 in money from the public purse on luxury hotel stays, and more.
Just wanted to give some wide background over your answer. Municipalities actually hold the power. Lime is strongest where regulation is most strict. The issue arises when local Govt is not given the legal tools they need to enforce the rules.
Dump the scooters. Period.