@wehoonline Fountain bike lane protest #weho ♬ original sound – WehoOnline
Proponents and adversaries of the proposed bike lanes on Fountain Ave. descended on Crescent Heights to rally support Friday during afternoon rush hour, standing on the four corners of the wide intersection.
What began as a protest organized by neighborhood advocates Stephanie Harker and Cathy Blaivas metastasized into a political showdown as the well-organized and well-funded activists with the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition and Streets for All appropriated the event for their own means.
City Council candidates Zekiah Wright, George Nickle, Larry Block and Jordan Cockeram stood with the anti-bike lane crowd, while Mayor John M. Erickson joined the pro-bike lane group.
Proponents of the bike lanes, holding signs featuring enlarged photos of the recent vehicle wrecks on Fountain Ave. and shouted “no more deaths!,” have lately attempted to portray the project as necessary for drivers’ safety, even though the redesign is specifically focused on the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
CHANGE FOUNTAIN AVE
The people supporting this project were making a lot of threats. I can’t even believe our mayor would get involved with such extremists. Why are they trying to force something through when it’s so unpopular? I read the police department and fire department were not even consulted.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the mayor is the lead extremist.
Remember that on Nov. 5. And look for the candidates who populated the other side of the street (noted in the article!)
As I understand it, this project is being forced through against a huge swell of citizens’ opposition because the City prematurely and without any due process accepted a multi-million dollar grant to fund the start of this project that, if it doesn’t proceed, will have to be paid back. Money talks!
Brandon Ross Garcia once again displays clear bias when reporting on this project. Everything he has written has written on this project proves he has no journalistic integrity. He’s pushing his own misguided agenda instead of serving his community with accurate unbiased reporting. Truly a shame this paper allows him to continue working for them. Embarrassing and cringe.
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Oh, yeah, like your opinion holds any weight. 😆 It seems more like he reported on something you don’t agree with.
What media outlet in today’s world isn’t biased? Doesn’t matter if it’s this one, newsprint, ABC, NBC, CBS, the cable news networks, all are biased toward their beliefs. Someone needs to pull their head out of a brown orifice.
Gurl this is a blog
This is an absurd claim to make. One of the primary purposes of the Fountain Streetscape Project is traffic calming, reducing speeding and dangerous driving on Fountain. Drivers’ safety is not at odds with pedestrian and bike safety. In the past 2 weeks alone there have been at least 9 serious accidents on Fountain. On Wednesday, 3 people were hospitalized. An elderly woman named Ester was killed in a car wreck on Fountain the week prior.
Put in more traffic lights. Place a cop there once a week to write tickets for speeders. Very easy measures to install without spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money to create more traffic (and pollution). All the while Santa Monica Blvd. with its bike lane (that also runs east west as the proposed) sits empty.
It seems that you’re a bit confused about what bike lanes exist in West Hollywood. There is NO bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd east of Kings Rd (the painted lanes pretty much end where Fountain Ave starts). Additionally the bike lanes that do exist on Santa Monica Blvd are unprotected, door-zone lanes that run through the very busy area near San Vicente & Robertson. Many bikers do not feel safe riding in them because they are not designed in a way that separates bikes from vehicle traffic and double-parked cars. I wish WeHo had that much control over how… Read more »
Nobody is against protected bike lanes. What we are against is that at the cost of adding these others become unprotected. These bike lanes are NOT protected since a multitude of vehicular driveways intersect these paths to enter into only two lanes of vehicular traffic. The southern parking lane and bike path creates further blind spots to enter the traffic lanes. Will cyclists stop when cars are waiting to enter the traffic lanes? Accidents still are possible. We also question these plans that do not consider emergency/safety/fire vehicles traversing the neighborhood. Many are ok with parking removal if the city… Read more »
Sloppy, lazy reporting with bad blurry photos
I applaud the Streets for All contingent for their call for safer streets. We agree on that noble goal. We, too, were there calling for increased safety for all.
It was particularly interesting to watch Mayor Erickson disrespect a multi-decade resident of West Hollywood by suggesting that she had no voice in this issue because she doesn’t live directly on Fountain. That resident has lived in West Hollywood almost as long as the titular mayor has been alive and is due an apology for his boorish behavior.
Well, that’s interesting because Mayor Erickson’s Planning Commissioner, Andrew Solomon was there as well in support of the bike lanes and he lives all the way over on Kings Road….actually just 2 blocks away from that multi-decade resident! …..just sayin
Wherever we live in West Hollywood, we will be impacted if Fountain is reduced to one lane in each direction. If an ambulance is coming from the east towards Kings Road, during many times of the day it will encounter gridlock and the proposed designs for Fountain will make it impossible for cars to let the ambulance pass. So even Andrew and his family could be impacted in an emergency.
Yes!! he should apologize for making such a outlandish statement but then again he makes many of those.
Solomon and Erickson are two boors in a pod. Not sure which one is more self-important.
Erickson was very rude to the lady he was speaking to, I was recording video and stopped just before he mouthed off to her. Candidate Danny Hang was also present on the pro bike lane side. LOL that he wasn’t noticed by the media.
I witnessed Mayor Erickson’s tirade to that resident and was deeply appalled by this action. Our city deserves a mayor and vice mayor that would come out and engage with all constituents without bias helps a plan’s evolution into something all could be happy with. Hearing both sides only makes one stronger because at the end of the day the point of WeHo For The People was to do what we had hoped the city would do. That is to inform the public of what and how our lives are affected by decisions made. As of now it is clear… Read more »
John Erickson deserves to be voted out. He’s in touch with his unite here, horvath and Gascon allies, not with Weho. I always thought he had good intentions, he’s sadly a disgrace and an anti semite supporter, that’s with his bestie alliance with Byers.
Seriously, who endorses Gascon, only a dilusional populist. John, you suck! Move on and move out silly man.
Erickson is a man-child whose ambitions know no bounds and are devoid of any moral center. He sells his soul angling for votes for his 2026 State Senate race, aligning himself with the Jew-hater crowd (and giving Chelsea Hamas a platform, legitimizing hate in the process).
Cynically, he’ll claim to have fixed Fountain when in fact the redesign shows no evidence of improved safety (although to be fair, nobody can be run over when traffic is at a complete standstill).
Seems he’s been riding scooters without a helmet for too long.
Vote
the
Bastard
Out.
“redesign shows no evidence of improved safety”
lol please try harder – this is an absurd claim to make if you know anything about the project
But in the words of Erickson and Byers, “No plan has been designed”. How can a redesign show evidence with no design existing?!
Agreed, but change Fountain