Transpo Inequity: What Really Happened When Gil Cedillo and Tamika Butler Closed the Meeting Doors?

NELA’S BLOODY STREETS-The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s Tamika Butler recently met with District 1 Councilman Gil Cedillo, to discuss the Mobility Plan 2035, which includes Vision Zero, the effort to reduce traffic deaths to nil by 2025. By then Cedillo had already cancelled plans for a road diet along five miles of North Figueroa, something that had been finished, funded, and approved by the full City Council before Cedillo’s term. Then, only a few weeks ago he notoriously requested that all plans for bicycle facilities in his district be cancelled outright. Suffocated in the crib! 

Meanwhile, deaths and injuries caused by speeding drivers -- most of them hit-and-run drivers -- continue to coat the streets with blood in Northeast Los Angeles. So when Ms. Butler (a woman not given to meekness) met with Cedillo, sparks should have flown. She is a public figure who has repeatedly stated her dedication to social equity. And she is the executive director of the organization that positions itself as the representative of the county’s cyclists. 

But if sparks did fly, we’ll never know it because both parties’ statements about the meeting have relentlessly avoided specifics. 

Ms. Butler’s letter, sent out to LACBC members and followers on October 15, stated merely that she and Cedillo “talked about a number of things, including the recent tragic passing of Mrs. Lugo. We also discussed his policy around housing, homelessness, and active transportation. We talked about community engagement, where his office has fallen short, and where LACBC has fallen short.” 

“I will continue to engage him,” [Butler continued,] “and I will share what we’re hearing from our members, like you. I will do so with respect, but with a firm determination to ensure that he hears what is important to so many of us living in his district.” 

She added that she “left that conversation with a renewed sense of how I must continue to listen.” Then she lobbed an easy pitch to Cedillo, stating, “As Los Angeles aims toward zero traffic deaths in ten years, we are mindful that increased enforcement could perpetuate injustice without appropriate safeguards or proper prioritization of resources.” 

This obviously refers to LAPD’s habit of profiling, but Cedillo jumped on it and transformed it with that old black magic of his, saying in his own letter summing up the meeting, “We had a very positive and productive discussion on shared concerns over public safety on our streets. We will continue to discuss our mutual concerns over Vision Zero and its implementation and the potential adverse social justice impacts.” 

So is Vision Zero now tainted with the same brush as gentrification and racial profiling – as just another way to oppress poor people? Because that’s what the phrase “adverse social justice impacts” generally means. 

But Vison Zero is a plan that aims to eliminate the physical, crushing and killing impact that cars have on cyclists and pedestrians, many of whom are poor people living in District 1. The plan will help prevent speeding and open up the streets to transport, giving access to commerce for all residents and not just the speed-addled elitists in cars. How on earth then could one say that these improvements constitute an “adverse social justice impact?” 

It’s particularly galling to hear such words from Cedillo, who happens to count a large number of realtors and real estate developers among his supporters. Over eighty-five percent of his campaign contributions have come from outside the district. Indeed, my own suspicion is that Mr. Cedillo is prepping the district for a massive dose of gentrification…social justice impacts be damned! 

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I have an “anonymous contact” in NELA who has lived there since Cedillo was popping zits in the mirror; he’s been deeply involved in community issues, including Complete Streets.My sourceput it this way: “Tamika [Butler] tipped her hand with her prioritization of social justice, then expressed concern that a possible mitigation of justice could occur if increased enforcement was not kept in check. CD1 now has a new place to insert the thin end of their crowbar with which to take a stand against what the City Council has approved and everything we have been struggling to achieve for years. They have disregarded everything positive Tamika said about the project being good for justice and are running with the only thing she has any doubt about. Ridiculous.” 

If Ms. Butler hasn’t signed an oath of secrecy, she should spell out the specifics of what she and Cedillo discussed “so productively” at their meeting. Bland assurances that all will be well if we behave and sit on our hands and wait, just won’t cut it any more. We’ve been waiting -- and dying -- for too long now. 

Decades of promises have gotten us nothing. It was only when the cycling community all over LA ran out of patience back in 2010 that anything actually happened -- when frustrated constituents came together to push the Bicycle Master Plan through a phalanx of obstructionists. That plan has now been subsumed by the Mobility Plan 2035 and Vision Zero. 

We want both of these proposals to move forward precisely because they support social justice and transportation equity. We’re not going back to the smirking paternalism of the bad old days. The time for safe streets is now.

 

(Richard Risemberg is a writer. His current professional activities are centered on sustainable development and lifestyle. This column was posted first at Flying Pigeon.)  Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

 

-cw

  

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 86

Pub: Oct 23, 2015