SANTA MONICA 2020 CANDIDATE RESPONSES

Bike The Vote L.A. sent out candidate questionnaires to Santa Monica City Council candidates qualified for the 2020 Ballot. We received thoughtful and encouraging responses from 9 of 21 total candidates. Four 4-year term seats are on the ballot, and Bike The Vote L.A. has endorsed four of the candidates who responded:

Bike The Vote L.A. did not receive candidate responses from the following candidates:

  • Phil Brock
  • Andrew Browning
  • Merv Andika
  • Dominc Gomez
  • Marcus Owens
  • Jon Mann
  • Chip Marin
  • Todd Mentch
  • Andrew Kamm
  • John Patrick Jewell III
  • Nathaniel Jones

Please see below for each candidate’s responses:

1. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost every aspect of the lives of Southern Californians. Similarly, the pandemic has created a massive shift in transportation with far-reaching consequences in how and where people work, go to school, and shop. These impacts will extend well beyond the current moment. Cities around the world have responded to these changes in different ways. Cities like Paris and Barcelona have enacted far reaching makeovers of streets during the pandemic to empower safe and sustainable bicycle commuting. In the Los Angeles region, cities like Burbank and Pasadena have reallocated street space to support local businesses; while other jurisdictions have implemented more modest “Slow Streets” to enable residents to safely get exercise. With so many residents and workers now adopting walking and biking in the city since the COVID-19 health crisis, what immediate and long-term actions would you take to improve mobility options during and after the pandemic?

 

Terry O’Day: We must open our streets to pedestrians and bikes to make them safe and ubiquitous.  I led an initiative to direct staff to immediately open more of our streets during the pandemic.  We have been slower than other cities and must go faster.  The result has been a restructuring of our departments and personnel to facilitate smarter rollout of safe, pedestrian-oriented streets.  Already Main Street has opened, parklets have sprung up, and we have plans to open Ocean Ave, Broadway, and more.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to take back pavement for people!  The changes we enact now have the potential to be permanent.  We can finally reform streets the way we have imagined for decades, but have been unable to achieve.  This moment cannot be missed.

Mario Fonda-Bonardi: 1. Finish the 17th Street Bike path, 2. Extend the Michigan Avenue dedicated bike path to the east edge of the City. 3. Put back the crossing guards at schools crosswalks.

Gleam Davis: In the short term, I think that the City should continue its efforts to reclaim private and public space that previously was devoted to automobiles for usage by local residents and businesses.  I support Main Street al fresco and the City’s other efforts to let restaurants and businesses use parking lots, street parking spaces, and even automobile travel lanes for their operations.  I am particularly looking forward to the restriping of Ocean Avenue which will include a cycle track on the west side of Ocean Avenue–a project that I inserted into the Downtown Community Plan.  I do wish that Santa Monica had been able to create “slow” streets in residential areas but there has been staff resistance to doing so due to liability and other issues. As Santa Monica begins to emerge from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, it is important that the City take advantage of the changes to lifestyles and work commuting patterns to recover in a way that makes Santa Monica less auto-centric.  One key effort in this regard is building a compact, walkable city with plenty of housing built near transit and other amenities.  I am very impressed by Mayor Hidalgo’s “15 minute” initiative in Paris that aspires to place all necessary services and amenities within a 15 minute walk or bike ride of residences.  I also have discussed with City staff whether the Barcelona “superblock” structure could be used in Downtown Santa Monica or elsewhere in the City.  Despite its economic challenges, the City must continue its efforts towards Vision Zero and create a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists.  I think that, at a minimum, the City needs to install more protected “green lanes” for bikes, scooters, skateboards, and other non-auto modes of transportation.  The City also needs to work with the City of LA to expand the rush hour bus-only lanes on Lincoln into Los Angeles.  And, as the purple line will be terminating at the VA, the City also should consider connecting to it via dedicated bus lanes on Wilshire.

Zoë Muntaner: The Chinese word for “crisis” is, in Western popular culture, frequently but incorrectly said to be composed of two Chinese characters signifying “danger” and “opportunity”. It does not mean opportunity but more like “change point”. As a mainly bike mobility resident with two bike accidents under her belt my main focus will be creating safe bike lane routes that encourage people to get on a bike. What we see on Broadway is a perfect example of sharing the road combining traffic,parking and protected bike lanes. Given the fact this is something I proposed during the 2014 City Council election cycle and protected bike lanes were recently executed, that would be my immediate and long term action focus. We need more lanes like Broadway.

Make Santa Monica safe again. As the founder of Compassionate Santa Monica, I look forward to a progressive city where residents feel safe to live their best lives.

Ted Winterer: We have taken back street parking to provide outdoor space for retail and dining during the pandemic and I hope some of these changes become permanent, especially along Main Street where the changes have been embraced by the community. And despite severe budget costs which caused use to delay most of our capital projects, we are moving ahead with pedestrian safety improvements to Wilshire, a protected bike lane on 17th Street and Safe Routes to School enhancements at four schools.

Going forward I favor exploring street closures – Main Street and Arizona Avenue are good choices. And I support a reorganization of our departments to emphasize non-auto transportation and to expand use of our streets for carbon-free and carbon-light mobility.

Tom Ciszek: Santa Monica has a transportation disparity problem that has been highlighted and compounded by COVID-19. I can see the city’s potential for being a wonderful multi-modal community spanning businesses and connecting its residents to Los Angeles; instead, with the exception of micromobility providers, it is currently a transportation desert. I would support immediate additional bike lane corridors, sharrows and more open streets for pedestrians. Over the long-term, we must plan for creating pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, wider sidewalks and protected multimodal corridors. Docked and dockless micro-mobility can be regulated in a safe and mutually beneficial manner for the operators, residents, businesses and visitors. Curb changes must be made. Parking must be made smarter.

Christine Parra: Our transportation system needs to be enhanced with clean, safe and sustainable methods of travel and no transit is more efficient or sustainable than the bicycle. Current policies in Santa Monica to address the COVID-19 health crisis are creating greater demand on our limited open space. Restaurants are pushing into parklets along our already narrow streets. Competition for our streets is at an all-time high.

If elected, one of the actions I will champion on Santa Monica City Council is strengthening the current Traffic Demand Management Program, to make it more effective. We have to offer real incentives to encourage workers who drive into our city every day to give up their personal vehicles and use bikes and transit. The current TDM program just hasn’t worked.  

Ana Maria Jara: City has already taken steps into creating pathways to protecting bikeways citywide. As can be seen on Broadway between 16th and 20th where the city installed parking protected bikeways, or on Michigan where buffer zones were installed for bikeways going against traffic. I will look at prioritizing attainable projects and build on and upgrade at the corridors to connect neighborhoods.

Anne-Marie Slack: We need to create a culture of mobility without a dependency on automobiles. During Covid-19 many people did not prioritize exercise, but now we need to prioritize our health (physical and mental and they go hand in hand). Creating walking paths that are protected is a very important direction to take. It will help people get out and see others in their community and hopefully reduce the sense of isolation that so many of us have felt during this time. I would love to see one of our East/West streets actually primarily dedicated to being a street that has no automobiles on it and it is specifically used for walking, riding bikes or other options, and that we decorate that area in a way that highlights how good and fun it can be to get out of the car.

 

 

2. Santa Monica has championed multimodal transportation with initiatives like GoSaMo, policies like “no net new car trips” within the Land Use and Circulation Element of the General Plan, along with comprehensive policy documents like the Bike and Pedestrian Action Plans. However, the city’s zoning requirements maintain high off-street parking requirements for new construction, even near high-quality transit. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that parking requirements encourage more people to drive. How can the city reconcile these contradictory positions? Will you champion reduced parking requirements or even parking maximums for new development projects that provide multi-modal transportation amenities to residents?

 

Terry O’Day: YES.  I have led the council to enact parking maximums and am pushing for them to be used across the city.  Parking is a traffic inducer.  We have to stop the overproduction of parking and begin to price it to utilize it more efficiently.

Mario Fonda-Bonardi: 1. Parking maximums/minimums really don’t work until there are real effective alternatives to the car. 2. For example 75% of Santa Monicans living downtown (which has the metro and is a massive bus hub) still commute to work in single occupancy cars. This is for two reasons the metro is considered unsafe ( more surveillance and police presence needed) and its that even with traffic gridlock its still faster to go by car virtually everywhere hence more express busses and express metro trains needed. 3. Consider fewer new developments  until the current retail/office glut is absorbed. 4. Convert existing now surplus  retail/commercial buildings to housing since they already have the parking in place particularly if they were recently built and because this reduces Santa Monica’s housing/job  inbalance thus reducing over all parking and gridlock demand. 5. Make the big blue bus free for SM residents.

Gleam Davis: The City needs to stop requiring developers to build parking.  When the City Council created the Downtown Community Plan, I introduced and Council adopted the elimination of parking minimums throughout the downtown.  I fully support eliminating parking minimums throughout the City and certainly would consider parking maximums.

Zoë Muntaner: I would not use reconcile as the word to drive the conversation (no pun intended). Instead recognize and reimagine using intersectional lenses that allow us to recognize the needs of the residents. I would definitely champion parking maximums for new development projects that provide multi-modal transportation amenities to residents. continue to study emerging research and follow the implementation results in other cities.

Ted Winterer: Our downtown development standards have no minimum parking requirements for housing – projects can be approved with no parking at all – and have maximum parking allowances to reduce auto dependency. What parking is built must be unbundled so renters without cars are not burdened by parking costs. And the standards also require an ambitious minimum for bike parking in new housing.

As part of our efforts to incentivize housing production along our boulevards and in the Bergamot area the Council directed staff to look at parking requirements, among other issues, and I hope if re-elected to approve the changes. And frankly, you’re right – the parking requirements in Bergamot next to the Expo Line, for instance, are stupid.

Tom Ciszek: You can’t reconcile this contradiction. This is a poor policy. I would try to rectify the lack of alignment because my goal is to improve mobility and air quality – and an important component of this is getting rid of parking minimums and having businesses support more mobility offerings. This would be accomplished by increasing the requirements and incentives to provide mobility to make this more useful for the public. I would absolutely advocate for parking maximums.

Christine Parra: The transition away from reliance on the automobile needs to be encouraged in order to reduce our use of fossil fuels and slow global warming. While the City of Santa Monica has pursued reduced parking requirements and campaigned for bike and transit use, it can do more to discourage travel by personal car. Efforts are being made through the approval process in Santa Monica for new development to reduce parking. An approach that should go hand-in-hand with this policy is one that advances the unbundling of parking in new apartment buildings. When renters pay separately for parking – the cost of parking spaces are not included with the rent for the unit – they are rewarded financially for not owning cars. This is why unbundled parking holds great promise, especially now that so many residents are working at home and are likely to continue to do so after the pandemic.

Ana Maria Jara: As a City Council Member, I supported the reduction of parking requirements for new developments. Requiring new developments to have large scale parking increases the cost of building which then gets passed on to the renter. By reducing the parking requirements, you do not pass this cost onto the renter. Which leads me to address the fact that mobility is an equity issue. Yes, we can decide to take away multi-modal transportation amenities for residents in new developments, but ultimately we would be hurting those more vulnerable. We need to think about building affordable housing near transit for better access to public transportation; review or survey trips to create better connectivity so people can get to where they need to go in a reasonable time and get them out of their cars.

Anne-Marie Slack: I believe that parking maximums are a great idea in areas that have multimodal options for commuting or areas that have safe walking and biking lanes. We have to reinforce the culture of getting out of your car, and make people adjust to the concept of temporary car uses such as rental cars, zipcars, waivecars, etc. We need to focus on existing Santa Monica residents that also work here and incentivize them with rebates or discounts on using those modes of transportation. If you reduce the amount of parking available it might discourage people from coming into the area to shop, but if the priority is reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions, then that is the initial cost of change for the long term benefit of clean air, healthier living, and hopefully reducing the effects of Global Warming.

 

 

3. Motorized gridlock negatively impacts quality of life and air with increased GHG emissions and billions of dollars in productivity lost to time stuck in traffic. One effective strategy for decreasing gridlock is reimagining mobility and public space and reallocating vehicle traffic lanes to more equitable and efficient uses. For example, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements can encourage shifts that reduce traffic, while dedicated bus lanes can move 4.5 times more people per hour than a single vehicle traffic lane. Would you support the reallocation of road space from personal automobiles that create gridlock to more efficient, cleaner and active modes of transportation like walking, active mobility like biking and public transportation?

 

Terry O’Day: YES!  This is basically my answer to the first question, but I will elaborate.  Santa Monica is proving that active transportation is more effective than personal cars.  In normal times, we have thousands of people per day on active transportation while our streets are gridlocked with cars.  We have to aggressively take lane space from cars now.  It is so difficult to accomplish that we have to get it any chance we have.

Mario Fonda-Bonardi: Yes I agree, e.g. 1. extend the morning/night bus lanes on Lincoln Blvd from the south city border to Playa Vista (needs LA City approval). 2. As smaller cars (e.g. glorified golf carts) enter the automobile mix create a parking category for micro cars e.g. Le Smart. The micro car parking spaces would also accommodate large motorcycles and two such cars would fit in the parking space of one standard car.  The percentage of microcars/motorcycle vs compact cars vs standard size cars parking spaces would fluctuate depending on the percentage of each registered in our 5 zip codes. Small cars are more efficient than big cars and are a precursor to no cars. 3. Restore the Airport flyer

Gleam Davis: Yes, as noted above, I have been a champion of dedicated green and bus lanes.  I also support shared mobility options such as dockless bikes and scooters.

Zoë Muntaner: If there is data driven evidence that it could work in a city like Santa Monica, there is no reason for me not to support the reallocation of road space from personal automobiles that create gridlock to more efficient, cleaner and active modes of transportation like walking, active mobility like biking and public transportation.

Ted Winterer: Short answer; yes!

My wife and I and our two kids have owned just one car since 2002, so often we rely on the Big Blue Bus, cycling and walking to get around. And I’m an avid cyclist, it’s my primary mobility tool, so I appreciate the changes we’ve made to reclaim road space from autos for bike and support more work in this area. Worth noting then when I was Mayor 2016-18 I had a monthly Bike with the Mayor event to extol the virtues of carbon-free transportation.

The City of SM already has rush hour bus only lanes on Lincoln within city borders and that has improved times on the BBB #3 and Rapid #3, but we need cooperation from LADOT outside our city limits. When I was Mayor I spoke to Eric Garcetti about this need and he gave direction to LADOT to make changes – per my last conversation with Ed King, head of the BBB, rush hour lanes for buses will soon be added for a limited duration from the Venice border south, but we really need more in the future.

Tom Ciszek: Absolutely – I would allocate road space and we need investments in active mobility and pedestrian infrastructure and have better more comprehensive partnerships with @metrolosangeles to arrive at improved options for getting to this outcome. More space for pedestrians!

Christine Parra: Santa Monica is already doing a good job of discouraging personal automobile use with an extensive network of bike paths and new parklets that expand sidewalk space and slow traffic. But much more needs to be done to make our city streets clean and safe. Use of Universal Design and “design for all senses” will help close gaps in accessibility and create safe mobility options for everyone who uses public transportation and moves around outdoors and in government facilities.

Ana Maria Jara: As proven by COVID, we can work together to come up with solutions to best serve our communities, residents, city and businesses. City has already reallocated road space to be utilized by our restaurants to ensure they are here after this pandemic and to help with Road back to Economic Recovery. City has Amended the Santa Monica Bike Action Plan in order to reduce the number of vehicle trips. Getting people out of their cars and into different modes of transportation such as scooters, no bikes or walking. Modes which my family utilizes as often as we can. Prior to COVID we utilized Metro for trips to Downtown Santa Monica as well as Downtown LA. From personal experience, I know the importance of getting out of our cars, it is a health issue, especially as we have been enclosed in our homes with minimal activities. I will continue to encourage initiatives that will help us to reach cleaner air to safeguard the wellbeing of all.

Anne-Marie Slack: I would support this as long as we recognize that many residents work in other parts of LA and other counties. I think that if the goal is to get more people on the bus then we need to create free zones, promote cleanliness of the bus especially due to Covid-19, businesses should be allowed to offer discounted bus passes as a benefit to their employees, and we should have wifi capabilities on the busses so people can work while they commute. The same goes for the rail lines. For some people like me, I don’t even notice being stuck in traffic, and I use that time to listen to books or podcasts. That being said, I want to change my own auto dependency. It is interesting because when I lived in Seattle I only used the bus or walked or rode my bike. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1998, I have never been on the bus once. I have taken the train several times.

 

 

4. The goal of Santa Monica’s “Take the Friendly Road” initiative is to reduce annual traffic deaths to zero by the year 2026. In Santa Monica pedestrians and cyclists account for 70% of traffic deaths despite the fact that they are involved in less than 1% of all reported collisions. If elected, what steps will you take to make streets safer for people walking, biking and for accelerating the City’s planned buildout of protected bike lanes to create safer streets for all road users including our most vulnerable, children to seniors?

 

Terry O’Day: My first proud accomplishment as a councilmember ten years ago was to redirect almost $10 million in funding to creating bike lanes.  I have consistently pressed for investment in lanes, and now am most interested in building protected bike lanes.  We have also timed our streetlights to protect pedestrians, slowed intersections and begun a study of Wilshire Blvd that will lead to investments that reduce fatalities. 

Mario Fonda-Bonardi: 1. Corral the bird scooter, which are a trip hazard for all,  into specific parking spots. 2. Geo fence the scooters to keep them away from areas they should not be e.g. the Bike path. 3.Make sure the City gets full data utilization mined by Bird Uber Left etc so it can plan its mobility moves in the future.  4. Finish the scooter cost benefit study particularly the serious safety trade off vis a vis the bike(in all its forms) and then decide if they should remain in the City and if so under what constraints.  5.Cars kill 4 Santa Monicans a year in accidents but an additional nine per year by prorated excessive deaths from pollution: hence add financial incentives to those buying all electric (or fuel cell) cars that don’t have the combustion pollution of gas powered cars. 6. A low cost incentive might be free parking passes in the entire City for such cars. Similarly incentivize lower immersion cars (higher MPG)  cars.  7. Expand the pedestrian anticipated signals throughout the City 8. Create standard scramble striping patterns (using international striping design) 9.Continue the “take the friendly road” campaign. 10. Keep up the relentless painting of street bikepaths and maintenance of bike path/share signage. 11. Enforce penalties on scoff laws that specifically endanger pedestrians/bikes  and general driving scofflaws (drag racing, excessive speed, failure to yield etc).

Gleam Davis: We know that we can make our streets safer. In 2018, there were no pedestrian or cyclist deaths in Santa Monica.  I support the various components of Vision Zero, which include protected bike lanes and more pedestrian-friendly streets.  For example, I am anxious to implement the City’s vision for protected bike infrastructure on 17th  Street.  That proposal includes “Dutch Intersections” which I have been promoting because they better separate cars and cyclists at intersections.  As noted above, I also suggested inclusion of a cycle track along the western edge of Ocean Avenue in the Downtown Community Plan.  I am a walker and so I know that we need to make our sidewalks more pedestrian friendly and we need to make sure that pedestrians are safe as they cross streets.  We have wisely used “scramble” crosswalks in the downtown area and are eliminating the use of “beg” buttons so that pedestrian traffic is treated the same as automobile traffic.  Although we cannot change all our sidewalks, when the opportunity arises, we should make sure that sidewalks are sufficiently wide that all pedestrians, including those using wheelchairs or other mobility assist devices or pushing strollers, can pass comfortably.  FInally, we need to look for opportunities to create more car-free areas.  As part of the proposed Plaza project, the Council has asked staff to look at closing Arizona between 4th and 5th to cars and creating a walk street that connects the project on the south side of Arizona to the old post office building on the north side of the street.  Similarly, Main Street al fresco has been so successful, I think that it is worth considering taking the next step and removing some or all automobile traffic from Main Street.

Zoë Muntaner: This question was addressed in #1. As a resident of Mid City who lives between Colorado and Broadway, I bike to and from work in Santa Monica every day and can see how efficient this plan could be. The personal is political and my experience as a walker and bike rider inform my vision for the city. I have not owned a car since last year and am pleasantly surprised at the quality of life results.

Ted Winterer: Right now our only obstacle to doing more in this area is our fiscal crisis, because as you note we have a Pedestrian Action Plan, Bicycle Action Plan and Safe Routes to School and all that’s slowing us down is a lack of capital. But as observed above, while we had to defer a lot of projects we are moving ahead with some as they are critical to our Vision Zero ambitions. So if re-elected and once our revenues recover I will definitely support further safety improvements. In the meantime, our Mobility Division is always applying for grant funding to further these projects.

I should also note we put in place Lead Pedestrian Intervals at high traffic intersections to give walkers a head start against auto traffic. And during the pandemic we re-programmed the “beg buttons” at signalized crosswalks – one no longer needs to push the buttons to get a safe period of time for crossing as the default mode is to automatically give pedestrians priority – and that’s a change which should be made permanent.

Tom Ciszek: Making streets safer and achieving #VisionZero is a goal of my campaign for #SantaMonica City Council – ideas to improve safety include resourcing protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, traffic calming infrastructure, and making direct investments in micromobility and non-automobile modes. To accelerate the creation of protected bike lanes, I will invest in consensus building for political support, even during the economic crisis, the improvement in safety and return on investment in multi-modal corridor infrastructure.

Christine Parra: Safety has been my profession for 21 years.  I understand how government works and I know how to get things done. As an Emergency Preparedness Professional in the City of Culver City who is endorsed by Santa Monica Firefighters Local 1109, safety is a top priority for me. Safe streets are clean streets and the safer and cleaner we make our city streets the more comfortable people will be to walk and bike and use transit.

Ana Maria Jara: Santa Monica has taken great steps into creating a safety net for our residents. City has redesigned street corners, on certain intersections, has created special signs on the floor to look before crossing. Ensuring eye contact with drivers saves lives. Education is key to prevention and I will encourage that any change in policies be written in multi-languages as our budget permits it. I will look for likewise initiatives brought to Council already and encourage residents to engage with city staff to discuss best outcomes. I will continue to ensure that any uneven sidewalk is repaired as soon as possible to ensure the protection of our elderly, children and anyone with other mobility accessibility needs.

Anne-Marie Slack: We need to have more protected pathways for pedestrians and bicyclists. Many people use skateboards, scooters, or a variation of those and the main thing is enforcement of safety practices and laws. Too many people get injured from other forms of transportation that have nothing to do with cars and it is due to people not obeying laws. The steps that I would commit to are more protective measures for pedestrians and bikes, and I would make sure we have stricter enforcement. It is not about punishment, but preventative measures. We need to set up a park and ride type of drop-off point for the high school students and families as well. I think if we set up a location for parents to drop off students or students could walk to it and then had a shuttle take students to the high school, that we could reduce a huge amount of congestion at Pico, Michigan, Lincoln, etc. It will also be safer for the students that are riding and walking in those areas, because rushed or distracted parents won’t be competing for space with them.

 

 

5. Breeze Bikeshare was beloved in Santa Monica as a pioneer for shared mobility by locals and tourists alike. Access to shared mobility and bikeshare helps move Santa Monica toward adopted City goals to reduce single car trips and GHG emissions. With its untimely and unfortunate departure this fall, what steps will you take to support new options and ensure Santa Monicans of all incomes have access to enjoy affordable shared mobility services that include bikeshare?

 

Terry O’Day: We must assure that the shared bike and scooter companies provide product in every neighborhood and not just downtown.  We also should not layer them with fees, driving up the cost of this service.  They have the ability to provide low-cost, highly valuable transportation for everyone if we let them do it instead of imposing heavy-handed regulation on them.  We can also increase the availability of bike shops and community bike repair resources to enable private bike owners to have low-cost services to keep their vehicles on the road.

Mario Fonda-Bonardi: Private bike rental services killed the breeze bike system. Santa Monicans need to have the option to rent both electrical and nonelectrical  rental bikes (which are healthier and should rent for less). These rental services should be priced for residents or have a stepped pricing for non residents. This should be a break even arrangement (e.g.not a profit maker for the private sector) as this is a social common (good for all). Perhaps the City should own this program.

Gleam Davis: As noted above, I fully support shared mobility options.  As the Council considered these programs, I insisted that one of the components of our shared mobility program is that shared mobility devices be distributed equitably throughout ALL areas of the city, particularly economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.  I also encouraged our shared mobility providers to develop pricing structures that would reduce the cost of shared mobility to users.  I am sorry to see Breeze bikeshare terminated but I have encouraged staff to work with e-bike companies such as Lyft and Jump to make sure that we have a bikeshare option in the City.  It is my understanding that staff believes that this should be possible.

Zoë Muntaner: Offering a rebate to residents that purchase a new bike at a local bike shop, working with local bike shops to create a program that supports local business at the same time that supports Santa Monicans of all incomes have access to enjoy affordable shared mobility services is a goal of mine.

Ted Winterer: It is indeed unfortunate as Breeze led the way to increased bike ridership in our city – sadly, wear and tear on the components and competition from e-scooters and until recently Jump bikes made the once –profitable Breeze system unsustainable.

So our Mobility staff is working on a public-private partnership to replace Breeze and both affordability and access are criteria for such a partnership.

Tom Ciszek: I will invest in making meaningful partnerships with private sector operators to ensure their vehicles are affordable, accessible and equitably distributed across our community. I will work with @metrolosangeles to get the fare payment options expanded and integrated to increase the availability of access particularly to senior, low income and student programs. More accessible partnerships with taxi operators including Uber and Lyft is also part of my platform. Deep partnerships with all operators – direct contact, and reallocation of the Breeze resourcing would ensure the micro-mobility options in the city including bikes are available and accessible to everyone and that ALL of us have access to affordable transportation options.

Christine Parra: It is a loss to the community that Breeze Bikeshare is gone. If elected I will support actions by City Council to entertain proposals from new bikeshare start-ups once the COVID-19 dangers have passed and the public becomes more comfortable using bike-sharing. Santa Monica needs to remain committed to building equity and sustainability into its transportation policies.

Ana Maria Jara: It was indeed a sad day when we had to decide to put to rest Breeze Bikeshare which as you stated is used and loved by many, including some of my family members to get them to and from work, and especially now that my grandkids are learning how to ride a bike. I look forward to recommendations coming soon from other modes of transportation organizations.

Anne-Marie Slack: I would seek out new companies and pilot programs that would be required to offer deeply discounted fees for qualified residents. The city will promote the use of them and work with them as a valued partner. I specifically want to find programs that help maintain a bike culture in the city. I would love to see partnerships with the local bike shops and have incentive programs for residents like a 5% discount for proof of residency when purchasing from them. I want to promote having community bike days where residents can get together to do basic repairs and they can purchase from local vendors as well. A bit of a farmer’s market so to say that is specific to the biking residents. I also want to institute resident bike registration in a database available to SMPD in case bikes are stolen. There are programs we could set up to maybe reduce the amount of bikes being stolen and chopped in the city as well, but that will need to go hand in hand with our efforts to reduce addiction and homelessness.

 

 

6. The City provides $1,000 rebates for residents to install EV chargers at multi-unit dwellings and small businesses. Would you support expanding this program to include electronic assist bicycles?

 

Terry O’Day: Sure!  Great idea!

Mario Fonda-Bonardi: This program is way too small, it needs to be extended to all powered mobility devices and ramped up with specific targets to allow the whole City’s conversion to electric cars bikes etc. Increase parking fees to fund initiatives listed above that require cash.

Gleam Davis: Assuming we can locate a source of funds, I support rebates for residents’ purchase of e-bikes, including electronic assist tricycles which I believe will be a popular option for our older population.

Zoë Muntaner: I will support expanding the EV chargers at multi-unit dwellings and small businesses and include electronic assist bicycles. The City should increase the $1,000 rebates for residents to install EV chargers at multi-unit dwellings and small businesses.

Ted Winterer: In theory, absolutely yes. It would depend on our financial resources, a big challenge right now.

Tom Ciszek: I think exploring expanding electric vehicle access to more electric modes including electric assist bikes of transportation is something that we should explore.

Christine Parra: It is a loss to the community that Breeze Bikeshare is gone. If elected I will support actions by City Council to entertain proposals from new bikeshare start-ups once the COVID-19 dangers have passed and the public becomes more comfortable using bike-sharing. Santa Monica needs to remain committed to building equity and sustainability into its transportation policies.

Ana Maria Jara: Absolutely, anything that can assist in moving us out of our cars and that much closer towards zero emission must be and should be considered. We need to look at statewide or federal grants that we can apply and be utilized to expand our vision.

Anne-Marie Slack: Absolutely!