News from Santa Monica.
When Metro’s 6.6-mile Expo Line opens in mid-2016, the parallel Expo bikeway will open too. Except where it won’t. Two stretches of Expo bike path under construction are nearing completion. Unfortunately there is a 0.7-mile gap between them. Next week…
Streetsblog California* named Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) “Legislator of the Year” for its first-ever statewide Streetsie awards. SBCA tapped Bloom, who sat on the Santa Monica City Council from 1999 until 2012 when he was elected to the State…
Inspired by our friends at Los Angeles Streetsblog, who recently previewed the upcoming big livable streets events for 2016, we thought we’d take a look forward at Santa Monica’s future. At least to those things we can predict. This year…
For their role in helping to make Breeze Bike Share — L.A. County’s first public bike-share system — happen, Hulu and CycleHop have been nominated together for 2015 Livable Streets-Friendly Business Streetsie award. CycleHop is company behind the “smart bike”…
It’s time to vote for 2015 Streetsie Awards and Santa Monica is represented in two of this year’s six categories: Elected Official of the Year and Civil Servant of the Year. State Assemblymember Richard Bloom is up for the Elected…
The number of car-share vehicles in Santa Monica will more than quadruple next year thanks to an agreement between the city and Zipcar. While the car-share company currently has 12 vehicles parked at private, off-street parking spaces throughout the city, the…
With only about 10 days left in 2015, we thought we’d ask our readers to tell us what their favorite Santa Monica Next stories of the last year have been. Maybe you particularly liked one of our Throwback Thursday pieces. Perhaps you enjoyed…
Santa Monica’s Breeze Bike Share — the first public bike-share system in L.A. County — officially launched on November 12 and a month later, it’s getting a lot of use. The 500-bike, 79-station system, which is sponsored by the Santa Monica-based…
To help pay for increased service hours and incentivize riders to use passes, the Big Blue Bus will restructure its fares starting on January 10, 2016. The fare restructuring plan, which was approved in October by the Santa Monica City…
No doubt you are being inundated with many worthwhile nonprofits asking you to make a year-end contribution. Santa Monica Next is no exception. If you value the work we do at Next, we ask that you please consider donating today…
An 18-wheel truck making an illegal left turn across Expo light rail tracks in Santa Monica collided with a test train yesterday, according to the Santa Monica Police Department. While there were no passengers on the train, there was a…
It only took about four years, but a small, mixed-use housing project with 26 proposed homes on a commercial stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard on the east side of town is headed to the Planning Commission next Wednesday. As proposed, the…
Next week, the Expo Construction Authority — which oversees construction of the Exposition Light Rail project — is anticipating handing over the Phase II right-of-way to Metro, which will begin regular train testing or “pre-revenue” service, according to a report…
In a highly unusual move, the Santa Monica Housing Commission is considering two competing reports that outline recommended strategies to tackle the city’s growing housing affordability crisis. [pullquote align=left] “[W]e do not believe any new market rate or mixed use…
This post originally ran on our sister site, Streetsblog California. Bike-share is excellent in multiple ways. It eases traffic congestion in large, dense cities. It increases transit use in suburbs and smaller cities. And in all kinds of cities, it…
