CicLAvia returns on October 9, COVID-19 tenant protections to end, and more

On Sunday, October 9 from 9 am to 4 pm, CicLAvia returns. This event, the third of the year, will bring seven miles of open streets to the Heart of LA, connecting Downtown, Echo Park, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, the Arts District, Boyle Heights - and the new Sixth Street Viaduct.

Just a reminder: only people-powered vehicles allowed. That means no electric scooters, skateboards, hoverboards, unicycles, motorcycles and other non-people-powered vehicles are permitted. However, Class 1 e-bike pedal-assist is allowed, Class 2 e-bikes are allowed when throttle is powered off, and Class 3 e-bikes are allowed when pedal-assist is powered down. Motorized wheelchairs are allowed. More information is available here.

With an intense heat wave in the rear view mirror (but another possibly on the horizon), Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez introduced a motion this week asking city staff to explore options for requiring air conditioning in rental housing.

“Two weeks of almost one-hundred degree temperatures is not normal for our City, and while we’re doing our best to fight climate change in the long-term, we have to address how it’s affecting Angelenos right now,” said Martinez in a news release. “Our City needs to be prepared to provide relief during these times of extreme heat. This is becoming a matter of life-and-death, especially for low-income families in older housing units.”

The motion requests that the Department of Water and Power and the City Administrative Officer to report back on resources or programs to assist low-income households with energy bills during extreme weather events, as well as the potential for rebates to buy energy efficient air conditioning units.

The motion has been referred to the City Council's Housing Committee for consideration.

Here's what we're reading this week:

CarbonCapture Opens New Headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles "CarbonCapture’s goal is to develop technology that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with direct air capture machines networked with each other around the globe. It took one leap forward in its mission this week when it opened a carbon capture and storage facility in Wyoming. The company is partnering with Texas climate startup Frontier Carbon Solutions which will supply the storage infrastructure for CarbonCapture’s technology." (dot LA)

Bluff-top cemetery could come to downtown Malibu "A plan to convert 27.8 acres of prime Malibu bluff-top real estate into a sprawling cemetery raised eyebrows when it was revealed in 2015, after developers gave up their decades-long goal to build a hotel on the property near the intersection of Malibu Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway in downtown Malibu." (Santa Monica Daily Press)

Heat waves are getting worse. When will L.A. get around to offering bus riders more shade? "Of the 12,200 bus stops served by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, only a quarter have some kind of shade or rain shelter, and only half have a seat for those waiting." (LA Times)

Pasadena Proposes 19 Street Improvement Projects for Remaining Metro 710 Funding "The funding is for Mobility Improvement Projects (MIP) from Measure R. When the 710 Freeway expansion was canceled in 2017, Metro distributed what was left in that budget to 710 corridor cities (mostly in the northwest SGV) for surface street improvements" (Streetsblog LA)

LA County plans $15 million of bikeways, street improvements in South Whittier "Among the key benefits will be more access to the Norwalk-Santa Fe Springs Transportation Center that serves Metrolink, county officials said." (Whittier Daily News)

Op-Ed: Think bigger. Switching to electric cars isn’t enough "There are no shortcuts to solving climate change. We shouldn’t assume that once every gas-powered car is replaced with an electric one, we’ll solve the problem — because we won’t. We should instead put our energy into redoing how we use our road space, to truly curb pollution and needless death and bring life back into our cities." (LA Times)

CA High-Speed Rail Authority Releases Draft Plan for Palmdale to Burbank Section "The ~38-mile-long section is currently estimated to cost roughly $24 billion. This section’s cost is relatively high, as trains will mostly travel in tunnels under the San Gabriel Mountains in north Los Angeles County. CAHSRA is currently receiving public comment on the Palmdale-Burbank Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS)" (Streetsblog California)

Goodbye, water cooler; hello, pool: More Los Angeles offices are becoming apartments "Turning old office buildings into apartments or condos is hardly new, but expected cutbacks in office rentals as companies’ permanently adapt to remote work prompted by the pandemic have spurred new interest among landlords in switching the uses of their buildings in the years ahead." (LA Times)

LA County Approves Plan To End COVID-19 Tenant Protections At End Of Year "The decision means that after Dec. 31, many renters in the nation’s largest county will no longer be protected from eviction if they cannot pay rent due to economic hardship related to COVID-19." (LAist)