UEPI News and Commentary

Arroyofest: Five year anniversary

It's been five years since the residents of Northeast LA, South Pasadena and Pasadena took a bicycle ride down the car-free 110 freeway. 

LA Times blogger Steve Hyman remembers the event.:

"I was lucky enough to cover the event. And, I must say, riding a bike on a big, car-free freeway was exceptionally fun."

And Robert Gottlieb outlines a vision for a bikable freeway in an op-ed in today's LA Times.

So will there be another ArroyoFest?   Or can we truly make the oldest freeway in the west a corridor for alternative transportation?  Let us know what you think!

Recent UEP grad Ericka Fick's research project on Bike Culture, Community, and Politics in Los Angeles after the jump.

Review of Reinventing Los Angeles

The May/June issue of Orion magazine includes a review of Robert Gottlieb's latest book, Reinventing Los Angeles.

"Gottlieb introduces Reinventing Los Angeles as an account of his work with the community and the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute that he founded at Occidental as a way of integrating his activism into his teaching and research."

"...his richly informative book is really about flow—of resources, people, history—and about how we all need to put our hands into that urban stream as participants directing community, a word he sensibly makes very nearly synonymous with environment."

Robert accepted the California Book Award from the Common Wealth Club for Reinventing Los Angeles on June 5th.

 

Reinventing Los Angeles wins a California Book Award

Robert Gottlieb’s Reinventing Los Angeles has won the “Californiana” category of the California Book Awards given by the Commonwealth Club. The Commonwealth Club, based in San Francisco, calls itself “the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum”. The book awards were established in 1931 and are credited with having “discovered” John Steinbeck and other now-famous authors.
More information can be found here: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/features/caBookAwards/about.php

The award will be presented on June 5th.

Robert Gottlieb named recipient of Dr. Zweig Health Advocate Award

The Center for Community Action & Environmental Justice recently awarded Professor Robert Gottlieb with the Dr. Zweig Health Advocate Award in the Academic category.  The awards were given at the organizations 30th Year Anniversary on December 6th.

Robert Gottlieb's "Reinventing Los Angeles" Released

Robert Gottlieb's latest book, Reinventing Los Angeles, is now available from most online retailers.  In it, Gottlieb traces the emergence of Los Angeles as a global city in the twentieth century and describes its continuing evolution today. He examines the powerful influences of immigration and economic globalization as they intersect with changes in the politics of water, transportation, and land use, and illustrates each of these core concerns with an account of grass roots and activist responses: efforts to reenvision the concrete-bound, fenced-off Los Angeles River as a natural resource; "Arroyofest," the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for a Sunday of walking and bike riding; and immigrants’ initiatives to create urban gardens and connect with their countries of origin.