An Angle Into the Mayor's Office

Getting livable streets built in L.A. will require some heavy lifting from our mayor, who has so far spent more time advertising how "green" his initiatives are than he has in doing some actual greening of the City of L.A.


The mayor's office has a lot of legal power to command the resources and staff of the city's various departments. Does the mayor sit at a control deck during the day, pushing buttons and sending missives through pneumatic tubes to his underlings in other departments? No. not quite. He's likely got a staff in charge of making sure his vague campaign promises are somehow met.


The Performance Management Unit, which is run by Greg Spotts, is in charge o executing the mayor's will.

So far, the mayor's sole focus in transportation has been to increase the speed of private automobile travel. His city measures speed, and his DOT has been working hard to make sure that the safety and convenience of cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users takes a back seat to a private motorists prerogative to blast through our neighborhoods.

Our point of entry with the mayor's office should be with his Performance Management Unit. The maor's current transportation plan belies a 20th century mindset about transportation, with a political burden to somehow support public transportation with massive earthworks like the subway to the sea (eta 30+ years). The reality is that in great cities around the world, budget neutral initiatives can vastly improve the quality of life, safety, air quality, and convenience of citizens by getting them out of cars and onto a bus, a bike or walking.

If anyone can save us, perhaps it is the facts-first crew in the PMU.