City officials, bicycling enthusiasts, and members of the community turned out today to welcome the city's first public bike corral, newly installed nearly a year after it was approved outside Highland Park's Café de Leche.
The idea to bring the bike corral to York Boulevard and outside his popular cafe came from Café de Leche co-owner Matt Schodorf, who took the proposal to City Councilmember José Huizar, back in 2009. The motion was brought to City Council in April of last year, and approved shortly after. Finally, just over a week ago, came news the LADOT bike program was ready to install the corral.
A bike corral makes use of a public parking space, and, in the case of this new one, has five inverted U-shaped racks, which can accommodate a total of 10 bicycles. More are expected to installed elsewhere in the city.
“The best ideas in the City often come from community members and business owners and that is certainly the case here,” said Councilmember Huizar. “I want to thank Matt Schodorf and our partners for working with me on this bike corral. The City has worked to improve services to the bicycling community, but we need to do more. Expanding this bike corral pilot program throughout the City is a great first step.”
