For Immediate Release - The Business Boom of Long Beach California’s Blooming Bike Culture

From: Melissa Balmer

Media + Communications for Livable Communities t. (562) 221-9672 email: balmer64@yahoo.com 

Re: The Business Boom of Long Beach California’s Blooming Bike Culture

Long Beach CA – The bike is a bright spot of holiday cheer for the City of Long Beach California this holiday season. Sixteen new businesses have launched or expanded in Southern California’s 6^th largest city in the last year, due in large part to focused commitment by the City to become one of the great bike-friendly places in the nation.

“The emerging bike culture in Long Beach is diverse, dynamic and developing momentum,” says Charlie Gandy who for two years served as the city’s Mobility Coordinator and is now the City’s Mobility Adviser. “From three to my friend Octavio Orduno at 103, riding everything from beat up beach cruisers to the latest European town bikes, the bike culture in Long Beach is blooming largely due to the bike campaign started by the City four years ago.”

Gandy points to the fact that after the City Council made a decision for Long Beach to become “The Most Bike Friendly City in the Nation” within ten years, savvy Long Beach City staff garnered over twenty million in bike focused grants, built three progressive infrastructure demonstration projects, invited a robust community conversation, catalyzed a fresh take on how the bike can serve the city’s neighborhoods and retail districts with the nation’s first “Bicycle Friendly Business Districts” program, and celebrated the launch of the nation’s first Bikestation fifteen years ago with a brand new state-of-the-art facility opening this past September.

Gandy himself is one of the nation’s top bike advocates and played a key leadership role in escorting Long Beach towards its bike-friendly goals. The charismatic spokesman keeps his finger on the pulse of all things bike in Long Beach via a commitment to community outreach, hosting regular Long Beach by Bike tours for visiting officials, media and bike advocates from all over Southern California, a network of bike friendly friends, and growing collaboration with the City’s business leaders.

“Bike shops are popping up all over the City to serve the growing number of people finding the bike a smart urban transit tool for Long Beach. Our city is becoming an attractive place for young professionals who are interested in a “car light” urban lifestyle.” says Gandy “New entrepreneurs and current business owners alike noticed the allure of the urban bike culture and have moved or expanded to take advantage of the new opportunities. Here are some specifics of the bike blooming that has occurred in just in the past year:

• ·       The Pedaler Society Pedi-cab service for downtown Long Beach

• ·       Cali Bike Tours touring company

• ·       Yellow 108 bike accessories & sustainable fashion

• ·       Eight new bikes shops with two opening just in December 2011 alone

• ·       Berlin Coffee House, Fingerprints Music, Greenhouse Café and others moving or opening to/in downtown in part because of the bicycle infrastructure

• ·       Three national conferences coming to Long Beach in 2012 because of the growing bike culture – The Congress for New Urbanism, the Alliance for Biking and Walking and the Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference

• ·       Growing success of the Mayor’s “Tour of Long Beach” ride for Miller’s Children’s Hospital

• ·       The launch of the Long Beach based Women on Bikes SoCal bike advocacy initiative and bike-friendly lifestyle website in November 2011

For a city that has long lived under the shadow of its larger and more glamorous neighbor Los Angeles, to be the front runner in the race to be bike-friendly in Southern California is particularly sweet.

“Local architects and urban planners are reporting a new phenomenon.” Says Gandy “ for them the fact that they live and work in Long Beach has become a competitive advantage when competing for projects in Southern California.  One wordsmith reflected to me on the term realtor’s use, “Beverly Hills Adjacent”, for real estate that is close to but not right in Beverly Hills. He said it is now profitable to be ‘Long Beach Adjacent’.”

For those interested in learning more about what’s new with in bike friendly Long Beach and Charlie Gandy, including Charlie’s regular “Long Beach by Bike” tours go to www.charliegandy.com.

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About Charlie Gandy  

A nationally recognized expert in community design, trail planning and design, and bicycle and pedestrian advocacy, Charlie Gandy has been on the forefront of the livable communities conversation for over twenty years. In 1990 he founded and served as the first Executive Director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition and then moved onto the national stage as the Director of Advocacy Programs for the Bicycle Federation of America.

One of the most engaging speakers and media point people in the livable communities conversation over the last two years Gandy has been featured in Bicycling Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee, Santa Monica Mirror, Long Beach Business Journal, StreetsblogLA.org, Sign On San Diego, Welcome to Bike Long Beach, Pedaling Revolution by Jeff Mapes and Joyride by Mia Birk.

From mid 2009 to mid 2011 Gandy held the role of Mobility Coordinator for the City of Long Beach California’s Bike Long Beach program. He continues an active consulting relationship with Long Beach and is proud to be a part of the remarkable culture shift in the city embracing both bicycling and walking.  

Gandy is the Host Committee Chair for the September 2012 Pro Walk/Pro Bike® Conference also in Long Beach and sits on the board of the California Bicycle Coalition. He holds B.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin. Learn more at www.charliegandy.com.

Media Alert - Pro Bike/Pro Walk Selection Confirms Long Beach’s Bike Friendly Star is Rising – An Invitation to Meet with Leading National Bicycle, Pedestrian and Placemaking Experts

Date: September 23, 2011

From: Melissa Balmer/Communications & Media – Livable Communities t. (562) 612-0197 c. (562) 221-9672 email: balmer64@yahoo.com

Re: Pro Bike/Pro Walk Selection Confirms Long Beach’s Bike Friendly Star is Rising  – An Invitation to Meet with Leading National Bicycle, Pedestrian and Placemaking Experts

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Long Beach CA – Long Beach invites regional transportation and health-focused media to a special opportunity for an informative and enlightening conversation with three of the nation’s top bicycle, pedestrian and placemaking experts. Thursday September 29^th from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm Mark Plotz (Washington DC), Director of the biennial Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference, Gary Toth (New York), Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives for Project for Public Spaces and Andy Clarke (Washington DC), President of the League of American Bicyclists along with host Charlie Gandy, Mobility Advisor for the City of Long Beach will be available for meetings with members of the press. Please reserve your meeting by emailing or calling Melissa Balmer at balmer64@yahoo.com or t. (562) 612-0197 c. (562) 221-9672.

The National Center for Biking and Walking confirmed the selection of Long Beach as the location for the September National 2012 Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference. Notes Mark Plotz, conference director: “For 2012, we will bring our conference to Long Beach because great things are already happening in the city, and because the city’s investments in walkable and bicycle friendly streets and neighborhoods will position Long Beach to be economically viable into the future, while continuing to provide a high quality of life for all residents. In other words: we see that Long Beach is headed where many cities need to go; lots of people are eager to learn from its example.”

Gandy led the campaign to bring this prestigious conference and its positive economic impact to Long Beach, collaborating extensively with the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau and Bike Long Beach to put together a winning bid.  Comments Steve Goodling, President & CEO, Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau: “We look forward to having the Pro Walk Pro Bike attendees in our city to share their expertise with us.  Bicycling Magazine included Long Beach in their list of up and coming cities to watch and this conference will be an opportunity to showcase Long Beach as a forward thinking community for mobility.”

Competition was stiff, from Mark Plotz again, “there was no shortage of suitors: many communities were interested in hosting the largest bicycle and pedestrian conference in North America, and eager to join the distinguished host cities of our previous conferences—Chattanooga, TN; Seattle, WA; Madison, WI; and Victoria BC. NCBW selected those host cities, in part, because each serves as a case study of an urban economic resurgence brought on by making neighborhoods more walkable and streets more bicycle-friendly.”

Gandy is now Chair to the Long Beach’s Host Committee for the conference. To showcase Long Beach at its finest he’s gathered together a dynamic team of local and regional experts and advocates in the bike-friendly, green minded, multi-model and place-making arenas such as Allan Pullman AIA, Senior Principal and Brian Ulaszewski, LEED AP of Studio 111, Andrea White-Kjoss, President and COO of Bikestation and Mobis Transportation Alternatives, Elissa Briggs Thomas, Sustainable Transportation Program Coodinator of CSULB, and Allan Crawford the new Bicycle Coordinator for Bike Long Beach.

A Brief History of Long Beach’s Bike Friendliness

In 2008 the Long Beach City Council voted to harness their political will to become the most “bike friendly city in the nation within ten years.” From that point forward the city has made impressive strides, successfully raising bike focused grant money, rolling out innovative pilot projects such as the Vista Bike Boulevard focused on calming traffic on a residential street that connects three schools, the separated bike lanes in downtown Long Beach, the nation’s first “Bicycle Friendly Business Districts,” and just this month unveiling the brand new state-of-the-art RDA funded Bikestation public bike parking facility 15 years after Long Beach launched the very first public bike-transit center in the nation.  

Press meetings for Thursday September 29^th will be booked in advance in half-hour increments, on a first come first serve. The downtown Long Beach location will be given upon confirmation of the appointment. Please contact Melissa Balmer at balmer64@yahoo.com or t. (562) 612-0197 or c. (562) 221-9672.

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About the Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference

The biennial Pro Walk/Pro Bike® conference is the largest gathering in the United States of the champions and professionals who are creating more bicycle-friendly and walkable communities. The 2012 conference will be held in Long Beach, California, September 10-13. Read more about the National Center for Biking and Walking which convenes the project at www.bikewalk.org. NCBW is a resident program at the Project for Public Spaces.

About Mark Plotz

Mark Plotz is Conference Director for Pro Walk/Pro Bike 2012, and manager of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking (NCBW) program at Project for Public Spaces (PPS). Since 2003, Mark has worked with communities across the United States to realize their goals of becoming more walkable and bicycle-friendly. Since 2005, he has worked with dozens of schools to enable children to walk and biking to school as he did, growing up in Mankato, Minnesota. Prior to joining NCBW/PPS, Mark served two years in AmeriCorps. He resides in the District of Columbia where he bikes, walks, uses bike share, rides transit, and even--on a rare occasion--drives.

About Andy Clarke

Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director.

In addition to his strong policy background, Clarke has managed a range of bicycle and pedestrian planning projects at the state and metropolitan levels and has worked extensively with state and local advocacy groups. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals. Read more about Andy and the League of American Bicyclists at: www.bikeleague.org.

About Gary Toth

Gary Toth has helped communities, environmental interests and transportation agencies collaborate during his 38-year career as a transportation engineer.  He played an integral role at the New Jersey Department of Transportation to establish a sustainable and community orientation. The latter fostered healthy living and sustainable communities via integration of transportation and land use.  

Since 2007, Gary has advanced place and community based transportation as Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives for the Project for Public Spaces.   He also is cofounder of the multi NGO Partnership for Livable Transportation Solutions.   He remains involved with several national initiatives, such as the Strategic Highway Research Program, the American Public Transit Association and the Congress for New Urbanism.   He is one of seven instructors certified to lead the National Highway Institute’s Transportation and Land Use Course.  He is one of the leading experts in the country on what “makes DOTs tick”, and how to engage the transportation planning, funding, project development and design processes to achieve sustainable and livable outcomes. Read more about the Project for Public spaces at www.pps.org.

About Charlie Gandy

Charlie Gandy is a nationally recognized expert in community design, trail planning and design, and bicycle and pedestrian advocacy. He is a popular consultant, speaker and lecturer on the leading edge of both the active living and livability conversations. From June of 2009 until June of 2011 he served as the City of Long Beach’s Mobility Coordinator and now serves as its Mobility Advisor.

Gandy founded the Texas Bike Coalition (now Bike Texas), served as Director of Advocacy Programs for the Bicycle Federation of America, and launched the “Thunderhead Alliance” trainings, which sparked the creation of the national advocacy organization “Alliance for Biking and Walking.” Gandy currently serves on the board of the California Bicycle Coalition, and in 2011 was chosen as Host Chair for the Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference in Long Beach in September of 2012. Read more about Charlie and Livable Communities at www.charliegandy.com.



For Immediate Release - Charisma is Key to Creating Thriving Communities – Learn How with Livability Expert Charlie Gandy at the July 16 TEDxSoCal Thriving Event in Long Beach California

From: Melissa Balmer – Livable Communities Inc. T (562) 612-0197 C (562) 221-9672

Long Beach CA – Charlie Gandy, one of the nation’s most engaging and memorable speakers on the leading edge of the mobility and livability conversations, will present his newest focus “Creating Charismatic Communities” Saturday July 16^th at the day-long TEDxSoCal Thriving event in Long Beach California at the Center Theater 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Tickets are $40.00 General Admission, $20.00 for Students. Full details and tickets are available at www.tedxsocal.org.

Find a short video interview of Charlie Gandy with Long Beach’s “Ambassador of Healthy Living” Kerri Zane sharing an overview of “Creating Charismatic Communities” at www.charliegandy.com and why this concept is crucial to communities looking to flourish in the new opportunity economy.

From the beginning of his professional career at 22 (as one of the youngest people elected to the Texas House of Representatives) Gandy has been fascinated by the topic of “Charisma.” A popular media spokesperson known for his pithy and easy-to-quote sound-bites, Gandy is taking this powerful concept usually paired with individual leaders and sharing how the key elements of charisma such are applicable to places as well. Gandy will also share the details on how what one city or community has learned to master others can too. He will use case studies from San Francisco, his hometown of Austin Texas, and Long Beach to illustrate and illuminate.

Since moving to Long Beach in mid 2009 to take on the position of Mobility Coordinator for the City of Long Beach California’s Bike Long Beach program, Gandy has played a key role in shepherding and sharing Long Beach’s remarkable journey as it becomes one of the “top of mind” bike friendly cities in the nation. Gandy’s regular bi-weekly “hands on” bike tours of Long Beach’s innovative new bicycle infrastructure, and the fascinating story of how Long Beach garnered the political will to make the bicycle friendly focus happen, are in demand with fellow Southern California cities, advocates, private citizens and the media alike looking for inspiration and answers as we wrestle with higher gas prices, congestion, economic challenges and growing health concerns.

Notes Steve Herbert Chief Engineer KCRW & Member of the Culver City Bicycle Coalition:

"I must admit Charlie Gandy has become one of my favorite movers and shakers here in Southern California as I've watched the coverage of all the work he's done in Long Beach building and growing bike infrastructure."

Gandy is one of the speakers at the Long Beach TEDxSoCal Thriving event who will give short live presentations including Oceanographer and 2009 TED prizewinner Dr. Silvia Earle and Chip Conley, Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Office of the Joie de Vivre hotel chain as well.

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Media queries for Charlie Gandy should contact Melissa Balmer at T. (562) 612-0197 C. (562) 221-9672 or via email at balmer64@yahoo.com. Media queries for TEDxSoCal Thriving should contact Rachel Powers at T. (562) 570-6932 or via email at Rachel.Powers@longbeach.gov.

About Charlie Gandy

A nationally recognized expert in community design, trail planning and design, and bicycle and pedestrian advocacy, Charlie Gandy has been on the forefront of the livable communities conversation for over twenty years.

From mid 2009 to mid 2011 Gandy held the role of Mobility Coordinator for the City of Long Beach California’s Bike Long Beach program. He continues an active consulting relationship with Long Beach and is proud to be a part of the remarkable culture shift in the city embracing both bicycling and walking.  

Gandy is the Host Committee Chair for the September 2012 Pro Walk/Pro Bike® Conference also in Long Beach and sits on the board of the California Bicycle Coalition. He holds B.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Gandy has been recently featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee, Santa Monica Mirror, Long Beach Business Journal, StreetsblogLA.org, Sign On San Diego, Welcome to Bike Long Beach and the book Pedaling Revolution by Jeff Mapes.

About Kerri Zane

For more than two decades Kerri has been involved in media as an Emmy award winning TV executive producer, creating content for such companies as NBC, CBS, WE: Women’s Entertainment, MTV, VH1 and others. In 2010 she produced and hosted the well received “Welcome to Bike Long Beach” short film.

As the Ambassador of Healthy Living for Single Moms she hosts a health and fitness TV series and is co-host for the Natural Healing and Natural Remedies show on Innerlight Radio. Her first book is titled, “The Final Climax: A Single Moms Guide to Finding True Love.” Kerri has a degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, a graduate of UCLA and has served as a TV and Film instructor at the school’s extension program. She is a working member of NATAS, the Directors Guild of America and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Weight Management Consultant. A single mother of two daughters for the last 10 years, she lives in Long Beach California. Learn more about her at www.kerrizane.com.

About TEDxSoCal Thriving

Long Beach will be home to the first TEDxSoCal, an independently organized TEDx event, on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at the Center Theatre from 8:30 am to 4 pm. This day will be filled with short talks, performances, pre-recorded TEDTalks and an evening reception where participants will continue to interact and engage the ideas of the event. In line with the local spirit of TEDx, the conference’s planning committee sought out both innovative and dynamic voices from the Southland as well as those with a strong connection to or impact on Southern California communities.

Organized along the theme of “Thriving,” attendees will have opportunities to hear "ideas worth spreading" from innovators in well-being, creative cultures, sustainability and lifelong learning. This day-long event will explore how communities, organizations, and individuals can thrive mentally, physically, and artistically. Come be entertained and inspired. Learn more at www.TEDxSoCal.org.

About TEDx

In the spirit of "ideas worth spreading," TED has created TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but each individual TEDx events are self-organized events.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at www.TED.com, TEDGlobal 2011, "The Stuff of Life," will be held July 11-15, 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland.