NBC Bicycle Hate, LA Government sticks up for the People?! Yeah Right!

NBC Universal wants to divert a future bicycle path near their property along the Los Angeles River. The Times said, “Universal executives . . . are not opposed to a bike path on their property — they just don’t want it to run along the river.”

Too bad NBC Universal is not the arbitrator of my culture. I will not bow down to “high-profile production companies,” because they say I am a “security risk.” NBC Universal is the “security risk!” NBC Universal is the bastard child of General Electrics NBC Vivendi Universal Entertainment (Products include NBC, Universal Studios, MSNBC, Telemundo Television Studios, among many others) and represents everything that is wrong with media concentration.

They benefit only the ultra rich, and humans need to stop diverting resources to these companies immediately.

Too make matters worse, the government is putting forth a false face to the public, making it seem that the government is interested in serving the transportation needs of the city by implementing more opportunities to cycle.

From the Times:

In the meantime, politicians are growing impatient with Universal’s stance on the bike lanes. “In my conversations with them, they say it’s not practical, but I don’t think they understand it’s one of my personal priorities,” said Councilman Tom LaBonge.

The city has already built five miles of the bike path from Riverside Drive in northern Griffith Park to Fletcher Drive near Silver Lake.

Tom LaBonge is growing impatient? The same Tom LaBonge (hypocrite) that said the Department of Water and Power’s Holiday Light Festival (bicycle riding was explicitly prohibited at the event) in Griffith Park demonstrates the DWP’s commitment to a “Greener LA” is growing impatient?

And five miles of bike path? Are you kidding me? Los Angeles needs so much more than five miles of bike path to come close to a decent transportation solution that five miles of bike path is ridiculous. The Times is being too soft. I don’t have a car because I can’t afford one. This is one reason that I ride my bicycle. I also ride it because it is environmentally smart and I feel a deep responsibility for tending to my planet and humanity. I also ride because it feels so good. It is fun, it is healthy.

The story got all the way to Boing Boing via somebody named Dwiff:

Dwiff sez, “Universal Studio blocks proposed bike path for fear that aspiring screenwriters will use it to throw their scripts onto the lot. No, seriously.”

As Los Angeles struggles to restore its namesake river, a considerable obstacle has arisen — NBC Universal, which is trying to block a public bike path from traversing its property along the waterway…One bike advocate said Universal executives told him they feared that people would use the path to lob unsolicited screenplays onto the studio’s nearby production lot — something that apparently happens at other spots when a Universal film scores big at the box office.

Link (Thanks, Dwiff!)

Tags: bike path, Boing Boing, Jennifer Klausner, Kent Strumpell, LA Times, NBC Universal, tom labonge, Tom Smith, Universal Studios, Zev Yaroslavsky