With multiple milestone moments coming in the next few years, LA has the opportunity to showcase to the world how we work together, in coalition and collaboration, to build transformative active mobility and public transit infrastructure to serve as a model of innovation and provide more sustainable options for us to move around the region.
The panelists from this event included, from left to right: Jack Symington, City Climate Innovation Director, LACI. Executive Board Member, East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. Jason Foster, President and Chief Operating Officer, Destination Crenshaw. Mike Bonin, Former LA City Councilmember, District 11. Executive Director, Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CSULA. Christopher Torres, Festival Trail / Founder, Agency Artifact. Nithya Raman, LA City Councilmember, District 4. Romel Pascual, Executive Director, CicLAvia.
Additionally, we were joined by keynote speaker Joe Holt, the Director of Community Engagement at the Luskin Orthopaedic Institute for Children, Los Angeles. Holt delivered a powerful message on inclusive transportation, emphasizing that accessibility must be a foundational element—not an afterthought—in urban planning.
“Inclusive transportation should not be an afterthought within our urban planning or policy. It should be one of the first and foremost. To give you an idea of scope, it's been reported that 1 million people within Los Angeles County have reported living with a disability.”
With so many Angelenos navigating the city in various ways, the need for equitable, accessible mobility solutions has never been more urgent, especially with the region’s upcoming mega-events.
To kick off the panel, Pascual asked, What inspires you most about this moment?
Mike Bonin found hope in the younger generation on college campuses.
“I see the younger generation in Los Angeles and how passionate they are and how righteously impatient. They want to do it, and they want to know why you haven't done it by tomorrow.”
Jason Foster observed a welcome shift from discussion to implementation, while Christopher Torres reflected on the radical interconnectedness brought into focus by January’s wildfires and ongoing mega-event planning.
Nithya Raman expressed optimism that everyone seems inspired at this point, and “our overall task ahead is to stitch all of it together into what is going to be an incredibly beautiful moment. We can work hard and do it.”
The conversation turned to how we can collectively create a strong, inclusive transportation system.
Jack Symington emphasized the importance of framing future mobility efforts as a quality-of-life improvement. Torres added that changing how people move starts with changing how they experience transportation.
“That's the way that we're going to get people to make that mode shift happen. It's excellence in terms of the availability options, but it's making it safe, it's making it fun, it's making it a value to add to their life. It's more than just the infrastructure.”
Bonin expanded on this theme:
“Mobility is free. You don't have freedom without mobility in any number of ways. If you're a person of color and you're pulled over by a cop once a month, that's not free. If you're in a wheelchair and you can't get to the market because the sidewalks are buckled, that's not free. And if you're a kid and you can't walk to your park because the streets are too unsafe and cars are speeding by and people get killed at that intersection, that's not freedom.”
Foster reinforced this, noting:
“If we establish a culture that moves infrastructure from the most privileged conversation to the least privileged conversation, that is the quality of life that we're talking about.”
Pascual then asked the panel to imagine LA after the mega-events. What do they see?
The panelists shared a hopeful vision:
Symington envisioned cleaner air and a healthier skyline, thanks to more sustainable transit options. While Raman hoped the citywide excitement of these events would be felt by all Angelenos.
Torres focused on LA’s story created for upcoming mega-events and that Angelenos should decide the narrative:
“Los Angeles is a city of infinite multiplicities. Do not define us, because we are infinite. Every community is unique. So come see every community. We have to make it easy. We have to make it fun. We have to make it accessible.”
During the audience Q&A, one attendee asked how to build a shared vision that reflects LA’s diversity.
Foster shared a powerful example from Destination Crenshaw to go from vision to action:
“Sankofa Park is fully ADA compliant, and it actually uses one route. So there's no separate entry; there's no back way to get in. There's no ramp on the other side. The entire thing is together. And so it was very important for us to build something that everyone took the same way and went the same way back, because we are all on this trip together.
Ultimately, that's a use case of what design can do when you're really trying to solve for the least privileged. The least privileged is the infrastructure conversation, so it has to be for that solution, and you take care of everybody else on the way.”
Tafarai Bayne, CicLAvia’s Chief Strategist and the evening’s moderator, wrapped up the event with a call to action:
“Make some friends, make some organizing partners, and make the city a better place.”
Let’s Keep the Conversation Moving
Events like CivSalon remind us that meaningful change starts with shared dialogue—and continues with collective action. When we come together to talk about mobility, equity, and the future of our streets, we shape a city that is for everyone.
If you believe in creating more spaces for connection and conversation around active transportation, help us keep the momentum going.
👉 Donate to CicLAvia to support our work and keep our programming free and open to all
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📸 Photo credit: Farah Sosa
