More Progress Made By Bike Committee

STILL MISSING A FULL HOUSE
The Costa Mesa Bikeways and Walkability Committee met again for their first of two meetings this month last night in the Costa Mesa Senior Center.  And, once again, the full committee failed to show up.  Those members in attendance were Chairman Ralph Taboada, Vice Chair Cynthia McDonald, Jim Erickson, Leah Ersoylu, Richard Huffman III, James Kane, Andrea Marr, Flo Martin, John Merrill, Dr. Kirk Bauermeister, Brent Stoll and council liaison Katrina Foley.  Members Kathleen Brown, Tony Capitelli, Jim Kerins and Brian Valles did not attend this meeting.

REFINING OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES
As was the case at their last meeting, in September, the group made steady progress again.  Having previously defined their 6 Goals, last night they took it from the top and began fine-tuning the Objectives and Policies, beginning with Goal #1, Promote a Friendly Active Transportation System in Costa Mesa.

SOLID ACCOMPLISHMENT
After nearly two and half hours of discussion, negotiation, cutting and pasting and general wordsmithing, guided by consultant Rock Miller and Transportation Services Manager Raja Sethuraman, they completed that first segment and it appeared that they all felt like they had accomplished a lot.  I would agree.

FOCUSED AND RESPECTFUL
It's interesting to watch this committee work.  It is a diverse group, with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests but they manage to work through issues harmoniously.  They continue to treat each other with respect and seem able to resolve differing viewpoints easily.  It's a pleasure to attend these meetings and watch them work.

ANOTHER SMALL TURNOUT
Unfortunately, there were only six of us in the audience, tops.  That varied from 4-6 during the evening.  By the time they finally wrapped things up just after 9:00 p.m. there were two of us.  An caution - if you do plan to attend one of these meetings, bring a sweater.  The room in which they meet is so cold that you could hang sides of beef in there!  Brrrr.

NEXT MEETING IN TWO WEEKS
The committee meets next on October 28, 2015 beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Costa Mesa Senior Center and will begin hashing out the Objectives and Policies for Goal #2, Create a Safer Place To Walk And Ride A Bicycle.  The following meeting they will revert to the first and third Wednesday's of each month.  Kudos to the members of the committee that are taking big chunks out of their lives for this important work.