LaBonge and Council President Garcetti Out for a Ride

Maybe you’ve noticed that Councilmember Tom LaBonge’s face and bike showed up at Metro’s Bike Week Kickoff on Monday and the Blessing of the Bikes on Tuesday.  Well, if you assume that LaBonge is just hopping on his bike a couple of blocks from the event before pedaling up to the cameras, you’d be wrong.  Metblogs’ Mack Reed relates a conversation he had with LaBonge at a traffic light after the Councilmember biked up to him.  There is no indication that LaBonge had any idea that Reed writes for Metblogs.

“G’morning,” he says. “You just come up over the hill?”

“No, I’m coming down from the Observatory.”

“Hunh. We’ve been trying to get that back road down the other side reopened. The road’s still damaged.” …

“That’d be great – but honestly, it’s nice just to have the roads on this side reopened. It was a drag when they were closed for so long after the fire.”

“Where do you live?”

“Silver Lake.”

“What street?”

I tell him.

“You’re Tom LaBonge, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Mack Reed, we’ve met.”

“Oh, yeah, hi, how are ya. So, you think we need bigger bike racks around the neighborhood? Maybe in front of Gelson’s?”

“I’m sure there are a lot of riders who’d appreciate it, definitely. Me, I’m happy just locking mine to a post.”

“What else do you need, you need anything else?”

To see the rest of the conversation, click here.

Image: CD-13/Flickr