Vote by April 17th for L.A. Bike Friendly-Business Districts!

Just over two years ago, my company, Green Octopus Consulting, created the nation’s first Bicycle-Friendly Business District program for the City of Long Beach, California – a bike local/shop local effort. After its successful rollout, we started similar programs in other cities around the U.S. and Canada. Copenhagen’s bicycle coordinator recently studied our work in order to better engage businesses in his city.

Green Octopus Consulting has now partnered with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and LA Streetsblog on an important project to increase bicycling and shopping local in Los Angeles. We’ve entered the Goldhirsh Foundation’s and GOOD’s LA2050 grant competition, which will give $100,000 to 10 projects to shape a better future for the region.

Our project, “What’s the BF(B)D? Connecting Neighborhoods through Bicycle-Friendly Business Districts” will help change Angelenos’ transportation habits and support local, small businesses. As we write in our grant abstract, “Bicycle-friendly business districts improve local economies by strengthening connections between residents and their local businesses, increasing small business revenues, and improving neighborhood vitality and connectedness, all the while improving public safety, environmental health, and GLH – Gross Local Happiness.” More about the benefits and specifics of our proposal can be read here.

We’re ranking well out of 279 entries, but we’d like to make one of the top 10 spots. Although the Goldhirsh Foundation will determine the 10 winners, public voting plays an important role in their decision.

Please take one minute to vote now and help spread the word to your networks.

To vote:

(1) Click: http://myla2050.maker.good.is/projects/BikeShopLocal

(2) Click “VOTE”

(3) If you have a GOOD account, log in and you’re done. If not, register with your email, and check your inbox for an email with a link to confirm your vote.

Please forward this story via email and post our team’s project link on your social media pages! Voting ends April 17.

Thank you! We appreciate your support.