Since
mid-1995, CORBA/IMBA had been asking Dept. of Rec. and Parks for access to dirt
trails in L.A. City Parks. In 1996, Rec. and Parks denied access, but
during the year 1996, CORBA, RAP, DOT and BAC continued to study opening City
Parks to mountain biking. This was done without public input. In Dec.
1996, CORBA, DOT and BAC recommended that RAP start a "Pilot" program
for bikes on trails.
The Mountain Bike Working Group was put together in 1999 in response to public
outrage about mountain bikers holding secret meetings with Rec,
and Parks over a 5 year period. During this Working Group period, with many
meetings, the IMBA and CORBA people boycotted the meetings after awhile as they
weren't getting any traction with their agenda
to put bikes on dirt City Park trails.
After the boycott, the Working Group continued ahead and produced a document
called The Majority Report which catalogued and documented biker/traditional
user conflict throughout the U.S. We collected letters and reports.
This Report was placed on the desks of every City Councilperson by .... In 2000,. the City Council voted unanimously to uphold the ordinance
that prohibited bikes on City Park dirt trails.
As a sop to CORBA and IMBA, the City of Los Angeles purchased a 235 acre park in
Mandeville Canyon for $5 Million Dollars and designated it for mountain
biking. At the time of this action, CORBA had promoted the Park as a
"Pilot Program", saying that they needed this Park in order to bring
"disadvantaged children from the Inner City" to this Park to teach
them mountain biking. They were given a grant of $50,000 from Prop K funds to
purchase bikes and to build a shed to store their equipment. They
promised the City that they'd bring 1,500 kids a month to this Park for their
program. They were also to remain on the fire roads in the Park. They were
required by the terms of the "Pilot Program" to make regular reports
on their progress and activities.
To date, in the last 5 years, there never has been a shed built, no bikes
purchased, and in 5 years, only one group of kids were
ever brought there. The Park is used exclusively by mostly white, upper
middle class males between the ages of 20 to 45 years, old. They drive
their Porches with bike racks into the park to ride.
They've never reported what happened to the money, never reported on any
activities with kids, and have done considerable damage to the trails and hills
by cutting multiple trails throughout.