The City of Los Angeles has had a Bicycle Advisory Committee (LABAC) dictating bicycle politics in town for more than a decade. Meanwhile, Los Angeles horse owners have watched helplessly from the sideline as their billion dollar industry get swept aside without any significant representation in City Hall.That is about to change.
The Los Angeles Equine Advisory Committee, acronym of LAEAC, is now law. The very first meeting will be Thursday October 8th at 6:30 PM at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank. The meeting will be held in the Grand Prix Banquet room "A", and the public is invited. Who is on the board? Exactly like the Bicycle Advisory Committee, all City Councilmembers may assign a representative from their district. At the time of this writing, most have done so. One notable exception is CD 7, where Richard Alarcon is rumored to be considering the wife of one of his field deputies for the position who does not own a horse, whose family does not participate in equestrian activities, and who has nothing to do with the industry.
Like the BAC, this new entity may end up with considerable pull Downtown. If you are really interested, you should get in on the ground floor. The first meeting is likely to be a bit tedious, being mostly taken up with committee rules, logistics, etc. The payoff in terms of influence for anyone wanting to have a say in all things in Los Angeles related to equestrians may ultimately be considerable, so if you have the time, you might want to jump in right away.
It's worth noting here that a faction within the Bicycle Advisory Committee has recently taken action that may severely impact horse riders in Griffith Park by trying to derail the City's Bicycle Transportation Plan with a special interest group's agenda.
We'll talk more about this in an upcoming article, as well as that rumored appointment of Alarcon's that is potentially steeped in nepotism and negative intent.
