Fatal crash in Venice casts a bitter shadow as Bonin’s opponents pull recall papers
By Gary Walker
Despite the end of the polarizing Playa del Rey road diet that sparked lingering political backlash against Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin, organizers of the campaign to oust Bonin from public office are moving full-speed ahead with plans to trigger a recall election.
Following a fatal vehicle-pedestrian crash last week in a Venice crosswalk where city officials had delayed implementing safety upgrades, recall proponents who oppose Bonin’s ongoing traffic lane closures on Venice Boulevard — like the Playa road diet, part of a larger citywide traffic safety initiative — are now seeking to at least partially blame the tragedy on Bonin.
On Monday, the Committee to Support the Recall of Mike Bonin filed paperwork with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission at L.A. City Hall, allowing them to begin collecting voter signatures on recall petitions this month. They’ll need 27,000 valid signatures from voters in Bonin’s district to trigger a recall election in the summer or fall of 2018.
“Bonin has prioritized his political advancement and personal agenda over the well-being and quality of life of his constituents,” states the recall petition.
On the morning of Oct. 25, a car struck and killed 40-year-old Damon Shear as he made his way through a crosswalk at Pacific and Sunset avenues in Venice, with traffic investigators telling the Los Angeles Times that the car that killed Shear appears to have maneuvered around a vehicle that had stopped at the crosswalk to let Shear pass.
That crosswalk was marked with white paint and a reflective sign, but in 2015 the L.A. Department of Transportation had recommended the addition of flashing beacons in response to safety complaints by residents. Installation of the beacons, however, remained tied up in delays related to disbursement of federal funding for the project.
At a Wednesday vigil for Shear at Pacific and Sunset, members of the recall campaign read a statement from the Shear family that cast blame on Bonin.
“The real concern here is the seemingly negligent acts of an elected official, Councilman Mike Bonin, who allowed this intersection, which had been deemed dangerous by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation in 2014, to claim the life of a father, son, brother, and friend. Damon’s family holds accountable the driver of the vehicle and pray justice is appropriately served. However, the true criminals are the ones who have deliberately failed to correct the problems at these dangerous intersections,” the letter states.
“To those involved in the blatant disregard for the lives of the citizens and visitors to your state and town we say this: the blood of the father of 18-year-old Tyler, 16-year-old Alexandria and 12-year-old Tanner is now and forever on your hands.”
Bonin’s office accused the recall campaign of politicizing Shear’s death.
“Shame on the people behind the recall for trying to link their personal political ambitions to this tragedy. Shame on the people behind the recall for ignoring the fact that Damon Shear perished because an impatient driver broke the law and sped around another car in the crosswalk,” reads Bonin’s statement.
“The people behind this recall are demanding the defunding of pedestrian safety programs — including crosswalks and traffic signals — and those using a grieving family for their political gain should be ashamed.”
Southern California Families for Safe Streets, which advocates for relatives of people killed in traffic collisions, rejected the notion that Bonin is at fault for Shear’s death.
“No family should ever have to suffer such a sudden, senseless loss. Better street design could have prevented this tragedy, and can prevent so many others. But any anger directed at Councilman Bonin is misguided and tied to a troubling recall campaign that actually aims to unseat the most vocal, persistent and passionate champion for safe streets in Los Angeles,” the group wrote. “Councilman Bonin led the charge to fully fund and implement safe streets projects throughout Los Angeles. With so much work ahead of us, we must not lose sight of who our true allies are.”
Recall campaign co-organizer Alexis Edelstein said the group is calling for an investigation of why the crosswalk where Shear was killed did not have flashing beacons like others on Pacific.
Just more of the same ad hominem attacks by Bonin on civic-minded, community-oriented constituents. In addition to Bonin’s defamatory attacks on residents, is Bonin’s attempt to undermine the City popular democracy process of petition and recall, a process embedded in the Los Angeles City Charter. These actions only serve to underscore the need for a successful recall movement.
Had there been a road diet on Pacific at this intersection, that car would not have been able to speed around and kill the pedestrian. Pacific is way too crowded and dense with too many crossing points and turns to have a 4 lane street barrel through it.
Shame on bonin for not taking care of this earlier and shame on him for not taking responsibility.
A). Didn’t CM Bonin politicize the death of Niomi Larson and every other individual in his newsletter he claims died on Vista Del Mar and Culver?
B) The Playa Del Rey road diet is not over. Please do some reporting. Visit the roads and you will see tre road diet is not over.
There is not a single thing said in regards to Damon’s death by the recall Bonin campaign that was not discussed, in detail, with Damon’s children and family. The information that was provided and researched led us to believe the credibility of the work the recall Bonin campaign is doing and We stand by that. The actions of that driver have not nor will be dismissed and, as said in our statement, pray justice is served, but is a separate issue from what the campaign is trying to and supported in doing. We have read news articles with interviews from citizens backing up the feelings and questions as to why this work has not been done. Of course this tragedy fuels the campaign to remove someone not doing their job as an elected official. Of course the campaign is going to reach out and explain what they are doing to help spread their message. That’s what people do when they believe in a cause. There has been no taking advantage of a grieving family and no misguided anger on the part of the family. We’ve watched news video of this intersection, even during the vigil, showing how horribly dangerous that intersection is, with our own eyes, councilman Bonin. Is that misguided? We’ve read the LADOT reports indicating this is a dangerous intersection years ago, yet the problem remains unfixed. Is that misguided? No. Shane on you for disregarding a grieving family and the people you serve as an elected official
The leaders of the recall campaign have been demanding the city eliminate and de-fund its traffic safety programs.
“Better street design” like having to make a hard right turn over a barely used bike lane, parking lane, and sidewalk? Better design where there are choke points as cars have to merge? Better design where instead of traveling at 10 MPH during rush hour on Venice Blvd. you know travel at 5MPH thanks to Councilman Idiot’s lane reductions? Better design so emergency services can’t use Venice Blvd during rush hour due to traffic having no where to pull over to? Better design so at 2 AM when most of these traffic deaths occur, even one lane would still allow people to speed in?
All this is, is Bonin, Garcetti, and SCAG working together to force people to change their lifestyles. They want massive traffic jams, expensive gas prices, so they can push for congestion charges, and ultimately get people into public transportation and into Soviet style high rise apartment blocks. The irony is the head of SCAG is the former head of the Moscow transit organization under the USSR.
Bonin is unfit to be on the council, frankly so is the majority of people in the LA govt. #Recall
Wonderful article. Wasn’t one of the main proponents of the recall effort publicly against adding additional signalized crosswalks in Mar Vista due to increased traffic delays? The hypocrisy is showing.
It saddens me that we are not all placing the blame here on the careless driver regardless of the road configuration.
Shame on people using the tragic death of a pedestrian to further a political agenda to remove Councilman Bonin for trying to improve road safety. They are against him for trying to do more and now criticizing him for not doing enough- which is it? This is clearly a pathetic, Ironic and Trumpian twist using alt right shock jocks to promote the egomaniacal ambitions of two failed council candidates and a wanna be in the overwhelmingly progressive community of Venice. Bonin was reelected last year by almost 70% of the voters. Some people just can’t get enough attention.
I was one of those 70% who voted for Bonin and I deeply regret it. I got to see how he operates close up with the Playa Del Rey “road diet” mess. My biggest complaint with him is he is very dishonest. He really screwed over my community badly and now we are on to him. 89% of PDR was against the road diet and everybody who followed the events have very bad feelings about Bonin. He could not win an election for dog catcher in PDR.
It’s sickening that people would stoop to such a vile level to take advantage of a grieving family. These recall proponents had their chance last year during the election and the voters overwhelmingly picked Bonin. These recall backers have no decency or shame.
uh, Pete. Bonin used the names and images of the people killed on Vista del Mar to justify the failed road diets. Victims who sued the city and whose lawyer wanted to depose Bonin for ignoring safety recommendations on VDM. That’s without any recall movement at that time.
The family wrote a letter blaming Bonin. Not the Recall movement – they just read it. Bonin lies and does what the LACBC tells him – he couldn’t get a few LED’s on a stop sign because the LACBC wasn’t behind it.
It’s not any fun watching these ‘recall!!’ bozos reveal just how ugly they are willing to be.
These recall people are disgusting. Blaming Bonin for a traffic fatality is like blaming the leader of the anti-war movement for military casualties. He is the leading voice for traffic safety in Los Angeles.
funny Mark, the families of the two victims on Vista del Mar blamed Bonin and their lawyer, Purdy, wanted to depose Bonin, but he slimed away and the city paid off the families. Where was your indignation when those victim’s representative blamed Bonin? The family wrote the letter blaming Bonin, the recall movement just read it. Road Diets are not safety, they are the agenda of the LACBC. When simple measures as LED’s on a stop sign are called for, that doesn’t help the LACBC, so Bonin doesn’t do anything. Same situation on VDM, crosswalks and a new stop light were recommended for VDM, Bonin didn’t follow those recommendations either . . . guess the LACBC didn’t get a bike lane out of it, so no need. Not following those recommendation cost the city millions in those two deaths. Bonin not following those recommendations in Venice will cost millions more – but hey, so what, there was not bike lane involved.
Interesting that there is no mention in this article that the LADOT advised Bonin that the crosswalk was not safe and that, instead of allocating funds to make the changes, Bonin upgraded a crosswalk for Snapchat and spent Millions of Dollars on his failed road diet in PdR. Bonin was spending money on his pet projects rather than adhering to the LADOT recommendations.
Wait, was I the only one who read the family statement, in this article, that blamed this accident in part on “… seemingly negligent acts of an elected official, Councilman Mike Bonin …” Somehow the reading of this family statement has been misinterpreted, by Bonin, as the grieving family being taken advantage of. Bonin should be apologizing to the family not making these ridiculous statements.
hahaha. This is so ridiculous. The family of the victim wrote the letter – the recall campaign merely read that letter. The LADOT recommended safety enhancements, but those weren’t approved by the LACBC so Bonin didn’t follow those recommendations. Bonin can find money to reduce lanes in the night without public engagement, but he can’t get some LED’s on a stop sign? Bonin used the deaths of people on Vista del Mar to justify the f’d up, and now reversed, road diets. The victim’s lawyers from the VDM tragedies also blamed the failure of Bonin to implement LADOT recommendations that might have saved their lives. The lawyer for the victims also wanted to depose Bonin in these deaths (per the victim’s lawyer, Purdy, as quoted in publicly searchable news sources). Bonin has his nose so far up the ^ss of the LACBC, he is delusional – oops, what’s that, Bonin just hired someone from the LACBC for his offices, big surprise. Everyone wants safety, but not on the terms of the LACBC. Bonin hates representative democracy, so he bypasses democratically elected NC’s to implement the agenda of radicalized LACBC activists.