Bike route honors Katz
Standing in front of Hermosa’s 10th Street Bike Corral last week, Todd DiPaola told the story of a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge hanging in his office: or, rather a photo of where the Golden Gate bridge would someday go. Instead, there are the pylons where the bridge would eventually rise, as fishermen troll the waters and people pass by, unaware that one of the world’s most photographed spans would soon be there.
DiPaola, a board member of the South Bay Bicycle Coalition, told the story at a celebration last week honoring his friend, Julian Katz, who died in June last year. Katz was critical in securing approval of the South Bay Bicycle Master Plan, which aims to create bicycling infrastructure connecting the region.
“He was out there, building bridges,” DiPaola said.
The plan’s first project was a set of “sharrows” painted along Hermosa Avenue, between Herondo and 24th streets, and the Hermosa Council honored Katz by renaming the route after Katz.
Katz was known for helping convince skeptics about cycling with his friendliness. Hermosa Planning Commissioner Mike Flaherty, the former head of the city’s Public Works Department, recalled handing Katz the equipment to paint the first of the city’s sharrows. Flaherty recalled that the two had also worked together on veteran’s issues, and agreed that Katz’s personality was key to all that he accomplished.
“I read in an article recently that someone said he was persistent. I think he was persuasive,” Flaherty said.
