October 6, 2026
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
City of Long Beach
411 West Ocean Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90802
RE: October 6, 2026 City Council Meeting — Item 20 (Bikeshare Contract Award, RFP No.
PW-25-631) and Item 21 (Extension of Current Bikeshare Agreement) Dear Mayor and Councilmembers:
I'm writing on behalf of Creative Class Collective to ask that you vote NO on Item 20 and YES on Item 21.
Long Beach has an incredibly unique, tightly knit culture—it isn't a cookie-cutter city you can manage from a spreadsheet thousands of miles away. To serve our residents, you have to be part of the community. Pedal Movement lives and breathes Long Beach. For years, they've been an essential partner for our annual art festival Long Beach Walls, leading popular mural bike tours that bring out up to 200 locals at a time. As a certified small business, they employ nearly 30 residents, provide real career paths, and consistently show up for our community.
Item 20 would hand this entire program over to a Toronto-based operator, risking a ten-year local employer and sacrificing the deep, on-the-ground knowledge required to run this program successfully. Additionally, given the acknowledged ambiguities in the RFP process, we believe it would be prudent to pause and resolve these questions before making such a significant change. Please reject Item 20 and ask staff to return with a process the community can trust.
In the meantime, passing Item 21 will keep the bikeshare running smoothly through the end of 2026.
Long Beach is fortunate to have a dedicated partner doing this work. Please, let's support our own.
Sincerely,
Michael Vitug
Creative Class Collective
October 5, 2026
Honorable Mayor and City Council
411 Ocean Ave, 11th Floor
Long Beach, CA 90802
RE: October 6, 2026 City Council Meeting — Item 20 (Bikeshare Contract Award, RFP No.
PW-25-631) and Item 21 (Extension of Current Bikeshare Agreement) Dear Mayor and Councilmembers:
On behalf of Long Beach Forward, I urge you to vote No on Item #20, the proposed award of Long Beach's bikeshare contract to Drop Mobility, and Yes on Item #21, the extension of the City's current agreement with Pedal Movement.
Long Beach Forward (LBF) is a community-based organization and third space creating a healthy Long Beach with low-income communities of color by building community knowledge, leadership, and power. Our vision of a safe and healthy Long Beach is incomplete without spatial justice: a clear understanding of how power, resources, and opportunities are distributed across urban space, and how the everyday needs of people like housing, parks, sidewalks, and transportation are accessible to everyone. We have worked alongside Pedal Movement for a number of years as a partner in advancing equitable access to biking and safe transportation for all community members.
Pedal Movement is a Long Beach company, certified by the City as a local small business, that has run Long Beach Bike Share for nine years. It employs nearly 30 people, pays them well, and gives them a viable career pathway. Its staff are the people who show up at our events, fix our neighbors' bikes, and pick up the phone when something goes wrong.
Item 20 would hand this program to Drop Mobility, a company headquartered in Toronto.
Bikeshare is the core of Pedal Movement's business. Losing it puts a ten-year Long Beach employer at risk. It also means starting over with an operator that doesn't know this city.
Running bikeshare well depends on local knowledge: where riders actually go, which stations need attention when there's a big event downtown, which neighborhoods and community partners to work with. An out-of-town company can't bring that on day one.
Item 21 keeps bikeshare running without interruption through December 31, 2026 while this is resolved. We support it.
Long Beach already has a local partner doing this work. We ask you to keep it here.
Sincerely,
James Suazo
Executive Director
Long Beach Forward
October 5, 2026
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City of Long Beach 411 West Ocean Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90802
RE: October 6, 2026 City Council Meeting
— Item 20 (Bikeshare Contract Award, RFP No. PW-25-631) and — Item 21 (Extension of Current Bikeshare Agreement)
Dear Mayor and Councilmembers:
On behalf of Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association and Bixby Knolls Community Foundation, I urge you to vote NO on Item 20, the proposed award of Long Beach's bikeshare contract to Drop Mobility, and YES on Item 21, the extension of the City's current agreement with Pedal Movement.
BKBIA and BKCF are two nonprofit organizations supporting and promoting businesses and community programs in the Bixby Knolls business district and neighborhood. We have worked alongside Pedal Movement for the past 14 years. Pedal Movement has been a sponsor/partner of our monthly Kidical Mass bike ride. Pedal Movement provides such a great service for our community with one-on-one interactions with attendees to discuss bike safety and all sorts of bike repairs and maintenance. They are a key component of the success of our event.
Pedal Movement is not an outside vendor. It is a Long Beach company, certified by the City as a local small business, that has run Long Beach Bike Share for nine years. It employs nearly 30 people, pays them well, and gives them a viable career pathway. Its staff are the people who show up at our events, fix our neighbors' bikes, and pick up the phone when something goes wrong.
Item 20 would hand this program to Drop Mobility, a company headquartered in Toronto. Bikeshare is the core of Pedal Movement's business. Losing it puts a ten-year Long Beach employer at risk. It also means starting over with an operator that doesn't know this city. Running bikeshare well depends on local knowledge: where riders actually go, which stations need attention when there's a big event downtown, which neighborhoods and community partners to work with. An out-of-town company can't bring that on day one.
We also understand that serious questions have been raised about how this procurement was run, including ambiguity in the RFP's minimum qualifications that the City itself acknowledged in writing. A decision of this size, with this much at stake for a local business, should not move forward while those questions remain open. Please reject Item 20 and direct staff to return with a process the community can trust.
Item 21 keeps bikeshare running without interruption through December 31, 2026, while this is resolved. We support it.
Long Beach already has a local partner doing this work. We ask you to keep it here.
Sincerely,
Blair Cohn, Executive Director
Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association
Bixby Knolls Community Foundation
[email protected]
(562)595-0081
cc: Megan Kerr, District 5, Pedal Movement