Blogs

I first met John Carrozza and Doug Prinzivalli at our mutual friend Peleg's house. I don't laugh out loud often, and I am not a constant chuckler, but John had me laughing most of the night. Being entertaining at potlucks is just a small part of what they do, they also entertain on a larger scale.

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Jane Usher wrote, “Our shared goal of growth through elegant density demands that we build vertically, but only in my view at major commercial or employment centers or within walking distance of locations where we have or will provide a substantial mass transit stop.”

Before you ride the bus, you have to learn to walk. And before you’d be willing to learn, there has to be a place to walk to – a relatively safe place, public without being exposed, at least minimally sheltered, lighted at night and in the early morning, clean. And a bus has to stop there with convincing regularity – every ten minutes, say.

Given the interlocking tiers of transit in Los Angeles – from local bus to Rapid limited service to light rail and subway – there should be a clean, well-lighted place at every transfer point. And the bus or train to has to arrive there with convincing regularity.

Of course, none of that is true of the Metro system.

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One simple resolution.

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Former Planning Commission President Jane Usher lives in a nice neighborhood. It has street after street of 200-by-100-foot lots. Los Angeles overall is significantly denser than that, particularly in neighborhoods built after 1950. But Usher’s pre-1950 neighborhood is still on the same, familiar suburban grid as my 5,000-square-foot lot, which is in distant Lakewood.

Inevitably, we must fit more of us into the grid. More of us implies greater density, since there are no more greenfields in which to build. Density is a direction (higher, more compact, closer to the street) and it also can be a means – to fewer car trips, more use of transit, a better urbanity. That kind of density can even be seen as value in itself. Density as an abstract good, like the idea of home.

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Hi, sorry for the quiet and lack of updates. I got sick. Real sick. An ear infection! I'm better now! Before I get into the heavy stuff later this year I just wanted to draw a a little bit toward the chatter about the awkward and contentious rivalry between Newlywed Game host Bob Eubanks and former face-of-Lucky's Stephanie Edwards. 2009 marks her triumphant return back to the Tournament of Roses—ending a two year departure—and she's already managed to get a few quips in.

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• 2008 passings: Notable Angelenos
  From LA Observed: Noting the deaths of prominent, newsworthy or interesting Los Angeles figures and of LA Observed's colleagues in the media is a regular thing we do here.
  (tags: obituaries rememberances)
• State warns of coming IOUs
  from the Los Angeles Times: The failure thus far of lawmakers and the governor to wipe out any of the state’s projected deficit of nearly $42 billion leaves California just weeks away from running out of the cash needed to pay all its bills.
  (tags: budgetcrisis CAStateGovernment)

Happy New Year! So 2009 heralds in Hope, Courage and Change. What about your New Year's resolutions? I have made my list of Ten Resolutions. Not your usual list of "eat less", "smile more" and "call home more often", but a list of internet resolutions - the kind no one really knows about except you and only you will know if you stick to them.

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Well, I got a rude present for Xmas, or an ominous one for New Year's--coverage of my town on the front page of the L.A. Times. The story detailed the awful truth about the violence and corruption of the Inglewood police force, which has developed a disturbing habit of fatally shooting and/or Tasering suspects, especially black male suspects, with insufficient provocation. This is nothing new, but the four-dead-suspects-in-four-months run this past year made people outside of Inglewood sit up and take notice (nothing like perfect-score, Vegas-like numbers to make an impression on the American public, like seven out of seven or a hole in one). As the Times piece made clear, Inglewood cops make those in nearby Hawthorne seem like community organizers, and even the historically notorious LAPD looks thoroughly reformed next to IPD's recent history of shootings, criminal behavior on the job and lax-to-nonexistent oversight of all and sundry by Inglewood city officials.

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• No Pants Subway Ride Coming to Los Angeles
  from LAist: The annual Improv Everywhere event is spreading across the nation including Los Angeles on the afternoon of January 10th. "
  (tags: metro comedy pants)
• The Governator Takes to Twitter and Widgets to Pass California Budget
  from Mashable.com: The Governator has apparently had enough, and is turning to social media to urge constituents of the nation's most populus state to pressure their lawmakers in the state legislature.
  (tags: socialmedia Schwarzenegger financialcrisis)
• Skaters Jump In as Foreclosures Drain the Pool
  from the NYTimes: "California officials estimate that there are tens of thousands of abandoned pools in the state, with as many as 5,000 in places like Sacramento County, where a building boom in the capital's suburbs has gone bust."
  (tags: mortgagecrisis financialcrisis skateboarding)
• Smogtown, an L.A. story
  from Slate Magazine: A review of Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, journalists Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly. [h/t LAGreenGirl]
  (tags: smog books green)
• Nearly 30 Percent of San Diego Mortgages Underwater
  from voiceofsandiego.org: Nearly 30 percent of homes in San Diego County with a mortgage are worth less than their owners owe on their mortgage, according to new data.
  (tags: financialcrisis mortgagecrisis Sandiego)
• Can you still claim you drive faster than the Gold Line?
  The Bus Bench: "Some people say that they can drive faster than the Gold Line, well this video calls you a storyteller. You'd think the marketing executives at Metro would have come up what this, but of course they all have cars."
  (tags: video metro GoldLine)
• Long Beach Harbor Patrol Says Photography "Not Allowed" From Public Sidewalk
  from photographer Thomas Hawk's blog: "They asked us not to shoot the refinery and suggested that it was a "double standard" that we'd insist on our constitutional rights to shoot in public while not honoring BP's request that we not shoot their facility from a public sidewalk." [h/t Lalawag.com]
  (tags: LongBeach photography law)
• 126 Years Ago Today: Downtown Got Its First Electric Street Lights
  from Blogdowntown: On December 30, 1882, at roughly 7:40pm, Mayor Homer Toberman threw the switch to send current to the first two arc lights installed by the Los Angeles Electric Company.
  (tags: history downtown)
• Feinstein urges FAA to hire more controllers at LAX
  from the Los Angeles Times: "Reiterating her call for more air traffic controllers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Monday warned President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Transportation secretary that chronic staff shortages at Los Angeles International Airport and the main radar facility that guides aircraft between airports pose an "alarming risk" to aviation safety in Southern California."
  (tags: LAX)
• This is What Happens When You Fire a Bullet into the Air
  from LAist: "Police across the region are telling people not to shoot guns into the air on New Year's Eve."
  (tags: NewYearsEve guns LAPD)