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Some people rail against billboards and other forms of highway clutter. But in L.A., we encourage it. Check out this interesting piece by The Times' David Zahniser about a "sign district" of massive video billboards rising in downtown. If that 110 commute could get any worse... (Cool video too).
Why do certain streets always flood? Like the shoreline streets of Seal Beach, or Warner-PCH in Huntington Beach. The Times' Victoria Kim reports today from another one -- Rossmore at Beverly in Hancock Park: Major flooding closed down a portion of Rossmore Avenue between Beverly Boulevard and 3rd Street in Hancock Park. Water submerged two cars that were on the road at about 6 a.m. and was rippling into driveways of some of the stately homes. "We're trapped every year," said resident Erma Lester. "We're seniors. If we had to go to the doctor, we wouldn't be able go."
More on traffic tie ups.
Share your flooded street stories...
Is it? The Pasadena Star-News has an upbeat report on the progress on the Gold Line extension to Montclair: With a key decision on extending the Metro Gold Line expected today, Rep. Hilda Solis and other local lawmakers are working behind the scenes, meeting with officials and writing letters to try to make the planned light-rail line to Montclair a reality. The El Monte Democrat and her colleagues, Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, met last week with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to discuss local transportation-related issues, including the $1.4 billion, 24-mile Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Montclair. Villaraigosa, who wields multiple votes on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board, has expressed support for plans to further extend the line to the Ontario Airport. His support is key because the MTA Board will vote today on whether to include the project in its long-range transportation plan, a move that Gold Line officials say is crucial in order to keep the extension in the running for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. Solis, who has also written to the MTA urging it to include the project in its long-range plan, was confident about the extension's prospects. "It is going to happen," she said Wednesday.
The Pasadena Star-News reports a setback for the Gold Line Extension plan to Montclair: Top regional transit officials voted unanimously Thursday to leave the Gold Line extension off a critical funding list, dealing a setback to plans for a 24-mile rail link between Pasadena and Montclair. The 13-member Metropolitan Transportation Authority board effectively delayed construction of the $1.4 billion project until at least the end of 2009, subject to final approval of the regional funding list by mid-year. Supporters of the extension had hoped to break ground before year's end, with initial service to Azusa and Glendora by late 2009, said authority CEO Habib Balian. "But all this will add time to the project, causing a six-month to a year delay," said Balian. "We won't be able to get started when we wanted to."
The Times Amanda Covarrubias talks to those motorists stranded for hours when the CHP closed the Grapevine because of heavy snow:
“We just had to park there and sleep,” said trucker Ted Dale, who found himself snowed in Wednesday night around the ghost town of Gorman. He was heading from Los Angeles to Seattle with a load of pineapples when he was ordered by the CHP Wednesday night to stop his eighteen-wheeler on the freeway. “There was no place to turn around.” About 30 passengers on a Greyhound bus heading from Southern California to Sacramento were forced to sleep on the vehicle overnight parked in the middle of the freeway. They were still stranded in Gorman 24 hours later because their driver had reached his limit on the number of hours he was allowed to operate the vehicle, and no fresh drivers could reach them to take over, the passengers said. “This is worse than jail,” said passenger Ilario Cazarez, a dance promoter from Los Angeles who was trying to make his way to Portland. Roughly 70,000 motorists travel through the Grapevine section of the Tejon Pass north of Los Angeles each day. Closure of the serpentine route caused major traffic headaches, as it is the state’s major north-south artery.
Photos LAT
Snow-clogged roadways forced the closure of Interstate 5 in the Grapevine area in both directions overnight and this morning, stranding hundreds of drivers and redirecting commuters on alternate routes, officials said.
California Highway Patrol officers are trying to aid about 200 motorists stuck in the snow, said CHP Officer Jason Bettini. The Red Cross is on hand to offer aid to motorists.
The snow is "sticking quite a bit," Bettini said. "Caltrans couldn't keep up with the snowplows."
Officials are urging motorists to take California 58 or 46. It is not known when the I-5 will be clear enough to reopen, as forecasters extended a winter storm warning through tomorrow night.
-Susannah Rosenblatt
Photo: LAT
The governor now likes the extension of the O.C. toll road system through South County (and some key parkland). That's a boost -- but will it be enough to persuade a skeptical Coastal Commission? One pol hopes not: State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, saying he was "deeply disappointed" by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's support for a toll road extension through San Onofre State Beach, called on the state Coastal Commission to reject the project. The toll road shouldn't be built, Lockyer said Thursday, because "it would cut through the heart" of California's sixth-most-popular state park.
The Times' Dan Weikel and David Reyes assess the governor's position here: Schwarzenegger's support comes at a time when the state is facing a $14-billion budget gap. To deal with the problem, the governor has proposed 10% cuts across the board for state agencies and cutbacks and closures involving 48 parks. Schwarzenegger noted that the Foothill South project was a public-private partnership that would rely on private capital, not state and federal funds, for construction.
Photo: LAT
With the First Street Bridge now closed for the next month, the MTA has a useful map for how to get between the Civic Center/Little Tokyo area and Boyle Heights. Here it is.
Remember the plan now being discussed to build a park over a portion of the Hollywood Freeway around Sunset Boulevard? Well, "capping the freeway" continues to be a dream of some activists. And there is even an organization studying the idea. The group plans a community meeting this weekend.
LAist really likes the idea.
Check out "before and after" photos.
Have ideas on how to make transit better in L.A.? Or just a complaint about a bottleneck? Here's a chance to talk live via the Internet with the MTA's chair: Share your ideas for funding transit at the next live chat, noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23. Tell Metro Board Chair and Santa Monica City Council Member Pam O'Connor where you think the money should come from to pay for future transit projects and keep the system running. Should it be a half-cent sales tax? Public/private partnerships? Parking fees? Toll roads? Or something entirely different? Talk to the Metro Board Chair live on Jan. 23 or submit advance questions by going to metro.net/chat. (MTA)
The Times' Louis Sahagun's exposé on how short-haul truckers cut corners when it comes to safety has gotten a lot of attention. Check out his video report on what's going on here. Interesting considering we've been told that truck accidents -- at least serious ones -- have been going down in Southern California the last decade.
What do you think? SPEAK OUT
Photo credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times
Lookout columnist Frank Gruber has a sobering reminder for all those west of downtown L.A. cheering for the Wilshire subway: L.A. County's a big place -- and others might have better ideas for the money: Unfortunately, notwithstanding that L.A. Metro would include in the measure projects, including road projects, designed to appeal to voters throughout the county, a stumbling block could be the project that would do the most good for us on the Westside -- the $7 billion extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway. Wilshire may be the best corridor in the country for routing a subway, but a member of the Metro board from Duarte told the conference that his constituents might balk if they thought subway might soak up all the money. And according to a report on the conference in the L.A. Times, a spokesman for County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the northern part of the county, said that the supervisor would probably oppose a transportation tax for the same reason. To be honest, I understand the impulse. I have no interest in paying good money to widen the Pearblossom Highway, or whatever road projects they may want up in Santa Clarita.
Get ready for something really bad -- a FULL FREEWAY CLOSURE on the 91 at Green River Road. It will occur Jan 25-27 during late-night-to-mid-morning hours. Still, Caltrans thinks the potential for traffic nightmares is big. So it offers these alternative routes.
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