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ChineseArt Night Pasadena
Ahh Los Angeles… the smog-ridden cultural and transit wasteland. At least that’s what they’d like us to believe. But MetroRiders know better, and we’ve found that one of the best ways to experience the “cultural” side of Los Angeles is by never setting foot in a personal automoblie… those just lead us to parking lots and pricey valets. Why not hop on LA’s most scenic rail line, the Gold Line, and experience some of LA County’s finest art in one of its finest (and transit centered) cities: Pasadena.
On Friday October 13th (eek!) the City of Pasadena’s Cultural Affairs Division is sponsoring a free event dubbed “Art Night Pasadena”. Part of the Pasadena Art Weekend, Art Night is a unique transit-oriented cultural event where multiple Pasadena art venues open their doors to the public and are linked by free shuttles, allowing the public to enjoy the fine art offerings of the city without worrying about the typical automobile related things that keep Angelenos at home in front of the TV on a Friday night instead of out and about taking advantage of all this great metropolis has to offer. Art Night goes from 6pm to 10pm and the venues include: Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena Conservatory of Music, among many others. The main shuttle stop is at the Memorial Park Gold Line Station near Raymond Avenue and Holly Street. At the station, check out the Holly Street Village Apartments above you, a transit-oriented development that hints towards Mayor Villaraigosa’s dream of “Transit Villages” across Los Angeles.
If you are serious about embracing the LA Public Transit Lifestyle, this event seems like a great opportunity.
Discussion
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I’m a resident of Portland, Oregon, who’s been reading your blog for a while — in part because I’m considering a move to LA. I took a look at the Transit Villages site that you linked to and saw (surprise!) Portland on its home page. While this city generally does have good mass transit, it’s not quite the pie-in-the-sky mass-transit city that some people think it is.
For instance, a coworker of mine lives in a suburban condo that’s right by a light-rail station. But does she ride the light rail to work? No! She drives, like so many other Portlanders.
I know plenty of other people who could easily take the bus or train to work but choose to drive instead, even though parking downtown is relatively expensive. Some Portlanders just aren’t that interested in walking the walk (so to speak).
Anyhow, perhaps this post was a bit off-topic. I’m enjoying your blog and am glad to see that Mayor Villaraigosa is trying to provide his city’s residents with more public-transit options.
I’ll be visiting LA in December and look forward to further exploring the city. While I’ll have a car at my disposal, I also plan to try out the city’s public-transit system.
Thanks for the interesting blog.
Hey, thanks for reading! Interesting about Portland… I’ve never been but I’ve heard a lot of great things about it in terms of transit and “sustainability”(buzz word of the moment). But from what you’ve said, much like in LA it seems like it’s really a problem of perspective, because the infrastructure is there. The car-culture is just that pervasive I guess. But there are so many negatives with car-culture and so many positives with the public transit lifestyle, it’s just a matter of getting people to realize that by giving up that tiny bit of personal freedom (the ability to go anywhere at anytime by yourself) you actually gain a lot more freedom (freedom from the high costs of auto ownership, freedom from mind-numbing traffic, freedom from rude and dangerous motorists, freedom from the high chance of getting in an accident, etc etc).
Yeah, that’s really interesting about Portland because people are always referencing Portland as THE place for the whole sustainable movement. Well LA is alot like your porland neighbors when it comes to not “walking the walk”. Talking a great game about green tech. and voting “4″ the environment but not acting in anyway that would indicate such a stance. Driving and driving and driving.
To Portland’s credit, its mass-transit system (www.trimet.org) is better than most. But as Fred and Tyke both noted, it comes down to people walking the walk — i.e., not just paying lip service to things like mass transit, but also making lifestyle changes that actually reflect said lip service.
Another example: Here in “sustainable” Portland, I see lots of people accepting paper or plastic bags at the grocery store (including “progressive” stores like Whole Foods) instead of bringing their own canvas bags, as I often (okay, but not always) do. And don’t get me started about all the SUVs and other vanity vehicles I see on the road here. (For the record, I don’t own a car right now but am a member of Flexcar.)
And while you’ll see some people using their own commuter mugs at coffee joints like Starbucks, many people here don’t seem to think twice about accepting disposable paper cups. I guess they figure they’ve done their part by watching the Al Gore movie!
Yes, Portland has made some significant strides in the right direction. It’s now up to Portlanders to decide whether they want to head in that direction.
Hell yeah Flexcar!
though i dont know a great deal about the upcoming elections and ballots and crap, regarding Villaraigosa’s “transit villages”, proposition 1C seems specifically in favor of that idea.
and after seeing such places as the Holly Street Village Apartments, this sounds like a great idea.