MetroRiderLA

[tags]los angeles, mta, red line, hollywood, public displays of affection[/tags]

No, it’s not an invitation for voyeurism, you pervs.

Public Displays of Affection is an event hosted by activist organization Global Inheritance, which encourages the audience to arrive at the concerts via public transportation. Last year, there was an event at Union Station.

This time, the fun begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the courtyard of Hollywood & Highland, the mall named after a Metro Red Line station. Featured performers are Ladytron, Great Northern and DJ Taina. Also on display is TRASHed: Art of Recycling Exhibit.

“Admission” is a transit pass or some proof of payment of a fare.

Transit connections, besides the subway: Metro Rapid Line 780 and local lines 2/302, 156/656, 163, 212/312 and 217; and LADOT DASH lines Hollywood and Hollywood/West Hollywood.

See also:

• MetroRiderLA: Last year’s event at Union Station
• Green L.A. Girl pimps the event

[tags]los angeles, mta, santa monica, big blue bus, bicycle, laist[/tags]

Bus drivers, rightly or wrongly, receive scorn from the public at large for perceived and actual misdeeds. Two incidents this week cast the job in the worst light possible.

In South Los Angeles, Stephen Mark Picart turned himself in to police on Monday for being suspected of killing his girlfriend in front of her children after an argument, reports the Los Angeles Times (with video from KTLA-Channel 5). The victim, 31-year-old Sharon Carter, was the mother of two boys and, according to her relatives, pregnant with a third child. Carter was a driver with Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. Picart drove school buses for First Student.

Meanwhile, LAist is attracting heavy comment and recommendation for publishing the account of a cyclist who had an altercation with a Metro driver in Hollywood. He called the police, only to be arrested. Box, who wrote the article in the third person, said the driver hit him with her bus, and a Metro supervisor said operators are supposed to honk at “road hazards”. On another LAist cycling controversy earlier this month, an SUV-bike altercation led to the citation of the cyclist in Beverly Hills (also written by Box), and leading to LAist being served with a warrant.

[tags]seattle, streetcar, south lake union, seattle post-intelligencer[/tags]

Jerry Johnson, foreground, and Don Clifton model the “Ride the S.L.U.T.” t-shirts at the Kapow! coffee shop in the Seattle neighborhood of South Lake Union.
Credit: Andy Rogers/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

This is unrelated to anything in Los Angeles, but MetroRiderLA readers could use a laugh once in a while.

Dateline: Seattle.

The unofficial name of a neighborhood streetcar has stuck, and it’s a most unfortunate acronym. The Trolley line is the South Lake Union Trolley. Yes, SLUT.

This is one of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s most read and e-mailed stories.

In reality, the official name of the service is the South Lake Union Streetcar. SLUS. But that’s not nearly as funny. The funnier acronym was just an urban legend, but one that’s enduring. One coffeehouse — how Seattle – is even printing up t-shirts saying “Ride the SLUT,” with a picture of a streetcar to give wearers a point of reference.

South Lake Union Trolley Streetcar Map

See also:

• The Overhead Wire: An inconvenient acronym
• Seattle Transit Blog: Future of Transit in Seattle

[tags]los angeles, gold line, lincoln heights, dwell magazine, transit oriented development[/tags]

Photo of the Fuller Lofts under construction.
Credit: Curbed LA

Fuller Lofts, an adaptive reuse project in Lincoln Heights, received mention in haute architecture mag Dwell. The concrete building, formerly Fuller Paints, is located a few blocks from the Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park Metro Gold Line station, and when completed in January 2008 will house 80 units. A few are to be set aside as “affordable” units, while market rate condos start in the mid-$200,000s.

The Fuller item is towards the end of the article, “The Condo Generation,” available online and in dead-tree form in the October 2007 issue. The article praises the Fuller architects, Pugh+Scarpa, for this project and an affordable-housing complex built in Santa Monica.

Curbed LA reports the drab concrete exterior has been sexied up with “a wall of colorful red, yellow and purple blocks.”

[tags]south pasadena, gold line, south pasadena farmers market, franklin avenue[/tags]

The South Pasadena Certified Farmers’ Market is child- and transit-friendly.
Credit: Franklin Avenue

Mike and Maria of Franklin Avenue give props to the South Pasadena Certified Farmers’ Market. It takes place on Thursdays, 4 to 8 p.m. on Mission Street, right near the Metro Gold Line station. They say one of the virtues of this city’s particular farmer’s market is that it’s less crowded and is well-suited for little ‘uns to linger.

“People stroll from the restaurants to the market and back again; stores are open late; and the vibe is nice,” wrote Mike. “Plus, the food vendors are top-notch. There are a wide variety of produce, bread and baked goodies booths.”

For more farmer’s market fun, the Old L.A. Certified Farmers’ Market is at the parking lot across from the Highland Park station 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays; and the Chinatown Farmers’ Market, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. also on Thursdays, one block south and west of the Chinatown Station. Metro has a press release and video of other farmers’ markets accessible by Metro Rail lines.

[tags]los angeles, mta, big blue bus, mid-city, transit oriented development[/tags]

There’s going to be a useful mall around this useless transit center in Mid-City.
Credit: The Militant Angeleno

Pico and Pimpau boulevards may be more than just a place to unnecessarily transfer between Metro lines 30/31/330 and Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus lines 5, 7/Super 7 and 13.

The Los Angeles Times reports that construction is underway on a $70 million shopping center. Its anchor tenant is Lowe’s. The mall replaces land that has been blighted for decades. Immediately near Crackton was a Sears store, which shut down and became a failed hardware store. Another failed hardware store, Builders Emporium, was also at the site. Beyond that is a shopping center with a Ralphs and a swap meet that was once a prominent discount chain store.

Crackton has an interesting transit lineage. Before it became an agonizing and unnecessary transfer point between two bus services, Pico-Rimpau was an agonizing and unnecessary transfer point between the Los Angeles Railway P line and Santa Monica buses. The P was the last streetcar line to run in L.A. It shut down in 1963. A bus replaced the streetcar line, but Santa Monica did not pick up the remainder of Pico, so the transfer remains. For more on the history of Crackton, also known as Vineyard Junction, see the Militant Angeleno’s July 19 post, “Visiting … with the Militant Angeleno” and scroll down to the second item.

See also:

• Franklin Avenue: Embracing A Big-Box Home Improvement Store