MetroRiderLA

[tags]big blue bus, jimmy kimmel, sweeps, abc[/tags]

Photo of Big Blue Bus courtesy of Charlie Brewer via Flickr. Jimmey Kimmel added for humorous effect.

Television’s sweeps season is upon us, and according to LAist, Jimmy Kimmel and ABC plan to take the bus this May:

“In a special episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” airing TUESDAY, MAY 15, Jimmy hosts an entire show direct from a Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, picking up guests along the bus route. Scheduled to appear throughout the May sweep is an all-star lineup that includes Cameron Diaz, Geoffrey Rush, Danica Patrick, Carmen Electra, Evangeline Lily, Sarah Silverman, David Spade, Garry Marshall, and the latest eliminated celebrities from “Dancing with the Stars,” as well as performances by Ozzy Osbourne, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park, Macy Gray, Alexa Ray Joel, Kaiser Chiefs, The Used and The Bravery.”

Sounds like fun, and a good way to introduce America (and probably a lot of the celebrity guests) to L.A.’s public transit system. I wonder if it will pick up riders as audience members too?

[tags]los angeles, downtown los angeles, blogdowntown, toilet, red line, purple line[/tags]

This self-cleaning automated public toilet has been at Pershing Square for almost six months, yet it still sits unused.
Credit: Eric Richardson via Flickr (Creative Commons license)

Blogdowntown is officially on Toilet Watch! The intrepid downtown Los Angeles blogger has his finger on the pulse of … well, the finger metaphor is not the most appropriate when talking about waste elimination. Anyway, Blogdowntown says the automated public toilet, valued at $250,000, has arrived 25 weeks ago – that’s 4,224 hours — and is still not operational.

In the meantime, the closest public lavatory is the Pershing Square Metro Red/Purple Line elevator. Disclaimer, per a request from the site’s legal advisors: This last sentence was inserted as a comedic device. MetroRiderLA neither encourages nor condones public urination, defecation, masturbation or any other socially unacceptable -ation. MetroRiderLA shall not be held liable in any instance of criminal or social retribution.

Updated 4-20: Blogdowntown witnesses the installation of a second soon-to-be inoperable public toilet at the Fourth Street Pershing Square subway entrance.

[tags]escalator, subway, red line, los angeles, ettiquette[/tags]

In London they have signs to remind people of the unspoken rule.
Photo courtesy of Breuls via Flickr.

David Markland over at Metroblogging Los Angeles posts a rant about those people (you know who you are) who stand on the left side of the escalator and block the way for those who are in a rush. Angelenos seem to forget this basic rule of urban escalator ettiquette. Or were the just never aware of it thanks to the low-rise nature of our city? Either way, this stands as a reminder for all you MetroRiders: Stand on the right, walk on the left!

[tags]la straphanger, blog, transit, los angeles[/tags]

With the arrival of spring, L.A. transit bloggers are coming out of hibernation, first the Metro Mole and now the L.A. Straphanger! The Straphanger disappeared from transit blogging for about two months, reporting that he had become “completely disgusted with the state of ‘transportation planning’ in this city” in his comeback post on April 14th. What pissed him off so much that he needed a two month break?

• Hoopla in favor of widening the 405 freeway. Straphanger sez: “Wrong, wrong, wrong. More lanes = more traffic.”
• The media ignored a pro-transit meeting between the Mayor and a Federal transit offical regarding the Wilshire subway extension.
• More hoopla in favor of making Olympic and Pico one way streets. Straphanger sez: “Wrong, wrong, wrong. The Straphanger is totally, firmly and adamantly opposed to one-way streets.“
• The proposed fare hikes! Straphanger sez: “Wrong, wrong, wrong and totally unfair and stupid.“

So understandingly, he had a lot to be upset about. But he took a hiatus, and now he’s back on the beat, much like the Metro Mole before him, fighting the impossible fight. I say, press forward Straphanger!

[tags]los angeles, curbed la, hollywood, red line[/tags]

The Hummer limousine in the foreground of Hollywood & Highland is candid, but this photograph has the most self-indulgent chunder per pixel that is still capable of being transmitted within current bandwidth limitations.
Credit: Wkivinski via Flickr

Hollywood & Highland was the right pig with the right lipstick to win Curbed LA’s Ugliest Building Contest. The competition was intense in the architectural reverse beauty pageant, with entrants open only to structures within Los Angeles city limits.

This is actually a coup for H&H’s owners and its PR people. In modern communications, publicity is value neutral, measured by raw quantity and not “good” or “bad”. Members of Generation X and people younger are skillful at turning notoriety into memes that achieve the opposite effect. This honor is a blessing in disguise, since H&H can profit from something that should be its undoing.

It is quite an achievement to be recognized as the Ugliest Building in Los Angeles, especially when the nominees and judges can articulate ugliness. And look at the odds H&H had to overcome. It had to compete in a very broad field, considering Los Angeles’ architectural gift to the world is the strip mall. Los Angeles “attracts the world’s creative class,” yet the Babbittry should be looked at clearly as the slumlord to the rest of the world’s flakiest and most unemployable tenants. These bright minds come to a place where there’s the weather, vestiges of ecological beauty and amusement to help creativity bloom, yet end up petulant and stultified enough to grow crap out of a rose bush.

H&H happens to be the topmost stratum of this crap heap. Here’s Curbed LA’s clean and articulate panel of judges to explain why:

(more…)

[tags]lacmta, metro mole, los angeles, don quixote[/tags]

To fight the impossible fight… Metro Mole vs. the LACMTA.
Photo of MTA Headquarters courtesy of ericrichardson via Flickr. Illustration by FredCamino.

L.A.’s resident Don Quixtote, the Los Angeles Metro Mole, is back at it, chivalrously fighting the good fight versus the giant windmills that are the MTA. Noble, devoted, and relentless… the Metro Mole won’t stop until the beast has been slayed. But is his battle futile? And what of his Dulcinea*?

His most recent battles:

• Attacks the consistently broken fare boxes on Metro buses. Why can’t they be more like Coinstar?
• Attempts to take down the Metro Trip Planner. Although this battle may truly be a quixotic illusion, the Trip Planner failure was unrepeatable in my tests.
• Tries to right an unrightable wrong by proposing signage changes for the Green Line.
• Dreams the impossible dream. In this case, the dream of receiving a “thank you” letter and free bus pass from Beach Cities Transit for heeding his advice regarding their signage. Fat chance, Mole.

*In his October 21st, 2006 post, the Metro Mole waxes poetic about meeting a lovely and chaste (”she wore appropriate attire – no “belly shirt”, etc. - a real lady”) young woman who would become his transit Dulcinea. Since then, I have regarded him as the defender of decent transit and traditional values, thus this Don Quixote themed post.