Downtown: The Toluca Subway Yard

September 15, 2004 by Eric Richardson

It seems today the LA Times caught up with the ongoing back and forth over the Toluca Yard subway portal. I thought I had talked about this last month when Preserve LA did their call to action, but I can't seem to find anything in the archives. I guess I sort of half-responded in my head and the words never made their way here.

Anyway, the Times story -- "Old Tunnel May Be Tagged as Landmark" -- focuses on the idea of the site as an "art park" for graffiti.

The land has sat for decades as a sort of no-man's land — a place for homeless people to sleep, taggers to use as a canvas and drug addicts to shoot up. Then, earlier this year, the new property owner proposed tearing down the tunnel and replacing it with a 276-unit apartment complex.

The plan has sparked a growing movement to preserve the tunnel, not as a relic of the past, but as a monument to Los Angeles' underground graffiti culture. Today the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to grant cultural landmark status to the tunnel — a key step in efforts to save it.

Now, here's my first question: How do you "tear down" a tunnel? You can fill in a tunnel, or dig up a tunnel, but tear it down? That's some poor word choice there, especially since I seem to recall that the developers intend to do no such thing, even leaving the tunnel portal intact as a feature of the site. I can't seem to find the details I remember reading previously, though, so take my memories with a grain of salt.

The article gives mention to the history of the site. Originally running from downtown's Subway Terminal Building to the Toluca Yard, service stopped in 1955 and in 1967 the tunnel was interupted by the construction of the Bonventure Hotel. Since then it's just sort of been sitting there, for the most part unsecured.

Sort of as an aside, the Belmont Art Park website is really good looking. Definitely a site you should check out, if just for their very comprehensive set of links to tunnel related sites.

People have mentioned several different uses for the site, including the aforementioned art park and putting the tunnel back to use for a new light rail line. Of course the reality of the situation is that the developer owns the site and the area needs housing.

As much as I think the reuse of the tunnel for transit would be a great thing, I don't think I've ever seen any hard information on exactly how thoroughly the Bonaventure cut off the tunnel. Knowing that would be pretty important to knowing if what you've got is a dead-end hole or something that could be worked back into a tunnel with two ends.

With the site being discussed at meetings both yesterday and today, you'd like to think that we'll get a slightly clearer picture of what's up in the next little while.

DLANC: My First Meeting

September 15, 2004 by Eric Richardson

As I mentioned in advance yesterday, last night was my first Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council meeting (DLANC, from hereafter). The meeting was at the DWP building on Hope, which I hadn't really ever noticed before. To get to the meeting I had to leave my last class at USC early and catch the bus back to my apartment. From there I jumped in my car and headed northwest (it's like 10 blocks or so, maybe, but I was in a hurry). I got to the meeting right on time, re-introduced myself to a few people, and then took my seat in the audience. I hadn't yet been sworn in, so at this point I was still just a commoner attending the meeting.

Second or third on the agenda was the special election I won. They announced the results, introduced me, and then moved into the next item: the swearing in. Three of us read the DLANC pledge from a sheet of paper and then took our seats in the front of the room.

The rest of the meeting was more a chance for me to sit and listen than to contribute anything to the discussion. Items discussed included creating a committee to work through issues related to filming downtown, and trying to get an accurate count of downtown's homeless population.

You have to love the rules of order for meetings such as this. For instance, the filming motion being discussed was simply a yes or no for creating a committee. What inevitably discussion tried to turn into, though, was how to balance the interests of the filming companies, downtown residents, and the creation of jobs for those downtown (particularly the homeless and/or jobless) who really want to be working. That discussion is fine to have, but it's very much a tangent to the motion that was actually on the table. The board recommends the committee, the executive board creates it, and then only once the committee is constituted can this discussion have any meaningful purpose. In fairness I thought procedure was handled well. Some discussion was allowed, but in the end order was steered in the right direction and those who had a lot to say on the issue were shown as good candidates to be involved on the committee.

Several board members have USC connections, including Jason Waters, who I had met before at the Artistsalon.com studio warming party. Another board member / USC grad was taking headshots of everyone for the website, and I'm pretty sure that in like 10 shots we were unable to get one with my eyes open. I don't know why, but the flash on that camera just really got me.

So what now? I guess the next step is to get myself onto a committee or two, since that's where the real action goes on. I know there's one that involves transportation, and that's always been an interest of mine. Also I figure that since I am "Resident Artist" I should probably get involved in helping out the arts community, so we'll see where that goes.

After the meeting a guy from the Downtown News asked me some questions, so there's a chance I'll get my name in the paper. He asked me if I had any aspirations in politics. I said no. Only the future will tell if that's true or not, but at this point I have to believe it is.

wish me luck

September 14, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I have my first Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC) board meeting in about an hour. If you remember, last month I was elected Area-Wide Resident Artist. Tonight I get to go see what that actually entails. I'm fascinated by the concept, so I'm looking forward to it, even though I understand that anything like this is bound to be wrapped up in a lot of politics and rules. I'll be sure to make a full report afterward.

SWG: First Impressions

September 14, 2004 by Eric Richardson

As I mention in the category description, we're playing the game Star Wars Galaxies. Yeah, we have classes like that. Be jealous. This is why I'm a COMM Major.

Once getting my computer up to date enough to play the game and shaking my fist at Microsoft when they tried to tell me that an OEM version of XP is only allowed to be used on the computer it ships with, I got started. The game looks amazing, as you can see in screenshots on their website.

I chose to be an Artisan, since I'm really not that interested in just fighting all the time. Once in the game, though, I couldn't quite focus as clearly. So I am an artisan, but I'm also working on bits in Scout, Marksman, and Brawler. Scout because I wanted to be able to harvest hide and bones from animals, marksman because I wanted to shoot a gun fairly straight to hit said animals, and brawler because I wanted to be able to use the knife they give you. I think this is partially a result of my typical style of play: as self-reliant as possible. What takes a little bit of time to understand in a game like this is that you can form a group of players that each have a specialized skill to bring to the table. Maybe, though, this grouping is better suited to non-newbie players, people who can actually bring something useful.

I find myself having to fight the urge to play the game like it's single-player. When you come into the game you have a choice; you can either start talking to people or you can just go do something. I tend to just go do things. I don't think that's the right strategy here. It takes a long time to do things yourself. It goes a lot faster if you make friends.

I'm not very good at making money. I wander around, I survey, I kill the easy animals -- that's about it right now.

It's a pretty obvious conclusion, but the people who play more advance faster. It's odd leaving the game on a Thursday and seeing someone at a certain point, and then coming back after the weekend to find that they've massively passed you by.

Eh, that's enough for now. More later tonight.

if only i brought my lunch

September 14, 2004 by Eric Richardson

So today I made a step most kids made a dozen years ago. I took the bus to school today. It's a little odd to be able to say this in your fourth year of college, but I think this is the first time I've ever done that. Ever. I was home-schooled up through seventh grade, and then when I was in North Muskegon I lived too close to the school for the bus to be available to us.

But today I took the bus: the 38 South to be specific. I caught it at the corner of Spring and 6th, and it dropped me off right in front of campus. I have a neighborhood council meeting tonight, so I didn't want to bike here dressed in board shorts and a t-shirt, have to go back to my apartment and change, and then get in my car and drive from my apartment to the DWP building. So I took the bus.

Impression number one? It's not faster. I got on the bus on 8:16, and got off at 8:36 or so. I can bike door to door in that time. I'd arrive a little hot and sweaty, but I'd save the money for a token.

The bus was well used, but not crowded. Boardings picked back up once the bus passed LA Tech, and it never really got empty.

I think the DASH will be the next leg of my journey. That's for later, though.