It's Hot Outside

May 20, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I'm about to head out on my bike ride back from JPL to Downtown. The JPL Weather Station says that the current temperature is 88 degrees. That's down only two or three from today's high. The solar raditation, though, is down from close to 100 watts/sq. foot to 48.6. I guess that means that while I'll still sweat on my ride, I won't get too burned. I am getting a sizeable farmer's tan, though.

LA Weekly Writes about Red Line; Still Doesn't Check a Map

May 20, 2005 by Eric Richardson

The LA Weekly cracks me up. In March they asked us

Ever wonder why a leg of the Red Line ends at Wilshire and Normandie, miles short of the museums and office buildings that would make it worthwhile to thousands?

I said that no, I hadn't wondered that, seeing as the line actually ends one stop later at Wilshire/Western.

And now in this week's issue they tell us where to drink along the Red Line. But again something funny caught my eye.

The Powerhouse, across the street to the east from Hollywood & Highland, the Red Line’s penultimate stop, deserves the honor of your visit if only for its dive-bar tenacity amid rampant swankification.

Hmmm... My dictionary tells me that penultimate means next to last. And my handy Red Line map tells me that there are in fact two stops past Hollywood & Highland. And just a bit before this we read

Traxx has a timeless romanticism about it; it also has great crab cakes (although you might have to eat them standing up). When you’re done, take a calm walk among the train-runners past the many numbered tracks toward Vignes Street, make a right at the end of the tunnel, and board the subway for central downtown.

I know, they probably just wanted an excuse to talk about tracks and numbers and such, but if you're giving people directions, don't make them walk more than they have to. The Red Line entrance before the train tunnel is much closer to Traxx.

Biking and Star Wars

May 19, 2005 by Eric Richardson

It's Metro's Bike to Work Day, so that's what I did. Well, ok, I did it 'cause that's what I do every day, but it still counts. And JPL was having a Bike to Work event too, so I ended up with a $20 gift certificate to Pasadena Cyclery and a Metro-branded patch kit.

This morning didn't begin cycling, though. Instead I threw my bike into the back of Kathy's Explorer and we headed to Hollywood, catching the 6:30am showing of Episode III at the Arclight's Cinerama Dome. Reserved seating meant we left Downtown at 6 and had plenty of time to spare once in the theater. They installed digital projectors in the Dome for this movie, so the best movie-watching experience in LA is now even a bit better. And off-peak tickets (6:30am is definitely off-peak) are only $11. And yes, I liked the movie. I didn't see Ep. 1, and I thought Ep. 2 was ok, but I thought 3 was very good.

LAist Reading Stack of Old Papers, Finds Midnight Mission

May 17, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Ah, LAist, late to the story and skimpy on the details... Today they discover the Midnight Mission saga that became a story about a month ago when the new facility opened. The Christian Science Monitor did a piece of reporting so shoddy that I don't really feel the need to link to it and put it onto the AP wires, and now here we are still having to talk about it. Brady rebutted the piece on April 19th, and I covered NPR's followup on blogdowntown a week ago. But today LAist jumps in. Aside from their usual lack of timeliness, they also lazy their way around some important facts you would think the extra time would have allowed to be researched.

In the comments to one particular blog post, Justin Wisniewski of the Midnight Mission explains that the majority of Midnight Mission isn't government funded and that most of the amenities are a necessity for getting those who are homeless and want to re-enter society to succeed.

More correct would have been that the CS Monitor's so-called "amenities" are really just essentials, and that the facility intentionally receives no government funding for their operations.

The facility also seems to be in response to the renewed interest in downtown as a residential area and the desire of those moving in to have the homeless off the street. Affordable housing in a community with rising rents and increasingly upscale constituents doesn't seem like a solution that will be welcomed.

Ummm... Here's the thing. Homeless people living on the street are a problem. It's bad for the neighborhood, but far more importantly it's bad for them. As someone with a definite interest in Downtown, I don't care what the rents are in the building next to mine. Affordable housing has its issues (mainly in regard to economics), but I hardly think Downtown is somewhere snooty enough that people care that those next to them don't quite match the median income. People want a neighborhood that's liveable, and having homeless people living on the streets is just as bad for those individuals as it is for their neighbors.

No Follow Through

May 15, 2005 by Eric Richardson

So after all my talk about the LA River Ride I didn't end up riding. My alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, and I'll be honest -- I just didn't feel like riding a bike. I guess this is why you register ahead of time: to give some incentive to follow through. I don't feel too bad, though; I did ride 100 miles this week and will do about the same next week. I think that earns me the right to a little Sunday afternoon rest if I choose to take it.