Things to read from the past week:
- Mail-in-ballots now arriving in L.A. County mailboxes: FYI (Eastsider)
- Where to vote in Southern California (LA Times)
- Public Transit and the Postal Service Have the Same Problem: "The USPS and U.S. transit agencies face the same impossible demand: Succeed as both a business and a public service." (CityLab)
- Op-Ed: It’s Time to Prioritize the Third Lane: "By eliminating car parking and narrowing automobile lanes we can create the space necessary to accommodate lightweight, human sized micromobility vehicles such as electric scooters." (Streetsblog USA)
- Steelhead trout in the L.A. River? These experts envision a fish passage through downtown: "The fish passage, designers say, will serve as a pilot for similar efforts along the roughly 50-mile channel, as well as the L.A. River watershed, which drains 834 square miles of land bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountain ranges." (LA Times)
- Air board votes to address pollution problems in South Los Angeles: "The board, at a meeting Friday, also directed the district’s staff to pursue additional funding to help support emission-reduction efforts in the area." (LA Times)
- New bus lane debuts on Aliso Street in DTLA to speed up bus trips: "The bus lane should be especially helpful for riders headed from downtown L.A. to the San Gabriel Valley and Cal State L.A. Among the many bus lines that use Aliso Street are some heavyweights including Metro’s J Line (Silver), the 487 and 489 Lines and Foothill Transit’s popular Silver Streak. At peak times, up to 61 buses an hour use this stretch of Aliso Street." (The Source)
- The Iconoclast Remaking Los Angeles’s Most Important Museum: A behind the scenes look at the man (and the machinations) behind the controversial LACMA revamp (The New Yorker)
- Metro Converting Westside Bike-Share System to Smart-Dock: "Metro will be swapping out the type of bicycle and dock, and re-opening the Westside area starting in November. The transition is expected to be completed by January 2021." (Streetsblog LA)
- Potholes And Road Damage: How The Census Impacts LA Freeway Commutes: "A census undercount in California, however, would mean a smaller share of federal transportation funding across the state. In Los Angeles, the consequences are even more devastating. L.A., a major transit hub with about 515 miles of freeway and expressway, is also the hardest-to-count county in the country and is chronically undercounted." (LAist)
- How Getting Priced Out of L.A. Made Me Love the Inland Empire More Than I Ever Thought I Could: "I felt like the place I was born and raised in stopped loving me as much as I loved it as soon as I couldn’t afford it anymore–how’s that for an unrequited romance? Slowly, I got over it when I saw the difference in rent, and home prices in the I.E. Shit, a girl’s gotta eat and have a pinche roof over her head, I just never thought that would be in the desert." (LA Taco)
- What would a city designed by women look like?: "According to the World Bank, women occupy only 10 per cent of senior jobs at the world’s leading architecture firms. Urban planning is dominated by men and their legacy. Every city in the world was designed and built by men." (Financial Times)
- This was supposed to be the year for California’s homeless. Instead it’s a slow ‘train wreck’: "This was supposed to be the year that California finally did something about its epidemic of homelessness. On Feb. 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood before lawmakers in the state Capitol, and delivered an unprecedented State of the State address devoted entirely to the homelessness crisis....California is home to one-quarter of the nation’s homeless population, a grim distinction painfully visible not only on city sidewalks, but also along the state’s freeways and farm levees, in its urban parks and suburban strip malls." (LA Times)
- Hundreds of Homes Could Be Demolished Due to Possible Highway Expansion: " Homes on a street that runs parallel to the 605 Freeway will be demolished to add more traffic lanes to the freeway, according to residents." (NBC)
- Chinese developer agrees to pay $1 million in L.A. City Hall corruption case: "Jia Yuan USA, based in Arcadia, was set up to redevelop the Luxe City Center Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, replacing the existing nine-story hotel with a new, much taller hotel and residential towers." (LA Times)
- Downtown LA’s Once-Unstoppable Restaurant Scene Now Faces an Uncertain Future: "In the early 2000s, before Downtown became an influential dining destination, office workers left work and abandoned the area at 5 p.m. Grand Central Market struggled to find its audience, and many buildings stood abandoned or in disrepair. The period between the mid-2000s and 2020 brought immense economic development to the area, making it a bona fide destination to live, work, and visit. But challenges presented by COVID-19 have triggered a neighborhood regression: Fewer tourists and a significant decrease in the number of Downtown workers due to office closures have led to virtually empty streets." (Eater LA)
- L.A. Judge Blasts County/City for Bickering, Time-Wasting in Homelessness Suit: "Although an agreement was reached in June to provide an additional 6,700 beds over the next 16 months, with funding for five years thereafter, a confidential joint status report filed Monday indicates that momentum has bogged down in a mire of disagreements and inaction, the judge wrote." (MyNewsLA)
- Op-Ed: Prevent future L.A. City Council scandals by fixing our planning system: "To hammer out a comprehensive approach to planning reform, we urge the establishment of a commission, like the Christopher Commission that was formed in 1991 to examine and make reform recommendations to the structure and operations of the LAPD after the Rodney King beating." (LA Times)
- Could a 'scramble crosswalk' make Sunset and Alvarado safer?: "The arrangement would allow pedestrians to cross diagonally across the intersection in addition to the traditional crosswalks while vehicle traffic is halted in all directions." (Eastsider)
- Street vendors risk a lot to make a living: "Outside and exposed, they face robberies, assaults and bureaucracy" (Crosstown LA)
- Record mogul gives $25 million to L.A.’s Music Center for free concerts: "The newly renovated Music Center plaza that links the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre will be named Jerry Moss Plaza. The inaugural order of business, when it is deemed safe for the public to gather again, will be an annual free summer concert featuring prominent musicians that Moss said he hopes to help recruit from his network of industry connections." (LA Times)