The LA Subway Blog - Transportation, Real Estate, and the Future of Los Angeles

The Parlor-Santa Monica's Permit Woes

2010-01-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Parlor is a popular sports bar in Santa Monica that's currently facing issues with the city planning commission and area neighbors. It's a great place to watch sports, with dozens of flat panel TVs, and a fun atmosphere. Its proximity to the future MOS-IV subway stop at 16th & Wilshire and the existing Metro Rapid stop at 14th & Wilshire make The Parlor great destination for those looking to catch a game and ride Metro.

However, The Parlor has run into a few legal issues since it applied for a permit to open the top floor for guests. Here's a summary of the issues currently facing the Parlor:

The Parlor is operating without an active parking variance. A parking variance allows for a business to operate despite the fact that it can't provide the amount of on-site parking required by code. In fact, the building's parking variance expired in the early 1980's when the Cinch took over the restaurant. Without a current parking variance, the city can deny a business the right to operate. The Parlor has no on site parking.
The Parlor has been operating the unpermitted second floor for a while. This increases the capacity of the Parlor over what the expired parking variance would have allowed.
The Parlor has a Type 47 liquor permit, subject to operating restrictions. A Type 47 permit allows beer, wine, and liquor service at a "bona fide eating place" with a complete food menu (not just sandwiches and salads) where patrons come to have a meal "in good faith" in the absence of loud music or dancing. Typically, this means that food sales must be at least 65% of total sales, although this rule is not set in stone. Most restaurants which serve liquor in Santa Monica have this permit type (i.e. El Cholo, Barney's Beanery). This permit type is generally easier to obtain than a Type 48 Permit, which allows for liquor sales without food (i.e. The Gaslite or Zanzibar).
Patrons leaving The Parlor late at night have disrupted neighbors. This could result in fines and disciplinary action if neighbors file a formal complaint with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Thus far, community opposition has been focused locally, opposing the operation of the 2nd floor.
The Santa Monica Planning Commission imposed operating restrictions on the Parlor which would make the place operate more like a restaurant than a Sports Bar, and the building owner Parlor has appealed these operating restrictions to the city council. For the all the juicy details, you can see the Staff Report and read a Santa Monica Daily Press article. The City Council will take up the issue again in February.

It would seem that from a legal standpoint, the Parlor's challenges are insurmountable. I doubt they'll continue operating as they currently do. However, the Parlor's parking variance woes bring up an interesting question:

Should businesses within 1/4 mile of a high quality transit stop (such as the one at 14th & Wilshire) be required to provide as much parking as businesses outside this zone?

New residences in such an area can have required parking waived in many areas of the state.. Concentrating nightlife around transit might generate more social benefit than concentrating other uses around transit. While having transit accessible nightlife may cause more young people to choose to live near the transit system, having transit available as a sober ride home could also cut down on driving under the influence, resulting in safer roads for everyone.

One day, I will be able to tweet underground: Metro to write RFP to install cell service in subway tunnels

2009-12-31T18:48:00.000-08:00

Metro is looking to make it possible for people to use their cell phones underground, according to Steve Hymon at The Source, Metro's official blog.

Juan thinks this is super exciting. He could go on lengthy diatribes about how this upgrade further positions the system to meet the needs of working professionals (aka the transit choice rider), who would rather leave the driving to Metro while fiddling around on their smartphones during their commutes to work.

I, on the other hand, would like to take a moment to talk about how this could shape preferences for a particular cell phone provider around the region.

Right now, my closest friends in LA have split their allegiances amongst a number of providers: Juan is with T-Mobile; our friend Nurit is with AT&T; BeccaKlaus is on Verizon; and I'm sure somebody I know is on Sprint, except I probably don''t call them very often because they're not IN, as in, IN the Verizon network.

This is because I am IN. I have been a Verizon subscriber for the past six years. And it's certainly not because I love Verizon. Their customer service often leaves something to be desired, and their website is clunky. They charge what I consider an excessive premium to use a Blackberry, so I have stuck to using a phone once touted by the New York Times for its child-friendliness. (GPS? Check. Ability to restrict phone calls? Check twice.)

But Verizon's actual wireless service has been, in my experience, top-notch. With a Verizon phone, I was actually able to make phone calls while I was a student at Smith, which is located in semi-rural western Massachusetts; while I was working at a nerd camp site in a dense redwood forest; and, most importantly, while I was riding the subway in the DC-metro area.

That's right, Angelenos: Cell phone reception doesn't always have to die underground like it does right now in LA.

Out in the DC Metro area, Verizon subscribers have been able to use their phones underground for years (although this has recently been expanded to include three other providers.) This is one of the reasons why so many of my friends and contacts in the DC Metro area are also on Verizon. (Sprint subscribers with roaming-enabled phones could also use their phones underground, but who knows anyone on Sprint?) And because so many of my friends are on Verizon, I have been reticent to leave Verizon myself. Never mind that I don't really talk to people on the phone anymore. I just like having the security of knowing that I'll never get slammed with an egregious bill in case I need to have a marathon sob session with Lizzie G during the weekday hours of 6AM and 8:59PM.

So in conclusion, this whole prospect of an RFP going out to sniff out potential vendors has got me wondering. Who will win? Will underground subway service be limited to just vendor? If so, what criteria will be considered? And would this be enough to change a region's allegiance to a particular vendor, like it has out in DC?

The Thin Red Line: A Review of Taylor, Kim, & Gahbauer

2009-12-27T23:38:00.000-08:00

Brian Taylor, our esteemed professor of Urban Planning at UCLA and transportation finance expert, and John Gahbauer, our favorite transit geek and UCLA colleague, along with Eugene Kim, co-authored a paper on the history of transportation planning in the Wilshire Corridor in Los Angeles. This is a review of their paper, which appears in the Journal of Planning Education and Research (requires subscription or library access). I believe you can also visit the Metro Library to view a copy.

Taylor begins by discussing the tendency of politicians to pursue large capital projects in favor of incremental operational improvements. The "monument" or "ribbon-cutting" effects of new capital projects have proven very attractive to politicians. It's difficult to hold a photo-op in front of increased bus frequency, but much easier in front of a subway station:

Post-Measure R Victory Press Conference.

Most transit capital projects are subjected to cost-benefit analysis, but costs are often underestimated and benefits are almost universally overestimated.

These generalizations are present to varying degrees in the history of the Wilshire Subway. Planning on what will eventually become the Wilshire Subway began in the 1970s, but encountered many hurdles along the way. A giant hurdle was the 1980s prohibition of the use of federal funds to tunnel under Henry Waxman's district in Beverly Hills, which came after a methane deposit under a Ross store exploded and burned for several days. Out of the political negotiations surrounding this ban came the present day Purple line stub at Wilshire & Western. In order to circumvent this ban, planners proposed less cost-effective routes. Taylor shows how these alternate routes, which were never seriously studied, were inferior to the proposed Wilshire route.

Proposed Southern route

Taylor argues that the Wilshire Route, along the "linear downtown," is one of the most transit-friendly corridors in the West. With over 100,000 bus riders per day, traffic congestion, expensive parking, high residential density, high peak hour volumes, Wilshire Boulevard is likely the most cost-effective subway corridor in Southern California. There are 7x more workers on the Wilshire foute than the southern alternative along San Vicente & Pico. Later on, Taylor points out that just 3 of nearly a dozen lines which travel on Wilshire (18, 20, and 720) have a combined ridership of 90,033 per day, 1/3 more than the Gold, Green, and Orange lines combined (66,871 per day).

In 2005, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was elected. A strong proponent of the subway, he negotiated with Waxman to lift the ban on tunneling, and took implicit responsibility for any incidents that may arise from tunneling under Wilshire. Villaraigosa and other politicians pushed for Measure R, the voter approved 1/2 cent sales tax which will provide the funding for the first two segments of the subway. Federal loans and grants could build more subway quicker.

The proposed 2009 route isn't much different from the 1979 route.

Taylor, Gahbauer, and Kim offer a great overview of the history of the Wilshire Subway in Los Angeles. I learned a lot about the political tumult in the 1980s and early 1990s, and the power of one man, Waxman, to impact the urban form of a city for so many years.

Side Note: Monorails have been proposed along Wilshire for well over 100 years. They've never been taken seriously, as aerial structures would severely disrupt the nature of the neighborhood.

Happy Holidays from the LA Subway Blog!

2009-12-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

Our Transit-Oriented Christmas Tree included a Metro 2 bus button; a Metro Rail cardboard car; a replica of a Metro Bus in California Poppy; a traffic cone, and a Dump the Pump stress toy from an old UCLA Transportation campaign.

And yes, John Gahbauer, that is an actual (heavy paper-stock) Metro Rail car on our Christmas tree.

The bigger question this Christmas:
John, quick: Make, model, year of manufacture of the rail car.

Juan and Sirinya make it to opening day of the Eastside Extension of the Gold Line

2009-11-17T00:29:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

The Eastside Extension to the Metro Gold Line opened on Sunday to a LOT of fan fare. Juan and I were one of the 70,000 + people who checked out the festivities along the eight-stop extension. We actually went first to Chinatown to sample some dim sum, then trekked to Union Station, where we got off at several stations along the route to check things out.

Above: Soto Station, which has a bird theme. I'm too much a product of the LA public schools, as I can't tell you what kind of art theory informed this kind of... art (is it a bird? a plane? no, folks, it's just a light rail train.) Below: Crowded light rail car! Some people were probably sightseeing (especially the little kids who were suuuper excited and pointing to things out the window to their parents and siblings), and others (um, like the woman with sunglasses who was dozing off) were actually trying to get somewhere.

Metro did a fantastic job preparing its staff to serve as ambassadors and authorizing its staff to implement crowd control strategies. For instance, our return to Union Station via the Mariachi Plaza was slightly delayed, as Metro staff and security crew held us and probably two dozen other people up by the fare gates until the passengers waiting downstairs for trains departed. SMART!

Juan and I walked between the distance along 1st Street between Soto Station and Indiana Station in Boyle Heights. I suspect that the areas along the Eastside Extension will be the next to "gentrify", as the light rail line provides accessibility to the rest of the city and the housing stock - which includes many California bungalows and large boarding houses with intricate details - might be very appealing to the upwardly mobile.

This home is subdivided into four apartments and is near the northeast corner of 1st and Soto.

This recently-renovated Food-4-Less is located on 1st Street, between the Soto & Indiana Stations. I would not be shocked if its corporate owner decided to step up to its A-Game upon the opening of the Eastside Extension.

Good-bye to the bus line that shadowed the Eastside Extension route, effective 11-15-09.

As part of the mini-adventure, Juan and I got agua de limon from El Mercado, which was so darn sweet that it induced dehydration and a headache. But before the headaches kicked in, we also stopped by Mariachi Plaza. There was a huge street fair underway; I was able to get my Metro Gold Line swag (thankyouverymuch); and we listened to Jose Huizar make some comments. We also got tacos from Jim's. (In actuality, the tacos were nothing special - stuff thrown together haphazardly in a fast-food joint setting. I'll get back to you on the pastrami next time.)

The following day, I went on a VIP tour of the Eastside Extension, but I've had enough blogging for now so I'll save that for another day.

Ridership on the extension is expected to average 13,000 a day during the week. Here's hoping to the successful - and safe - launch of the newest extension of Metro Rail!

Blog is Under Construction

2009-11-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

And we expect it to be done before 2036.

The LA Subway Blog is undergoing a site overhaul, so things are a work in progress.

Hi everyone! Welcome to the new blog!
Right now, I'm working on pages to describe the timeline and history of the Wilshire Subway as well as a Frequently Asked Questions page.

A Subway Story: Short documentary on Wilshire Subway by Metro

2009-11-06T21:30:00.001-08:00

Verdict: REALLY hokey, but gets the point across. Major stakeholders participated in the video to gush about the subway, including UCLA (see minute 6:00). They are identified by name. Yet we never learned the name of the actual actor.

Metro.net's redesign has inspired an upcoming LASubwayBlog redesign

2009-11-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

And that's what the new Metro site looked like when it was working. It's currently down. Luckily, Google Transit is still up.

I've been a big fan of the Beta site and I think that it will be a great change once the technical obstacles are out of the way.

Stay tuned in the coming days for some differences (hopefully improvements) in this site.

Subway meeting in Westwood/VA tonight

2009-11-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight, the Metro Westside Subway Extension team is hosting its last gathering in this round of meetings. It'll be at the Wadsworth Theater on the north side of the VA between 6 and 8p.m. Bruins for Traffic Relief and some of my colleagues from UCLA Transportation will be attending. (I'll be there with Juan as laypeople.) This meeting will be kind of like a charette; after the presentation, we'll be divided into groups to provide feedback on a series of renderings of proposed station locations and designs.

So what's a charette?
A charette is a meeting format which brings together stakeholders to develop design solutions. It's commonly used in urban planning design. Some charettes bring people, including residents, developers, and municipal officials, together for several intense days of brainstorming on a potential design for an area.

Come back to the LA Subway Blog for a recap of tonight's events!

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, Juan came up with the brilliant idea of dressing up as an articulated 720 bus for Halloween.

= Juan and Sirinya Dressed as a Bus

Personally, I thought it was so romantic. After all, we got to wear identical outfits (see pictures below) and found a slinky toy to symbolize the articulated part of the bus. Plus, Juan created a multimedia component to our costume: we had a portable speaker playing sounds from the bus on repeat throughout the night.

Juan and Sirinya on Layover

An Open Letter to the Metro Board

2009-10-21T08:41:00.001-07:00

Honorable Metro Board Members:

Last night while waiting for the 720 bus at the busiest intersection in Los Angeles (Wilshire & Westwood), I conducted an informal study of vehicles passing in the curb lane. First, the roadway was so congested that over the 5-minute period I surveyed an average of 14 people per minute passed through that curb lane. Second, about a third of the vehicles with identifiable dealer plates came from Burbank or points east along the I-210 corridor (Longo in El Monte, Claremont Toyota, etc). Third, I then boarded a bus, which was much delayed due to the congestion, and counted 55 people aboard that bus. One slow, delayed 60-foot bus carried as many people as 4 minutes of traffic. Public transportation is essential to getting Los Angeles moving again and recouping some of the $10 billion lost annually due to traffic congestion.

The transportation reauthorization bill is likely to expand funding opportunities for transit, but future projects will be continue to be evaluated based on cost-benefit criteria. Two proposed projects serve as significant system-wide ridership multipliers to all projects connected to the network. These projects will increase the potential benefits of all future transit projects in Los Angeles County more than any project, proposed or conceived. These projects are the downtown regional connector and the subway. These projects will create a robust core transit network by providing quick reliable access to job centers and areas of dense population. All peripheral projects will benefit, and jump well ahead in the competition for federal funds as a result.

The benefits of both the Wilshire subway and regional connector will be both substantial and regional. To focus substantial efforts on building other projects before making substantial progress on these core projects is akin to building the second floor before the frame (it’s an important part of the house, but there is nothing yet to support it) and appears parochial and short sighted. I urge you to pass a Long Range Transportation Plan that reflects this reality.

Juan Matute

MBA, MA Urban Planning

Bruins for Traffic Relief LA County Fair Transit-Oriented Adventure

2009-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

LA County Fair Transit-Oriented Adventure

Want to go to the LA County Fair? So do Sirinya and Juan, and they're inviting you along. Join them for a flexible transit oriented adventure this Saturday, September 26th. All the details and the RSVP are on Facebook.

Low Fares to the Fair

A Metrolink ticket gets you $2 off regular admission, so it's $15 per person instead of $17.

Fourpacks of Metrolink tickets are $29, that saves you $15 per 4 people. More info

Many Travel Options

Trains Leave Union Station at 7:00a, 9:00a, 10:40a, 11:50a, 1:20p, 3:25p, 4:45p, 6:15p, 9:00p, 11:30p

Trains Return to Union Station from the fairplex at 11:43a, 1:13p, 2:18p, 3:28p, 4:48p, 7:48p, 9:58p

You can go whenever you want, stay as long as you want, and leave whenever you want. Juan and Sirinya will be on the trains in bold. If you want to travel with us, please be at the station 15 minutes in advance of the scheduled departure.

Don't know how to get to Union Station? Use Google Transit ! Best of all, it's only $1.25 on Metro, and $1.75 on BBB 10 (from Santa Monica).

What's There at the Fair?

Entertainment, horse racing, shopping, exhibits. Fried everything. See for yourself at http://www.lacountyfair.com/2009/index.asp

Fair is Open 10am to Midnight on Saturday

Follow @BTRUCLA on twitter for updates in advance of the event and on Saturday.

Wilshire Bus Only Lanes: The Above-Ground Subway to the Sea

2009-09-23T15:20:00.001-07:00

The LA City Council voted to move ahead with the EIR for the LA City Wilshire Bus Only Lanes (Streetsblog Reports). This project would improve transit travel times in the Wilshire Corridor. You could think of it as the low cost peak-hour above-ground subway (that runs in mixed traffic through Beverly Hills and Santa Monica).

Paul Koretz from CD 5 has taken a page from David Vahedi's playbook and bowed to Westwood Wilshire Corridor Condo interests (some of which fear change and the realization that they don't live on a two-lane back country road) in expressing skepticism over the project. Paul is a 25-year member of the Sierra Club and surely is aware of the positive environmental implications of improving transit service using natural-gas fueled buses. While localized environmental concerns should be studied in any project, I suspect the Corridor Condo interests will seek to use the CEQA/NEPA process to derail any attempt to change the pastoral nature of their homestead, even if it provides a street buffer that only professionally-trained drivers will have access to. The regional environmental implications of improving transit service will be favorable.

Schedule permitting, Sirinya and I will be at the Westwood meeting.

Here's the latest from Metro:

===

Metro, the City of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County are considering the feasibility of implementing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project on Wilshire Boulevard. This joint effort will be evaluated through the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment (EIR/EA).

The EIR/EA, which will be prepared in compliance with State and Federal environmental requirements, will examine the potential for dedicated curbside bus lanes during the morning and evening rush hours along Wilshire Boulevard, from just west of the I-110 freeway to the Santa Monica city line, excluding the City of Beverly Hills.

These same three agencies began evaluating the proposed Wilshire BRT Project in November 2008 as part of preparing an Initial Study/Environmental Assessment (IS/EA). An EIR/EA is now being prepared as a consequence of input received at several community meetings held along the corridor at that time, additional public input, and technical analyses that have been conducted.

Please join us at any of the four (4) scoping meetings to learn more about the Proposed Project and Project Alternatives. These meetings will provide the public the opportunity to comment on the project and any potential effects of the project that should be considered in the Draft EIR/EA. The content presented at these four meetings will be identical, so please make sure to attend at the time and location most convenient for you.

Monday, October 5, 6:00 – 8 pm
Felicia Mahood Senior Center
11338 Santa Monica Bl
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Wednesday, October 7, 6:00 – 8 pm
Wilshire United Methodist Church
4350 Wilshire Bl
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Thursday, October 8, 6:00 – 8 pm
Westwood Presbyterian Church
10822 Wilshire Bl
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Tuesday, October 13, 6:00 – 8 pm
Good Samaritan Hospital, Moseley-Salvatori Conference Center
637 Lucas Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017

All meeting locations are accessible by public transit. Please go to Metro.net to plan your trip. Parking is also available. Garage parking at Good Samaritan is not validated and costs $8.

For additional information or questions, please visit the Wilshire Bus Rapid Transit EIR/EA website at metro.net/Wilshire.

LA Streetsblog's editor going on paternity leave; check out guest editors!

2009-09-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars: Guest editors will begin covering for Damien Newton, the primary editor of LA Streetsblog, a great transportation & land use blog, when he goes on paternity leave later this month.
Yours truly works 40 hours (or more), so I couldn't fill in. But mark your calendars for October 5 & 6th: my friend Angela Serratore, a fellow Smithie, will be the guest editor for those two days.

Why should you read?
1)For starters, Angela is wicked funny. (You can see on her own tongue-in-cheek blog, Overpaid and Underworked.)

2) Angela walks the talk: car-free in the Valley (she lives with her dad, but has not touched the steering wheel of her dad's Prius since moving back three months ago); devoted to Google Transit, buses, Metrolink Trains, DASH buses, and walking.

3) Angela has a multi-faceted understanding of the connections between transportation and land use through her coursework and professional experience in urban design and historical preservation. And she's read up on parking after she sat in on a Shoup-dogg lecture with me a few years ago.

3a) Maybe there will be interviews with cool UCLA transportation geeks too...

Yet Angela herself is not a transportation geek - far from it. For her, living without a car is simply a fact of life. Her willingness to do things that are accessible without a car also makes it so much easier for me to hang out with her too. (See this link for a blog entry by Car Free With Kids that talks about the complexity of socializing with friends in the suburbs.)

UCLA Speaker Series to discuss how local transportation policy can affect climate change

2009-09-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

The UCLA Program on Local Government Climate Action Policies and Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies proudly present the fall speaker series: Perspectives on Local Climate Planning. In this series leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners discuss how cities, counties, and regions can meet the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change.While much attention is focused on the federal American Clean Energy and Security Act and the international UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen, we will examine what can be done at the local level to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

Mondays at 2pm in the UCLA School of Public Affairs Room 1246. (directions: driving, bus)

Free and open to the public. Please RSVP.

Monday, October 5 - Katherine Trisolini, Professor, Loyola Law School, and local government climate change response legal scholar will discuss the legal and political context for local climate action

Monday, October 12 – J.R. DeShazo, Director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, will discuss his recent study of California Climate Action Policies.

Monday, October 19 - Richard Katz, Member, CARB SB 375 Regional Targets Advisory Committee, Metro Board Member, and 16-year California Assembly veteran, will talk about SB 375 regional targets.

Monday, October 26 - Michael Woo, Member, CARB SB 375 Regional Targets Advisory Committee and Los Angeles City Planning Commissioner will talk about the future of development.

Monday, November 2nd - Tim Kohut, AIA and LEED AP, Vice President and Director of Architecture of Abode Communities speaks about challenges to building green affordable housing.

Monday, November 9th – Juan Matute, Director of the UCLA Program on Local Government Climate Action Policies will speak about measuring greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

Monday, November 16th - Kathryn Phillips, Environmental Defense Fund Director, will talk about "10 Ways Local governments Can and Have Reduced their Transportation GHG Footprint"

Monday, November 23rd - Matthew Kahn, UCLA Professor and author of Green Cities will share his research on residential energy use.

feel free to distribute widely, we have secured a large capacity room for the speaker series

See the Program on Local Government Climate Action Policies Web site for more information.

Suuper excited about progressive parking plan adopted by City of Santa Monica

2009-09-10T08:19:00.001-07:00

I didn't realize I was listening to the equivalent of a revolution in parking pricing when I tuned into KCRW on Monday night.

On Tuesday night, the city council for the City of Santa Monica voted 6 to 1 to approve what amounts to a Shoupistic approach to parking pricing in its downtown parking garages. The biggest change: Free parking in the garages will be available for just one hour, not to penalize visitors but rather to deter downtown employees from moving their cars every two hours to get "free" parking.

At the bus stop in downtown Santa Monica yesterday, a Valley-based filmmaker named Juan Fernando (his real first two names) confirmed that this really happens. Furthermore, he also added that the employee shuffle creates congestion and is a huge hassle because it takes more time than necessary to enter and exit the garage.

Fair enough.

RIP La Asadero Victoria in Van Nuys

2009-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

I know this is supposed to be a subway-oriented blog. But I needed to take a moment to mourn the loss of one of my neighborhood's community assets. It was a hole-in-the-wall named La Asadero Victoria.

La Asadero Victoria was adjacent to a store that sold used Levis and another store that sold gaudy tchotkes for little girls imported from China. The best thing about La Asadero Victoria was the spit they pulled out into the parking lot every Friday and Saturday night, which they used to slowly cook and marinate carne asada and pastor for tacos and burritos. They were delicious.

Over the past six months, Juan and I introduced many friends and our families to the amazing food they served there and had many great evenings there. The people who ran the restaurant were kind and attentive. La Asadero Victoria was exactly the kind of place that Juan and I tried hard to patronize because it was locally owned and near our homes.

Restaurants have a high fail rate (fewer than 50% that open each year survive into year 2). But I still feel a little bummed that La Asadero Victoria is no longer. I'm sure there are many more places to sample in Valley Glen & Van Nuys, but so far La Asadero Victoria was one of the best, really, in all of LA.

Hello and Goodbye (RIP) to small busineses in Westwood

2009-09-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Westwood Village is near and dear to my heart. After all, Juan and I still work at UCLA and he and I both lived in UCLA's Weyburn Terrace for two years. Depending on our schedules, Wednesday or Thursday night is date night for us, and we often try to patronize businesses inside Westwood Village. Most recently, he and I went to Noodle Planet and Yogurtland. We also like to walk around and see what is going on inside the Village.

Some of what we saw last week:

COMING SOON: There has been a sign posted for Fat Dogs for quite awhile, by the southeast corner of Weyburn & Broxton. Fat Dogs is located inside Stan's Donuts and it replaces an establishment named Sweet Pepper Grill. Fat Dogs isn't open yet, but I'm sure Juan and I will eat there when it does.

WELCOME, albeit temporarily: The old Rite-Aid at Westwood & Kinross will now be selling Halloween costumes. (Could it be open already?) There is now competition for Aahs across the street.

SOME CHANGES: Thank You Mart on Westwood Boulevard has changed its pricing structure. Previously, everything inside the store was $3.99. Now, the first two items are $5.99; but if you buy three items, they will cost you $3.99, or about $12 total + tax.

RIP: Good Choice Gift on Westwood Boulevard. A fine place to buy random tchotkes, like hair accessories and Sanrio bags.

Note: EAZY Wireless is also no longer with us in the Village.

UK High Speed Rail CO2 Study Flawed

2009-08-24T12:54:00.001-07:00

Juan's note: I'm crossposting this from my new blog: www.localclimateaction.com

Because I was unsure of the findings, I spent some time looking at the Booz Allen Hamilton/Department for Transport High Speed Rail Study (Estimated Carbon Impact of a New North-South Line) mentioned in a Freakonomics Blog Post.

First, I went to look at the source documents. This was a bit difficult, because footnote xii is actually a link to the AEA study source document. None of the links on footnote x, which is supposedly the AEA study, lead to any usable data for this study.

Looking at the AEA study for DfT, I'm able to see how they got the AEA figures. 49 for average passenger rail, 109 for all cars, 76 for bus, 180 for plane. However, they leave out the Class 373 EMU(high speed rail train).

I was unsuccessful in searching for the June 2007 DEFRA statistics released in the study, but I did find the updated 2009 statistics. Each year, DEFRA (UK's EPA) publishes statistics that they have businesses use to calculate their scope 3 (indirect) emissions from rail travel. This study shows a figure of 17 g/pkm for Eurostar, specifically the high speed rail route between London and Paris. This figure could be a bit low, because France derives a high proportion of their energy from a non-ghg-emitting source (nuclear).

Taxi, Bus, Rail and Ferry Passenger Transport Conversion Factors				CO2
Method of travel		Vehicle kms travelled (vkm)	x	kg CO2 per vkm	Total kg CO2
Taxi 1	Regular taxi		x	0.2217
	Black cab		x	0.2558
Method of travel		Passenger kms travelled (pkm)	x	kg CO2 per pkm	Total kg CO2
Taxi 1	Regular taxi		x	0.1583
	Black cab		x	0.1705
Bus	Local bus 2		x	0.1104
	London bus 3		x	0.0830
	Average bus		x	0.1035
	Coach 4		x	0.0300
	Average bus and coach		x	0.0682
Rail	National rail 5		x	0.0577
	International rail (Eurostar) 6		x	0.0177
	Light rail and tram 7		x	0.0834
	London Underground 8		x	0.0780
Ferry (Large RoPax) 9	Foot passengers		x	0.0191
	Car passengers		x	0.1322
	Average (all passengers)		x	0.1152
Total					0

Looking at the Center for Neighborhood Technology study's figure for the Danish IC3 Diesel Multiple-Train Unit and converting lb/pmi to g/pkm, I get 72.71, which is the same (73 g/pkm) as the study.However, the IC3 is diesel-powered conventional rail train capable of a top service speed of 112 mph, not a high speed rail train. Better comparables would be the ICE line 6 in Germany or the TGV in France, which have lower g/pkm emissions.

At this point I was left wondering if the report's authors meant to analyze the impact of a mid-speed diesel powered train line instead of a high speed line. Although the report was light on specifics, the authors did mention that they meant to analyze the effects of efficiency gains in "traction electricity," although this may refer to maglev. They could have also assumed much lower load factors for these routes, although they did not state this in their assumptions.

Needless to say, I'm convinced that the study is flawed.

However, assuming it is not flawed, the energy mix still differs from region to region (different power pools have different generation and emissions profiles). I found the UK-wide electricity emissions-factor on DEFRA's site, which is 546.67 kG of CO2 per mWh. Using the EPA's eGRID data for the California region, I converted lbs/kWh to 398.57 kG of CO2 per mWh. So, California's electricity results in about 73% of the emissions in the UK, per unit of delivered electricity.

	raw	convert
UK, From DEFRA	0.54667	546.67
California, from eGRID	878.71	398.5766

So, even if the report was correct, and high speed rail emissions in the UK would emit 88 g/pkm (which I highly doubt), the equivalent technology would only emit 64 g/pkm operating in California.

One step closer to subway: Electeds and high-level officials gather to celebrate soil sample collection in Westwood parking lot

2009-08-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Amended August 21, 2009

Metro's drilling for soil samples in Lot 36 by Wilshire and Veteran.

Could the subway be here as soon as 2019?

That's what I heard today at a press conference called the mayor's office this morning at Lot 36, which is by Wilshire and Veteran. The occasion? The conclusion of drilling for soil samples as part of the draft EIR process for the Westside Subway Extension. Metro has already collected over 70 soil samples from various points along the projected subway route(s).

Anyway, I'm vaguely trained in hard news writing, so I attempted to write up some of the statements made by Mayor Villaraigosa, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and many other elected politicians and high-level officials, such as Metro CEO Art Leahy. They called out for the passage of the LRTP (looong delayed); highlighted benefits (expanded mobility, travel time reductions, and job creation); and declared that with federal matching funds, the Wilshire Subway Extension could make it to Westwood in 10 years - meaning 2019.

L to R: Rita Robinson, General Manager at LADOT; Pam O'Connor, Mayor Pro-Templore of Santa Monica and Metro board member; LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (speaking); Metro construction worker; LA Councilman Bill Rosendahl (he's tall).

This assumes many things happen, including...

1) It is safe to tunnel along the projected route

2) The delayed Long Range Transportation Plan is passed by Metro.

3) There is traction in the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank

4) Maybe our subway will even get a direct financial allocation in the renewal of SAFETLU, the federal government's transportation bill, scheduled for September.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragoisa, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, 5^th District Councilman Paul Koretz and other area elected politicians and high-level public officials came together today at UCLA’s parking lot 36, by Wilshire and Veteran, to celebrate a major milestone in the path to building the Westside Subway Extension: the conclusion of drilling for soil testing.

Villaraigosa touted the conclusion of soil sample collection as an important step in bringing the subway to fruition, a project that is Villaraigosa said would generate jobs, cut travel times, and end Los Angeles’s vulnerability as the punch line late night jokes about congestion and rush hour traffic.

The Westwood soil sample collection is one of over 70 samples collected this summer by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority for analysis as part of the subway extension’s draft environmental impact report.

At the press conference, Villaraigosa once again thanked voters for passing Measure R, which he and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroskavky interpreted as a mandate from voters to build a rapid transit system which would transport Angelenos around the Westside and across the County.

Villaraigosa stated that with federal matching, the subway extension to Westwood could be completed as soon as 2019. Los Angeles will not see a Westwood subway station before 2036 if the city and Metro does nothing. This led Villaraigosa to call for the Metro Board of Directors to approve the Long Range Transportation Plan, whose passage was postponed to September last month, which would then enable Metro and other subway supporters to lobby for federal matching dollars.

Besides generating at least 32,000 construction jobs, the subway extension would expand mobility for the transit dependent, particularly those coming from the central and eastern parts of the County to job rich areas on the Westside, Yaroslavsky said. “The days when the west county’s transit needs get ignored are over,” Yaroslavsky declared.

Students, staff, and the 10 million annual visitors to UCLA would also benefit from the opening of a subway station in Westwood. “UCLA is the 7^thlargest employer in Los Angeles,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, “and a subway would eliminate thousands of vehicle commute miles annually.”

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block talked about how UCLA would benefit from the subway

Juan took the pictures.

The Hunt continues: Checked out the Charmont

2009-08-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I looked at two units inside The Charmont, Juan's apartment building in Santa Monica to get a sense of what nicer, bigger units looked like.

First, we saw a one-bedroom unit that is on the market for $1,900. It is 725 square feet, includes 3 closets, and is freshly renovated.

Kitchen inside the one bedroom unit

The one bedrooms inside the Charmont are beyond what Juan and I can pay, so we asked about studios in the building. Diane, the manager of the Charmont, showed us a 525 square foot studio on the market for about $1560 a month. This studio has three closets (one coat closet behind the door; one closet in the main room; and a walk-in closet/dressing area, complete with make-up table that could be a work station.

One view from the main room in the studio; our bed could go in the corner pictured in this photo.

Kitchen inside the studio. Older electric stove.

Bathroom: It has the same small sink as Juan's apartment

Desk/make-up table in the dressing area

Now Juan and I need to do some more thinking.

The Hunt: The things we do to live near transit

2009-08-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Located just one block from Wilshire Boulevard (a major east-west street in LA) and two blocks from the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus hub, Juan's apartment on 4th Street has incredible transit accessibility. And this is no accident; Juan deliberately looked for apartments near 720 stops. But this being LA, no Craigslist ad seems to mention this. (Edit: I think this is kind of ironic.)

Instead, the Craigslist ads focus on proximity to the beach (four short blocks) and the 3rd Street Promenade (1 block). Those factors contribute to the premium that Juan pays for his apartment. Furthemore, we just learned that to upgrade from his apartment -- a kitchen-less bachelor apartment for under $1,100/month -- to a studio with a kitchen would cost $400 more a month.

This dilemma is particularly salient for me because I am contemplating a move to this neighborhood too, since I don't own a car and I'd like to be near my boyfriend. But I am not rolling in money: my budget is $900 a month including utilities. (Note: 1) Obviously I recognize that there are thousands of families in LA whose housing budgets are much, much less than mine. 2) I actually paid more to live in Weyburn, but I attempted to justify this due to proximity to campus, lack of car ownership, and the generous fellowship support I received from UCLA).

People (with cars) may not understand how moving just one or two blocks away from transit access makes a significant difference in quality of life. Quality of life for me, someone who is a transit-dependent, is highly contingent on access to, you know, transit. And it definitely matters if that transit runs often.

Presently Juan lives within sprinting distance to the bus, which is key for those days you are running late. And when you're transit dependent, you almost always have to count on the fact that it will take you longer to get anywhere than those of us with cars (or bikes; those cyclists can almost always count on the fact that they will arrive somewhere faster than cars.)

By fiddling around with keywords on Craigslist, even I can detect a substantial price difference for locating just three more blocks north of Wilshire or two more blocks east or west of 4th. I'm convinced part of this is beach and Promenade accessibility - not transit accessibility.

I kind of dread the premium this location will command when Expo opens because most of the housing in downtown Santa Monica is owned by the Santa Monica collection and it costs an arm and a leg.

It turns out that a studio in Juan's building is $1560 and a one bedroom is at least $1900. The building is on the historic register but lacks other amenities common in other buildings, like garbage disposals and dishwashers. The studio actually pushes my and Juan's limits on affordability, particularly after including the cost of parking ($86; it is unbundled, which would make Shoup happy).

But for the time being, Juan and I will return to strategizing: how to make living together in a 390 square foot bachelor apartment, sans kitchen, feasible for two.

Bus duel

2009-08-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took transit from my family's home in Valley Glen to Juan's apartment in Santa Monica. I missed the 761 bus over the hill by mere minutes, which was annoying since the 761 has 30 minutes headways on Sundays. But I did get to see this bus duel (n: two buses bunch up/travel together due to congestion or ~~bus drivers racing to finish a route first).~~

Bus bunching is actually pretty common, particularly on routes that run frequently, and can very challenging to fix from what I have read.

And yes, if three or more buses bunch up together, Juan and I do have a name for that: We call it a derby!

It actually happened - LA (Metro) is now on Google Transit!

2009-07-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Metro officially went live on Google Transit. Users can now get driving, walking, and transit directions for trips in the LA area via Google Transit, which is accessible through the Get Directions feature of Google Maps.

Maya Emsden, Metro's Deputy Executive Officer of Creative Services, said that Metro's launch on Google Transit means that users can now access a versatile, multilingual trip planner that integrates the features of Google Maps at a web-based media briefing held yesterday morning

Some of those features include the ability to do searches by business names, to provide street views of bus stops and train stations, and to generate itineraries that are accessible to the visually impaired. (Yes, these are things that the Metro trip planner cannot currently do.)

Ms. Emsden also spoke of how Metro saw its launch on Google Transit as a means to

   1. increase transit awareness
   2. convert potential riders into active riders and
   3. increase off-peak ridership.

Metro, like everyone else it seems, is under pressure to increase its operating revenues. Getting people to ride transit during off-peak hours seems like a no-brainer.

There are still barriers to overcome in increasing ridership, particularly during off-peak hours. With some exceptions (i.e. Wilshire), off-peak buses don’t run very often. I'd be hard-pressed to decide what is worse: getting to the bus stop just to see the bus you needed has pulled away, or not knowing when the next bus is coming.

But what if you could see where the next bus is on a Google Map? Might that change your feelings a tad about riding a bus?

UCSD and the University of Michigan draw on Global Positioning System (GPS) data from their shuttle buses to create what are called mash-ups on a Google Map. For fun, I click on these mash-ups and watch these bus icons move along a Google Map every couple of seconds. Via computer or smart phone, people can find out what time the next bus is coming … or pull up this map, which shows them where the next bus is. And when it’s late at night, you can look at the site to see where the next bus is, and figure out whether you should wait inside a little longer before heading outside to the bus stop.

University of Michigan Mash Up

UCSD mash-up

By providing this information, transit systems can make it feasible for more people to ride, particularly when buses run infrequently.

How far off are we from having these kinds of mash-ups available for Metro buses? And for buses operated by traditional municipal operators? Will there be a time when these agencies will open up NextBus/GPS data in a way that the public can also see the whereabouts of a bus from a computer or a smartphone?

I do think that Metro’s collaboration with Google Maps marks the beginning of something incredibly promising. The discussions with Google led Metro to open its timetable data to everyone at www.developer.metro.net. Perhaps this will lead to innovations such as the iBart application for iPhones.

Furthermore, Metro’s launch on Google Transit also expands the versatility of using Google Transit to plan itineraries that span across agencies and county lines. Locally, these agencies are on Google Transit: Burbank, Irvine, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino County, Foothill Transit, Metrolink and Thousand Oaks.

And finally…

Juan and I would like to thank all of the people who took the time to join the Los Angeles Wants Google Transit Facebook group. They include our friends, our mothers, our colleagues in the transportation field here in LA, and people we don't even know who found the group through Stalker Feed. We hope we didn't pester you too much. But because you joined the group on Facebook, key supporters of Google Transit, such as City Council President Eric Garcetti and Metro board member Richard Katz, were able to demonstrate that there was public support for this kind of public/private collaboration.

Transit Oriented Food Adventure: Mama's Hot Tamales, Lost Soul Cafe, Philippe's, and Scoop's

2009-07-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Juan and I rounded up our good friends to visit Transit-Oriented Food Adventure. They included were joined by our friends Ryan and Hoi Ning from UCLA and my friend Ian from Wonderland, our elementary school in Laurel Canyon, and his wife Justine.

We started at Mama's Hot Tamales in MacArthur Park. It is not just a tamale restaurant, although we did order nearly all of the tamales on the menu (one each) to try. (My personal favorite was the tamale with spinach and mushrooms.) Mama's Hot Tamales is also an innovative example of community and economic development: the cafe is also a business and job-training restaurant which teaches people how to build on their skills from the informal economy of street food vending into more stable careers in the formal food service industry.

Mama's Hot Tamales is also a fine example of how a community economic development initiative can also act as a catalyst of local cultural tourism, as demonstrated by its ability to attract Angelenos from around the city, like us, to sojourn by transit no less.

We were served by none other than Mama herself, Sandi Romero. She was so sweet, knowledgeable, and nice. The food was delicious. My tamarindo drink was made from scratch, which I never had before. The decor was colorful and welcoming. I look forward to coming back.

Lost Soul Cafe
We took the Red Line to the Civic Center station, which was a few blocks from Lost Soul Cafe, a coffee and sandwich shop located off an obscure alley in the Old Bank District. The aesthetic of Lost Soul Cafe: Dark, unfinished ceilings, open mike space, very hipster-ish. Juan and I shared an Island Fresh smoothie, which was delicious. Ian and his wife got first an oreo shake, which turned out to be an accident. They also got their Ube shake, which was good, except for the fact that they'd had the Oreo shake first and well, there is sometimes too much of a good thing.

Philippe's
After visiting Lost Soul Cafe, we actually walked all of the way to Philippe's for French Dipped Sandwiches, which is several blocks north of Union Station and just below the hill from my family's regular Chinese restaurant, CBS Seafood Restaurant. (It is worth noting the proximity between Philippe's and CBS... I find it fascinating to see how swiftly neighborhoods change, from Chinatown to ... well, not Chinatown.) Anyway, Philippe's has been around since 1908 and moved to its current location in 1951 following the construction of the 101 freeway.

Philippe's "Frenched Dipped Sandwich" is the specialty of the house and consists of either roast beef, roast pork, leg of lamb, turkey or ham served on a lightly textured, freshly baked French roll which has been dipped in the gravy of the roasts. This was a hit with the group.

Finally, we went back on the train at Union Station - which is wonderfully iconic and beautiful - to visit Mel-Hel, the new hipster zone by LA City College. We got off at Vermont/Santa Monica and walked half a mile to eat gelato at Scoops. Scoops has gotten major press for its homemade gelato. You can get gelato with flavors that include ingredients like bacon. I don't really get that part. But hey, these kinds of amenties didn't exist when I was a kid growing up nearby before we decamped to the SFV.

Transit: $5 day pass; we used Google Transit to figure out our itinerary (www.maps.google.com). Ian, Justine, and I started our journey by walking or driving to the North Hollywood subway station while Juan, Hoi Ning, and Ryan rode the 720 Wilshire bus to MacArthur Park.

Mama's Hot Tamales, 2122 West Seventh Street (a half a block west of Alvarado St., and directly across the southern border of MacArthur Park), Los Angeles, CA 90057. Tel. 213.487.7474 - Fax (213) 487-8475. Open: 11 am - 3:30 pm seven days a week. Metro Red Line: Westlake/MacArthur Park.

Lost Soul Cafe - Old Bank District - Harlem Place Alley 124 W. 4th Street Los Angeles, CA 90001, 213.617.7000. On Twitter (twitter.com/lostsoulscafe); Facebook (facebook.com/lostsoulscafe); MySpace (myspace.com/lostsoulscafe); and the web (www.lostsouls.com). Metro Red Line: Civic Center.

Philippe's. 1001 N. Alameda Ave, Los Angeles, 90012, 213.628.3781. www.philippes.com. Metro Red Line: Union Station.

Scoop's, 712 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, 90029, (323) 906-2649, Hours:Mon-Sat. 12:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., Sun. 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Metro Red Line: Vermont/Santa Monica.