Photo by phogel via Flickr After a one year hiatus, one of the best green festivals, Worldfest, is back. Two years ago, the solar-powered festival scheduled near Earth Day was a gem among the numerous green events around the city. Located at Woodley Park in Encino, steps away from the eponymous Metro Orange Line station, a slew of eco-friendly vendors showed off their wares, vegan chefs shared their creations and music and recognizable faces......

Red marks the NoHo Streetcar path. Blue marks an idea for a Moorpark Streetcar idea. After a September 2007 LAist post about an idea of putting a streetcar in the NoHo Arts District, it grabbed first-year UCLA student Nguyen Doan's attention. "It really got me to thinking about how useful a streetcar system would be and motivated me to do research on the subject." When Doan was presented with a class assignment instructing students......

The East Valley is finally getting its art house/indie movie theatre starting tomorrow -- at least the digging and construction part, that is. And unlike the two other Laemmle Theatres in the Valley, the new attraction in the NoHo Arts District will be more transit friendly with the confluence of the Metro Red and Orange lines nearby. The movie theater is the final phase of the NoHo Commons project, which includes the already-built HOWS Market,......

You can download the full 26-page plan here Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), which was just released this morning, takes a look ahead about 20-25 years down the road to determine what the county’s residents will need in terms of transportation options to get around the county. It covers public transportation, some biking, highways and goods movement. The above map is the shows a basic highway and public transportation vision, funded and unfunded......

You might have to wait and be agonizingly teased for an additional three months until those LCD, screens telling you the arrival of the next train, start to work. Curbed LA reported it would be by May and now Streetsblog LA reports by the end of June the latest and tells us how they will work: Until the train is close to the station, the screens will update information based off the schedule. Once the......

Update, 5:05 P.M.: One of the patients is in critical condition according to ABC7 on air news. The Los Angeles Fire Department reports that the all patients are from the bus including the driver. Yesterday it was a close call with the Blue Line, but today is the real deal. An Orange Line Metroliner bus has collided with an automobile on the 12700 block of Chandler Blvd. between Coldwater Cyn. and Whitsett. No further details......

No, there was not a bank heist today in North Hollywood, as there was 11 years ago, the old bank building turned into restaurant/club on Lankershim Blvd., near the NoHo Red/Orange Line stops, is on fire. At 7:13 a.m. this morning, the fire was reported. One firefighter suffered smoke inhalation.The fire burned between floors and in the attic area, said Ron Myers of the Los Angeles Fire Department. After about 40 minutes, firefighters determined......

As reported earlier this week, on New Year's Eve, there will be all night Metro rail service. As one commenter pointed out, the news was actually broken in a press release where it was buried with not much detail given:“The Tournament of Roses parade and game is the biggest venue for Metro Gold Line service all year, with upwards of 60,000 train boardings on a single day,” said Pam O’Connor, Santa Monica City Council member......

Our trust and honor system on the subway, at the light rails and over at the Orange Line has been stripped away. Last Thursday, Metro voted to install the first phase of gates at stations, 275 to be exact (what's going to happen to those TAP Here machines that are everywhere?). The original intent behind the current honor system is "to buck East Coast practices and reduce operating costs," according to the New York......

The more we learn about the Temecula shooting that left five people dead, the sadder the story becomes: three of the victims of Sunday's shooting were a mother and her two teenage daughters; the remaining two dead were the mother's boyfriend and his son. A group of men in a Honda Civic opened fire on the driver of a truck on the 91 freeway today; road rage may be the culprit. The victim sustained......

Even Flat Stanley pays his Orange Line fare. The Daily News has an idea. We're not so much into it, but here is how it goes. While Metro contracts with LA County Sheriff's, the LAPD has a man who knows something about enforcing ticketless travelers on transit systems and he happens to be top cop Chief William Bratton. Some will remember that he became famous for his "broken windows" theory that enforced smaller crimes......

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend, who lives in the NoHo Arts District, about bars in proximity to the Red Line and she mentioned a dream that many share: "You know it was also be sweet if the subway was extended to 1 a.m. or later. We could bar hop into Hollywood and back!" Little known to many, the red line actually has one train that travels beyond 1 a.m. I explained this......

A few months ago, after reading an LAist writer's experience about CrossFit in Santa Monica, I knew I had to give it a try. Knowing it would be extremely intense, I kept on saying to myself, "I'll go in when I'm a little more in shape." But for me, my desired workout routine only comes into play when I am preparing for a race and I accidentally missed the deadline for next week's Mud Run......

It's better than winning the lottery. LAist is running three contests right now: a pair of tickets for Bright Eyes with the LA Philharmonic for this Saturday, a pair of VIP passes to LA Weekly's Detour Festival on October 6 and a pair of tickets for next The Crystal Method at The Roxy next tuesday. Speaking of Detour, the line-ups and stages were announced today Hopefully, citizens won't get cheated as much anymore: the......

I love standing at the front of the Orange Line bus looking out the front window, my eyes being massaged by the passing by landscaped medians, surrounded by Valley apartments and industrial buildings on the outside. Take a ride, here, from the NoHo Arts District station to Laurel Canyon Blvd. Video by Zach Behrens/LAist......

View Larger Map Ventura Blvd. is well served by three bus lines, the 750, 150 and 240. During the day on a weekday, you can pretty much walk to a stop and find a bus coming. To the north of the Valley's famous boulevard is the Orange Line, which during the same times of day seems to run every few seconds (it's only at 12 a.m. am I waiting longer than 10 minutes). Sandwiched between......

Today's LA City Beat's LA Sniper column focuses aim on 30th District Congressman Henry Waxman who led the banning of subway construction under Wilshire Blvd. in the mid 1980s. Could you imagine what LA would be like today? A Los Angeles with a subway down the god friggin' most congested city street in America? Instead we have the one of the nation's busiest rapid bus lines, the 720, which the Sniper suggest should be......

Ever feel like you're cramped in a bus of 100 people? Imagine a bus where 100 could fit comfortably. As reported last week, the Orange Line in the Valley got a new bus to play with today. The gigantic 65-foot bus that will be in service for a one year pilot began taking passengers back and forth between the NoHo Arts District and Woodland Hills late this morning. To alleviate the high usage of......

The MTA will be testing a new 65-foot-long prototype bus - which can hold up to 131 sitting and standing passengers - on the Orange Line busway for one year starting this week. Nicely done: L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcon drafted a measure 2 months ago that would've drastically reduced traffic congestion on one block of one street in Panorama City - namely the one where his house is located. Who's down with Gov.......

Q: What does an extra 5-feet in length do for bus capacity? A: 66 seated passengers, a 16 percent increase from the current 60-foot buses giving a total capacity of 100 seated and standing passengers. This morning, Metro announced via a press release that on Monday, a new demonstration bus will go into service in response to greater than anticipated customer demand. "The vehicle is the first-of-its-kind, designed exclusively to operate on the Orange Line,......

It's not that commuting by bike and or public transportation is fear inducing activity. However, it can be a discomforting feeling whenever you are going somewhere you've never been before via public transit and bike. "I want to take public transit, but I don't even know the neighborhood in the first place," I would use for an excuse before heading into my Civic. Not very green, right? Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek talks about......

Civic Center developments still struggling amidst Downtown construction boom. Nothing like a good Saturday scandal story: a manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles was found to have illegally steered almost $800,000 in contracts to family members and corporate allies. One begets another: an inmate serving a life sentence for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 was stabbed 11 times by another inmate. Taking animal cruelty to a......

NoHo Arts is a burgeoning East Valley area that occupies one very eclectic, historic, and active square mile within the limits of North Hollywood proper. The past couple of years have seen a dramatic increase in multi-use condo construction and the arrival of chain retail and food purveyors thanks in part to the neighborhood's role as major transit hub (NoHo Arts hosts the termini of both the Red and the Orange Lines) and the......

Today is the day where Angelenos will take out their wallets and slap down a 5-dollar bill into the ticket machines for a day pass. It's like Los Angeles is a big city now -- it has high(ish) rates for public transportation. One-way fares will remain the same at $1.25 but the Metro Day Pass went up from $3 to $5; the monthly pass increased $10 to $62; weekly passes are now $17, up......

To be exact, the number is $39,404,362 and it comes from the Department of Water and Power for overcharging utility costs according to a press release from Metro. Metro along with several other governmental agencies have won a joint lawsuit against DWP, charging that the DWP was over billing the agency for utility services over an eight year period. DWP is to pay back approximately $225 million in overcharges to several government agencies that......

Andrew at Here in Van Nuys takes a look at the bridge over the wash at Coldwater and Chandler where the Orange Line runs through: In a neighborhood of "exclusive" homes, many selling for at least $900,000. This is the same area where one sees many pedestrians. Loud protests a few years back greeted MTA plans to build a light rail here. "It would ruin the neighborhood..." Now the bus slowly meanders down the middle.......

It's bike to work week and tomorrow is the big day. Here is some of what is happening: Rush-Hour Bike Rally to City Hall Taking off from the Hollywood/Western Red Line station at 9 a.m., hundreds of cyclists will ride to city hall in demonstration of cycling solidarity. It's an 8-mile ride that will be escorted by the LAPD with arrival at city hall. At 10:30 a.m., there will be another rally or "bang......

From Sherman Oaks to Burbank Airport it was just a little over 45 minutes by bus. A few bucks later and some good podcast listening on the ride (The California Report, This American Life), we were on our travels yesterday in a flash. No bothering friends for a ride, no use of cars and no Supershuttle, a.k.a., we will pick you up 3 hours before your flight and have to go pick up 6......

According to their little graphic flash animation, you will be able to get from Irvine to Union Station in 27 minutes. Then from Union Station to Santa Clarita in 15 minutes. All this by 2012? So they say: "The $18.7 billion project is planned to be privately funded with a target date for beginning operation as early as 2012." Welcome to the California Orangeline Development Authority, which is trying to gain momentum for a......

When we biked the Orange Line a few weeks ago, we noticed what could be the first transit oriented development along the "Valley's newest shortcut" at the Canoga Park station, a recent addition to the line. Even for this ex-suburban kid, living in the West Valley is starting to not look that bad if it had to come to that for some reason. But what is looking even better is where the Orange and......