What's better than using a few years of tax revenue to fix Los Angeles' streets? How about using a few decades' worth!
Mayor Villaraigosa has been coming up with a plan — "quietly" the Los Angeles Times says — to use 27 years of Measure R revenue funding to fix up the city's streets and potholes.
Villaraigosa Wants to Spend 27 Years of Measure R Funding on L.A. Streets, Like, Now
Main Route To Big Bear Has Collapsed
A large section of highway 330 on the way to Big Bear collapsed today leaving a massive hole in the road, reports KTLA. Heavy rain and snow over the past weeks left highways 18 and 330 closed to traffic and no injuries were reported in the collapse. According to a CalTrans, motorists headed up mountain should use highway 38. No word yet on when the highway is set to reopen; more rain is forecast to hit region on Wednesday.
Mudslides and Flooding Cause Road Closures, Other Hazards
- City of LA Traffic Conditions
- California Dept. of Transportation Roads (Search by Route #)
- California Dept. of Transportation (Updated Hourly)
While there are some clearing conditions now in the skies above Los Angeles, a night and morning of heavy rains has caused serious damage to homes and property as well as created hazardous road conditions all over the area. Road closures include the 2 Freeway which is closes from 2 mi east of the 210 in La Cañada-Flintridge to Islip Saddle (LA Co.); SR 27/Topanga Canyon Blvd closed from SR 1 to Topanga Canyon Road; and the transition road from the SB 110 Freeway to the NB 101 Freeway near downtown LA (due to flooding). Many mountain roads and surface streets are also closed and/or flooded and many accidents have been reported.
To find out current traffic conditions where you are or where you need to be, check one or more of the following frequently-updated websites:
Photographers Make L.A. Potholes into Temporary Art Pieces
Two Montreal-based photographers are taking to the streets of Los Angeles this month in order to transform, at least temporarily, an urban problem into a urban delight. Photographers Claudia Ficca and Davide Luciano have been traveling the continent, staging guerrilla street-level photographs to transform "disruptive craters into objects of fancy."
Atwater Village's Lovely Gender-Neutral Humps
Good news for everyone's well-being, but perhaps bad news for speed junkies--at least of the variety who enjoy zipping around on residential streets. "On of the longest stretches of unregulated residential asphalt in Atwater Village, with some 1,600 feet of acceleration space, is getting speed humps," blogs the Atwater Village Newbie.
Metro Approves Sales Tax Hike for Ballot
It is now up to state legislators to pass AB 2321, and if they do, the half-cent increase in sales tax to 8.75% approved by the Metro board today will be put in the hands of Los Angeles County residents when they go to vote on election day this November. If the sales tax proposal, now called Measure R, is approved, it could raise as much as $40 billion over the next 30 years for public transit and road projects. Two members voted against the sales tax: LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Duarte City Councilman John Fasana. Supervisor Gloria Molina abstained from voting.
KCRW Looks into Bicycling in a Car Culture
Last night, one of Los Angeles' best locally focused radio programs, Which Way, L.A.? focused in on the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" motorist vs. bicyclist incident among other bicycle issues around Los Angeles.
November Ballot Could Carry Sales Tax Increase
LA County's sales tax is already one of the highest in the state, but in the name of fixing this traffic and transportation problem (in which money seems to be the cure, according to some), Los Angeles based state assemblyman Mike Feuer has gotten his legislation, AB 2321, passed. It allows the Metro Board to place a proposal on November's ballot asking voters to raise the sales tax by a half-cent. "That would take the sales tax rate from 8.25% to 8.75%, translating to an extra 50 cents in taxes for every $100 you spend on goods and services," explains Steve Hymon at the LA Times' Bottleneck Blog.
Money Limited for Public Transit; Bad Traffic Costs $12 Billion
Los Angeles is not short of ideas for the how-to-do and where-to-do public transportation. The problem is always money. Ironically enough, the very thing that needs funding is one that causes the region to lose out on $12 billion a year, says one study. LA City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel writes in CityWatch:
Environment, 1; Toll Road, 0
Commuters and some politicians say the Foothill South 241 toll road needs to finish in order "to relieve congestion and accommodate development southern Orange County and take some of the burden off Interstate 5, the heaviest traveled corridor between Los Angeles and San Diego," the LA Times is reporting.

