"Sherman Way Beautification Project," by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. A Fresno sheriff will allow researchers to start digging for human remains under the former estate of Charles Manson, where Mr. Helter Skelter hid after a 1969 summer killing spree. A woman's partially decapitated body was found in a South L.A. alley. She may have been homeless and police said she suffered multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma. No......

The Westside Extension effort, commonly dubbed as the "Subway to the Sea," went social networking/Web 2.0 style a few weeks ago with a group on Facebook. This is the first time a specific project has done outreach like this and word on the transit street is that more project managers may be doing more of this in the future. Metro's Librarian, Matthew Barrett, has definitely been a leader in exploring blogging and other online tools......

There are two more meetings left (one tonight, one on Monday) for the third round of public meetings with Metro regarding the Westside Extension, often noted as the "subway to the sea." At the last set of meetings, 17 alternatives were proposed which have been honed down to five alternatives being presented this week. What survived was underground heavy rail and one robust rapid bus system. What didn't was at grade trains and aerial transit.......

Photo submitted by LAist reader Tom Godfrey Here's an interesting tidbit from Sherman Oaks. At the Valley's busiest intersection, Sepulveda and Ventura, you need to cross 17 lanes of traffic to get from one corner to its catty corner. Oy vey! Would this be one of those intersections slated for a diagonal crosswalk the Mayor spoke about last week? And for those who use public transportation and end up walking many of these large......

Mayor Villaraigosa addressed his third State of the City at the LAPD's Parker Center last night, focusing in on gangs and the city budget, but also with some other talking points that were worth noting: On public transit: "Our national leaders must rethink the balance of our spending on highways vs. subways. It's time to recognize that the only true solution to long-term to gridlock in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the country is......

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Speaking of that 14-car pile-up this morning on the 101 freeway, how about this fact via the Daily Breeze? There's a near $11-billion price "cost to society" due to car crashes according to a study called "Crashes: What's the Cost to Society?" According to the study -- conducted on behalf of the American Automobile Association by the transportation policy firm Cambridge Systematics --......

Photo by VirtualEm via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An Urban & Environmental Planner friend of mine in New York City believes that when you build bigger and beefier streets, all you do is build increased traffic congestion. "Build it and they will come," he would say. Today, Steve Hymon in his weekly Road Sage column explores the subject by extension of the Pico/Olympic plan, where city officials are planning to begin......

Alternative 9 combines a Wilshire and Santa Monica alignment for two subways Update*: Metro called to strongly emphasize that the projected 10-year-period (three for environmental studies, seven for construction) is the reality under the most ideal circumstances (that circumstance is if we had the funding today). Metro confirms this is the timeline and the 5-year hypothetical may have been misheard or said. At the meeting, the freakily fast timeline was mentioned in the context......

17 potential route alternatives consolidated on this map will be presented starting tomorrow at Westside Transit Corridor meetings with the public | View larger image In an ideal world, one of the routes in solid black, pictured above, could be a reality in nine and a half years -- that would be the year 2017. Generally speaking, a project the size of a major public transportation extension to the Westside, towards the sea, could......

Know how to raise billions of dollars for public transportation? Metro wants to chat with you today at noon in their third live internet chat. "Tell Metro Board Chair and Santa Monica City Council Member Pam O'Connor where you think the money should come from to pay for future transit projects and keep the system running," a press release states. "Should it be a half cent sales tax? Public/private partnerships? Parking fees? Toll roads? Or......

After questioning 1200 Los Angeles County residents in a survey, Metro might be confident it could get the two-thirds stamp of approval from voters if such a measure went to the ballot. If passed, it could generate $4.5 billion within 6 1/2 years, according to an investigation by the Daily News. That amount is nearly enough to pay for the 'Subway to the Sea' Purple Line extension. But unless county residents as far as......

City Councilman Jack Weiss and O'Melveny and Myers law firm partner, Carolyn Kubota, teamed up yesterday in a Daily News op-ed piece urging the need to explore funding public transportation in Los Angeles by private sources. Chicago did it with the Skyway and Denver with their transit plan. So why not us? They say everyone can agree on three things. One, a subway between downtown and the Westside is absolutely need; two, the subway......

Today, in his weekly city hall column, Steve Hymon takes on funding that darn 'Subway to the Sea.' It's projected to cost a dazzling $5-billion and we can't seem to find a tree that grow this amount of money. Here are the funding ideas Hymon uncovers: The feds tend to contribute half, but some say they won't if the next bullet item is not repealed. In 1998, voters declined the government to use local......

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which included a provision authored by Congressman Henry Waxman to lift the prohibition against federal involvement in the construction of the “Subway to the Sea” (less we not forget that it was Waxman himself that authored the original ban in the 1980s). We've reported on this before and it was likely to pass, but it's nice to know that day is......

- Franklin Ave: Photo of Elaine from Seinfeld as she was out on the picket lines, her new show is one of a half dozen that had to stop production today - LA Observed: No LA blog has covered the SB News Press fiasco better than Mr. Roderick, which is tricky since the N-P's website is decidedly Web 1.0. Today we learn that another staffer had to be escorted from the premises. - Defamer:......

Amount of space required to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus or bicycle. This poster, from the City of Munster in Germany, has been making its way around the internet this past week. Now, either an internet star or slut, it carries a simple message about congestion, urban planning and people: cars are great, but can really suck in certain situations and people will just deal with it anyway. We often......

Imagine a day when the Purple Line "subway to the sea" and Expo Line to Culver City (and eventually to Santa Monica) are a reality. Two rail lines running parallel from Downtown to the ocean -- are we mad men or what? But what about traveling north-south? Enter the Crenshaw/Prairie Transit Corridor:The Crenshaw/Prairie Transit Corridor extends approximately 10 miles north from Wilshire Boulevard, south to El Segundo Boulevard, east to Arlington Avenue and west to......

Maybe you want the 'Subway to the Sea' to go to WeHo instead of down Wilshire Blvd. through Beverly Hills. Perhaps you are evil and think nothing should be done at all letting traffic roll as it sort of doesn't do anyway. No matter what vision, now is the time to chime in like the backseat driver you are at some public meetings or via the written word. Wad at MetroRiderLA has the low-down:By......

Steve Hymon at the LA Times is asking if anyone out there has any ideas for funding the 'subway to the sea', which is estimated to cost around $5-billion. The scary thing about even just $1-billion is that it equals out to one thousand x one million. So to fund the Purple Line, you've got to dole out $1-million dollars five-thousand times over. Eek! So here is one crazy idea: Sure, simple math dictates......

On today's LAist poll, over 80% of you readers are willing to pony up for a subway to the sea. Is anybody at City Hall listening? Or does Zuma Dogg have to get all wacky on their asses? The LAT names two new managing editors. To whom do I write to protest the axing of West Magazine? About 200 employees were evacuated from UCLA today after a basement explosion; no injuries reported. 16-year-old Victor......

Guest Day Editor Zuma Dogg will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site as well as Mayor Sam where he contributes. He also wrote an article in the current edition of the LA Weekly The city and state are basing some of their major plans on the fact that you are going to vote to approve more bond money out of your......

Citing high costs, length of time to build and other basic realities of building the "subway to the sea," Michael Balter calls for Wilshire Blvd. to be car free today in the LA Times opinion section: First, ban all automobiles from the entire 15-mile length of the boulevard. Second, beginning at its Western Avenue station, bring the Metro Rail to street level and run it to and from the sea on two sets of......

And this 'Subway to the Sea' is not just about funding at this point and time. Try planning studies, preliminary engineering, and environmental clearance according to Metro CEO Roger Snoble in the LA Times. But hey, all those steps take funding. Villaraigosa's office over the last year has been quietly gauging whether the public would agree to foot the bill. In one of the many private polls it has commissioned on a variety of......

In an unexpected change of heart and funding at Metro, this past week has shown us public transportation can get an edge in LA. After announcing the LAX Green Line extension and the promised completion of the Subway to the Sea by 2011, Metro will announce next Friday night the Red Line Owl Service. With only 15-minute headways throughout the night, drunkards can stumble to their car in North Hollywood rather than at the Hollywood/Highland......

Whether you agree with our Mayor's initiatives or not, you have to give him props for going after all his campaign promises. And we're happy today that he announced that a large political hurdle has been jumped without a scar on the butt. The Subway to the Sea is inching closer. H.R. 238, sponsored by Congressman Henry Waxman and passed on a voice vote in the House of Representatives today, repeals a previous action......

Ask anyone who attends Los Angeles city council meetings about Zuma Dogg and they roll their eyes. "Oh god, Zuma Dogg. It's not that he wrong or loud. It's that he takes up all the time at city council meetings. I show up to speak during public comment and there is no time left after he and his buddies go," a local lobbyist who wishes to remain anonymous said. "And you know what is......

We didn't say it. Tony Bell said it to the LA Times' Steve Hymon. Who is Bell? Bell is the communications director for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. And to be fair, Bell thinks "light rail down one of the major east-west streets on the Westside might be the better solution." So trains are not totally out. Here's another Bell quote: "The supervisor understands — as do most county residents — that we......

The former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa, visited Los Angeles planners and MTA employees last week to spread some words of wisdom on transforming Los Angeles into a transit paradise.  Downtown News reported that his introduction to the group was pithy: "We [LA] were talking about [the solutions] and then Peñalosa just went and did it."  He did it with 1,200 urban parks, restricted car use in downtown Bogotá, and pedestrian-only streets (one......

For the divorced lady with four cats We love getting comments here at LAist, especially when we can do a follow up. For Laurie of Crazy Aunt Purl (who gets an average of around 70-some comments per post), who commented this yesterday: I just want the Mayor to try to get on the 101 at White Oak each morning for an entire week, and then we can talk about traffic light timing. If you......