Photo by Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA via Flickr Today's edition of Steve Hymon's weekly Road Sage column explores one Altadena man's story of de-caring for five years, but unwillingly giving back into car culture after Metro changed some lines, ultimately forcing his four hour daily roundtrip to be a little longer and more unpredictable. Cliff Moore, who is not fond of driving, lives in Altadena, works in Sun Valley and likes it that way.......

Fairfax Avenue is the Bomb!!! Declining enrollment and rising costs means less expansion and construction to help relieve overcrowding in LAUSD schools. The LA Times reports that "since the fall, the school system has canceled plans for 19 new schools and additions to existing campuses in South Gate, Bell, Van Nuys, San Fernando, Sun Valley and central Los Angeles, among other areas, citing new enrollment projections." Kids, you don't mind sharing that book, do......

As the dark settled over Los Angeles last night, we awoke to an unfortunate number of deaths. Any number is sad -- especially four. Vermont Knolls, Los Angeles: In an alley off of 73rd St. in South LA, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported a "vehicle fire in alley with apparent human remains" in a news alert. The LAPD is treating it as a homicide. 110 Freeway @ Manchester Ave: In another LAFD alert, there......

As winds died down Sunday, firefighters gained the upper hand on the Malibu blaze that burned at least 49 homes and sent thousands fleeing. It is now 70% contained and officials expect full containment by Tuesday. The damage could run close to $100 million. Firefighters rescued a father and his 4-year-old son in a Sun Valley home that burned down this morning. The father got his wife and daughter out of the house, but,......

Can we please do the OPPOSITE of adding fuel to these fires? A Sun Valley day laborer has been charged with arson after he was caught attempting to start a blaze in the Woodland Hills area earlier this week. Do you use your cell phone? Of course you do. The future of this important device lies in the hands of visionaries, such as the ones who are attending MobileCampLA on Sunday. And you too......

Nearly 500 Teamsters tired of not being able to work for the weekend - because they have to work on some weekends - went on strike early this morning affecting Long Beach, Compton, and Sun Valley. About a quarter million people will be touched by the strike that is based around two major issues, long hours and respect. [Waste Management] said the [Teamsters] contract expired in September and that its latest offer included a......

If you see a litter and pack of puppies and dogs walking around Pershing Square tonight, it's a Downtown Dog Walk. Maybe you're downtown right now with your dog... Go, go, go! Speaking of non-humans, the state is considering a special path for animals on the Skirball Center Drive bridge. Environmentalists cheer, residents complain it's a waste of transportation funds. On that note of big spending, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez is still not......

2,000 DWP customers lost power today in Sun Valley. At noon, power was threatened to be cut from large energy consumers. But as the afternoon progressed, the Stage 2 was unlikely to happen. Yes, this is a heat wave. At age 18, having a DUI conviction, being a tagger and dealing in drugs is bound to get you caught up in murder charges in Van Nuys. A brush fire broke out in Castaic today......

The 96 year-old town of Van Nuys is awash in history and witness to a vibrant international culture exemplified by its many ethnic eateries, shops and government offices. Considered by many to be the nerve center of the San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys, or, The Nuys, is bordered by Sun Valley to its north, Valley Glen to the east, Sherman Oaks to the south, and Lake Balboa to the west. ...

We live in a beautiful part of the world, don't you think? Despite the fact that sometimes it feels like all we ever see are the taillights and inane vanity plates of the car we're stuck behind, if we take some time to check out all the flora and fauna that our soil produces, we might get that nice swift kick in the rear from Mother Nature we didn't even know we needed. On......

With the start of a new year, it only makes sense for us to reflect on the events of the past year. Last year marked the deaths of two legendary hip hop figures, J Dilla and DJ Dusk, and the proclamation that hip hop, too, is dead. In 2007 we need to ask ourselves, is Nas just starting a controversy, or is hip hop really dead? Well, I can’t answer that for you. I......

It would have been difficult to call the winner on this one: Sun Valley’s Ski Mountain defended its black diamond title this past Saturday against Governer Re-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger in what many are calling a surprising defeat. The Governor came in strong early in the first round, seamlessly gliding through the many obstacles that Sun Valley Mountain set in his path. Schwarzenegger’s speed and power were more than enough to get him through the......

December 17th seems to be a big day for the MTA (maybe everyone gets to go on vacation on the 18th?), but whatevs, LAist is never one to pooh-pooh progress, particularly regarding public transportation in this fair city. The MTA announced today that the Valley will get a new Rapid line on Reseda Blvd. between Northridge and Tarzana - welcome Line 741! The 364 won't be a Rapid per-se but will be a "limited......

Maybe you've seen them. They might be congregated like an ominous gang in the shadows of the parking lot at the Jons. Maybe a lone one watches you get off the bus while leaning up against a palm tree. Or perhaps you'll see and old one wading in the LA River, frozen, like if it doesn't move you won't notice it. Shopping carts are loved by small children and the homeless alike, but Van......

If you think you can just throw it in the trash, you're wrong. That would be really bad for the environment and bad for your check book. Occasionally, there are e-waste events around the city, but lucky for us, the City of LA has six S.A.F.E. Centers (Solvents, Automotive, Flammables, Electronics) that are open to the public a few days a week as a free service. Today, we headed to the Sun Valley S.A.F.E.......

There's a lumpy, farting, gum-chewing thing in the art world called outsider art. Outsider art can be many things - art by the disabled or merely unschooled, art in the eye of the beholder, or just art out of fashion. Here in ultra-sophisticated, un-bumpkinish Los Angeles, it seems that outsider art might be something of an endangered species. Thankfully, that just ain't so. You see, once upon a time there was a man named......

Last night, while stranded at the Sun Valley train station because a Metrolink train stuck and killed a woman, LAist, like the hundreds of other trapped commuters, had the opportunity to watch the traffic on the 5 freeway go by ever_so_slowly. After we got a ride home from the station, we tuned in to KNX 1070, looking for the best driving alternatives on a Thursday evening. But you know traffic is really bad when......

Do you ever happen upon something in the realm of local history that stirs your interest enough to employ good old Google in order to delve into it just a little further? It's that sort of curiosity that killed the cat, we suppose. It happened to us just the other day, when we caught a sort of "favorite moments" episode of Huell Howser's show on KCET. He re-ran an old feature from the late......

Where are all your good samaritans, Sun Valley? Palm Desert's KESQ reports that "A severely burned woman who went door-to-door in [the] San Fernando Valley neighborhood asking for help has died of her injuries." No one seems to know how the woman actually caught fire but they do know that she left soot and blood on the doors she knocked on. No one opened their doors to help. One woman did call 911. It's......

Tired of politics? You'd better get your second wind because local politicos descended on City Hall Monday to file the paperwork for the city wide election on March 8th. Should be a noisy fight as 26 incumbents and challengers launch campaigns for Los Angeles mayor, eight City Council seats and a handful of other offices. The Los Angeles Daily Breeze reported "the crowd of [mayoral] hopefuls included Mayor James Hahn and one of his......