Results tagged “wilshire”

October is going to be a busy month for public meetings about transportation. The city of Los Angeles is hosting a set of them on the draft master bicycle plan while Metro will gather input at a series of meetings about the Wilshire bus lanes.

As Metro works on a subway to the Westside, they are also working on peak hour bus lanes down Wilshire Boulevard to the Santa Monica city line and excluding Beverly Hills. The project aims to improve traffic flow along Wilshire Boulevard, encourage the shift from car to public transit, improve bus travel times and reliability on bus service.

A car crash into a Bank of America building around 8:20 a.m. has left at least one person injured and traffic snarled along the Wilshire and La Brea corridors. "It's a mess, avoid the intersection for the next hour or so, said a KNX1070 broadcaster. Records with the L.A. Fire Department do not indicate a car into the building yet, but show a possible auto vs. pedestrian incident. A fire hydrant has also been sheared, shooting water into the air.

Just like over the weekend, local Iranians and supporters of a fair voting process will gather outside the Federal Building tonight at 5 p.m. Another one will be held in Irvine. The world's attention has been focused on Iran for the past few days after an election scandal. On Friday, voters hit the booths to vote for a new President or keep the current one. The results were quickly announced--reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Protesters are calling it voter fraud.

Turning curb lanes on Wilshire Boulevard between Downtown and Santa Monica into dedicated Rapid Bus lanes has been a project in the works for over a decade, and one that continues to crawl towards realization. Last fall a series of community meetings were held to discuss the conversion following the initiation of an Initial Study/Environmental Assessment (IS/EA) of the plan, which was to "determine whether any further environmental assessment is necessary," according to Metro. The goal was to have the report ready for viewing around this time, but in an update, Metro says "there has been a slight change to the original schedule as the environmental analysis is taking a little more time than anticipated." Now they say it will be late spring when the report is ready and more meetings can be held.

Today's rally and protest over the passage of Proposition 8 has spilled into the streets of West LA and Westwood leading to erratic closures. The 405 north and south exit ramps are closed at Santa Monica Blvd, which remains a parking lot. The protest began at the Mormon temple at 2 p.m. where the crowd swelled into the thousands before taking to the streets. The protesters marched westbound from the Mormon temple to Veteran, then east on Wilshire to Santa Monica where a gathering continues outside the Mormon temple.

I work on Wilshire in the Miracle Mile area. Every day for the past year or so there's been a guy outside our office selling fruit from a cart filled with ice.

Continue reading "It's Not Just Hot Dogs, LAPD After Fruit Carts"

Waking up at 5:30 a.m. and being rushed out of your downtown Wilshire Grand hotel room is not the ideal experience for your Los Angeles stay. However, better safe than sorry when the 10th floor of at least 80 people was evacuated due to pepper spray being released. In an e-mail alert, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Meyers said 20-30 people were evaluated with none needing treatment or transport to a local area hospital. People complained of eye and throat irritation.

American Flag. Check.

Governor Schwarzenegger announced today where some of the Proposition 1B, the $20 billion infrastructure bond approved by us voters in 2006, will go... right here in Los Angeles:

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:

Mayor Villaraigosa celebrated “Metro with the Mayor" day by riding the Rapid to the corner of Wilshire & Western where he held a press conference announcing the implementation of the “New & Improved!” traffic signal synchronization program for Wilshire Boulevard.

And then there was a train...

In the wake of the big Fidel Castro seemingly-non-news of him stepping down as president (meanwhile the US recently bombed Pakistan without notice or permission), it's interesting to look back at the impact of the man on Los Angeles. The divide between those who wanted to work with Castro's Cuban government and those who vehemently opposed it led to violence -- eleven such terrorism incidents occurred in the Los Angeles area alone according to Cuban Information Archives, a site dedicated to "source materials pertaining to Cuban Exile activities as they pertain to their struggle to wrestle Cuba from Fidel Castro."

FILM*

FREE DAYS @ LACMA

In honor of the opening of the brand new Broad Contemporary modern galleries, LACMA is hosting a free community weekend, opening their doors to the public at no charge for the next three days.

In yesterday's LAist interview with Hillary Clinton, we had to ask about public transportation. Clinton said she would increase federal funding for public transit by $1.5 billion per year, link funding to local land use policies that encourage mixed-use and transit-oriented development (discouraging sprawl) and invest $1 billion into intercity passenger rail (think high speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, or more locally, the MagLev concept from Orange County to Las Vegas).

It’s Super Tuesday and Mardi Gras. What other reason do you need to celebrate with LAist? Come to Seven Grand tonight to watch election returns. (Who knew that primaries would be this exciting?) You never know…people may start flashing for beads after a few Glenlivets. For questions or to RSVP: events@laist.com (Note: Seven Grand is a 21+ bar. We apologize for any inconveniences).

At last week's meeting between Metro and the public about the Westside extension, Metro said that a subway (or subways) could be built and finished in five years.