LAist Interview: Green LA Girl & Guest Editor of the Day

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LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere starting with Siel, our friend over at www.GreenLAGirl.com. Here's to a green start of your week!

1. Age and occupation: 28, grad student and blogger

2. Home town: Los Angeles (Fairfax High grad!)

3. Current LA neighborhood: Santa Monica

4. How long have you lived in LA, and where? Somewhat over a decade altogether, including Koreatown, Pasadena, Miracle Mile, West Adams, West LA, and now Santa Monica.

5. What made you start up www.GreenLAGirl.com?

After hours of research to figure out how I could recycle my DVD player instead of sending it to the landfill, I couldn't just let that work disappear -- so that became my first post.

6. What's the best thing thing that has happened since you started the site?

Free coffee. Also, getting invited to LAist parties!

7. Any down sides?

Wading through corporate press releases that hit my gmail inbox, asking me to give Exxon a standing ovation for putting in recycling bins at gas stations. That's an exaggeration of course -- Exxon has yet to install recycling bins at its stations, last time I checked.

8. You are quite prolific in your green writing, but you are going through a PH.D program in creative writing. Do you ever share that writing with the public?

Yes, but not on the blog so much. If blogging can sometimes feel like talking loudly to one's self, writing poetry feels a lot like whispering inside your head.

9. When's your first fictional novel coming out?

Hopefully before the Expo line makes it to Santa Monica (as in sooner than what seems like never), but I guess this depends on what one considers a novel. I have a weird relationship with fiction cuz I don't think in terms of plot.... I'm more interested in describing the feeling of a moment than telling a story.

10. Who's more green? Santa Monica or Los Angeles?

Santa Monica, hands down -- In the last year, we've banned styrofoam, gone zero-waste at the Main St. farmers' market, opened 2 new parks, and got a mini blue system for the 'hood.

If I lived in LA proper, I don't think I coulda gotten rid of my car. I know some LA people don't own cars, but the vast majority of those people are either 1) male or 2) female but living with someone who owns a car. I like living alone, I like living without a car, and I like living in Santa Monica. Also, I like being female.

11. Since you began a life with no car, would you recommend it to others?

Highly -- but not in a didactic or guilt-inducing kind of way. I'm house sitting in the Miracle Mile area right now, and I imagine that if I actually lived here, trying to go without a car could very well kill my single girl social life -- though I suppose with the parking situation the way it is in most of this area, many residents who own a car still have to deal with some car-related dampers on their social life -- i.e. the "but I don't wanna lose my parking spot" issue every time they think about going out at night. What I'm more likely to recommend is more individualized advice on changing one's life to not necessitate driving so much.

Most of LA doesn't have Flexcar, for ex, and I really doubt I would've gotten rid of my car if I didn't have the Flexcar option for emergencies, aka last minute party plans.

12. By bike or public transportation, what's the hardest place to get to?

For a Santa Monica resident, it's prolly Hollywood, just in terms of the number of bus transfers necessary to get there sans car. Eagle Rock and Los Feliz aren't so easy either, but that's less due to transportation issues than the sheer distance involved. I mean -- driving from Santa Monica to Eagle Rock isn't a piece of cake either, unless you happen to be in the car at 4 am.

13. What is your favorite book about LA?

Joan Didion's Play it As It Lays is the first one that comes to mind --

14. Describe your best LA dining experience.

Oysters and champagne at The Water Grill --

15. LA has the best:

Koreatown

16. You haven't really lived in LA until:

you've put learning Spanish on your list of things to do.

17. What is your LA pet peeve?

Guys that talk about their scripts -- usually not yet written. The worst are scifi.

18. What is the "center" of LA to you?

Not Sherman Oaks.

19. It's 9:30pm on a Thursday. Where are you, and where are you going?

Somewhere between happy hour and and post-happy hour drinks. Best bets're Bodega Wine Bar, Monsoon Cafe, or World Cafe --

Photo by Summer Bowen of BTC Elements