LA's Blue Line the most dangerous rail line in the US ... EatLA on the best sausage in LA ... the lonely wolverine ... home renovation advice from Kevin, Norm, and Richard of This Old House ... Dinner Party Download ...
With passing of last US WW1 vet, we remember last California Doughboy
With the passing of Frank Buckles this Sunday, an era has ended. No more "doughboys" to bear witness to America's role in The War to End All Wars.
George Henry Johnson, California's last World War One vet, died August 30, 2006, at 112 ... but not before giving a spirited interview to KPCC's Tamara Keith. When Tamara talked with him, he was still mad about being drafted.
The Metro Blue Line claims its 103rd death, how can we prevent more?
The Metro Blue Line runs from Downtown LA to Downtown Long Beach. It's one of the most popular light rail trains in the nation. But it's also one of the deadliest, having killed its 103rd person this past Tuesday. Off-Ramp's Kevin Ferguson asks why the line has such a dangerous record, and what can be done to save more lives.
Call it a tragic and ugly coincidence in numerology: The woman killed Tuesday was the 103rd Blue Line fatality. The accident happened at 103rd Street. And the blue line has 103 crossings where the train is at street level, not buried in a subway, or elevated above the road. They're called at-grade crossings.
Najmedin Meshkati, teaches civil and environmental engineering at USC. "At grade is an accident waiting to happen," he said. "It's a 19th century practice. We should not go with at grade, particularly with transit lines that are going to operate for the next 70 years. "
Professor Meshkati says Metro has done a terrific job enforcing and educating the community, but he's applied to the blue line the same philosophy he uses in studying nuclear reactors, jet airliners, and oil rigs: humans are human. "I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said 'the most uncommon thing among people is common sense,'" he said. "Something that may appear to you and me common sense may not appear to the other people as common sense. And that's why we need to have a scientific analysis on that. If I can design a better handle for a knife that you don't cut yourself, why shouldn't I do that?"
For the last 8 years, Metro officials have engaged in an aggressive safety campaign focusing on three E's: engineering, education and enforcement. Vijay Khawani is Metro's corporate safety director, says they've installed barriers, gates and "look both ways" signs.
Metro has also cranked up enforcement. A crackdown at the Willow Station in Long Beach a few weeks ago in 106 tickets to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. The campaign has been very successful in reducing traffic accidents, but not pedestrian deaths. Of the 103 people who died after being hit by the blue line, 23 were suicides. That leaves eighty accidental deaths.
Just north of the Blue Line's downtown LA terminus is another light railway, one with a very different safety record. The Gold Line travels just under 19 miles from East LA to Pasadena. Like the Blue Line, many parts of the train run at-grade. But the Gold Line doesn't interact with pedestrians and cars nearly as often: much of the track runs through protected right of ways. Often, pedestrians must open a gate to cross the tracks: underlining that they're in the way of the train. Since opening in 2003, the Gold Line has recorded just 3 deaths-two of those were suicides, the third a bizarre murder.
Metro has started engineering Gold Line-style safety features into the Blue Line, but it would be hugely expensive to either bury or elevate the Blue Line. Safety director Vijay Khawani says there's only so much Metro can do. "We've got the bells, we've got the flashing lights, we've got the gates, we've got the look both way signs, we've got the education component, we've got everything," he said.
"Certainly there is room for improvement to a certain extent, as far as design is concerned. And if we had all the money in the world, of course it would be great to build everything like the red line, grade separate everything. But it would certainly delay the delivery of these systems to the community. So I think you're penalizing the mass majority of the public who do behave safely at the expense of a few individuals who choose to not pay attention. So is that fair?"
Back in Watts, where Tuesday's fatal accident happened, local Donny Walker rests across the street from the station. He rides the Blue Line almost every day; he's seen people get hit. He's even had a few close calls himself. "I really wasn't trying to pay too much attention," said Walker. "I was trying to run a catch the train. Until they put that little crossing arm thing there. Which they should have a lot more of them. Because right here, where the train is, there's a junior high school right across the street."
Free Advice From This Old House Experts
To justify going to the This Old House wrap party in Silverlake (the site of the show's first LA show), and drinking free Pacifico's, Off-Ramp host John Rabe asks Kevin O'Connor, Richard Trethewey, and Norm Abram for their best home renovation advice.
(CLICK THROUGH for Norm's encounter with Harison Ford, actor and cabinetmaker, and for a link to a This Old House bootie call.)
Best of the Wurst - Sausages with Eat-LA
In another installment of our partnership with Eat-LA, host John Rabe and Eat-LA's Linda Burum visit Continental Gourmet Sausage Company in Glendale, and talk about other resources for the the best sausages in LA ... from German to Polish to Creole.
(The secret ingredients. Credit: John Rabe)
Linda Burum’s Sausage Hot List
German - Continental Gourmet Sausages (6406 San Fernando Road., Glendale 91201, 818-502-1447)
Argentine - Alex Meat Market, Carniceria Argentina (11740 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood, 91606, 818-762-9977)
Salvadoran - La Chiquita Market (19239 Roscoe, Northridge/Reseda 91324, 818-701-5005)
Polish - J & T Gourmet (1128 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, 90401, 310-394-7227)
Armenian - Garo’s Basturma (1082-1088 N. Allen Ave., Pasadena, 91104, 818-794-0460)
Creole - Pete’s Louisiana Brand Beef Hot Links (307 W. Jefferson Blvd., L.A. 90016, 323-735-7470)
(Workers on the production floor of Continental Sausage. Credit: John Rabe)
Lonely Wolverine Still in California
Three years after he was first spotted, and 89 years since the last of his kind was trapped here, the state's only wolverine is still stalking the Sierra Nevada. Off-Ramp Host John Rabe speaks with Bill Zielinski, a carnivore specialist with the US Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, about the only known wolverine wandering California.
CLICK THROUGH for a link to a real wolverine movie.
Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee has more information on our lonely wolverine, including an endearing remote video of him scampering through the snow.
Staying overnight in the Sleep Lab
When the sun sets in Los Angeles, there's more to the city than just quiet streets, night watchmen, and 24 hour diners. Off-Ramp's Kevin Ferguson visited the sleep lab at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica.
It's 9:30 and Sleep Center technician Paula President is waiting in a small office. All of the other patients have been checked in, hooked up, and tucked into bed except for a man who is on the way from Gardena. So for now, she watches. "I don't think anybody fully understands what I do," she says. "They just go 'you watch people sleep for a living?' It's a little more than that, but yeah. Basically."
The sleep lab is the only active part in an otherwise deserted wing of the hospital. And active is a relative term: There's no music, no doctors running from room to room, no patients on gurneys, and no visitors. On any given night there are no more than four patients -- all asleep -- and two technicians. Paula has done this for 14 years. "I kind of like it here because it's quiet at night," she says. "There's not a lot of hustle and bustle or bosses or anybody running around. But that also means you have to be really responsible for what you're doing, you have to know what you're doing, because there's no one else to blame if you mess up."
Paula is married, with 5 kids. She wakes up at 5pm at her home in Lancaster and drives about 70 miles to work. It's a brutal schedule, but Paula says she had plenty of warning. All aspiring sleep lab technicians learn early on that being a night shift worker is literally a sleep disorder. She can even point to the exact condition (a circadian rhythm sleep disorder) in her operations manual.
The tardy patient arrives after a little bit of time. His name is David Shao and he's not a typical sleep center patient because he's only 30,and healthy. But he snores a lot. "My wife complained to me for about 8 years that I stop breathing at night," he says.
His condition could be sleep apnea, which is serious, but treatable. Soon after, Paula comes in with a handful of long, colorful wires for David. They go on his legs, over his chest, forehead, temple, nose. Once he's hooked up, it's lights out. Paula heads back to the office where she can see everything David does: when he snores, when he wakes up, even when he dreams. "We actually ask that on a questionnaire in the morning," she says. "And a lot of times they had a dream about being here. I had a few patients tell me that it was me and them and we went out and we came back and we got our hair and nails done and then their mother showed up. it's usually something crazy, usually about the lab."
While David dozes off, Paula checks in with a different patient who hasn't yet fallen asleep. On the security camera monitor, the patient looks asleep but her brain tells a different story: one of the patient's primary brain waves is showing a pattern known as "black grass," which indicates that while the patient's eyes may be closed, their brain is very much awake. As the night progresses, the patterns will change, indicating each of sleep's different stages. This particular patient is here because she's had trouble sleeping. The wires and the strange bed make it even harder.
Lab technician Paula President (left) monitoring patients
The displays also show breathing patterns and oxygen levels. That'll help assess David's condition. Paula says that sometimes can be the scariest part. "Some of our patients will have severe obstructive sleep apnea," she says. "They have the long pauses in breathing, your airway is blocked, you're struggling to breathe, and finally your CO2 rises high enough to where your body wakes you up and you gasp for breath."
She says it makes her nervous, but that she has to remember the patient does that every single night. And when they have it that bad, they'll get a mask for the night so they can breathe easier. But that doesn't happen too often, and she'll spend most of the night keeping an eye on the patients, helping them with bathroom trips and keeping in touch with family, any way she can.
When the morning comes, Paula will drive back home to Lancaster, get her kids ready for school, and finally--after a long night's work--go to sleep.
RIP Harold Legaux, co-owner Harold & Belle's Creole Restaurant
Harold Legaux died Monday of cancer at the age of 61. In the LA Times, his business partner called him "an extremely particular food person ... as fine a restaurant operator as any major restaurateur in Los Angeles.” His parents founded the LA landmark Harold & Belle's in 1969 on West Jefferson.
In this review from 2009, Off-Ramp contributor Steve Wasser said you really should go if you consider yourself a connoisseur of LA's rich and diverse culture.
CLICK THROUGH for a link to Harold and Belle's site.
Sammy Rabbit Says to Students: Start Saving!
Tess Vigeland -- host of Marketplace Money -- drops in on the KIPP Raices Academy in East Los Angeles to learn about its money education program. It's aimed at Kindergarten through Second Grade classes. 40 students learned about saving money from family-finance author Sam Renick and costumed-sidekick Sammy Rabbit.
CLICK THROUGH to see Sam and Sammy in action with students.
Dinner Party Download - biggest flop, best fries, worst cocktail, coolest guys
This week on Dinner Party Dowload, with Rico and Brendan: Carrie Brownstein of the TV show “Portlandia!” … the biggest flop in Broadway history ... how to mix the worst cocktail in history … and the best place to eat French fries.