Today on AirTalk, Phil Washington returns for his recurring visit to discuss the latest MTA news. We also examine a recent report on air pollution and how Los Angeles is smoggiest metro area in the US; explore how legal sports betting could change the way we watch live sports on TV; and more.
New report looks at local impact of Scott Wiener’s bill to increase housing density near transit
As one of the more controversial bills makes its way through the state legislative process, a new report from a Los Angeles agency has come out warning of the proposal’s “far-reaching effects” on the city.
The bill in question is California State Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 50, which calls for higher density housing around public transit. The bill would override local zoning requirements.
This is the second time Wiener has introduced the proposal, which is in a committee hearing today. A similar bill was introduced last year by the Senator, which faced staunch opposition from various groups.
We reached out to several members of the L.A. City Council who voted last week in favor of the resolution in opposition to S.B. 50, including David Ryu, Mike Bonin and Paul Koretz. None were available for comment at the time we requested.
Guests:
David Ambroz, past president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, which conducted the report
Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley; he also leads the Climate Change and Business Research Initiative on behalf of UC Berkeley and UCLA.
AirTalk checks in with Metro CEO Phil Washington: Ride hailing tax proposal, declining ridership and more
Phil Washington returns for his recurring visit with AirTalk to discuss the latest MTA news. Topics include:
Judy Baca’s “Hitting the Wall” mural painted over
Metro plans on studying congestion pricing in LA
LA transportation officials weigh a tax on Uber and Lyft to curb traffic congestion
Rail ridership dips
$4 toll in parts of West LA and Santa Monica during rush hour
Trucks on the 210 Freeway are crashing onto the Gold Line
Sepulveda Pass line from the valley to Westside in 20 minutes
$173-million train yard in Westchester that will clean and repair trains
E-scooter parking regulations at Metro stations
Metro projects huge ridership for West Hollywood train
Purple Line funding
Get on Board Day
Have a question for Phil? Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guest:
Phil Washington, CEO of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro)
Smoke gets in your eyes: Los Angeles is the smoggiest metro area in the US
According to the recently released American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” annual report, Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA is the nation’s most polluted city in the ozone ranking.
And it’s not far from taking the number one spot in the “year round particle pollution” and “short-term particle pollution” rankings either.
That means we’ve had the largest number of high ozone days this year. The Golden State didn’t do so hot overall either, with seven other cities coming in as smoggiest in the top ten.
But one silver lining is that L.A. isn’t nearly as bad as it was a few decades ago. We check in on our current smog levels and zoom out to L.A’s larger history of air pollution and reduction efforts.
Guests:
Philip Fine, deputy executive officer for planning, rule development & area sources at South Coast Air Quality Management District
Sharon McNary, KPCC’s infrastructure correspondent; she tweets
How legal sports betting could change the way we watch live sports on TV
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law banning sports betting, there’s been lots of movement within the gambling industry to bring sports betting to the mainstream. Betting sites are more visibly advertised, seven states have set up state-regulated gambling industries and slowly but surely cable TV providers are strategizing ways that they can capitalize financially on this newly-legal industry and weave it into their coverage of live sports.
Some networks are already making inroads. ESPN’s evening edition of SportsCenter, hosted by Scott Van Pelt, includes a segment called “Bad Beats” where he laments people’s bad bets for the week, and their streaming-only network ESPN+ recently launched a betting show called ‘Daily Wager.’
How will the live sports viewing experience change as cable networks try to incorporate betting into their live coverage of sports? What are some examples of things that have worked in other countries where sports betting has been legal?
Guests:
Eben Novy-Williams, sports business reporter for Bloomberg News; he tweets
Do you stan? Are you on-brand? Over 600 new words added to Merriam-Webster dictionary
Swole, buzzy, on-brand and stan are among the 640 new words that were just added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Deciding what gets included is a painstaking process involving roughly two dozen lexicographers, said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large. They scan online versions of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books and even movie and television scripts until they detect what he calls “a critical mass” of usage that warrants inclusion.
The latest additions include mostly new words, or phrases, but also some old words with new meanings or applications. Popular culture —movies, TV and sports — is a common source of new words, such as buzzy , an adjective that literally means creating a buzz, such as a “buzzy new movie.” Some of the words have been around for decades, but are included in the dictionary because of increased usage.
With the rapid advance of science, many new words come from the fields of technology and medicine. Gender non-conforming and salutogenesis and are among some of the terms added from the fields of science and medicine. In the internet age when it’s sometimes difficult to determine whether the vast amounts of information we’re exposed to is accurate, the dictionary is a rock, Sokolowski said.
We discuss the new words and the evolution of language. Any questions? Call us at 866-893-5722.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster; he tweets
Jean Berko Gleason, psycholinguist and professor emerita at Boston University