Will the 405's expansion in Orange County help with traffic? Why LACMA is attempting to open a South LA campus, Skid Row's carnival of love.
How the DACA debate is playing out in California
This week on State of Affairs, Take Two's weekly look at politics in the Golden State:
- Governor Brown may be a lame duck, but he plans to keep marching ahead. Brown ended his final State of the State speech Thursday with an eye toward California's future. So what does he see?
- Senator Dianne Feinstein voted against a stop-gap funding bill Monday because it didn't include a DACA fix. Is she feeling political pressure from the left?
- A new immigration proposal by the White House Thursday has a lot in it for Democrats, but can they meet Trump's terms?
- Thousands of women took to the streets Saturday for the Annual Women's March. What happens if those women march to the polls in November?
Guests:
- Scott Shafer, co-host of KQED's new podcast Political Breakdown
- Rachel VanSickle-Ward, associate professor of politics at Pitzer College
What widening the 405 in Orange County means for drivers — and congestion
The latest upgrade project on the 405 freeway broke ground on Friday. At $1.9 billion, it will be the second most expensive highway project in state history.
The improvements are happening in Orange County, along a 16-mile stretch of highway from State Route 73 in Costa Mesa to Interstate 605 near the LA County line. One lane will be added in both directions and two existing carpool lanes will be converted to a toll system.
Ryan Chamberlain is the Caltrans Director for Orange County. He said Caltrans hopes commuters can have patience through the construction work, which is expected to last through 2023, because it will pay off in the long run.
"Currently the 405 is the most heavily congested freeway in the nation, 370,000 daily vehicle trips on that corridor. And in 2040 or close to 2040, with this improvement, we're anticipating an hour and a half - or more - in travel time savings for most commuters," Chamberlin said.
However, as KPCC's transportation reporter, Meghan McCarty Carino, points out there is research that shows expansion projects do not help congestion. Although intuitively more road space seems like it should reduce traffic, McCarty Carino said it's not that simple.
"Traffic is really a function of two major variables, one is space and the other is demand... And when you expand the space it turns out that you almost always expand the demand, something call induced demand."
Many people will quickly start driving on a freeway more often, after they hear about an expansion so drive times will likely remain the same, she said, but that does not mean the project is pointless. Simply moving more vehicles along a roadway at a time can be a good thing, McCarty Carino said.
"It can facilitate more socializing, more people taking trips, more people going to restaurants, more people going to jobs, more economic activity. In the case of this particular corridor of the 405 it's an important link for goods movement for the port."
She also explained this project will add a toll lane, which is one of the only research-proven ways of reducing congestion.
LACMA is headed to South LA. Here's how it will serve the community
LACMA is headed to South Los Angeles. On Friday, the L.A. City Council approved a 35-year lease for an 80,000-square-foot building at South Los Angeles Wetlands Park.
LACMA plans to turn the space into an "art-hub" by bringing in "host exhibitions, art education, recreational and cultural programming for youth and families in the surrounding communities." The museum's director Michael Govan is leading the charge on this expansion, and he spoke with A Martinez about the overall vision for the satellite campus.
The Space
The South Los Angeles Wetlands Park sits on nine acres of land, which includes features such as walking trails, wetlands, a small park and a long-vacant building that the museum just leased for a one-of-a-kind collaboration.
Why move to South L.A.?
"There are literally thousands of kids within the vicinity of this park so the whole area is buzzing with the excitement of revitalization," said City Councilmember Curren Price. Price represents the 9th district, where the new satellite campus is located.
It's hard not to think about urban lights and the miracle mile when it comes to LACMA, but Govan wants to change that with this campus.
Govan: "The idea was to branch LACMA out into communities that were interested in having culture, acknowledge that Los Angeles County is vast and spread out and that there are communities in which it's inconvenient for schools and people to travel great distances to actually to come to LACMA proper and can't we bring some of the art and resources to those communities?"
The LACMA team hopes to bring accessibility to schools, after-school programs, a space for lectures, movies, music and an art library. Specific plans haven't been made due to Govan and his team continuing to meet with the community to get a better sense of how to serve them.
When Price spoke to A Martinez about the collaboration, he echoed Govan's sentiments.
Price: "When you're talking about services to an underserved area, this is a classic location. You know how important arts, culture, education is and bringing a facility like this, that has the resources that the L.A. County Museum has, it's just going to be extraordinary."
Where's the money coming from?
The museum is expected to shoulder the majority of the costs.
Price: "The lease as proposed would be a dollar a year. LACMA would be responsible for all capital improvements that are going to be required. So we're really excited about their confidence in the area and their commitment to our community."
Govan has some history of renovating spaces for art. He's been involved in restoring spaces from L.A. to New York, but when it comes to the South L.A. wetlands campus, he wants to keep it the same, though for safety reasons it may not be feasible.
Govan: "My dream, of course, is to make very little changes. The realities of L.A.'s seismic code and other things may mean that it may have to go under more extensive renovation, but that's still to be seen. In essence, we'd like to have art galleries so that exhibitions that are organized for LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard or from our collections can be placed there, short and long-term..."
The museum is already expanding it's Wilshire campus. With this new satellite campus on its plate, it's expected to need a lot more money.
Govan: "We will need to raise a lot of capital. You know the project could cost easily $25 million plus, just because it's a large building... L.A. is not going to run out of money doing this project. In fact in my philanthropy in seeking funds I really think that often to give and to create things like this, it's a gift to those donors."
Fishskin bandages help treat bears burned in the Thomas Fire
When a wildfire strikes, humans aren't the only victims. Wild animals can be hurt too. After the Thomas fire, two injured bears and a young mountain lion were caught by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Dr. Jamie Peyton, a veterinarian with the University of California Davis was part of the team brought in to treat the animals for injuries including burned paws.
Peyton said she suspected there were more injured animals out there that hadn't been found because most animals avoid human contact when they are hurt.
"It so happened with these three animals, I think their injuries were so severe they came into areas with people and that was how they found them," Peyton explained.
Treating wild animals poses challenges. For the vets' safety and to avoid the wild creatures having too much human contact, the animals were sedated whenever they were being treated. Peyton said the team also used holistic and alternative medicine to help manage the animals' pain.
Another creative treatment solution the vets came up with was using fish skin bandages.
"When we were trying to decide what should we do, especially for the first bear that had basically no skin on her feet, we thought, let's look into some sort of protection that she could eat. Because that's a big factor. They can't have bandages that they could eat and then get an obstruction," Peyton said.
The tilapia skin the vets used has other advantages too:
- It's a strong material that will protect the animals' injured paws.
- It helps ease the pain on the burned paws once it's applied.
- It has a high amount of collagen which helps wounds heal faster.
Peyton said time was of the essence when treating the bears because the team didn't want to keep them in captivity for a long time, and when they found out one of the bears was pregnant, they wanted to make sure her cub would be born in the wild.
The bears have been released back into the wild in Southern California, and radio collars will allow them to be tracked in the future. The mountain lion was too young to be released into the wild, but Peyton said he has a new home at the Sonoma Wildlife Rescue.
Love is all you need: A look at Skid Row''s annual Carnival
The Los Angeles County Homeless Count wrapped up last night and while results won't be ready for a while, it's clear to anyone who lives here that a lot of people are living on the street.
On Saturday there will be a little bright spot for some in the homeless community. It's called the Skid Row Carnival of Love. Now in its fourth year, the event helps to entertain and care for the homeless who live on skid row.
An array of services and entertainment will be featured at the carnival from physical and mental health checks, career and legal help, as well a dance party and gourmet BBQ.
It's all part of Actor Justin Baldoni's effort to bring something different to the residents of Skid Row. "Something that makes them feel loved and seen and heard and appreciated and gives them home," he said. "Something that can help get them off the street but also that shines a light on the community."
Baldoni hopes that this event will inspire people to visit Skid Row more and work towards a way to eliminate homelessness:
"Our hope is that one-on-one we can start to change lives. There are individuals from last year that are still there every week, talking about going downtown, seeing each other...families that have kind of adopted and sponsored and it's all up to the individual. We're not the ones that are making that happen, that's what hearts do when they're affected and that's where I believe the real change comes from."
Skid Row Carnival of Love is Saturday, January 27th from noon to 4 pm. For more information, click here.