A proposal to control crowds at Runyon, understanding this month's biggest celestial event, CA Insurance Commissioner reminds insurers to cover Montecito residents.
Heads up! Don't miss the Super Blue Blood Moon
Is California on track to sell 5 million electric vehicles by 2030?
Governor Jerry Brown last week declared that California should have 5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. He signed an executive order Friday, upping his earlier goal of just 1.5 million EVs by 2025.
It's a tall order no matter how you slice it, but a new report out today from the nonpartisan think tank Next 10 says the state's on track to at least meet Brown's first goal.
"We should be able to hit that target and possibly exceed it," said Next 10's founder Noel Perry. "Our research has found that zero emissions vehicles may be following an S curve development instead of being linear in their growth and adoption."
In other words, electric vehicles are expected to hit a tipping a point, possibly even before 2025.
"What's changing is battery technology more than anything else," said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America, an electric vehicle advocacy group.
"Most people are estimating that sometime in the next five to eight years, electric cars are expected to be less expensive than regular cars and at that point things are really going to take off… around 2022, 2023, 2024, somewhere around there."
At that point, buying an electric vehicle won't be a question of why but why not because the advantages will be too difficult to ignore.
"It's not like eating your broccoli," Levin said. "They're more convenient to fuel and maintain. They're cheaper when you look at the whole lifetime cost of ownership. It's good for the economy because you keep fuel dollars local. It's good for the climate and local air quality They're just a lot of fun to drive."
But until more people agree, a few things need to happen, Levin said. For one, the $7,500 federal tax credit and $2,500 California Clean Vehicle Rebate need to remain in place to help interested buyers offset the cost. The average cost of an EV right now is about $48,000, compared with about $35,000 for a gas-powered car.
There also needs to be more variety in the types of vehicles, like pickups and SUVs, that are offered in electric versions – especially long-range electrics that can travel more than 200 or 300 miles per charge, like the Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3. That will be happening soon.
"Every manufacturer is coming out with some electrification," said Rebecca Lindland, an automotive industry analyst with Kelley Blue Book.
Those manufacturers include General Motors, which says it will have 18 new electric models by 2023, and Ford, which has said it will have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles even sooner. Kia, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes – even Aston Martin - are among the companies ramping up electric vehicle offerings in the very near future.
"What California really needs to do is accelerate the pace of adoption for electric vehicles. And by that I mean they need to sell more. They need to see consumers demanding more," Lindland said.
Right now EVs account for about one percent of sales every year across the entire country, or about 170,000 units. About a third of those are in California.
"All that demand across the country would have to translate into California just on its own, so that's a big challenge for them," Lindland said.
Part of the problem in increasing EV sales is a lack of currently available models. But there's also the not so small issue of where to charge them.
"One of the specific challenges for EVs in California will be this question of infrastructure relative to making sure that we have enough charging stations," said Noel Perry, with Next 10.
California has about 16,500 public outlets and some studies have shown it will likely need at least 10 times as many -- both private and public -- to support the level of EV adoption the state is targeting…
That's a lot of chargers, especially compared to the number of gasoline stations that exist in California, which is about 9,000.
And that points to another of the issues with EV adoption – being able to charge a car, and do it quickly.
Already, France, the United Kingdom and China have committed to phasing out vehicles that run on fossil fuels. And many auto makers, like Volvo, have named a specific end date to such cars. California is considering something similar – banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2040.
"Transportation not only in California but around the world is one of the greater producers of carbon dioxide, and if we're going to reduce our carbon dioxide, we're going to have to make a difference in the transportation arena and EVs are a good vehicle for doing that," Perry said.
That target is important because transportation is the state's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the California Air Resources Board -- about 37%.
So can California reach 1.5 million electric vehicles by 2025, or even 5 million EVs by 2030? It depends who you ask.
"Absolutely. In fact I think the number is way too conservative," said Plug In America's Joel Levin.
"Last year the market grew by 27% and previous years saw something similar, so if you multiply that forward, by 2025, we're looking at maybe 2.5 million vehicles sold."
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LA Coliseum renovations will respect the stadium's history
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a national historic landmark and a vital part of L.A.'s sports identity. It has hosted two Olympic games already and there's another one coming up in 2028.
As its 95th birthday approaches, the stadium has generally held up pretty well, but some serious freshening up is now underway.
Monday, the University of Southern California, which oversees the stadium's operations, broke ground on a $270 million renovation.
"They absolutely wanted to bring it up to date and they wanted to improve the fan experience for everyone in the building," said Don Barnum of DLR Group, the company doing the work on the Coliseum.
Because the Coliseum is a beloved landmark in Los Angeles, Barnum said that with the redesign, he wanted to respect its legacy.
The iconic peristyle arches inspired by the Coliseum in Rome, Italy, for instance, will be more visible. The scoreboards and advertising that covered those arches will be removed.
"When people walk into the Coliseum, when they walk through the peristyle, we want to make sure that this building is still recognizable as the L.A. Coliseum. A lot of the previous proposals for NFL turned it into a spaceship or whatever people were calling it. That really changed the building; it wasn't the L.A. Coliseum anymore. The goal really was to have this still look like... this is still the L.A. Coliseum," Barnum said.
The Coliseum may look like its old self, but sports fans will have updates to look forward to. If you've ever watched an event at the Coliseum, you know that the seats are pretty uncomfortable. Barnum said they will be one of the first things to go. Every single seat will be replaced and many will be made wider and roomier.
Of course, if the seats get bigger, fewer will fit into the stadium. The stadium capacity will be reduced from roughly 93,000 seats to 77,500, Barnum said.
More changes are coming to Runyon Canyon Park
Can a park be too popular? That might be the case at Runyon Canyon. The outdoor oasis in the middle of Hollywood gets an estimated 1.8 million visitors each year. With such dense traffic, the park and the surrounding neighborhood are taking a hit.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council will consider a motion to reduce traffic and improve safety in the area.
Take Two sat down with Estevan Montemayor, director of communications for Los Angeles Councilman David Ryu, to talk about the potential changes coming to Runyon Canyon.
"Runyon Canyon is incredibly popular. If you live in Los Angeles, you know that," Montemayor said. "We have both tourists and residents enjoying this treasure."
"In this motion, we cover facility improvement and trail erosion. We want to make sure the park itself is healthy so future generations can enjoy it."
To solve the parking problem in popular sites like Runyon, Councilman Ryu's office will work with the Department of Recreation and Parks and Bureau of Engineering to come up with solutions.
"We are looking into paid parking, as well as circulation in general, whether that means stop signs or roundabouts," Montemayor said. "We will seek community input from neighborhood councils and park users to see what they think is necessary to improve this beautiful park... Nothing is going to happen overnight. This is the beginning of a long process."
New music from Natalia Lafourcade and Cuco
Every week we'll hear fresh new music that you should know about. This week, Billboard's Justino Aguila stopped by with his selections.
Natalia Lafourcade
Danza de Gardenias
Album: Musas (Un Homenaje al Folclore Latinoamericano en Manos de Los Macorinos
Natalia Lafourcade, the Mexican pop-rock singer and songwriter who's been a force in the pop rock scene in Latin America, is back with volume 2 of her Musas album, which earned her two 2017 Latin Grammy awards for Best Folk Album and Best Long Form Music Video.
Her new album, like the first, features Los Macorinos, a veteran duo of legendary guitarists.
The upcoming volume includes 13 tracks, and it’s the kind of work that will be one of Lafourcade's biggest achievements in her career.
Cuco
Song: “Sunnyside”
At 19, local singer/songwriter Cuco has nearly 70,000 followers on Twitter. From Hawthorne, Calif., Cuco is making connections, one fan at a time.
I made this portrait of you and now I transferred it on to a sweater :”) be on the look out for this at your concert in Brooklyn
— cait (@caitcmc)
@Icryduringsex I made this portrait of you and now I transferred it on to a sweater :”) be on the look out for this at your concert in Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/AatKoGQa1G
— cait♡ (@caitcmc) January 23, 2018
damn who would’ve thought i would meet my twin
— hardy (@losersabbath)
damn who would’ve thought i would meet my twin @Icryduringsex pic.twitter.com/2zALNW4c8I
— hardy (@888rucho) January 29, 2018
new single came out .... and I’m ..... speechless ....
— Luna Lovegood (@lillycat05)
@Icryduringsex new single came out .... and I’m ..... speechless .... pic.twitter.com/giv7QVClf2
— ❀ lilly (@lillycat05) January 26, 2018
He describes himself as a “Chicano solo artist,” and there’s music, merchandise and more yearning for this young Southern California guy who is making music that’s romantic, pop and a bit of a throwback to those oldies but goodies days.
Think new generation Chicano meets Ritchie Valens. And he's poised to get even bigger as he was one of the new acts announced for this year's Coachella music festival.
Various, including Carla Morrison, Lila Downs and Andres Calamaro
Album: Un Mundo Rare: Las Canciones de Jose Alfredo Jimenez
Songs: "En El Ultimo Trago” (In the Last Drink) with Lila Downs and Andres Calamaro .... and "Un Mundo Raro" with Carla Morrison
Jose Alfredo Jimenez, a Mexican singer-songwriter of rancheras, was considered an integral part of Mexico's musical heritage. He died in 1973, but his music has stayed popular all these years.
He had a way of writing about unrequited love and in a way that has empowered people to continue singing his music all these years. This tribute album, which includes everyone from Julieta Venegas to Lila Downs, is beautifully done with some of his classic songs.